Greetings!
We are continuing our conversation with Sri C. Radhakrishnan.
Thinking about the concept of life,
the dots that we keep at its two ends are:
birth and death.
These concepts of birth, death, the life in between and the Jiva,..
In the context of the cosmic model that we are discussing,
how should we understand those?
All who are born, will die, for sure!
Another important point stated by Gita is,
that all who die, will be born again too!
What is the basis of that statement?
All will die - that we understand.
But what is the basis of saying all who die, will be born again?
To know that,
We need to know what is life.
We say life is gone, to indicate the person died.
Life in the universe is believed to be
a sudden formation at a specific point in the material evolution,
by the modern biology.
First, there were tiny particles,
then they combined into atoms,
atoms combined to form molecules,
they formed bigger molecules,
they combined to form proteins.
And at a stage,
for the self-reliance of these protein molecules,
the capability for food and survival evolved,
thus started the life, as per that.
But,
Vedanta says,
Or Advaitha, which is an school of thought that Modern science dislikes, says
the life in the world, in the universe, is eternal.
Everything in the universe has life.
What is the reasoning?
If there is no life in rocks and sand,
how can a body made of those same elements, can have life?
What we call knowledge, life etc.,
is eternal, one,
and that is the fundamental existence.
That is the true knowledge.
That is the life of life.
That is that fundamental existence, says our philosophies.
So in fact, this life is there in
from each grain of sand to the himalayas!
Which means, this life that has an eternal source, has an eternal existence too.
How?
It means, nothing truly dies,
or in other words, whatever dies, takes birth in a different form.
It is in this sense, Gita says:
that who are born will die and whoever dies will be born again.
Ok... What happens in birth?
What happens during death?
At birth, the life,
through the combination of material ingredients from the universe,
chooses and shapes up a body for it to live.
That is the start of one worldly life.
At death, the same life,
decides that that chosen vehicle, or residence,
is not suitable for further use,
nor maintainable through repair etc,
and leaves it behind.
Like we take a new vehicle, when the existing one has become too old,
or like changing old, worn clothes to new ones,
the life shapes up another body
and migrates to that.
The life that migrates thus,
is what we called subtle body earlier.
It leaves the gross body.
And it remains in the causal body, always.
Because of it remaining in the causal body,
the subtle body called life, also is eternal.
Rupert Sheldrake, a biologist,
views this life as a morphogenetic field.
The life remains in the Avyaktha and waits till it gets a suitable body, is what
argues quite effectively in his biological book called 'a new science of life'.
We don't know how this life looks, or where it resides, because
we can't perceive anything in the Avyaktha, using our senses.
If there is such an eternal life,
why does it move from one cloth to another?
Why can't it just stop?
Such questions don't have any sense.
Life in its journey,
finds some lodges to stay, on the way.
The bodies are its instruments to reach its goal of the journey.
The goal is not reached, with life in just one body.
So, passing through many bodies,
strengthening its innermost tendencies (vasanas),
each life acts as the stages in its journey to merge into the Paramaatma.
So when a life that progresses thus, leaves a body,
like the air takes the fragrance from a flower, as per Gita.
We consider those who left thus, as our ancestors!
They are...
But there is no need to be concerned about how we respect them etc,
Gita explains that too.
Though they are our ancestors,
as they have their own existence,
we should not try to recall them.
They just need our remembrance.
That also Gita tells us.
Once Sree Narayana guru was asked by one of his followers,
'Guru, my father is no more...and what rituals I should do?'
Guru, apparently smiled and said:
"Cut into pieces and make it a manure for the coconut tree!"
Guru understood that question to be about: what should we do further, with the body...
That body now, is just a decaying, useless object,
and hence dispose it as soon as possible, is what he said.
The core part is gone!
Then why to keep this dead object?
There is no need to respect it, display it, carry around,
or parade it in a ceremonious manner.
It is a decaying flesh.
The only advisable thing is to dispose it as soon as possible.
Why does this life (Jiva) take birth
at a particular place, to specific parents?
It is looking for opportunities to follow its inner tendencies (Vasanas).
We all say these are our children.
Yes they are...
We know we haven't chosen them.
They chose us, is something that we don't realize!
To develop the vasanas from their previous birth(s),
they identified a specific, suitable space-time!
And the parents suitable for that.
So consider them as Iswara,
and as someone who are moving ahead of us,
take care of them lovingly and with due respect.
Instead, considering them as our own, sole property, we land into the troubles
that Dhritharashtra had fallen into.
Do we need to fear death?
No, not at all...
Death is just inevitable.
Plutonium has a half-life.
It's half life is 5000 years.
If we just keep 1Kg of Plutonium somewhere,
in 5000 years,
only half kg will remain.
The rest would have decomposed on its own.
Like that,
from the changes caused by the universal aspects that are beyond our control,
and by the expanding nature of the Avyaktha,
no body can escape, ever.
No hard rock can,
nor the most powerful human can,
nor devas, not even Brahma, the creator!
Brahma has a definite life span.
'sahasra yuga paryantham ahar yad brahmano viduh' (Gita verse)
His day and night consists of thousand yugas each,
and at the end of a long period, the Brahma dies,
and another Brahma takes birth...
As this cycle continues that long,
we will definitely be born again, will meet again...
But no aspect of this birth - mind, intellect, identities etc
is carried as memories by the Jiva forward.
So we won't be able to recognize the places or people from past lives.
Only the vasanas remain.
In an attempt to identify and take those vasanas forward,
through sincere self-inquiry,
Self-inquiry is a profound word, but
It just means finding what our real goal is, by turning inwards
and try living towards that goal!
We gets happiness in that.
Let everyone gets the courage to transcend the death,
and transcending many such lives,
let all get a path towards the ultimate goal of self evolution.
Let us pray for that!
