Hari om,
We recapped the Law of Consequences as it applies to causes whose effects are visible in our day to day lives. However, we are born with tendencies that seem to be unique to each of us, there are child prodigies or geniuses born all the time and there are documented cases of regression into past lives of patients. How do we explain that? Reincarnation is not a cardinal principle of Hinduism, but it is the most logical explanation. We discussed shloka from Bhagwad Geeta chapter II.
देहिनोऽस्मिन्यथा देहे कौमारं यौवनं जरा |
तथा देहान्तरप्राप्तिर्धीरस्तत्र न मुह्यति || 13||
Just as the embodied soul continuously passes from childhood to youth to old age, similarly, at the time of death, the soul passes into another body. The wise are not deluded by this.
When the body is going through these transitions we still associate the "I"-ness with it. So, what is the "I" as the body changes…It has to be distinct from the body and maybe from this birth. We may be carrying the effects of the causes from this birth into the next one. And the causes of the next birth to the one after that and so on. Birth is not an accident. We are products of our past.
The cycle of birth is like moving from manifest to unmanifest and back to manifest - Just like the bulb that lights up when there is electricity. The electricity is always there but needs a bulb to manifest itself as light. If the bulb breaks, it can no longer light up and when a new bulb is connected, it lights up again.
When does this cycle break? In the past class, we talked about why we go to college. So, how do we graduate from college? Bhagwad Geeta chapter VIII verse 15 says
मामुपेत्य पुनर्जन्म दुःखालयमशाश्वतम् ।
नाप्नुवन्ति महात्मानः संसिद्धिं परमां गताः ॥15॥
Having attained Me, the great souls are no more subject to rebirth in this world, which is transient and full of misery, because they have attained the highest perfection.
Me here refers to the Bhagwan. Graduation from this cycle is possible only after attaining the Bhagwan. Reaching Bhagwan is the goal of life and is called Moksha.
We stopped the class early. All the students in Chinmaya Ashram AM class did Saraswati Puja online in a shared zoom session with Swami ji and the Chinmaya temple priest.
We requested the students to do a short research on two great icons of hindu culture - Adi Shankaracharya and Swami Vivekananda for next week.
regards,
Rukmani & Partha