Reincarnation

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OM SAI RAM

 

Reincarnation

 

The natural habits of a new-born soul

 

From the Bhagavad Gita

 

It (the self) is not born, and It does not die; nor is it ever that this One

having been nonexistent becomes existent again. This One is birthless, eternal,

undecaying, ancient; It is not killed when the body is killed.

Gita Ch. 2 Verse 20

 

Of the unreal there is no being; the real has no nonexistence. The nature of

both of them, indeed, has been realised by the seers of Truth.

Gita Ch. 2, Shloka 16

 

As after rejecting (discarding) wornout clothes a man takes up other new ones

(clothes), likewise after rejecting wornout bodies the embodied one (soul) duly

attains new ones.

Gita Ch.2 Verse 22

 

Since death of anyone born is certain, and of the dead (re-)birth is a

certainty, therefore you ought not to grieve over an inevitable fact.

Gita Ch. 2 Verse 27

 

Reincarnation

 

From The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi

 

Question: Is reincarnation true?

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Reincarnation exists only so long as there is ignorance.

There is really no reincarnation at all, either now or before. Nor will there be

any hereafter. This is the truth.

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi taught that all such theories are based on the false

assumption that the individual self or soul is real; once this illusion is seen

through, the whole superstructure of after-life theories collapses. From the

standpoint of the Self, there is no birth or death, no heaven or hell, and no

reincarnation.

 

Question: Can a yogi know his past lives?

 

Maharshi: Do you know the present life that you wish to know the past? Find the

present, then the rest will follow. Even with our present limited knowledge, you

suffer so much. Why should you burden yourself with more knowledge? Is it to

suffer more?

 

When seen through the sight of the supreme space of Self, the illusion of taking

birth in this mirage-like false world is found to be nothing but the egotistical

ignorance of identifying a body as " I " . Among those whose minds are possessed

with forgetfulness of Self, those who are born will die and those who die will

be born again. But know that those whose minds are dead, having known the

glorious Supreme Reality, will remain only there in that elevated state of

reality, devoid of both birth and death. Forgetting Self, mistaking the body for

Self, taking innumerable births, and at last knowing Self and being Self is just

like waking from a dream of wandering all over the world.

 

Question: How long does it take a man to be reborn after death? Is it

immediately after death or some time later?

 

Maharshi: You do not know what you were before birth, yet you want to know what

you will be after death. Do you know what you are now?

 

Birth and rebirth pertain to the body. You are identifying the Self with the

body. It is a wrong identification. You believe that the body has been born and

will die, and confound the phenomena relating to the body with the Self. Know

your real being and these questions will not arise.

 

Births and rebirths are mentioned only to make you investigate the question and

find out that there are neither births nor rebirths. They relate to the body and

not to the Self. Know the Self and dont be perturbed by doubts.

 

Question: Do not ones actions affect the person in later births?

 

Maharshi: Are you born now? Why do you think of other births? The fact is that

there is neither birth nor death. Let him who is born think of death and

palliatives for it.

 

Question: What happens to a person after death?

 

Maharshi: Engage yourself in the living present. The future will take care of

itself. Do not worry about the future. The state before creation and the process

of creation are dealt with in the scriptures in order that you may know the

present. Because you say you are born, therefore they say, yes, and add that God

created you.

 

But do you see God or anything else in your sleep? If God is real, why does he

not shine forth in your sleep also? You always are, you are the same now as you

were in sleep. You are not different from that one in sleep. But why should

there be differences in the feelings or experiences of the two states?

 

Did you ask, while asleep, questions regarding your birth? Did you then ask

'Where do I go after death?' Why think of all these questions now in the waking

state? Let what is born think of its birth and the remedy, its cause and

ultimate results.

 

Question: What becomes of the Jiva (Individual soul) after death?

 

Maharshi: The question is not appropriate for a Jiva now living. A dead Jiva may

ask me, if he wishes to. In the meantime let the embodied Jiva solve its present

problem and find who he is. Then there will be an end to such doubts.

 

Question: Is the Buddhist view, that there is no continuous entity answering to

the ideas of the individual soul, correct or not? Is this consistent with the

Hindu notion of a reincarnating ego? Is the soul a continuous entity which

reincarnates again and again, according to the Hindu doctrine, or is it a mere

mass of mental tendencies- samskaras?

 

Maharshi: The real Self is continuous and unaffected. The reincarnating ego

belongs to the lower plane, namely, thought. It is transcended by

Self-realisation.

 

Reincarnations are due to a spurious offshoot. Therefore they are denied by the

Buddhists. The present state of ignorance is due to the identification of

consciousness (chit) with the insentient (jada) body.

 

Question: Do not we go to heaven (svarga) as the result of our actions?

 

Maharshi: That is as true as the present existence. But if we enquire who we are

and discover the Self, what need is there to think of heaven?

 

Question: Should I not try to escape rebirth?

 

Maharshi: Yes. Find out who is born and who now has the trouble of existence.

When you are asleep do you think of rebirths or even the present existence? So

find out from where the present problem arises and in that place you will find

the solution. You will discover that there is no birth, no present trouble or

unhappiness. The Self is all and all is bliss. Even now we are free from rebirth

so why fret over the misery of it?

 

Ouestion: Is there rebirth?

 

Maharshi: Do you know what birth is?

 

Questioner: Oh yes, I know that I exist now, but I want to know if I'll exist in

the future.

 

Maharshi: Past!Present! Future!

 

Questioner: Yes, today is the result of yesterday, the past, and tomorrow. The

future, will be the result of today, the present. Am I right?

 

Maharshi: There is neither past nor future. There is only the present. Yesterday

was the present to you when you experienced it, and tomorrow will be also the

present when you experience it. Therefore, experience takes place only in the

present, and beyond experience nothing exists.

 

Question: Are the past and future mere imagination?

 

Maharshi: Yes, even the present is mere imagination, for the sense of time is

purely mental. Space is similarly mental. Therefore birth and rebirth, which

take place in time and space, cannot be other than imagination.

 

Question: What is the cause of tanha, the thirst for life and the thirst for

rebirth?

 

Maharshi: Real rebirth is dying from the ego into the spirit. This is the

significance of the crucifixion of Jesus. Whenever identification with the body

exists, a body is always available, whether this or any other one, till the

body-sense disappears by merging into the source – the spirit, or Self. The

stone which is projected upwards remains in constant motion till it returns to

its source, the earth, and rests. Headache continues to give trouble, till the

pre-headache state is regained.

 

Thirst for life is inherent in the very nature of life, which is absolute

existence sat. Although indestructible by nature, by false identification with

its destructible instrument, the body consciousness imbibes a false apprehension

of its destructibility. Because of that false identification it tries to

perpetuate the body, and that results in a succession of rebirths. But however

long these bodies may last, they eventually come to an end and yield to the

Self, which alone eternally exists.

 

Questioner: Yes, " Give up thy life if thou wouldst live " , says the Voice of the

Silence of H.P.Blavatsky.

 

Maharshi: Give up the false identification and remember, the body cannot exist

without the Self, whereas the Self can exist without the body. In fact it is

always without it.

 

Questioner: A doubt has just now arisen in a friend of mines mind. She has just

heard that a human being may take an animal birth in some other life, which is

contrary to what Theosophy has taught her.

 

Maharshi: Let him who takes birth ask this question. Find out first who it is

that is born, and whether there is actual birth and death. You will find that

birth pertains to the ego, which is an illusion of the mind.

 

Question: Is it possible for a man to be reborn as a lower animal?

 

Maharshi: Yes. It is possible, as illustrated by Jada Bharata the scriptural

anecdote of a royal sage having been reborn as a deer.

 

Question: Is the individual capable of spiritual progress in an animal body?

 

Maharshi: Not impossible, though it is exceedingly rare. It is not true that

birth as a man is necessarily the highest, and that one must attain realisation

only from being a man. Even an animal can attain Self-realisation.

 

Question: Theosophy speaks of fifty to 10,000 year intervals between death and

rebirth. Why is this so?

 

Maharshi: There is no relation between the standard of measurements of one state

of consciousness and another. All such measurements are hypothetical. It is true

that some individuals take more time and some less. But it must be distinctly

understood that it is no soul which comes and goes, but only the thinking mind

of the individual, which makes it appear to do so. On whatever plane the mind

happens to act, it creates a body for itself; in the physical world a physical

body and in the dream world a dream body which becomes wet with dream rain and

sick with dream disease.

 

After the death of the physical body, the mind remains inactive for some time,

as in dreamless sleep when it remains worldless and therefore bodyless. But soon

it becomes active again in a new world and a new body " the astral " till it

assumes another body in what is called a 'rebirth'. But the jnani, the

Self-realised man, whose mind has already ceased to act, remains unaffected by

death. The mind of the jnani has ceased to exist; it has dropped never to rise

again to cause births and deaths. The chain of illusions has snapped forever for

him.

 

It should now be clear that there is neither real birth, nor real death. It is

the mind which creates and maintains the illusion of reality in this process,

till it is destroyed by Self-realisation.

 

Question: Does not death dissolve the individuality of a person, so that there

can be no rebirth, just as the rivers discharged into the ocean lose their

individualities?

 

Maharshi: But when the waters evaporate and return as rain on the hills, they

once more flow in the form of rivers and fall into the ocean. So also the

individualities during sleep lose their separateness and yet return as

individuals according to their samskaras, or past tendencies. It is the same

after death the individuality of the person with samskaras is not lost.

 

Question: How can that be?

 

Maharshi: See how many tree whose branches have been cut grows again. So long as

the roots of the tree remain unimpaired, the tree will continue to grow.

Similarly, the samskaras (past tendencies) which have merely sunk in the Heart

on death, but have not perished for that reason, occasion rebirth at the right

time. That is how Jivas (individual souls) are reborn.

 

Question: How could the innumerable Jivas and the wide universe which they

produce sprout up from such subtle samskaras sunk in the Heart?

 

Maharshi: Just as the big banyan tree sprouts from a tiny seed, so do the Jivas

and the whole universe with name and form sprout up from the subtle samskaras.

 

Question: How does the Jiva (individual soul) transfer from one body to another?

 

Maharshi: When one begins to die, hard breathing sets in; that means that one

has become unconscious of the dying body. The mind at once takes hold of another

body, and it swings to and fro between the two, until attachment is fully

transferred to the new body. Meanwhile there are occasional violent breaths, and

that means that the mind swings back to the dying body. The transitional state

of the mind is somewhat like a dream.

 

Question: How long is the interval between ones death and reincarnation?

 

Maharshi: It may be long or short. But a jnani (Self-realised man) does not

undergo any such changes; he merges into the universal being.

 

Some say that those who after death pass into the path of light are not reborn,

whereas those who after death take the path of darkness are reborn after they

have enjoyed the fruits of karma in their subtle bodies.

 

Some say that if ones merits and demerits are equal, they are directly reborn

here. Merits outweighing demerits, the subtle bodies go to heaven and are then

reborn here; demerits outweighing merits, they go to hells and are afterwards

reborn here.

 

A Yogabrashta (one who has slipped from the path of yoga) is said to fare in the

same manner. All these are described in the sastras (scriptures). But in fact,

there is neither birth nor death. One remains only as what one really is. This

is the only truth.

 

Question: I find this very confusing. Are both births and rebirths ultimately

unreal?

 

Maharshi: If there is birth there must be not only one rebirth but a whole

succession of births. Why and how did you get this birth? For the same reason

and in the same manner you must have succeeding births. But if you ask who has

the birth and whether birth and death are for you or for somebody distinct from

you, then you realise the truth and the truth burns up all karmas and frees you

from all births. The books graphically describe how all would take countless

lives to exhaust, is burnt up by one little spark of jnana (spiritual

knowledge), just as a mountain of gunpowder will be blown up by a single spark

of fire. It is the ego that is the cause of all the world and of the countless

sciences whose researches are so great as to baffle description, and if the ego

is dissolved by enquiry all this immediately crumbles and the reality or Self

alone remains.

 

Question: Do you mean to say that I was never even born?

 

Maharshi: Yes, you are now thinking that you are the body and therefore confuse

yourself with its birth and death. But you are not the body and you have no

birth and death.

 

Question: So you do not uphold the theory of rebirth?

 

Maharshi: No. On the other hand I want to remove your confusion that you will be

reborn. It is you who think that you will be reborn.

 

See for whom the question arises. Unless the questioner is found, such questions

can never finally be answered.

 

By Swami Vivekananda

 

The foremost disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa

 

The Real and the Apparent Man

(Quotation)

 

Birth and death are in nature, not in you. Yet the ignorant are deluded; just as

we under delusion think that the sun is moving and not the earth, in exactly the

same way we think that we are dying, and not nature. These are all, therefore,

hallucinations. Just as it is a hallucination when we think that the fields are

moving and not the railway train, exactly in the same manner is the

hallucination of birth and death. When men are in a certain frame of mind, they

see this very existence as the earth, as the sun, the moon, the stars; and all

those who are in the same state of mind see the same things.

 

Swami Vivekananda wrote about

 

The natural habits of a new-born soul; since they were not obtained in this

present life, they must have come down from past lives.

 

We cannot deny that bodies acquire certain tendencies from heredity, but those

tendencies only mean the physical configuration, through which a peculiar mind

alone can act in a peculiar way. There are other tendencies peculiar to a soul

caused by its past actions. And a soul with a certain tendency would by the laws

of affinity take birth in a body, which is the fittest instrument for the

display of that tendency. This is in accord with science, for science wants to

explain everything by habit, and habit is got through repetitions. So

repetitions are necessary to explain the natural habits of a new-born soul. And

since they were not obtained in this present life, they must have come down from

past lives.

 

The Soul and Its Destiny

 

The Vedanta philosophy discusses the

nature of the soul from two standpoints:

 

1. Absolute or transcendental, and

 

2. Relative or phenomenal.

 

From the absolute standpoint, the soul is non-dual, immortal,

ever pure, ever free, ever illumined, and one with Brahman.

It is untouched by hunger or thirst, good and evil, pain and

pleasure, birth and death, and the other pairs of opposites.

That is the soul's true nature. The realisation of which is the

goal of a man's spiritual aspiration and striving. From this

absolute standpoint, the soul is called PARAMATMA or

Supreme Soul.

 

But from the relative standpoint, the Vedanta philosophy

admits the existence of a multitude of individual souls called

JIVATMAS, and distinguishes them from the Supreme Soul.

Attached to the body, the individual soul is a victim of the

pairs of the opposites. Entangled in the world, it seeks

deliverance from the eternal round of birth and death, and

with that end in view, studies the scriptures and practises

spiritual disciplines.

 

The embodied soul is associated with the sense organs, the

mind and vital breath (Prana). There are ten sense organs,

all subordinate to the mind as the central organ; five organs

of perception and five organs of action. The five organs of

perception comprise the organ of taste (tongue),smell (nose),

vision (eyes), hearing (ear), and touch (skin). The five organs

of action are the hands, the feet, the organ of speech, the

organs of evacuation and the organ of generation.

 

The presence of an irrefragable Self or consciousness is

assumed in all acts of thinking. The Self or consciousness,

which is the true 'seer' or subject, is unchanging intelligence,

and can never be imagined to be non-existent. Atman

(the Self) in man and Brahman in the universe are

completely identical.

 

The idea of body, senses, and the mind, associated with

the non-self, is falsely superimposed upon the Self, and the

Self, which is of the nature of pure consciousness, appears

as a jiva, or phenomenal being, subject to the various

limitations of the physical world.

 

THE SOUL

 

The Rishis speak of two souls: the real soul and the apparent

soul. The real soul is birthless, death less, immortal, and

infinite. The same real soul, under the spell of ignorance,

appears as the apparent man identified with the body, mind

and senses. This apparent man becomes, on account of his

attachment to the body, a victim of birth and death, virtue and

vice, and the other pairs of opposites.The apparent man is

bound to the world, and it is he,again, who strives for liberation.

The enjoyment of material pleasures, and the subsequent

satiation and weariness; the consciousness of bondage, and

the struggle for freedom; the injunctions of the scriptures, and

the practice of moral and spiritual disciplines- all this refers to

the apparent man. Again, it is the apparent man who performs virtuous or sinful

deeds, goes, after death, to heaven or hell, and assumes different bodies. But

it must never be forgotten that rewards and punishments are spoken of only with

reference to the reflected, or apparent soul. The real soul is forever free from

the characteristics of the relative world.

 

But the real soul is always free, illumined, and perfect.

The real sun, non-dual and resplendent, shines brilliantly

in the sky, though millions of its reflections are seen to

move with the movement of the waves.

 

From the Mahabharata

Santi Parva, Section CCXXXVI

 

Vyasa said: " That has been said to be Manifest which is

possessed of these four attributes, viz., birth, growth,

decay and death. That which is not posessed of these

attributes is said to be Unmenifest. Two souls are

mentioned in the Vedas and the sciences that are based

upon them. The first (which is called Jivatman; embodied

soul) is endued with the four attributes already mentioned,

and has a longing for the four objects or purposes

(viz., Religion, Wealth, Pleasure and Emancipation).

This soul is called Manifest, and it is born of the Unmanifest

(Supreme Soul). It is both intelligent and non-intelligent.

I have thus told thee about Sattwa (inert matter) and

Kshetrajna (immaterial spirit).

 

Jai Sai Ram

Swamy Mahadevan

Bow to Shri Sai-Peace be to all