|  "Seeing means being: Implicit Faith, Love and Loyality to God & Gurus will arrange that your karma can be removed, if you really follow that way to your own real Self. For finding the divine truth you meditate and whole day and night remember that God is breathing and functioning through you." |
Paramhansa Hariharananda ************** Kriya.org |
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From the very beginning, humanity has been faced with the problem of death and has, therefore, pondered over the mystery of life and death. We are born to work out our karma. As we sow, so do we reap. The chain that binds us to the wheel of life and death is the law of karma. Karma binds us, but it can also set us free. Karma is bondage, as long as we cling to the transient world of the senses. Once we turn to the eternal, karma sets us free. When we observe the world around us, we find that some are born rich, healthy and intelligent while others are born poor, ignorant and diseased. The thoughtfull naturally ponder over this apparent injustice and are wont to question the existence of an all-mercyful benevolent providence. But it is absurd to blame God for our miseries and unhappiness which are self-wrought. How many of us follow the teachings of the scriptures in thought, word and deed? We ourselves become the cause of miseries when we violate the laws of God. God merely looks on, letting His laws mete out justice. Krishna says in the Gita,"As the Lord, I am equally present in all beings; there is none hateful nor dear to me." God remains detached in all beings as the atma. Having given human beings free will, He lets us write our own destiny. We do so and become bound by the chain of karma, which we slowly and painfully work out from birth to birth. If there was no prior birth and if every effect has a cause behind it, then what is the cause behind the person who is born an invalid or a moron? It is the past actions of our prior birth that makes us what we are and what we do. Biologists propound the theory of heridity and claim that it satisfactorily explains human beings. If heridity were all, how can one account for the fact that the offspring of the same parents exhibit such a marked difference in temperament, character, intelligence etc.? Similary, the children of the same parents brought up in the same environment do not possess identical personalities. Julian Huxley attributes the birth of a genius or moron to change or `accident of birth´. But there is no such thing as change in the universe. Everything is well regulated and follows laws. There is nothing accidental in this world rather all are only incidental. We see this all around us. Is it just change that makes the apple fall to the ground? Ignorance of a fact does not mean that it does not exist. It is only the law of karma that explains why each individual is what he is. Nothing happens without a cause. Effect and cause correspond to each other. Neither heridity nor invironment, nor even their interaction, can explain the facts of life. A physical process can produce only a physical effect, nothing more. Only the body and mind of a person can be attributed to heridity and invironment. We have to seek elsewhere for an explanation for the personality of an individual. Only when we accept the doctrine of reincarnation do we get an explanation for all that goes to make a person what he is. Only when a person understands what he is and why he is can he change his life and destiny. By knowing his karma, he can master karma. Karma means action, both physical and mental. Every action leaves its impression in the subconscious mind and has either a good or bad effect on the life of a person. The impressions of the actions of past lives are stored in the superconsciousness and germinate under suitable environment. These constitute the inner environment, which along with the outer environment governs a person´s actions. Karma is divided into three categories - samcita,prarabdha and kriyamana. Samcita is the karma of our past lives, stored in the mid-brain. These have not yet fructified. Prarabdha are those karmas of our past lives that have determined the present life. Kriyamana is the karma we are accumulating in this life and that will fructify in future. Once a person loses his ego and ceases to identify himself with his action, they cease to bind him. The solution is not inertia but detachement. This will nullify the law of karma and make one free. The life of a kriya yogi is not guided by past actions, but by the direction of his inner Self. The aspirant rapidly reaches the goal, avoiding the path of haphazard evolution based on his karma. He becomes free from life and death. The problem of death is not really a mystery. The truth is that there is no difference between life and death. Nothing is actually dead. Just as atoms in inanimate matter, like metals, are in continuous motion and rapid vibration, similary, the atoms in the flesh of a corpse are in continuous motion and rapid vibration. | Different forms of matter are the manifestation of the same life force, just as ice, water, snow and steam are the different manifestations of the same substance. All matter, including inanimate and dead bodies, is the manifestation of life. As Gurudev Paramahamsa Yoganandaji says,"Life sleeps in the crude earth, dreams beauty in the flowers, wakes with power in animals and in man has consciousness of infinite possibilities." At birth something enters the world, while at death something departs. This something is the theme of all religions and they have attempted to probe it and have come up with certain answers. People are immensely interested in this `something´. The actions of prior births produce the character of individuals, leading to new actions that in turn help further evolution. This process ends in liberation, the destiny of all living beings. A person is born in accordance with his karma, the subtle body enters the womb of the mother and proceeds to manufacture the gross body. At the appropriate time, the baby is born. The individual passes through the various stages of life and gathers the experience and impressions of its action in the subconscious. As soon as the prarabdha karma that had caused the birth is exhausted, the astral body is separated from the gross body. This phenomenon is called death. In reality, however, it is only the separation of the two bodies.
The indications of life and death are the presence or absence of the prana the vital air commonly called breath. The absence of the prana stops the functioning of the heart. Thus, when the breathing and heart beating stop the person dies. However, a realized yogi can consciously control these two and remain in a state of absolut tranquility or samadhi. He gains control over life and death, which is the means to enlightement. When the yogi is no longer dependent upon the breath and the heart for his existence, the highest knowledge dawns upon him. He no longer fears death, as death for him means freedom from bondage - liberation. Death is not the end of an individual, just as birth is not the beginning. What then is death? Death means that the Self, along with the subtle body which is comprised of the mind with all its impressions, leaves the gross body. These impressions become the seeds of future birth. It is mostly the last thought of an individual that decides his future birth. The last thoughts are moulded by the predominant desires of his life. Therefore, desires are the root of birth and death. By destroying desire, one strikes at the root of karma and escapes from the cycle of birth and death. This, however, is possible only by sincere meditation. The Gita clearly says," He who gives up all desires and moves free from all attachement, egoism and thirst for enjoyment attains peace." Such is the stage of a God-realized soul. Having reached this stage, he has overcome delusion; remaining established in this stage, even at the last moment, he attains the bliss of brahman. When an individual realizes the immortality of the Self, he attains liberation. The cycle of birth and death stops for that particular individual. Therefore, it is the responsibility of each individual to attain liberation with the grace of God and liberated ones.
As God is infinite, the embodied souls (jivas), according to the Hindu scriptures, are also infinite. A jiva passes through eight hundred and forty thousand wombs before attaining liberation. Out of this, forty thousand births are in human wombs. When one has attained the human birth he should act sensibly, using discrimination, to know the will of God. Then, by the practise of meditation, one can develop intuition and quicken his evolution in one birth. |