Each living being undergoes a birth, life and death
sequence. Most people take the life aspect of this triad for granted, despite
its painful past, fleeting present and uncertain future.
The
Birth aspect, especially the complex bio-chemistry (DNA, chromosomes, genetics
...) baffles even a knowledgeable scholar.
Scriptures,
on the other hand, explain with ease the transmigratory travel and travails of Jeeva (through the super-secret doctrine
of Panchagni VidyaBU).
Death
is beyond comprehension for both rationalists and theologists. It remains a secret
till we die!
Unravelling these three microcosmic
riddles needs an understanding of Lord’s five macrocosmic functions, viz. Creation (Shrishti), Sustenance (Sthithi),
Dissolution (Samhaaram), Grace (Anugraham) and Veiling (Tirodhaanam).
The experiences of an individual are
perfectly in line with the first three functions of Lord. Birth, Life and Death
at the microcosmic level correspond
to Creation, Sustenance and Dissolution at
the macrocosmic level respectively.
These three functions being divine intent,
individuals can never influence nor ever interfere with them; on the other
hand, we are greatly impacted by them. However, the impact can be influenced
for a transitory relief or a transcendent release through Grace of Lord:
Grace of Lord is
to grant relief to despairing individuals in current birth.
Grace of Lord is
to grant
release to aspiring individuals from future births.
Life enigma, being an explicit experience,
is relatively easy to evaluate.
In comparison, Birth experience is
shielded in dimness as an individual is not a witness to his own birth.
In contrast, an individual is a witness to
his own death; however, he cannot share Knowledge with the people left behind,
the reason why knowledge of Death is shrouded in darkness forever and for everybody.
Why
am I living?
For most people, Life
is a tangled web and the world around us is a den of danger.
Life’s well-intended actions, even if performed with due diligence and outstanding ability, do not always produce the desired results. Therefore, Life is marked and marred by anxieties and ambiguities, despair and desperation at every step and stage.
The saving grace is God’s Grace. Though a
despairing individual cannot get over the type and frequency of sufferings,
yet, with God’s Grace their felt-intensity can be remarkably reduced (which is
essentially enhancing our ability to cope with ordeals).
World, in a similar way, is stuffed and
strewn with harms and hazards, complexities and calamities at every stretch and
stratum.
God, in His infinite wisdom, designed our
world as a place of action (Karma Bhumi)
to redeem (bad) karmic potencies and accumulate (good) karmic propensities (Vasanas), through action.
He created a higher world (Heaven) as a
place of enjoyment (Bhoga Bhumi).
He also presented man with a faculty of
choice (Buddhi) to choose and pursue
the best course of conduct.
Most individuals, however, with their
finite wisdom and infinite desires, choose to exhaust their good Karmas (i.e.
enjoy) in this world, ignoring its consequence (that is slogging and slugging
it out in the nether world).
The inevitable clash of divine design and
individual desires causes calamites in life – personal and public.
Yet, despite such risks and reservations, I am living and leading a normal life only
because of God’s Grace. This Grace is occasionally obvious but invariably
invisible. Most individuals, therefore, assume/ accuse that God is unjust while
distributing rewards for endeavours, or resources for enterprises.
Due to incomplete understanding of the content
and context of Efforts of individual and Grace of God, most individuals feel
that there is no one in this world who is as unfortunate as them. Yet, for
every such claimant, there is another who would have experienced woes and
worries on a wider and/ or weirder scale. A moment of reflection would also
reveal that their life could have been much worse, but for God’s grace.
God is kindness personified; hence, even
the vilest behaviour of an individual does not diminish or detract Lord’s
compassion. A sinner as well as a saint are same in the ‘eyes/ realm’ of God.
What divides and distances us from God is our Karmic load, turbulent mind and
spiritual ignorance.
Once the intervening and interfering Karma
is exhausted (through actions/ surrender), turbulence is surmounted (through compassion/
dispassion) or Ignorance is destroyed (through education/ enquiry), the
division and the distance disappear.
All of them involve efforts – the care and struggle involved in redeeming/ accumulating Karma, in cultivating an ever-wavering and unclean mind, in eradicating the beginning-less ignorance.
All of them involve efforts – the care and struggle involved in redeeming/ accumulating Karma, in cultivating an ever-wavering and unclean mind, in eradicating the beginning-less ignorance.
Once efforts are exercised, Grace/
Blessings of God flows spontaneously. So it is said that we should count our
age not from the number of years lived, but from the number of blessings
(secular as well as divine) received.
Grace
of Lord automatically follows Efforts (Abhyasa)
of individuals.
Grace
of Lord automatically follows Evolution (Parinaam)
of individuals.
Why
will I die?
I
will die because of my failure to understand/ realize my True/Spiritual nature.
Life
and its unending developments are meant to take us on a spiritual odyssey, the
grand finale of which is the state of immortality/ deathlessness. Not to pursue
the prescribed path is a criminal waste of God-given power/potential.
Yet, invariably all individuals spend
their time and energy to chase a life of profit, pleasure and/or perversion. We
are then destined to die. After death, shorn of body and mind (which belong to,
and hence, return to earth), the Jeeva reaches the causal world with its
repository of karmic residues. The quality of Karmic residues decides the
after-death experience/ onward journey of Jeeva.
God is, however, patience personified;
hence, an individual is ‘not punished’ if he misses the opportunity to evolve.
In fact, through Death, God blesses us with another name and form and a set of
circumstances to continue our spiritual journey.
Contrary to conventional belief, death is
not a punishment; it is a relief from mortal miseries and misfortunes.
On the other hand, birth can be a ‘punishment’ for those who are not prepared to cope with its mandates and melancholies.
On the other hand, birth can be a ‘punishment’ for those who are not prepared to cope with its mandates and melancholies.
Physical death happens due to any or many reasons – age, ailment, accidents, etc. Also, the physical death is significant or sickening only from the individual’s point of view.
From the standpoint of cosmic order, it is a mere incident. Death at the microcosmic level and dissolution at the macrocosmic plane are meant for refining individuals and redefining universal order respectively.
Why
was I born?
The cause of our
birth: Scientists
are veering around the notion that our origin may be from the yonder space
(extra-terrestrial) and/or due to ‘accidental mixing’ of primordial chemicals,
which still does not answer the basic questions, when, wherefrom and why.
Some Scientists are now convinced that even the once-supposedly lifeless earth has life (Gaia Hypothesis) – the underlying logic being that only a life form can give rise to/ sustain another life form!
Spiritualists, on the other hand, strongly
advocate the cause of Jeeva’s birth
as Primal Ignorance (Anaadi Ajnana)
with timeless beginning. This boundless ignorance, which forms the inner core
of me (Ananda Maya Kosha), simply
doesn’t disappear with a mere will/ wish or meagre education/ evolution, the
reason why we are lost in the endless Cycle of Births and Deaths (Samsara Chakra).
The
cause of our re-birth: Science does not yet subscribe to the
concept of re-birth for lack of ‘proof’ to substantiate its occurrence. However,
it fails to explain the physical and mental idiosyncrasy of two individuals
born with identical origin (twins, for example) or brought-up in analogous
ambience (common parentage, for example).
Theory of mutation offers a weak link, but
suffers the same flaw as it again proposes randomness to a highly ordered/
‘orchestrated’ event.
Spiritualists, on the other hand, advocate
Karma and its consequent after-effect
as the cause of this phenomenon. In Brihadaranyaka Upanishad,
King Pravahana indirectly poses this
riddle to a young ascetic, Svetaketu, (“Do you know why that world (where
the dead souls reach after death) is not filled by so many departing again and
again?”).
He then proceeds to unravel the mystery to
Svetaketu’s father, Sage Aruni (“Because of the cyclic movement
of the Jivas, the worlds do not get
filled up”). Thus Spirituality defines
and decodes the cause of our re-birth.
The
cause of our repeated births: Even strong protagonists and
staunch practitioners of Karmic theory are bewildered by repeated births. Their
refrain is that why can’t we experience the after-effects of our karmic
residues (Vasanas) in one go and
‘return’ to our Original (Pradhana)/
Pure/ Immortal state?
The pertinent answer to this perplexing
question is found in Sanat SujateeyamMB.
It was posed by the dumbest of Kings, Dhritharashtra,
and answered by the wisest of counsels, Sanat-Sujaata,
who had been enlightened by none other than Dekshinamoorthy,
an aspect of Shiva.
To the very first question asked by Dritharashtra (What is immortality, and
is it possible to avoid death?), Sanat-Sujata
answers with a definitiveness, “Negligence
(Pramaada) is death; living without ‘Pramaada’ is immortality (Pramaadam vai mrityum-abam braveemi, sadaa
pramaadam amritatvam braveemi)”!
What
is Negligence?
Law of Science categorically
affirms that everything born can be guaranteed to die but anything dying cannot
be guaranteed to be (re-)born. Law of Karma, on the other hand asserts that
anything dying is guaranteed to be (re-)born but everything born need not die
(if Karmic balance is nil). Karma accrues only due to negligence.
Therefore, what we should worry about, and work on to change our (spiritual) destiny is to understand and avoid negligence in life.
Our mind is greatly influenced by external stimulation and internal simulation.
Our mind is greatly influenced by external stimulation and internal simulation.
The least we can do to confront the
torrents and turmoil of external influences is with a calm mind (Samachittatvam).
The best we can do to counter the rush and
rustle of internal disturbances is with a clean mind (Chitta Parisuddhi).
The ‘cleaned’ and composed mind is further
conditioned to surrender to God. Mind, thus primed and ploughed, receives Grace
of God emphatically and reflects on Truth of God effortlessly. Failure to cultivate Mind is negligence.
Creation
is an ‘experience/ play (Lila)’ of
God. And it is a cooperative effort between Creator and the CreatedRV.
Every individual has as much part to play in the process of creation/ life as
God has.
Food,
the most basic requirement of life, best exemplifies this intricate
inter-dependence of God and Man. The complete and complex process of food
production happens due to grace of Lord. As a result/ at the end, individuals
get their food which sustains them.
Similarly
our actions (in the form of deeds, speech and thoughts) form the ‘food’ of Gods
(cf. Sapta Annam)BU. We
are extremely careful with the notional food (Naivedya) which is symbolically offered to God. But we are
extremely careless with regard to the real food (our actions) which is actually
consumed by Gods.
If we
wish to offer the best of foods (to God) then our actions should be performed
as per the tenets of Dharma. The
incidental, but windfall effect, of following Dharma in every deed, speech and thought is that such actions do
not produce Karmic residue. Failure to
follow Dharma, and thereby avoid
Karma, is negligence.
The cause of death is due to our failure
to realize our spiritual nature. We are ignorant of our true nature due to
Lord’s original will. We cannot, therefore, get over its effect suo motu. We can do so only with God’s
benediction.
Hence, to return to the original (Pradhan)
state, an aspiring individual needs to evolve spiritually. God, through grace, helps the evolving seeker to get over the primal ignorance at the
fitness of time. Failure to evolve is
negligence.
Thus, Deathlessness/ Immortality can be a
reality only if we are not negligent – not discounting the possibility, nor
dismissing the necessity, nor disregarding our capability. We are endowed with
three innate powers, viz. Knowledge, Skill and Will (Jnana/ Kriya/ Ichcha Shakthi) precisely to achieve this
distinction.
Thus,
Ignorance is the cause of initial Birth; Karma is the cause of Re-birth;
Negligence is the cause of Repeated Births.
Deathlessness/ Immortality, is possible through ‘Obliteration’ by God.
Obliteration automatically follows Evolution of Individuals.
For Evolution, an individual needs Grace of God.
Grace (of God), however, follows Efforts (of Individuals) automatically.