At the time of death, the
individuality does not get dissolved, though the physical constituents
may be separated and dissolved. What is it that takes rebirth? It cannot
be the body, because it is discarded and it is dissolved into the
physical elements of which it is composed. It cannot also be the
essential Self, the Atman, because the Atman is a Universal Presence
which cannot be said to be subject to transformation of any kind, such
as transmigration. What else transmigrates?
The peculiar thing called the
individual is neither the body nor the Atman. It is a strange admixture
of localised self-affirmation in terms of space and time, and this
principle of self-affirmation is impossible to define except as a
peculiar pressure-point or force which is generated by the influence of
space-time upon consciousness which by itself is indivisible. This point
of pressure spatio-temporally occasioned is in fact the centre of what
is known as the psyche, often called the mind, sometimes known as the
Chitta or the Antahkarana in the Sanskrit language.
This pressure of consciousness causing
the individual self-sense may be broadly understood as having three
levels of empirical expression, viz., the conscious, the subconscious
and the unconscious. Only the conscious level operates when a person is
awake, the sub-conscious operates in dream, and the unconscious in deep
sleep. The conscious impulses and activities of the individual are
limited expressions of the desires which seek to fulfil themselves by
way of contact with sense-objects. When the pressure of desires is too
much and they cannot be easily fulfilled under conditions prevailing in
the waking state, they operate as reveries in dream as a sort of
satisfaction of strong impulses incapable of operation during waking
state. But the desires of an individual are so immense and complicated
that their satisfaction cannot be really achieved in a single life. Such
unfulfilled longings get wound up in unconscious states, a specimen of
which is deep sleep. It is the power of unfulfilled desires that acts
like a projectile and drives like a rocket this complex known as the
individual pressure-point in the direction of manufacturing a new
apparatus for their fulfilment, under expected conditions, this new
apparatus being called the newly formed body. Here is the interesting
background of what is known as rebirth.
As a realised soul has no desires, it
has no rebirth. Hence the passing of an ordinary person and the
disappearance of a person like Lord Krishna have nothing in common. The
energies which are elemental that go to contribute to the formation of a
new body in the case of an individual with unfulfilled desires do not
operate in the case of a realised soul, because rebirth is caused by the
magnetic pull exerted by the desiring centre of consciousness upon the
physical elements and the forces of nature outside. Such a desire being
absent in realised souls, they have no rebirth. They merge into
Universal Being. The legacy which acts as the link between the here and
the hereafter is desire, which causes reincarnation. The legacy
so-called is a mysterious admixture of consciousness and desire, which
is the causative factor behind rebirth. It is neither the physical body
formed of the five elements, nor the Atman which is all-pervading. It is
not true that in death the apparatus through which thinking and feeling
act is destroyed; it continues in spite of the body being destroyed.
The screen of the television which projects the picture of individuality
is the point of consciousness-desire, explained above, and it is not
destroyed when the body is destroyed. In a way, our waking life is also a
reflection of some anterior existence, which we do not remember now,
since we are now in this world in a different space-time continuum,
totally different from the space-time complex of the previous life. It
has to be reiterated that death does not destroy the link between this
life and the other life, because death is only of the physical body, and
everyone knows well that a person is not exhausted by the physical
frame only. There is something more in man than what appears to the eyes
or to any sense-organ.
The modern theory of evolution from
matter to plant, plant to life, life to mind and from mind to intellect
is nothing but a corroboration of there being a continuous link from one
state of life to another. Else, there would be no evolution and there
would be no meaning in any form of ‘related’ life at all. All this
requires deep study, and a mere cursory reading of one or two textbooks
may not be adequate. The principle involves vast areas beyond the ken of
the studies provided in our modern colleges and universities.
The principle of karma, or the
principle of reaction which conditions the notions of good and bad etc.,
is not supposed to apply to the sub-human species since they do not
have the self-consciousness of personal agency in action and are just
guided by the natural forces of evolution. Nemesis cannot be attributed
to an individual as long as it is free from personal agency in action.
The sub-human species evolve in the same way as there is rise of life
from matter to the vegetable kingdom, etc., as mentioned. This is not
caused by karma, but by the very pressure of universal evolution.
If there is no transcendent meaning of
the human being beyond the present life, no one would lift a finger or
do anything in this life unless he is an idiot of the first water,
knowing well that the next moment death may overtake anyone and no one
can be sure that one can be alive after a few minutes more. Who, on
earth, will try to do anything in this world if the next moment is
uncertain, unless it is to be accounted for by an unconscious pull of
the transcendent ‘Beyond’ which speaks in a language of ‘Eternity’ that
there is life further to this medley of uncertainties, anxieties and
insecurities here on earth? The point that man is to be restrained from
undesirable behaviour and action can have meaning only if there is
something more than the meaning seen in earthly life. Else, what is the
point of being good or exhibiting good behaviour? Why should there be
morality, why should there be anything at all, since everything is going
to be devoured by death the next moment?
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