Question 265: The Cycles of Life

cycles of lifeThe young Rama asks about births of different kinds. He learns that creation from the primeval Paramatma is of four kinds : (i) some are born due to karma, (ii) some are born without karma, (iii) some are yet to be born in the future, and (iv) some are presently in the process of birth. Thereafter, the destination of the individual souls born is due either their ideations (the cycle of birth-death-and-birth again) or that of those who merge in Atma and are not born again.


Glossary:

Paramatma: The Supreme Soul; the Supreme Being;

karma San. n. (from kri – to do) work or deeds (including thoughts) for which, in popular Hindū philosophy, one incurs subsequent necessary and natural consequences, good or bad, in this or a future life. All change is part of an evolutionary movement from cause to effect as events unfold in time. ‘Wherever we go, wherever we remain, the results of our actions follow us.’ (the Buddha) ‘All actions contain the seeds of rebirth unless done without desire, solely for the pleasure of God. If you are sweeping a place, think that you are cleansing your heart as the shrine of God.’ ‘When you do karma for God and through God, knowing that he is the doer and not you, every karma becomes dharma.’ (SSS) ‘You have the right to work, but never to the fruits of work.’ (Bhg. II.47) The world is strung on the thread of one’s own action; the illumined one, free of the world, ‘does not claim to be the doer’. (Bhg. III.28) ‘I do not act; there is nothing I would lose or could gain . . . yet you see me ever active . . . in order to inspire and instruct you.’ ‘If I remain inactive, how will the wheels of the world revolve? . . . I do everything.’ (SSS)

chidakasha: The causal aspect of the universe. The akash or space of Chit; the Absolute Consciousness, the all pervading Spirit;

chidakash-roop: Atma in the body as pure consciousness.

shabd; Hin. shabda San. m. sound; the first sound (the audible form of brahman); a noise, a tone, a word; the Word; speech. Shabda is initially anāhata (without audible sound); it exists before being heard. ‘There cannot be creation without sound and sound is caused by vibration.’ ‘Shabda is the basis of all things and this sound gives rise to words. Such words describe what we see around us.’ (SSS)

tanmatras the five tanmatras are potential elements or generic essences of sound, touch, colour, taste and smell. These are very subtle and cannot be ordinarily perceived.

videhamukta: liberated; having no body feelings or body consciousness.

sankalp Hin. sankalpa San. m. a vow; will, a definite intention, resolve, plan.

sankalpa: ideation; modification of chitta or consciousness; idea, resolve, volition (will);

sankalpa – mental conclusions, intentions, material desires Bg 6.24

ishwara San. M. ‘the supreme master’ – the cosmic lord; the Almighty, God in time and space, Brahman in manifestation, all controlling, all powerful and by nature eternally pure, awakened and free – epithet of either Vishnu (V. 36, 74) or Shiva, but the term usually refers to Shiva. ‘When Reality was reflected in maya, it resulted in ishwara.’ ) ‘Wherever you find the three activities (shakti) of creation, preservation and dissolution, there you can recognise God (ishwara).’

jiva-bhava disposition of being a jiva or individual finite consciousness

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Question 264: Sir, mosquitoes and lice are born out of sweat, and the angels and human beings etc., are born in wombs. Do they take birth because of their past actions (karma)? Or, are some jivas born in the absence of action (karma)?

Answer: Ramji, the creation that has arisen from the primeval Paramatma is of four kinds : (i) some are born due to karma, (ii) some are born without karma, (iii) some are yet to be born in the future, and (iv) some are presently in the process of birth.

Question 265: Sir, how are jivas born without karma, or due to karma? Who are presently in the process of birth and who will be born in future ?

Answer: Ramji, Atma is pure consciousness (chidakash roop), self-independent, infinite and indestructible. Just as the potency of motion in air, or of fragrance in flowers is naturally present there, so is the potency of ideation or modification present in Atma. When the ideation or modification arising in the primeval Paramatma conceived sound (shabd), akash came into being; and when it conceived touch, air came into being. Likewise, all the five subtle essences (tanmatra) including vision, taste and smell, became manifest because of the primeval ideation. In the beginning, subtle bodies of the nature of ideation were created out of the primeval ideation.

Of these subtle bodies, those who had faith in Atma and conceived, I am Atma and the entire universe is my ideation, were merged in Atma and they became liberated (videhamuktas). The others were transformed from subtle bodies into gross bodies. At the stage of subtle bodies when they forgot their primeval self and with their ideation (sankalpa) they created five elements or gross objects, and cognised with certitude that we are these, then they became gross bodies and were engaged in actions (karma). As was the nature of actions in their ideation, so were the bodies assumed by them.

Ramji, the individuals that are created out of Atma, arise initially without a cause. Thereafter, those who forget Atma and conceive their false ideations as real, and thus, coming under the influence of karma, adopt the sense of causality, assume gross bodies. The transformation from a subtle body into a gross body is easy, but a change from a gross body into a subtle body is very difficult. He who rises from the gross state into the subtle state with his efforts is a lucky person. Those who remain in subtlety are forms of the divine (Ishwara-roop) and those who remain in the gross state are called persons. Those bearing gross bodies take births according to their actions. The individuals who rise from the gross to the subtle state are wise and they do not take rebirths.

Ramji, it establishes the fact that ideation (sankalpa) only is action (karma) and that the entire universe is of the nature of ideation. Therefore, you should give up your ideations and abandon all hopes and dependence on the universe. Be engaged in actions, but have no ego or attachment with them because all cognition is the result of the disposition of being an individual (jiva-bhava). In reality, everything is illusory ideation (sankalpa).

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The Vedas are the authority for the faith of millions. They are the very words of God. The Hindus believe that the Vedas had no beginning and will have no end. God speaks to man. They are not books written by authors. They are revelations conferred by God on many inquirers, of the ways of earning the Supreme Goal. They existed before they were revealed as valid paths; they will continue valid even if man forgets the path. They did not originate at any period of time nor can they be effaced at some other time. The Dharma which the Vedas allow us to glimpse is also without a beginning or an end. For, it refers to the Supreme Goal.

Of course, a few may argue that, though it may be conceded that the Dharma relating to the supreme goal has no ending, surely it must have had a beginning. The Vedas declare that the cycle of Creation – Dissolution has no point where it begins and no point where it ends. It is a continuous wheel. And, there is no change in the quantum of the Cosmic Energy – either increase or decrease; it is ever the same, ever established in Itself. The Created and the Creator are two parallel lines, with their beginnings unknown and their endings incomprehensible. They are moving at equal distances from each other, ever and ever. Though God is ever active, His Will and the Power behind it are not clear to the human intellect.

The Supreme, according to the Bharathiyas, (inheritors of Indian culture) is Vastness Itself. It rises to the high skies and roams free in that expanse. It was declared in clear terms, long prior to the historical period. The study of the concept of the Supreme and the propagation of this concept suffered serious setbacks in the course of history. But, it has confronted each of these with success and is today asserting itself alive and alert. This is proof of the innate strength of this revelation. The conceptions of the Supreme Goal as laid down in Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism endeavored to subsume into their categories the Bharathiya concept and transfuse it as part of themselves; still, it did not accept an alien status in its own ‘birth-place’; on the other hand, it clarified to those religions themselves their own concept of the Ultimate and emphasised the Unity of all view-points, and established cordiality on the basis of the absence of difference. While the stream of knowledge regarding the Supreme Goal discovered by the Bharathiya saints flowed on the concepts of the other faiths remained as pools beside it.

 

cycles of life

 

 

Hamsa Gayatri
Om Hamsaaya Vidmahe
Paramahamsaya Dheemahi
Tanno Hamsa Prachodayat

“May we realise Hamsa that is our own Self as the Swan. Let us meditate on that Paramahamsa, the Supreme Self. May Hamsa illumine us.”

 

 

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