Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Rebirth

One has always wondered whether rebirth does actually take place.To me it is a reality,though many doubt that it does,specially in the West.There have been many anecdotal evidences to prove it and lots of books have also been written on this subject.As far as I am concerned I know it to be true from personal experience.
Why does it occur?According to our mythology,when the human soul is about to leave the human body at the time of death,whatever form it wishes to take,it comes back again in that form.The human birth is supposed to be the highest form of creation in which God has bestowed upon us “free will”whereby we have choices to experience virtually whatever we wish to. Therefore the soul,in order to experience a particular type of life,reincarnates in that particular body to experience what it wishes to and evolves further(we are always evolving).This is of course,based on one’s karmas.
By the time one gets a physical birth,one has forgotten that one is a part and parcel of the Almighty,to which one should strive to return.If the soul wishes to experience God it gets born in situations or circumstances where it comes in contact with people who sort of act as “catalysts” to help it evolve further towards God.It is quite likely that at this juncture it meets a Being who teaches and shows the soul the path to God.This Being could well be a Guru/Prophet/Master,whatever one wishes to address him by(like Gautam Budha/Guru Nanak/Sant Kabir/Jesus Christ/Prophet Mohammed or a modern day guru who has actually traversed the path to Self Realisation).If,however,the soul has wished to experience something else,it takes the form of a of a human being with different charectaristics or traits and experiences something entirely different,but always keeps evolving.Sooner or later,(though it may take many births),it will heed the message being constantly communicated to it through intuition/instinct/sixth sense etc to follow the path of Truth,which the soul ultimately starts to seek.
The reality is that many of us are aware of our earlier births and perhaps feel excited about it and start seeing or meeting many of our friends/relatives/well wishers/enemies of an earlier birth and try to reestablish the same connection but one should remember that now the same person who may have been a brother/sister/friend or whatever had that specific role to play as THAT person in THAT particular birth but in the present incarnation the role may not be the same as before!Therefore one should not get too excited about it.The reality possibly is that this is just to pay back our karmic debt to each other and we assume different forms to do so.To give you an example.You find that your boss is overbearing and singles you out for “special” treatment.Perhaps you may not even be aware that this is happening to you only to balance out the way you treated him in an earlier birth, where perhaps you were bossing over him!Similarly,you suddenly find that you are stranded somewhere in dire need of help with no one in sight and you think you are” finished” but miraculously someone appears from nowhere and bails you out.Again a karmic debt is being paid.
The fact that most of the time we do not remember anything about our previous births is actually a blessing.You can imagine what would happen if you started recognizing all your earlier relatives/friends/enemies/well wishers/associates/bosses/subordinates etc and tried to maintain contact with all of them.You could have all types of feelings….. of love/hate/stress/fear with which it would be impossible to cope.In addition present relationships could also get affected.
Learning or knowing about your past life/lives can very well be a part and parcel of your spiritual growth and is often a by product of progress on your path to God Realisation,but here also,Gurus try to dissuade you from trying to unravel earlier mysteries for the simple reason that solving them or remembering your past serves no useful purpose at all as each birth and each relationship has a different purpose than the earlier one and could very well complicate your present life.
Often,some Psychiatrists can get a patient to remember his/her past life but here the purpose is often therapeutic as very often past mishaps could be causes of fear/phobias and a trained psychiatrist could help the patient get over the phobia by making him/her aware of the reason for it.
It is very common for reincarnation to take place in “clusters”,which means that many people you may have known in an earlier birth,may be born again around the time you are and may actually be ‘around you “!There is so much truth in the saying that “The world is a stage”!It actually is as we are all playing our role life after life,in one birth one could be a father, while in the next one might be born as the son to the person one fathered earlier!

If one were to realize this one would take a lot of things in one’s stride.This is one of the reasons why God Realised souls discourage you from saying bad or foul things about anyone(of course,the main reason is that since our Atma is actually a part of the Parmatma,when one says something bad about anyone, one is actually maligning God).
Very often one wonders why one takes a strong liking to someone one meets for the first time and gets a feeling that one has met that person before!But despite one’s best attempts neither can figure out when and where.It is quite likely that one has met someone one knew earlier in a past life.For no apparent rhyme or reason this relationship grows.Again,one must remember that though there is so much of familiarity the purpose of the present meeting may be entirely different from the one in the previous birth.
By the same token,one may come across some one to whom one takes an instant dislike even though one has never met that person before.This again might be a case where paths may have been crossed earlier in an earlier birth.As so often happens,such a person one seems to keep meeting over and over again,one may get irritated,angry or upset but this might just be a situation where both are actually meeting to balance things out.As you progress on the true path you realise that the purpose of such meetings is to reach a state of the highest good for both the concerned parties and you understand that your duty is to even things out,therefore,act in a manner whereby confrontation is avoided and an action done whereby reconciliation can take place and if posible real forgiveness and love.One,however,may fail once,twice or many times(meaning thereby that one has not acted in the manner commensurate with the highest good of both) but such events will continue to take place till the issue is resolved for the good of both(by such repeated events,one is being given a chance to correct oneself)!

Sooner or later one evolves to a stage when one starts “seeking the truth” and with the help of a God Realised soul starts traversing the path towards God and becomes One with Him.Once that happens this cycle of birth and death is broken and one does not come back again as one becomes a part of Him.It does,however,happen that a few chosen few(like Budha/Guru Nanak/Jesus Christ/Kabir/Prophet Mohammed) take birth to guide people and help them towards the path to God.

2 comments:

Vijay Mohan Kohli said...

Strictly speaking,Rebirth means donning of a new body by the soul,which means that the soul takes many forms and the body changes while the core remains the same.
It is also believed that certain physical charecteristics,ie the physical appearance is quite similar also.This means that when a person is reborn,his or her looks are likely to be quite similar to the earlier one.

Anirudh Kumar Satsangi said...

An article on Logic of Reincarnation by Steven J Rosen has been
published in The Speaking Tree of 11the July 2010. In this article
the author enquires what is it that reincarnates from one body to
another? Is it the soul? the mind? the intellect? To understand this
we should suggest answer to these questions. We all know that there
are four fundamental forces in the universe viz., gravitation force,
electromagnetic force, weak nuclear force and strong nuclear force. I
have written a paper entitled ‘Gravitation Force is the Ultimate
Creator’ and presented it at the 1st International Conference on
Revival of Traditional Yoga held in Lonavla Yoga Institute, Lonavla in
January 2006. In this paper I have defined soul (individual
consciousness), mind and body. According to this every point of
action of Gravitational Force Field is individual consciousness or
soul, electromagnetic force as the force of mind and weak and strong
nuclear force as the gross material force which constitute physical
frame of body.
Consciousness is All Intelligent and pervades everywhere. Although
all other remaining three forces are also intelligent but they are
subordinate to Gravitational Force. THIS DESCRIPTION WILL HELP TO
UNDERSTAND ‘WHAT IS IT THAT REINCARNATES FROM ONE BODY TO ANOTHER.
According to Buddhism this is not the supreme atman or soul that ties
one life to another, instead it talks about past lives as evolvement
of consciousness, emergence of a new personality from the same stream
of consciousness.
Unaccomplished activities of past lives are also one of the causes for
reincarnation. Some of us reincarnate to complete the unfinished
tasks of previous birth. The is evident from my own story of
reincarnation:
“My most Revered Guru of my previous life His Holiness Maharaj Sahab,
3rd Spiritual Head of Radhasoami Faith had revealed this secret to me
during trance like state of mine. This was sort of REVELATION.
HE told me, “Tum Sarkar Sahab Ho” (You are Sarkar Sahab). Sarkar Sahab
was one of the most beloved disciple of His Holiness Maharj Sahab.
Sarkar Sahab later on became Fourth of Spiritual Head Radhasoami
Faith.
Since I don’t have any direct realization of it so I can not claim the
extent of its correctness. But it seems to be correct. During my
previous birth I wanted to sing the song of ‘Infinite’ (Agam Geet yeh
gawan chahoon tumhri mauj nihara, mauj hoi to satguru soami karoon
supanth vichara) but I could not do so then since I had to leave the
mortal frame at a very early age. But through the unbounded Grace and
Mercy of my most Revered Guru that desire of my past birth is being
fulfilled now.”
I am one the chief expounder and supporter of Gravitation Force Theory
of God. This is most scientific and secular theory of God. I have
also discovered the mathematical expression for emotional quotient and
for spiritual quotient.
Austrian Scientist Rudolf Steiner says,
“Just as an age was once ready to receive the Copernican theory of the
universe, so is our age ready for the idea of reincarnation to be
brought into the general consciousness of humanity”.

Anirudh Kumar Satsangi
P.A. to Director
Dayalbagh Educational Institute
(Deemed University)
Dayalbagh, Agra