SOME THOUGHTS ON REINCARNATION,REBIRTH,KARMA AND DEATH ----8

July 5, 2009

----- Forwarded Message ----G. Balasubramanian <gbsub1gbsubSent: Sunday, July 5, 2009 12:35:38 PMFwd: Some thoughts on Reincarnation or Rebirth, Karma, Fate or Destiny---8

---------- Forwarded message ----------G. Balasubramanian <gbsub1Thu, Feb 22, 2007 at 8:24 PMSome thoughts on Reincarnation or Rebirth, Karma, Fate or Destiny---8puttaparthy saibaba

HARI OM.

The human body is called the Kshetra(field) in which we sow seeds of our desires and reap the harvest of our lives. The harvest or fruit depends upon the quality of the seed sown and the care bestowed thereafter. Both the sowing and harvesting constitute an unending chain of cause and effect, the chain of Samsara in the technical language of Vedanta. The gentle but steady erosion of this chain is what is achieved by spiritual education and its complete destruction by spiritual realization. Slow as this erosion is, it needs for its operation, not one but many physical manifestations. Yonim anye prapdyantesareeratvaya dehinah, says Yama, god of Death in Katopanishad. It means that on death " the embodied enter other wombs". The Mantra in that Upanishad further says, that such remanifestation may not be only in human and animal bodies but

also in plants and trees--- Sthanumanye anusamyanti. How can rational man be reduced to plants and trees or even animals? I am sure this question will be raised by someone amongst you, dear brothers and sisiters. Vedanta states that if the effects of a man`s actions and his state of awareness be such as to need an animal or plant body for their appropriate manifestation and not a human body, it has to take such a course.

A question is often asked,"can anyone escape the cycle of birth and death"?.. In the Bagavad Gita the Lord imparts the knowledge of both the absolute(Nirguna) or attributless and with attributes( saguna) aspects of Divinity and declares that people having no faith in this knowledge revolves in the whirlgig of births and deaths. Conversely, those who have faith in the knowledge imparted by the Lord can escape the cycle of births and deaths. The very birth in which a man attains the rank of an enlightened devotee is the last of his many births. Says the Lord," BAHUNAM JANMANAM ANTE GJANAVAN MAM PRAPADYATHE VAUDEVAS SARVAMITI SA MAHATMA DURLABAH. " One who realizes that the Supreme God alone is all, at the end of several births reaches Me; it is difficult to find such great souls," declares the Lord. Having realized God one is never born again. If the faith(

Shraddha) and love(Bhakti) of a devotee are highly developed and his practise(Sadhana) is intense he can realize God in one single birth and there is no rebirth for him. But if one`s Sadhana is slack through deficiency of his shraddha and bhakti, a devotee may have to go through many births. This is the message of the Gita.

(to be continued)

G.Balasubramanian