02 Dec '15 07:31>
What will happen with the soul at the time of death of present physical body? In other words: Where are we going when we die? Do we have an influence over our next situation? Can we choose our future life?
In Bhagavad-gita (2.13) we will find answers:
"As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change."
Bhagavad-gita further explains that state of consciousness in critical moment of death is crucial for the choice of new body:
"Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his present body, in his next life he will attain to that state without fail."
At the moment of death the soul together subtle body leaves the gross, physical body. It is the subtle body and our desires and thoughts recorded therein and recalled by us at this moment which are decisive as to the destination of our next body. This transmigration of soul from one body to another is called external reincarnation (samsara or samsriti in Sanskrit).
Srimad Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana) 5.11.5-7 mentions that mind is attracted by sense enjoyment, pious or impious. Thus it is subject to three modes of material nature and causes corresponding births in various types of bodies, higher or lower. Therefore the soul suffers material unhappiness or enjoys material material happiness because of the mind. Thus mind under the influence of illusion creates further pious and impious activities and their karma and the soul becomes conditioned by them. Sages say that the mind is the cause of bodily features bondage and liberation.
Here is refuted one widely spread idea that the soul cannot fall from the human body anymore, i.e. achieve animal or another lower body. Human form differs from lower forms in such a way that the soul in it has a free will and thus also a responsibility for its actions (karma).
The fact that the soul reincarnates together with subtle body is confirmed also by parapsychological research. With the help of various methods many people could recall from their subconsciousness memories of previous lives. This would not be be possible if the carrier of these memories would not incarnate together with the soul. According to the Vedic scriptures the memory is the function of intelligence, a part of subtle body. Although at the time of birth we forget our previous life, it is possible by certain means to restore active memories of our previous incarnations. These means however are not always cent percent reliable. In certain exceptional cases, especially in children, is proved a spontaneous ability of recall without external influence of medium or therapist.
8. Definition of term "reincarnation"
Reincarnation (from Latin "re", again + "incarnare", make flesh) is a continuous transmigration of the soul together with its subtle material body from one gross material body to another according to its individual karma.
Reincarnation is therefore a process and law of karma is directing it. Examples of various kinds of karma and their effects you will find at Vedic cosmology
B. Karma - The Law Behind Reincarnation
1. Law of action and reaction
2. Free will and fate
3. Karma from the action point of view
4. Karma from the reaction point of view
5. Four phases of karma
6. Three kinds of karma
1. Law of action and reaction
Term "karma" is inseparably connected with reincarnation. While trying to understand the reincarnation process one cannot avoid this term.
Sanskrit word "karma" literally means "action, activity, work", and because other languages again lack any synonym exactly explaining its meaning, it is not recommended to translate it.
In Judeo-Christian tradition it has an analogy in God's judgement (Greek krima 'krima' in New Testament 'krino' in New Testament). The idea of 'as you sow, you shall reap' (Job 4:8, Galatians 6:7) is a common sense. See also Genesis 9:5-6, Proverbs 5:21-3, Ezekiel 18:20-21, Matthew 7:1-2, Luke 12:57-59, John 5:14, etc.
In West this term was first used by Russian theosophist Helena P. Blavatsky (1831-1891). Her definition:
"Karma is the basic cosmic law, ...which in physical, mental and soul world connects cause with its effect. Because any cause, be it the greatest like the movement of cosmos, or the smallest like the movement of hand, necessarily has a corresponding effect, and because the same acts in a same way, karma is invisible and unknown law which wisely, righteously and and providentially connects every effects with corresponding cause and its originator."
In his work "Manifestations of Karma" (1910) anthroposofist Rudolf Steiner defines karma in this way:
"...without limiting free will of man, the law of karma acts back on an entity, from which the cause came, like the law of action and reaction."
These definitions intelligibly explain the core of Vedic term karma. Steiner's comparing law of karma to the physical law of action and reaction (actio = reactio, third Newton's law of classical mechanics, 1687) is very pertinent although this law represents only a little aspect of much higher and subtler law of karma. Pertinent is also the maxim that karmic law of cause and effect acts especially on an individual level and leaves a space for the free will of a doer. This is what usually forget different critics of Eastern philosophies who understand karma as a mechanical predestination forcing a man to passively await what the future will bring (nihilism).
Already before Steiner and Newton's discovery people knew sayings showing a certain understanding of regularity of action and reaction. Also a biblical quote "A man reaps what he sows" (Galatians 6:7) became a folk saying.
2. Free will and fate
Sometimes people wonder about the relationship of free will and karma (often understood as predestination which it is not).
- Everything is controlled by Krishna but not our free will. He does not interfere with it, otherwise we would be mere robots. It would rule out responsibility and love and love is the basis of our eternal relationship with Him.
- Karma and free will are not excluding each other, they work at the same time, as parallel tracks.
- Krishna knows what beings conditioned by matter (us) will do. This can be found out even by astrology, etc. but is not limiting their free will in any way.
An illustrative story: Once Siva and Parvati went to one village dressed as ordinary village people. They met a beggar asking for alms. Parvati asked Siva to give him something but Siva said it won't help him since he is not 'fortunate' (having karma to enjoy wealth). Still, on Parvati's insistence Siva gave him a watermelon. The beggar was not very satisfied however because he didn't like watermelon, but he took it anyway thinking he could maybe get something for it. He found someone to give a few paise for it and then he went on his way. When the person that bought the watermelon cut it open he was surprised to find it filled with priceless jewels. The beggar that received the melon didn't know the great value of what he had been given so he practically just gave it away.
(This is also the situation that we find when we distribute Srila Prabhupada's books. People receive these great treasures of knowledge, but because of not knowing what is the priceless value of them they throw them away, give them to someone else or or keep them in their house for years and years but never read them!)
- Krishna is so great that our actions easily fit into His great plan to awaken all living beings to their real nature. When we realize this, inner peace will be ours.
According to Vedic philosophy every living being transmigrating in material world from one body to another, is given a free will to act according to its desires, ideas and thoughts.
When Shri Krishna narrated Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna, in one of the last verses (18.63) He said:
"Thus I have explained to you knowledge still more confidential. Deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to do."
Vedic scriptures say that desire is a father of thought and thought is a father of action. Desire originally comes from the soul, thought from the mind (subtle body) and actions from working sense organs of gross body.
Living being has due to free will a certain, although limited field of activity. Vedic philosophy teaches that free will and predestination or fate are parallel to each other. By our present actions, performed out of our free will, we create our future karmic reactions. At the same time we reap reaction of our previous actions. Fate is not, therefore, any punishment from above striking on innocent ones (and which God does not want to or cannot stop).
Law of karma is very strict because it must assure fulfillment of desires of all living beings in the whole material world in such a way that they do not contradict but complement themselves and that even one injustice does not go unpunished. American Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) describes it in this way (Lectures and Biographical Sketches, 1868):
"If you love people and serve them, you will be rewarded. Hidden rewards continue to reinstate balance of divine justice. This law cannot be changed. All tyrants, owners and monopolists of this world try in vain to disrupt this balance. Equator still keeps its place and people as well as insects, sun and planets must obey it or be destroyed by backlash reaction."
Universe is ruled by strict and generally operative laws - like rules of a great game of life - which coordinate desires and mutual relationships among individual living beings. Thus each of them gets exactly as much as it deserves - neither more, nor less.
According to Bhagavad-gita (2.70) the continuous stream of desires coming from the mind of each living being is like innumerable rivers which all enter one vast ...
In Bhagavad-gita (2.13) we will find answers:
"As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change."
Bhagavad-gita further explains that state of consciousness in critical moment of death is crucial for the choice of new body:
"Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his present body, in his next life he will attain to that state without fail."
At the moment of death the soul together subtle body leaves the gross, physical body. It is the subtle body and our desires and thoughts recorded therein and recalled by us at this moment which are decisive as to the destination of our next body. This transmigration of soul from one body to another is called external reincarnation (samsara or samsriti in Sanskrit).
Srimad Bhagavatam (Bhagavata Purana) 5.11.5-7 mentions that mind is attracted by sense enjoyment, pious or impious. Thus it is subject to three modes of material nature and causes corresponding births in various types of bodies, higher or lower. Therefore the soul suffers material unhappiness or enjoys material material happiness because of the mind. Thus mind under the influence of illusion creates further pious and impious activities and their karma and the soul becomes conditioned by them. Sages say that the mind is the cause of bodily features bondage and liberation.
Here is refuted one widely spread idea that the soul cannot fall from the human body anymore, i.e. achieve animal or another lower body. Human form differs from lower forms in such a way that the soul in it has a free will and thus also a responsibility for its actions (karma).
The fact that the soul reincarnates together with subtle body is confirmed also by parapsychological research. With the help of various methods many people could recall from their subconsciousness memories of previous lives. This would not be be possible if the carrier of these memories would not incarnate together with the soul. According to the Vedic scriptures the memory is the function of intelligence, a part of subtle body. Although at the time of birth we forget our previous life, it is possible by certain means to restore active memories of our previous incarnations. These means however are not always cent percent reliable. In certain exceptional cases, especially in children, is proved a spontaneous ability of recall without external influence of medium or therapist.
8. Definition of term "reincarnation"
Reincarnation (from Latin "re", again + "incarnare", make flesh) is a continuous transmigration of the soul together with its subtle material body from one gross material body to another according to its individual karma.
Reincarnation is therefore a process and law of karma is directing it. Examples of various kinds of karma and their effects you will find at Vedic cosmology
B. Karma - The Law Behind Reincarnation
1. Law of action and reaction
2. Free will and fate
3. Karma from the action point of view
4. Karma from the reaction point of view
5. Four phases of karma
6. Three kinds of karma
1. Law of action and reaction
Term "karma" is inseparably connected with reincarnation. While trying to understand the reincarnation process one cannot avoid this term.
Sanskrit word "karma" literally means "action, activity, work", and because other languages again lack any synonym exactly explaining its meaning, it is not recommended to translate it.
In Judeo-Christian tradition it has an analogy in God's judgement (Greek krima 'krima' in New Testament 'krino' in New Testament). The idea of 'as you sow, you shall reap' (Job 4:8, Galatians 6:7) is a common sense. See also Genesis 9:5-6, Proverbs 5:21-3, Ezekiel 18:20-21, Matthew 7:1-2, Luke 12:57-59, John 5:14, etc.
In West this term was first used by Russian theosophist Helena P. Blavatsky (1831-1891). Her definition:
"Karma is the basic cosmic law, ...which in physical, mental and soul world connects cause with its effect. Because any cause, be it the greatest like the movement of cosmos, or the smallest like the movement of hand, necessarily has a corresponding effect, and because the same acts in a same way, karma is invisible and unknown law which wisely, righteously and and providentially connects every effects with corresponding cause and its originator."
In his work "Manifestations of Karma" (1910) anthroposofist Rudolf Steiner defines karma in this way:
"...without limiting free will of man, the law of karma acts back on an entity, from which the cause came, like the law of action and reaction."
These definitions intelligibly explain the core of Vedic term karma. Steiner's comparing law of karma to the physical law of action and reaction (actio = reactio, third Newton's law of classical mechanics, 1687) is very pertinent although this law represents only a little aspect of much higher and subtler law of karma. Pertinent is also the maxim that karmic law of cause and effect acts especially on an individual level and leaves a space for the free will of a doer. This is what usually forget different critics of Eastern philosophies who understand karma as a mechanical predestination forcing a man to passively await what the future will bring (nihilism).
Already before Steiner and Newton's discovery people knew sayings showing a certain understanding of regularity of action and reaction. Also a biblical quote "A man reaps what he sows" (Galatians 6:7) became a folk saying.
2. Free will and fate
Sometimes people wonder about the relationship of free will and karma (often understood as predestination which it is not).
- Everything is controlled by Krishna but not our free will. He does not interfere with it, otherwise we would be mere robots. It would rule out responsibility and love and love is the basis of our eternal relationship with Him.
- Karma and free will are not excluding each other, they work at the same time, as parallel tracks.
- Krishna knows what beings conditioned by matter (us) will do. This can be found out even by astrology, etc. but is not limiting their free will in any way.
An illustrative story: Once Siva and Parvati went to one village dressed as ordinary village people. They met a beggar asking for alms. Parvati asked Siva to give him something but Siva said it won't help him since he is not 'fortunate' (having karma to enjoy wealth). Still, on Parvati's insistence Siva gave him a watermelon. The beggar was not very satisfied however because he didn't like watermelon, but he took it anyway thinking he could maybe get something for it. He found someone to give a few paise for it and then he went on his way. When the person that bought the watermelon cut it open he was surprised to find it filled with priceless jewels. The beggar that received the melon didn't know the great value of what he had been given so he practically just gave it away.
(This is also the situation that we find when we distribute Srila Prabhupada's books. People receive these great treasures of knowledge, but because of not knowing what is the priceless value of them they throw them away, give them to someone else or or keep them in their house for years and years but never read them!)
- Krishna is so great that our actions easily fit into His great plan to awaken all living beings to their real nature. When we realize this, inner peace will be ours.
According to Vedic philosophy every living being transmigrating in material world from one body to another, is given a free will to act according to its desires, ideas and thoughts.
When Shri Krishna narrated Bhagavad-gita to Arjuna, in one of the last verses (18.63) He said:
"Thus I have explained to you knowledge still more confidential. Deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to do."
Vedic scriptures say that desire is a father of thought and thought is a father of action. Desire originally comes from the soul, thought from the mind (subtle body) and actions from working sense organs of gross body.
Living being has due to free will a certain, although limited field of activity. Vedic philosophy teaches that free will and predestination or fate are parallel to each other. By our present actions, performed out of our free will, we create our future karmic reactions. At the same time we reap reaction of our previous actions. Fate is not, therefore, any punishment from above striking on innocent ones (and which God does not want to or cannot stop).
Law of karma is very strict because it must assure fulfillment of desires of all living beings in the whole material world in such a way that they do not contradict but complement themselves and that even one injustice does not go unpunished. American Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) describes it in this way (Lectures and Biographical Sketches, 1868):
"If you love people and serve them, you will be rewarded. Hidden rewards continue to reinstate balance of divine justice. This law cannot be changed. All tyrants, owners and monopolists of this world try in vain to disrupt this balance. Equator still keeps its place and people as well as insects, sun and planets must obey it or be destroyed by backlash reaction."
Universe is ruled by strict and generally operative laws - like rules of a great game of life - which coordinate desires and mutual relationships among individual living beings. Thus each of them gets exactly as much as it deserves - neither more, nor less.
According to Bhagavad-gita (2.70) the continuous stream of desires coming from the mind of each living being is like innumerable rivers which all enter one vast ...