Don't Die With Your Mistakes
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There
is scarcely a human being alive who has not made a least one serious
mistake in his or her life. In
fact, it is probably fair to say that few people have committed only
one serious mistake. Human beings are fallible by nature—there is
no person who can claim to be perfect.
Yet, our intrinsic nature is
perfection. That is, the very
core of our being (ATMAN) is ever-pure and perfect.
That soul-consciousness is the basis of our conscience: it
is that soul-consciousness (ATMAN) that makes us know when we have
done something wrong, and makes us feel sorry for what we have done. Here we are not talking about the ordinary feelings
of dejection or rejection one might feel as a result of emotional
attachment to one’s images and unfulfilled expectations.
These feelings are born out of false ego, out of the false
identification of the mind with the body and body-associations. On the other hand, the feeling of genuine regret
for violating the law of one’s own being is born in the mind as a
result of the natural identification of the soul with the mind. That
is, AHANKAR (ego), a natural evolute of the union of PURUSH (spirit)
with PRAKRITI (matter), feels sorrow or remorse for the wrong deeds
carried out through the mind and body.
Some
persons will find it very difficult to reconcile the simultaneous
existence (presence) of the ever-pure, immortal soul with the sometimes
impure, immoral, and sinful mind. There are billions of people on
this planet Earth, and within each and every one of them is an immortal,
ever-pure, soul (ATMAN). Without
the presence of that soul, they would have no existence. How is it
then that with so many beautiful souls on this planet, we still have
so many murders, so much torture, treachery, deceitfulness, lies,
unhappiness, misery, and sorrow? If
these crimes are not being committed by the soul, then by whom or
what are they being created? How can we blame the mind & ego when
we know that these are simply instruments of the soul? Furthermore,
even if we could place the blame on the mind and ego, isn’t the soul
ever-present, ever-aware? And
what to say of our own soul. . . . surely the Supreme Soul (GOD) is
present everywhere, all the time.
At the very least, this would make both the soul and God accessories
to the crime before the fact and
after the fact, and during the commission of the act—which
of course makes them participants too. Some
people try to solve this dilemma by saying that God created the souls
and therefore the souls cannot be blamed for what they do. They go
on to say that all of this killing, raping, and torturing, etc., is
just a play or dream created by God (what kind of God
is that who has nightmares like this!?).
They say it’s not really happening, it just seems to be happening, that it is all God’s MAYA or illusion. (Are
we to believe that God practices black magic? At least if He were a magician, surely He would create
good illusions and not ugly, perverted ones.) The
fact is God has never
created any soul, because every soul is eternal:
uncreated, beginingless, birthless, deathless, immortal. The
primordial matter (PRAKRITI) from which the universe (and everything
in it) evolves is also eternal. According to the Sankhya philosophy, PRAKRITI
remains in an unmanifested state until it is joined with PURUSH (spirit).
It is this union of matter and anti-matter that brings the universe
that we know (or rather, that we
are learning about) into existence.
Generally,
people think of PURUSH or spirit as the same thing as ATMAN or soul,
but this is not necessarily
correct. Spirit refers to PRANA (the life force, or
primordial energy of the soul). MAHAPURUSH
is the spirit of the Absolute (PARABRAHMA). [1]
On the macrocosmic level, the Supreme Creator
(PARABRAMHA) sets in motion the evolution of the cosmos at the dawn
of the Cosmic Day by infusing Prakriti with His Life Force (cosmic
PRANA). On the microcosmic level, Purush is again and
again united with Prakriti as the multitude of souls, impelled by
their own nature take birth (are manifested) in various forms according
to the natures they formed (created) in previous creations. As the
Cosmic Night sets in, the Creator withdraws His Energy from PRAKRITI,
and the universe begins to shrink until it eventually completely disappears.
This is called the MAHAPRALAYA, or grand dissolution of the
cosmos. After some time, PURUSH is again united with PRAKRITI, and
so begins another Cosmic Day (Big Bang and the expansion of the Universe).
The
life of Man is similar to that of the Universe.
As man is the microcosm and the universe the macrocosm, the
two function almost identically. Man comes into being (at the beginning
of the Creation) when Purush (individual soul embodied in PRANA) is
joined with Prakriti, and so begins the ‘descent of man’ into AHANKAR
(ego), BHUDHI (intellect), MANAS (mind), senses, the body, and his
involvement with the objects of this world.
During the Cosmic Day, the life force (PRANA) of the soul remains
joined with PRAKRITI, and this state of being is generally referred
to as JIVA, or JIVATMA (or living soul). On the worldly level, JIVATMA refers to the
embodied soul, or the soul with human form (or any other living form). But JIVATMA really means PURUSH joined with
PRAKRITI, that is, the ‘soul’ [2]
embodied in ego, intellect, mind, and senses.
When the ‘soul’ takes birth in human form it simply means the
sense organs (Gyanindryas: eyes, ears, nose, etc.) and organs of action
(Karmindryas: feet, arms, legs, etc.) are formed as the ‘soul’ devolves
further into gross matter (according to what it ‘has in mind’).
As the ‘embodied soul’, i.e., the living man or woman, passes
through life it undergoes changes similar to those occurring on the
cosmic level. That is, just as the universe expands and contracts,
similarly, as we age our prana begins to naturally withdraw from the
body, and we actually begin to shrink.
Eventually, the prana withdraws completely from the body and
this is the state we call DEATH. Upon
the death of the body, that is, when the prana leaves the body, the
senses and mind follow. Whatever
we have in mind at the time of death, that state of mind accompanies
us into the next life. (The mind is the substratum of the senses.
The sense experiences acquired through the senses via the sense
organs are impressed upon the mind.
The nature of these sense experiences [cat-like, dog-like,
man-like, etc.] retained in the mind become the ‘blueprint’ by which
the mind forms new sense organs in a future life.) In other words, there is no escape from our
mind. Therefore, we have no
alternative but to face our own mind and challenge it.
We can and must develop the skill to change our own mind, to make up our
own mind, otherwise we will remain caught up in the endless cycle
of birth and death. Everything
that lives must die one day—it is inevitable.
Death is the price we pay for living, but Liberation (from
the cycle of Birth & Death) is attained if we live life courageously—confronting
our own mind and ego. So, the
question is not why do we die, the question is: why are
we living? Are we living
just to die? NO, certainly
NOT. We live to attain the highest state of freedom
(MOKSHA). Until we have completely
freed ourselves from our own mind and ego we will have to keep dying
again and again. Who
is in bondage? The living self, the jiva is in bondage, and when this
jiva becomes free it becomes
JIVAMUKTA (a liberated embodied ‘soul’).
Again, we need to clarify what is meant by embodied ‘soul’. Italics have been used to distinguish Soul (ATMAN)
from the ‘soul’ embodied in PRANA (thus the word soul, as it commonly
used, refers to PURUSH). As
living souls, we interact with PRAKRITI (matter).
This interaction is called KARMA, and the results of this karma
are recorded in the mind-stuff (CHITTA).
Liberation and bondage are both states of mind.
If the mind is ignorant, the life is a living hell. If the
mind is enlightened, there is liberation from all suffering. When
we suffer, we suffer in our mind only.
The only way to put a stop to all suffering is to make up our own mind. In
other words, the soul must intercept the ego and break the connection
of the mind with the image of itself (ego).
The self-involved mind is the result of the false identification
(ego) of the mind with the body. To
remove the false identity we need to identify with that which is greater
than our small self. This is
accomplished with wisdom. Wisdom
teaches us about our real (eternal) nature, and enables us to discern
between our real nature and our temporal nature.
Our
Essence is ever-free, untouched by anything on the gross material
plane of existence. Our Real Self (ATMAN) is eternally pure. If our mind is contaminated with bad memories,
impressions, attitudes, and tendencies, it is not (strictly speaking)
the doing of ATMAN, but of JIVATMAN. [3]
All of us embodied beings are intrinsically pure
souls, but we appear (are manifested) to be embodied, possessing a
mind and body. We are all acting on the stage of life, the
stage of Creation. The Supreme
Creator has set the stage (made the Creation), and we are now acting
out the drama of life. This
present Creation is only one episode in the beginingless and endless
play of Eternity. We have always been acting (performing actions),
hence, there is no beginning to our karma. When the curtain goes down at the close of the
Creation (at the end of one Cosmic Day), there is an intermission
during which all of us are absorbed in our Essence to pass the Cosmic
Night. [4]
What
we do in a dream affects us very much in
the dream. Within the dream
it is very, very real. If we are tortured in the dream, we are tortured
(in the dream), if we fall
from a cliff in the dream we will feel all the fear and pain of falling
to our death (in the dream). Of course, when we awaken from the dream we
find that we are okay and we feel happy, we feel ourselves again. But we also know that we will have to sleep
again and dream again, and we certainly do not want to have anymore nightmares, we would rather have only
very good dreams. In the same
way, our life is like a
dream. When we are enlightened, we awaken from this
dream-like state and realize that we have always been the Pure Self
and that we are forever untouched by the gross material world. But while living in this dream-world, we certainly
do not want to make our life a nightmare. Each and every embodied soul is 100% responsible for what they do. Each of us is a creator of actions, that is why we can affirmatively say “AHAM BRAMH ASMI – I am the creator.” But none can proclaim to be PARABRAMHA—the Supreme Creator, for He is One Without a Second. As embodied souls we can experience pain, suffering, delight, and liberation—we are simply the sum total of the choices we make. But our Essence remains unchangeable, eternally the same, untouched by PRAKRITI, matter. Too
often people confuse the qualities of GOD (and Soul) with Matter,
and this mistake leads to more misconceptions, doubt, and confusion. For example, when we say that GOD is Omnipresent,
we seem to think of His omnipresence in physical terms. But GOD (and Soul) is not in the least bit physical.
He is not a physical (material) being.
In that case, there is no question of His being physically
present within us. He cannot be physically present, because He does not have a physical (material)
nature. Then how can we blame
Him by saying that because He is present everywhere
He must be present when someone is killing another person,
or hurting someone, or doing some hideous crime?
If He is not physically
present, how can He be blamed for not physically intervening?
Furthermore, neither is He (or the Soul) a mental being. When we say that He is Omniscient (all-knowing),
we are not referring to
a ‘knowing of the mind.’ When we think of knowing something we mean we know about it in our mind. But GOD has no mind, just as He has no body.
When we say that GOD is all-knowing it means that He is All-Wise;
it certainly does not mean that He knows all about your mundane
thoughts, your doctor’s appointments, the amount you owe on your credit
cards, etc. GOD is not watching you while you are sharing intimate moments with your
spouse in bed, He has no knowledge about that and no concern about
it either. Likewise, when someone
is stealing from another, or hurting someone, GOD is not there (mentally or physically) watching and yet doing nothing.
All
of us are spiritual beings (in essence).
GOD is the Highest Spiritual Being. Like GOD, we are eternally
existent and eternally conscious beings.
But only GOD is SAT CHIT
ANAND. We experience ANAND (bliss, indescribable ecstasy)
only when we are enlightened (during the Cosmic Day) and during the
dreamless slumber of the Cosmic Night (which we need not even consider,
because it can only be postulated, occurring as it does during the
state of non-creation, or non-existence). So,
we have to live this life—we
cannot escape from it. Whatever
mistakes we have made in the past, we cannot change them (but we can change our mind, by changing our habits and lifestyle). The
record of our mistakes remains in the mind until the death. Then, by God’s grace, when we take rebirth,
we get to start with a clean slate, so to speak. If we make up our mind now to go all the way
to GOD (to live in the Absolute Reality) we can destroy all the negatives
in our mind now. The bad samskaras
(bad impressions) are like the negatives from a roll of film. In this life, we have to carry the memories
(which can be compared to the photographs developed from the negatives). But if we wipe out the negatives in this life,
we will not bring those negative impressions into the next life. In other words, we have to live with our mistakes but we don’t have to die with
them. This is how we really become free from our mistakes—by learning
from them and moving forward with positivity and firm resolve. This
is the way of the wise. [1] More correctly, Purush refers to the Self (and the Supreme Self) embodied in PRANA (life force). The word ENERGY doesn’t really convey the same meaning as PRANA, and the term PRANA may not accurately convey what is meant by the ‘the Life Force associated with ATMAN (and PARAMATMAN)’, because the PRANA referred to here does not so much embody the SOUL as it does emanate from soul, i.e., it is an intrinsic aspect of ATMAN. SHAKTI is the term usually used, which conveys the idea of ‘energy emanating from a conscious being’ as compared to just inanimate energy. This SHAKTI is distinguished from the ‘energy field’ that each object in the universe possesses (the universe itself also has its own energy field). The field of energy, or energy field, associated with a conscious being is also called its spirit. Our own energy field (or spirit) is in turn enveloped in the cosmic field of energy. BRAMHA (PARABRAMHA—the Absolute) channels (by way of His own inherent energy—SHAKTI) the Cosmic PRANA (cosmic field of energy) to set in motion the creation of the COSMOS (the multitude of universes). This channeled energy is the power by which the universe is created, sustained, and dissolved. Similarly, by way of its own inherent SHAKTI, the individual soul channels its PRANA or life force (invested in it by the Creator) to interact in the world of PRAKRITI (matter). This channeled energy of the individual soul becomes ‘seeing power’, ‘hearing power’, ‘thinking power’, etc. Our powers are enhanced or diminished according to how well we are able channel our energy. Our own energy is increased or decreased based on how our own ‘field of energy’ interacts with the cosmic field of energy. [2] The term ‘soul’ used here in single quotation marks refers to PURUSH, i.e., ATMAN manifested with PRANA. Generally people do not distinguish between ATMAN and PURUSH, or soul and spirit, so we have used the term ‘soul’ as it is generally understood. Likewise, jivatman and ‘embodied soul’ are used to refer to any being that is perceptible to our senses. [3] It is a quality of Atman to become Jivatman (however, it is not the nature of PARAMATMAN to become jivaparamatman –there is no such thing). [4] We have a similar experience every night during dreamless sleep. |