Of Births and Deaths

   Somebody has said, "Having born, to die is the next best!". It is one's experience in life that prompts him /her to make a statement like this. The Social Contract Theory of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau talks about- "Man is born free, but everywhere is in chains". Both this indicates the nature of the jiva. It feels a sort of bondage, lack of freedom. This feeling of bondage has led to revolutions. However, this question of bondage or freedom is a state of mind, not the reality! If one feels he/she is free, there is no question of bondage. This freedom of persons is sometimes affected by external conditions like that of furious nature, social and political conditions that prompt to enforce strictures, etc. But, what we are talking here is not about the freedom of the body, mind, and Intellect (that craves for expression), but it is of the embodied jiva. The jiva is all-knowing, omniscient. It knows its true nature when it is conscious of its self. It has experienced an absolute freedom as chaitanya, pure consciousness, unbridled freedom to pervade as Vishnu, but has now become conscious of its embodied state. Thus, it feels the need for getting rid of the embodied state. But who has given this state of embodiment? There is a super soul that has led this jivatman to this state! Thus, it is under the grip of maya, Nature, prakruti and has acquired qualities that make it feel under bondage. Its pure joy is now qualified and it feels the need for some external source of happiness. It is happy and joyful this moment and then cries misery next moment.
   There is one thing certain about 'life on earth' and that is 'the jiva that takes birth and has to undergo troubles and turmoils of hunger, thirst, disillusionment, old age, and finally death. Happiness here is a mirage. Whether one believes in rebirth or not, it seems it is certain that the jiva has to undergo lots of cycles of births and deaths until finally it is redeemed! Bhaja Govindam of Shankaracharya clearly states, "punarapi jananam, punarapi maranam, punarapi shayane janani jathram". All the scriptures speak of the jiva's predicaments and the ultimate cry for redemption, mukti, moksha. Some say, it is kaivalya. Some others say, it is total redemption once and for all now and here. But it is diffocult to understand all these points of view. The Veda is very clear about this as seen from a small passage quoted here.

  Shvetaketu, the grandson of Aruna, came to the assembly of the Panchalas. He approached Pravahana, the son of Jivala, who was being waited upon by his courtiers. As soon as the king saw him, he said: Is it you, boy? He replied: Yes, Sir. Then the king asked: Have you been taught by your father? Yes, he replied.

    The king said: Do you know how people, after departing from this life, proceed on different paths? No, he replied. Do you know how they return to this world? No, he replied. Do you know why the other world is never filled up even though so manypeople go there again and again? No, he replied. Do you know after how many offerings of oblations the water (the liquid oblation) becomes endowed with a human voice, rises up and speaks?

    No, he replied.

Do you know the means of access to the path leading to the gods or to that leading to the Manes, that is to say, through what deeds men attain the path leading to the gods or that leading to the Manes? We have heard the following words of the Mantra: 'I have heard of the two paths for men, one leading to the Manes and the other to the gods. Going along them they (departed souls) are united with their destination. They (the paths) lie between the father (heaven) and the mother (earth).' Svetaketu said:I do not know even one of these. Then the king invited him to stay. But the boy, disregarding the invitation, hurried away. He went to his father and said: Did you not tell me before that you had fully instructed me? What then, my intelligent child? That fellow of a kshatriya asked me five questions and I did not know one of them.

What were they? These, said Svetaketu and he recited them.

    They carry him to be offered in the fire. The fire becomes his fire, the fuel his fuel, the smoke his smoke, the flame his flame, the cinders his cinders and the sparks his sparks. In this fire the gods offer the man as libation. Out of this offering the man emerges in radiant splendor. Those even among householders who know this, as described and those too who, living in the forest, meditate with faith upon the Satya Brahman (Hiranyagarbha), reach the deity identified with flame, from him the deity of the day, from him the deity of) the fortnight in which the moon waxes, from him the deities of the six months during which the sun travels northward, from them the deity identified with the world of the gods (devaloka), from him the sun, from the sun the deity of lightning. Then a being created from the mind of Hiranyagarbha comes and leads them to the worlds of Brahmin. In those worlds of Brahma they become exalted and live for many years. They no more return to this world. But those who conquer the worlds through sacrifices, charity and austerity reach the deity of smoke, from smoke, the deity of the night, from night the deity of the fortnight in which the moon wanes, from the decreasing half of the moon the deities of the six months during which the sun travels southward, from these months the deity of the world of the Manes and from the world of the Manes, the moon. Reaching the moon they become food. There the gods enjoy them, just as here the priests drink the shining soma juice-saying as it were: Flourish, dwindle.And when their past work is exhausted they reach this very akasa, from the akasa they reach the air, from the air rain, from rain the earth. Reaching the earth they become food. Then they are again offered in the fire of man and thence in the fire of woman. Out of the fire of woman they are born and perform rites with a view to going to other worlds. Thus do they rotate. Those, however, who do not know these two ways become insects and moths and those creatures which often bite (i.e. mosquitoes and gnats). [Yajur Veda, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad VI, II-The Process of Rebirth, 1-16].  

(to be contd.)