Q: How important is belief in karma and reincarnation?Comprehending the two principles of karma and rebirth is not needful just because they are facts of universal life, but because they give us a right perspective on all facets of life itself. Without knowledge of these two fundamental laws, a “working” concept of ourselves and our lives is impossible. Seeing ourselves as fundamentally evolving consciousnesses confined in bodies and an environment whose only real purpose is evolution, we will naturally shape our lives accordingly and deal with our life experiences within that greater context.We will also realize that “salvation” is not a matter of being stamped “approved” or “passed” as though we were nothing more than USDA-inspected carcasses. Most important we will comprehend that there is actually no such thing as approval or disapproval on God’s part. It all lies in our hands. We alone must determine our future by the way we deal with the present. We can learn and graduate, or refuse to learn and be sent back again and again until we do. God is patient. He has eternity–and so do we.I simply do not grasp this.It is quite simple, once you shake off the blindness of Western religion and come to understand the truth about the divine status of the Self, its absolute control over everything that happens to it in each lifetime, and the reality of karma–not only as an absolute law, but as a tool wielded by the evolving soul.The sole purpose of the universe is the evolution of the individual spirit-consciousness. But the cosmos is not some kind of machine into which the spirit is dumped against its will, and subjected to a “sink or swim” situation. Rather, it is governed by very precise laws, all of which are being operated by the Self.Our particular section of the universe is populated by people who, having made wrong choices (sankalpa), have come into conflict with the cosmos and its purpose. Just as it is not the fault of a wall if we bang our head into it, or the fault of a window if we fall or jump out of it, so it is with the world around us. When we touch fire it burns us–that is the law–but we are not being punished. We are experiencing the ultimately beneficial “mercy” of the universe which is using pain to warn us away from mistaken action.Learning to turn things aroundI have said that our life is fully under our control, and that is so. However, we have made a great deal of wrong turnings and fallen into the quicksand of ignorance and confusion. The resulting suffering is great, but the only remedy is for us to quit making foolish decisions and actions and rectify what we have already done to our detriment.As with every other aspect of life, the Bhagavad Gita deals with this matter clearly and very concisely. Here is the relevant section:“Arjuna said: Impelled by what does a man commit evil, even unwillingly, as if urged [commanded] by force?“This force is desire, this force is anger; its source is the rajas guna. Voracious and greatly injurious, know this to be the enemy.“As fire is covered by smoke, and a mirror by dust, as the embryo is enveloped by the membrane, so the intellect is obscured [enveloped] by this [i.e., rajas and its two forms of kama and krodha].“The knowledge even of the wise ones is obscured by this eternal enemy, having the form of desire, which is insatiable fire.“The senses, the mind and the intellect are said to be its abode; with these it confuses [deludes] the embodied one, obscuring [or covering] his knowledge.“Therefore, restraining the senses first, kill this evil thing which destroys knowledge and discrimination [intelligent understanding].“They say that the senses are superior. The mind is superior to the senses; moreover, the intellect is superior to the mind; that which is superior to the intellect is the Self.“Thus having known that which is higher than the intellect, sustaining the self by the Self, kill the enemy which has the form of desire and is difficult to conquer.” (Bhagavad Gita 3:36-43)Most human beings have developed a form of schizophrenia in which the true Self and the body, emotions, mind, and intellect have become estranged by the arising of the negative ego which usurps the natural kingdom of the Self. Just as a person with multiple personality disorder is unaware of the “other” personalities, so it is with us.Although the Self and the “lesser self” have become disconnected to a great degree, the Self is still fundamentally in command, and so it does all it can to awaken its alienated levels so reintegration can be accomplished–in the manner indicated by the Gita. Because of our present status, pain and suffering are usually the only things that get our attention. So yes, the baby is born in terrible conditions and suffers accordingly. Even though it may not understand on the conscious level what is going on, a subliminal conditioning is taking place that will eventually surface in a future incarnation. In the meantime, between lives the individual becomes aware of what is going on during material incarnation, analyzes it, and arranges its next birth(s) accordingly. Consequently only benefit results, however long it takes for that to become obvious to us.Conscious evolutionThere can be no end to this karmic dilemma without an intentional, conscious, and thorough restructuring of consciousness. And this is accomplished only through yoga, as it is the only way to follow Krishna’s instructions to Arjuna. This does not mean that the individual cannot bring about a marked degree of relief by other means, but until the knowledge of Yoga is gained the process cannot be completed and the freedom from pain made permanent. As the great Master Paramhansa Yogananda used to say: “Yoga is the beginning of the end.”The Process of ReincarnationThe following verses from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad alone in all the upanishads describe to some degree the process of reincarnation.Dreaming and waking“Yajnavalkya said: ‘The Self, having in dreams enjoyed the pleasures of sense, gone hither and thither, experienced good and evil, hastens back to the state of waking from which he started.’“‘As a man passes from dream to wakefulness, so does he pass at death from this life to the next. When a man is about to die, the subtle body, mounted by the intelligent Self, groans–as a heavily laden cart groans under its burden.’“‘When his body becomes thin through old age or disease, the dying man separates himself from his limbs, even as a mango or a fig or a banyan fruit separates itself from its stalk, and by the same way that he came he hastens to his new abode, and there assumes another body, in which to begin a new life.’”(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4:3:33-36)Passing from life to life is only a shifting in a dream. When the stored-up life force (a form of karma) for a life is running out, just as the charge in a battery is expended and fails, so do the physical and grosser pranic bodies. And, just as the ripe fruit falls from the tree, so the subtle body separates itself from the material body and begins its process toward another earthly birth in a new body. In between births, the individual spends time in the astral regions, sometimes just wandering and frittering his time away, and sometimes in learning and evolving so his next life will be markedly better–and wiser–than the previous one. This time spent in this intermediate state can be anything from a matter of hours to centuries and even thousands of years. This is precisely determined by karma.(By the way, it is nonsense to say that unevolved people reincarnate quickly and evolved people only come back in thousands of years. Both ends of the spectrum are similar: very unevolved beings reincarnate very fast, and so do those that are highly evolved, for they are getting ready to graduate and are “cramming” for the final test.)Leaving the body“‘When his body grows weak and he becomes apparently unconscious, the dying man gathers his senses about him and completely withdrawing their powers descends into his heart. No more does he see form or color without.“‘He neither sees, nor smells, nor tastes. He does not speak, he does not hear. He does not think, he does not know. For all the organs, detaching themselves from his physical body, unite with his subtle body. Then the point of his heart, where the nerves join, is lighted by the light of the Self, and by that light he departs either through the eye, or through the gate of the skull, or through some other aperture of the body. When he thus departs, life departs; and when life departs, all the functions of the vital principle depart. The Self remains conscious, and, conscious, the dying man goes to his abode. The deeds of this life, and the impressions they leave behind, follow him.’”(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4:4:1,2)■He becomes apparently unconscious.This is important. The person may cease to perceive anything, but that is not being unconscious. We are never unconscious at any time, but we mistakenly call total absence of sensory perception unconsciousness. There is a vital point I want to mention here. The very last sense to fail is the sense of hearing. Sometimes it never fails. A lot of people give up and die because they hear the doctor say there is no hope or that they will soon be dead. So if you are around a dying, “unconscious” person please remember this. You can speak to them and help them either revive or go to higher worlds. That is why both Hindus and Buddhists read scriptures to the dying or recite mantras or sing mantras. In Pure Land Buddhism people sit by the dying and sing the mantra of Amida Buddha, continuing to do so for several hours after the person appears to be dead, knowing that sometimes they may have trouble getting out of the body or may be disoriented when they do.YoganandaYogananda spoke of this to his students, one of whom was the famous opera singer Amelita Galli-Curci. So when her brother was dying she talked to him and called him back to life. When he became “conscious” he told her that he had heard doctor saying he would soon be dead, so he accepted it and began drifting away. Then he heard her voice calling to him from far off, and telling him to return. So he did! At one point he even saw Yogananda, about whom he knew virtually nothing but he recognized Yogananda when his sister showed a picture to him.It is sometimes possible to revive a person by intoning Om in their right ear. Yogananda also recommended this.■Then the point of his heart, where the nerves join, is lighted by the light of the Self, and by that light he departs either through the eye, or through the gate of the skull, or through some other aperture of the body.This is the Light that so many people tell about seeing who have returned from near-death. There are many gates by which a person may leave the body, and they are all determined by the level of consciousness (bhava) in which he has habitually lived during his lifetime. (This is one of the major teachings of the Bhagavad Gita.) To leave through a center in the head is the best, and will determine what highly evolved world he will enter. Those who leave through the center at the top of the head, the Brahmarandhra, will not return to rebirth. Those who leave at lower centers in the body or spine will go to lesser worlds, and some of the lowest centers are literally gates to negative worlds we call “hells.” Some even lead to rebirth in animal forms, though this is rare.■The Self remains conscious, and, conscious, the dying man goes to his abode. The deeds of this life, and the impressions they leave behind, follow him.Some of low evolution simply go to sleep and only wake a little before reincarnating, and some do not even awaken until they are born. But the people to which this upanishad is addressed will certainly depart in full consciousness and will review their life and be aware of the psychic changes their previous actions have produced. And they will be aware of exactly why and how they eventually find themselves in an astral or causal realm that corresponds to those karmas and samskaras. It is all a matter of learning.Astral birth“‘As a leech, having reached the end of a blade of grass, takes hold of another blade and draws itself to it, so the Self, having left this body behind it unconscious, takes hold of another body and draws himself to it.’”(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4:4:3)Birth in the astral world is a conscious act. Only on earth or in the negative astral worlds do we mistakenly think that we are helpless and that we are not in charge. That is why the simile of a leech is used, and why the Sanskrit text literally says that we make another body for ourselves. And that happens in earthly rebirth, too. We choose where to whom we will be born, and we enter the womb of our chosen mother and, taking the material provided by both parents, make our next body-habitation in accordance with our karma and samskara–this is how powerful and intelligent we all are! Yogananda said in his Gita commentary that the individual consciously guides the growth of his body in the womb. (That was the first sentence of Yogananda’s teaching that I read, sitting in a public library in the fall of 1960.)“‘As a goldsmith, taking an old gold ornament, molds it into another, newer and more beautiful, so the Self, having given up the body and left it unconscious, takes on a newer and better form, either that of the fathers, or that of the celestial singers, or that of the gods, or that of other beings, heavenly or earthly.’”(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4:4:4)In the higher worlds, the individual creates a body that is appropriate to the world in which he shall be living until he takes rebirth–also voluntarily. This experience will train him for even more efficiently making his body when he returns to earth.Sometimes in the subtle worlds an individual takes on a body that is higher than his present evolutionary status and practices living on that level. This prepares him for a higher level on earth, as well. This is mentioned as taking place even for animals in the forty-third chapter of Yogananda’s autobiography, “The Resurrection of Sri Yutkeswar.”Misidentification“‘The Self is verily Brahman. Through ignorance it identifies itself with what is alien to it, and appears to consist of intellect, understanding, life, sight, hearing, earth, water, air, ether, fire, desire and the absence of desire, anger and the absence of anger, righteousness and the absence of righteousness. It appears to be all things–now one, now another.“‘As a man acts, so does he become. A man of good deeds becomes good, a man of evil deeds becomes evil. A man becomes pure through pure deeds, impure through impure deeds.“‘As a man’s desire is, so is his destiny. For as his desire is, so is his will; as his will is, so is his deed; and as his deed is, so is his reward, whether good or bad.’”(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4:4:5)Lest in all this we forget that it is really the dream-life of the individual spirit, Yajnavalkya reminds Janaka of this. For in all these changes, the Self is unchanging, in all these births and deaths the Self remains birthless and deathless. The fact that we so easily forget this truth is evidence of how good we are at fooling ourselves! We are always masters of the situation.Desire“‘A man acts according to the desires to which he clings. After death he goes to the next world bearing in his mind the subtle impressions of his deeds; and after reaping there the harvest of his deeds, he returns again to this world of action. Thus he who has desires continues subject to rebirth.“‘But he in whom desire is stilled suffers no rebirth. After death, having attained to the highest, desiring only the Self, he goes to no other world. Realizing Brahman, he becomes Brahman.’”(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4:4:6)It is ignorance that causes our mistaken identification, but the power behind rebirth is desire. Once we cut off desire, rebirth is finished. Desireless, we transcend all worlds and know ourselves as Eternal Brahman.“‘When all the desires which once entered into his heart have been driven out by divine knowledge, the mortal, attaining to Brahman, becomes immortal.““As the slough of a snake lies cast off on an anthill, so lies the body of a man at death; while he, freed from the body, becomes one with the immortal spirit, Brahman, the Light Eternal.’(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4:4:7)All glory to those that have freed themselves by knowing their SelfReincarnation: Choosing Our Costumes in the Drama of LifeQ: When I listen to people on TV that talk to spirits that have passed on, they say that we chose to come back as who we are in this life, so that almost sounds like it was a script we chose to live out. That seems to be that it was all written and what happens is predisposed.We do indeed determine what each life is going to be in a general way. For reincarnation does not stand alone. In fact, it is not an entity unto itself, but is the result of karma, the law that “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). So every time we are about to reincarnate we look at our karmic balance sheet and decide just what karmas-good and bad-shall be reaped in the next life.It is rather like plotting a drama in which we are going to be the star. Having outlined the play, we then work on our costume-the kind of body we are going to have-and the sets-the kind of place we are going to live in, who our families are going to be, and what kind of people will surround us. But all this is just the framework. Within that framework our free will, and that of those involved in our life, determines most of what goes on with us-especially inside us. And since even the framework is of our own construction, that too is completely a matter of free will, actually. Destiny is simply the free will we have already set in motion.The famous French playwright, Moliere, did not write out the dialogue of his plays. Instead he wrote the plot-divided into scenes and acts-on a big blackboard which the actors read and then went out and improvised. After each performance they discussed how it had gone and made changes in the plot outline and refined the dialogue. When they felt it was as good as it could be, it was all written down with stage directions and printed for others to act from. This is very much like our life as we live out performance after performance through reincarnation.Examples of KarmaLet me give some examples of karma. If we are meant to be the renowned leader of a great army, it is a pretty safe bet that we will have to choose to be a man. And our male body will have to be healthy. If we are meant to fight on the side of good, then we will have to be born in a country whose policies are for the right things. And we will have to be born in a country that has a large army. And it have to be that country’s karma to engage in warfare. We will have to find the place to be born that can supply us with all this.Now where does free will come in? Everywhere. Because what I have outlined is just the skeleton of a life. Each person has to fill in the spaces, and they usually are far more than the simple karmic bones.We choose how we goAnother thing about free will and destiny. We may be destined to go to Chicago, but we will choose how we go: bus, train, plane, car, or hitchhike, and if we hitchhike or drive we will decide what route we want to take. The road of karma has many (very many) branches, and we decide when we come to them which one to take. So we move freely within a predetermined framework. If we want to build a fence it can only be within the boundaries of the land we own. If we live on an island we can only travel within its boundaries. So we do have freedom, but it is not unlimited.It also happens very often that our karma is not to do something, but to have the chance to do it. In some lives we may have the possibility to take up several professions, and we are completely free to choose from those. So we do a lot of “I will” and “I won’t” within the framework of our karma. Those choices in their own turn create karma which will manifest in the future. When we look at it, we see ourselves as both caught in the machine of karma and at the same time as the free owner and operator of the karma. Ultimately, it is freedom that is the truth of the whole thing.Yes, it is all predisposed-by us. Yet, as I have said, the predisposition is only a general outline. At every moment we fill in the details, choosing right thenProofs of ReincarnationOne of the most impressive collections of information about the afterlife we have come across on the web is on the website of Victor Zammit. He has written a book entitled A Lawyer Presents the Case for the Afterlife. One of the online chapters is dedicated to the scientific inquiries into reincarnation. In it he gives fascinating data gleaned from the thorough investigations of leading researchers. Below is a short segment from that chapter.“Of the research I have done over the years, the most impressive hypnotherapist I have come across in showing how past life regression is linked with reincarnation is psychologist and former skeptic Peter Ramster from Sydney, Australia.The following information is taken from Peter Ramster’s very important book, In Search of Lives Past (1990) and from a speech he gave to the Australian Hypnotherapists ninth National Convention at the Sydney Sheraton Wentworth Hotel on the 27th March, 1994 and from the films he made on reincarnation.In 1983 he produced a stunning television documentary in which four women from Sydney, who had never been out of Australia, gave details under hypnosis of their past lives. Then, accompanied by television cameras and independent witnesses, they were taken to the other side of the world.One of the subjects involved was Gwen MacDonald, a staunch skeptic before her regression. She remembered a life in Somerset between 1765-82. Many facts about her life in Somerset which would be impossible to get out of a book were confirmed in front of witnesses when she was taken there:■when taken blindfolded to the area in Somerset she knew her way around perfectly although she had never been out of Australia■she was able to correctly point out in three directions the location of villages she had known■she was able to direct the film crew as to the best ways to go far better than the maps■she knew the location of a waterfall and the place where stepping stones had been. The locals confirmed that the stepping stones had been removed about 40 years before■she pointed out an intersection where she claimed that there had been five houses. Enquiries proved that this was correct and that the houses had been torn down 30 years before and that one of the houses had been a ‘cider house’ as she claimed■she knew correctly names of villages as they were 200 years ago even though on modern maps they do not exist or their names have been changed■the people she claimed that she knew were found to have existed?one was listed in the records of the regiment she claimed he belonged to■she knew in detail of local legends which were confirmed by Somerset historians■she used correctly obscure obsolete west country words no longer in use, no longer even in dictionaries, words like ‘tallet’ meaning a loft■she knew that the local people called Glastonbury Abbey ‘St Michaels’—a fact that was only proved by reading an obscure 200 year old history book not available in Australia■she was able to correctly describe the way a group of Druids filed up Glastonbury Hill in a spiral for their spring ritual, a fact unknown to most university historians■she knew that there were two pyramids in the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey which have long since disappeared■she correctly described in Sydney carvings that were found in an obscure old house 20 feet from a stream, in the middle of five houses about one and a half miles from Glastonbury Abbey■she had been able to draw in detail in Sydney the interior of her Glastonbury house which was found to be totally correct■she described an inn that was on the way to the house. It was found to be there■she was able to lead the team direct to the house which is now a chicken shed. No-one knew what was on the floor until it was cleaned. However on the floor they found the stone that she had drawn in Sydney■the locals would come in every night to quiz her on local history?she knew the answers to all the questions they were asking such as the local problem which was a big bog—cattle were being lost there.Cynthia Henderson, another subject of Peter Ramster, remembered a life during the French Revolution. When under trance she:■spoke in French without any trace of an accent■understood and answered questions put to her in French■used dialect of the time■knew the names of streets which had changed and were only discoverable on old maps.Peter Ramster has many other documented cases of past life regression which in very clear terms constitute technical evidence for the existence of the afterlifeRead more of Victor Zammit’s page on researches into reincarnation.
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