Only Incidents, No Accidents
In three kshanas, we enter a new body when we are reborn. There is a hangover for thirteen days. For thirteen days, children will not have individual consciousness; they will not have total awareness. For thirteen days, the transfer of mental setup happens. The shraddha ceremony for the dead (last rites in Eastern custom) helps the jiva (soul) to leave the body easily and enter another body. During shraddha, the Katopanishad is read. It is said that all the truths are chanted in the form of mantras. It helps the jiva be relaxed and go into atma jnana, self-awareness or enlightenment. These mantras give the right knowledge to the jiva. This is to enable the jiva to realize these truths in the next birth.
When we come back, we come with certain ideas of what we want to achieve, how to live and how much strength we want to have for the body. Once the body has run enough, unconsciousness settles in. Our body starts feeling tired progressively and one fine day we leave it.
Accidents are also in a way unconsciously invited by us. Logically, we can't understand how we can invite accidents. When we choose more comfort, better life, we invite risks also. When we have deep fear in our minds, it can invite accidents. Just like the antenna attracts the satellite waves, our mental setup attracts incidents in our lives towards us.
Some one asked me why anybody would want to be born in a beggar family out of choice.
It is the conscious choice of that being. Wealth brings comfort and responsibility too. The being would have had enough of responsibility and therefore chosen the apparent suffering of a beggar family.
I was once called to heal an autistic child in America. As I touched him, his being talked to me in Tamil though nobody in the family knew Tamil. He said to me rudely, 'Take away your hand! I do not want your healing!' I asked the being, 'Who are you?' He said, 'Don't bother me; it is none of your business! I do not want any responsibility in this life and I am very happy as an autistic person.' I asked him, 'Why did you choose these nice people as your parents? Why are you torturing them? They are not happy because of you, though you may be happy.' He said, 'They are good people and that is why I came to them. Since they are good people, I knew they would take care of me.'
If we are blissful, people with similar attitudes will be attracted towards us. If we are dull, lethargic and depressed, the same type of people will be attracted towards us. We will fall in line with the people who have the same mental setup. We attract incidents based on our mental setup.
If a person has taken birth with the intention of living a hundred years, but commits suicide before that, for the remaining years of his destined life, he will be without a body. This is what we call ghosts. In the case of accidents, if the person has had a glimpse of meditation,, or lived consciously till until the accident, the person will be given the next body immediately. If before the accident, he has lived unconsciously and has not had a glimpse of meditation, he has to wait for his body just like people who have committed suicide. The suffering in those remaining years is great. They will feel the whole world but they cannot enjoy it. It is like placing a variety of sweets before a man who cannot use his hands to reach the sweets!
Suicide is the worst crime. These people who are without a body try to take over the bodies of people with low awareness and try to possess them. This is what happens when a person is possessed by a ghost. A meditator can never be possessed or troubled by a ghost because his awareness and consciousness is high.
So never postpone meditation, since accidents cannot be predicted!
In this life, meditation will help the whole family because the house will be filled with positive energy and vibrations. Our well-being and joyous mood will be felt by other family members and they will also benefit. At the time of death, meditation will help only you and not the others in your family.
Krishna says, 'Whatever we choose at the moment of death, that will become our reality in the next birth; we will be that.' Some people think that they can manage, if they remind themselves to think of the Almighty, the divine Existence in the last moment of their lives. That will never happen unless we make that a habit all our lives. If we repeat the words 'Coca-Cola' our entire lives, we cannot and will not think of Rama or Krishna in our last moment!
Many argue with me about what Krishna says about karma in the Bhagavad Gita. They say that an entire chapter of the Gita is devoted only to the explanation of the karma theory: what we do in this life not only affects us in this life, but also in future lives; similarly, what we have done in past lives will influence what happens to us in this life. All this is correct factually.
Krishna plays multiple roles in our lives. He is our teacher in our primary and middle school and professor in our college and university education. He teaches us step-by-step. He is a teacher at every level. So when He talks about the theory of karma, it is only for learning at the initial level. He prepares us for greater understanding. He talks about our last desire becoming our desired reality in our next birth. It takes great awareness to understand the words of an enlightened master such as Krishna.
During the wonderful exposition of the Bhagavad Gita by Krishna, after hearing about the different types of yoga, Arjuna confesses to Krishna, 'Oh, Krishna! You have confused me totally. I was better off before I spoke to you. Now, I am utterly confused. What should I do?' Krishna replies, 'That is exactly what I wanted to happen. Drop all your so called dharma, moral and righteous living, societal conditioning, your value systems, beliefs and understandings. Surrender to me.' Here, surrender refers not to the form of Krishna, but to His energy: the cosmic intelligence, Parashakti. He says, 'Surrender to me and I will liberate you from everything.'
Krishna is teaching Arjuna step by step. You may ask me, how can we object to Krishna by saying that the karma theory is wrong? You see: I am not the one who is objecting. Krishna Himself is objecting to the karma theory and rewriting it as he continues to teach Arjuna in the Gita. He waits for Arjuna's awareness to grow so that he can progress from the gross facts of living to its subtler truths.
When a person is learning to cycle, we tell him to keep his hand on the handle, sit straight and keep his feet on the pedals. The moment he learns it though, he starts doing stunts on the bicycle.
I am teaching you the Ultimate lesson: the Mystery of Mysteries.
Free will is not free will as we think. Destiny is not destiny as we think. We are here because of our past decisions. Take the example of a person who has come to my meditation camp. First, he saw the flyer announcing the details of my meditation program; then he noted down the place and decided to call the organizer. He decided to take the driving directions; then he decided to drive and arrive sat in the hall and decided to listen. The questioning in the mediation program about various things happens because of the totality of his decisions.
Fate or destiny is the path we create. But after creating it, we forget that we created it when we face the consequences.
As the Upanishads put it beautifully:
We are what our deep driving desire is, As is our desire, so is our will, As is our will, so is our act, As is our act, so is our Destiny.
It is we who choose something without knowing its after-effects. This is like going to a restaurant, eating whatever we want and then when we finally get the bill, we are shocked and refuse to pay the bill, saying we have only ordered the food but not the bill!
The present is a result of all our past decisions and our future will be a consequence of all our present decisions. The problem is, many of our decisions are made unconsciously. So when situations arise, we don't take responsibility for it. We have forgotten our past decisions.
We lack understanding here. All our present is only the result of our past decisions and all our future is only the effect of our present decisions. Be aware of your present; that is enough. There is no need to worry about the past or the future. By doing this, we will be able to design our future in a beautiful way. Then, there is no need to be concerned about destiny and free will.
Buddha teaches, 'Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.'
A beautiful question: the world population is increasing so much. Where are they all coming from? The answer is: of course, from the countless animals being killed everyday everywhere. These animals are coming as the increased population! No wonder so many people on this Earth today are behaving like animals!