Be Afraid Of Birth-the Cause Of Death

That too is an human assumption - nobody knows. We see so many stories of animals who are so kind and considerate to other beings. We can strive to avoid another birth (if there is) by trying to avoid too much of bad karma (if that is in our control). All this with the caveat that there are no guarantees in life or in death.

 

Dear Hariji,

You are right. Birth is the cause of sufferings and we are here to learn how not to be born again. My business partner used to mention about a quote, "I am not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it shows up". I read an interesting Vedantic interpretation of what happens at the time of death. We leave only the Sthula Sareera and the impressions of our actions created in our mind comes with us at the subconscious level. When a new body is selected for the soul to reside, these impressions get superimposed in the new brain. Whatever is assigned to face in the current life (Prarbtha Karma) will show up as thoughts and all happenings around us will be related to that Karma. As you rightly said, Nishkama Karma will eliminate creating further impressions and voluntary selfless, loving and skillful good actions keep wiping the impressions as well.

The real challenge is cracking the code (impressions) embedded in the brain (as subconscious mind) to even look at the Sanchita Karma and make efforts to eliminate them in the present life itself. It is like accelerating the transformation from form to formless. The Western philosophy calls it as finding the purpose of life and the Eastern philosophy calls it as Yoga (Gnana, Karma and Bhakthi). This might be happening rarely but wiping our Karma can be done regularly by our own review of thoughts, words and actions.

The Monkey and its infant and Cat and Kitten are referred to as examples of how liberation can be achieved. We can either hold on the waist of the mother Supreme when the mother jumps around the branches or leave it to the mother to carry us safe in her mouth through small holes.

Viswa

 

Dear Hariji,
It is all confusing and very very deep philosophy to people like me. Why worry about birth, death which are bound to happen anyway? Live life, at least try to live in a meaningful way with good values, helping others as much as possible, doing our duties and pursue our interests or passions without hurting anyone...... That is all about life. But sometimes many questions crop up in mind about birth and death. Many questions but no answers!
Syamala

 

Shri Harilakhera by his writing has evoked varieties of responses.Such discussions definitely help to develop our perceptions .

Shri Viswa has made a reference to two important logics or Nyaya sastras.
Two of those Nyayas – Markata Nyaya and Marjara Nyaya — are very popular among the devotees. Devotees are broadly classified into Monkey (Markata) group and Cat (Marjara) group.


A monkey (markata in Sanskrit) jumps from tree to tree. But it never helps its baby to come with it during its journey. Only the little one has to take care of itself by holding on to its mummy. We can see little monkeys clutching the belly of mother monkey. But its grip is proverbial. It never loses its grip. Mummy also knows it will never fall down. Some devotees are like this monkey. They hold on to God with their efforts. This is called Markata Nyaya.

If you watch cats (marjara) it is quite different from monkeys. Here only the mummy cares about the kittens. Kittens never bother about mum when it moves from one place to another. The cat carries its baby kitten in its mouth without hurting it. We leave everything to God. When they make absolute surrender, God takes care of the devotees like the mother cats. This called Marjara Nyaya.

There is a ladder and boat Nyaya similar to this in the hymns of Appar Thevaram in Tamil.

What does a ladder do? It helps anyone to climb up. But the climber has to hold on to it. The ladder physically does nothing. We can compare this to Markata Nyaya. Like the little ones clutching mummy’s tummy, devotees hold on to it.

What does a boat do? As soon as you board it the boat man sails it. After boarding it, you need not do anything. You leave all the responsibility to the boat man. So if we leave all the worries to God and surrenders to him, he will take care of us and take us to the destination i.e. Moksha. We can compare this to Marjara Nyaya.

A guru is often compared to both the ladder and the boat.

I was just reminded of these things while going through the snippet again.Though the original doubts still remain unanswered,discussions prove to be enlightening.

jayasala 42