2.1 Why are we born, why do we live and why do we die?

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 Vidya^BU).

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.

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.

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 Sujateeyam^MB. 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.

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 Created^RV. 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.