Guest guest Posted November 13, 2005 Report Share Posted November 13, 2005 SRIMATHE RAMANUJAYA NAMAHA. Let us take up this question first. Does the departed soul still have any connection with the earth where it lived, and to the relatives among whom it lived? Taking up the first part of this question, It does have a connection with the earth. This is understood by the 3 levels of bhuh, bhuvah and svah it acquired from the elements Fire, Water and Earth. What the departed soul takes along with him as speech was given by the Element Fire, while he was living in this earth. What he took along as Mind and Prana also were nourished and given by the Elements. So he has taken up something from the Pancha bhoothas into his coarse, medium and subtle levels. The next question is- He has taken up with him, but has he paid back what he has taken? Has he replenished what he has taken? Here a doubt may arise that vayu and akasha have not been taken up. Though upanishads say about these 3 elements only, the further division of these elements give rise to the other two. Again, as per the discussion between sage Bhrigu and sage Bharadwaja in Shanti parvam (chapter 185) on what happens to the one who dies, the agni which is not destroyed reaches the akasha and the Vayu becomes the carrier. Again at many places, the Individual soul is described as the Akasha (remember the upanishadic description given in a previous mail of how name and forms are linked and how the name alone stays denoting the form.) The 3 elements have merged in the Akasha tattwa which the Soul. It is Vayu that acts as the transporter. Coming to the questions raised above, (let me repeat for continuity, ) The departed soul has taken up something from the Pancha bhoothas in his coarse, medium and subtle levels. He has taken up with him, but has he paid back what he has taken? Has he replenished what he has taken? This gives rise to other questions-- By taking up something from this Nature (Pancha bhoothas), has he not made some imbalance to them in the way they otherwise would have existed? If it is about one person, the imbalance might have been only negligible. But imagine, the countless number of souls leaving every day, taking with them what they have acquired from the natural forces and this has been happening for eons!!! Just imagine the condition of these Natural forces, that we have now bequeathed, assuming that they have not been replenished. Again it is from these un-replenished bhoothas only, we are drawing our food for the three levels. Are we left with something nutritious to draw our food from? If again it is assumed that the elements are certainly left with their nutritious parts, how are we to know or ensure that we have drawn only those nutritious parts? Are we fit enough or qualified to draw those parts, when from our own family, we have our ancestors who have taken up something but left without paying back? These questions can not be ignored. The worst of them all is, By taking up something and not paying back, has not the departed soul committed a theft? Won't we, as sons and daughters of those persons, be then known as the sons and daughters of thieves? This language used here may sound harsh, but is this not the reality? It is here, the connection with children come. The children draw their three levels from whom? >From the Nature only. Lets regress a bit. The moment the soul enters the womb of the mother, it is born, says Brahma sutras (supported by Upanishads.) Then it starts growing. >From where does it take its food? >From mother. >From where does the mother get this food for the child in womb? It is the same Elements – the Pancha bhootha, which we all have been eating, eating and eating, right from the dawn of mankind – but without replenishing them. Coming to the child in the womb, though it is the mother who is providing food for it, how much it has to take and what of them it has to take are governed by the imprints the child has inherited from both the mother and father (though this is decided by the balance of karma or works that it has to undergo). In other words, the parents are the conduit or medium through whom it receives the bhuh, bhuvah and svah. The child has not yet started to speak, but the faculty of speech has been received from Agni through the imprints (lets say genes, for our understanding) even while it is growing in the womb. Similarly with other faculties. The peculiar feature here is that the child is receiving the elements of 3 levels through the parents – this child which is not yet a citizen or habitant of this world. If the parents are entitled to draw better nutrients from the Elements and if the child has inherited the right sets of genes, the strength of these 3 levels will be high. Once born, the drawl is direct. This continues till death. And once departed, what it takes is not only what it has acquired while living on this earth, but also that which it has received before it entered this earth. While living, the child will be able to pay back whatever it has received from the Elements, by means of yajna and nithya karma. That is why its always 'give give give' without expecting anything in return. There are already loads of debt that a man is bearing. By giving in the spirit of 'na mama' of yajna, he is paying back what he has received. Whatever a man gives or pays back to his parents are for whatever he has received in this birth or in some past birth. (this is once again a vast topic which can be explained from the point of view of Jyothisha or astrology and let me not delve into the details of them here, but present only those salient points that are deduced from study of lives in astrology) Whatever a man gives or receives from his parents or from any one else, are balanced by receiving or giving back to the same or some others. It is based on the basic yajna principle behind why it rains (BG). If one takes care of the parents well, he is said to be paying back what he has received from them. A person may not even care to do something in return for his parents. Such a debt will be carried on as part of his Works or karma. Either he will pay back in some other way to someone else in this birth itself or in a future birth. (This is here the role of astrology comes in understanding these features). Or his parents may not be entitled to receive from him, in their having incurred a karma in such a way that they have to face such non-repayment from the children. But there is only one kind of debt that can not be paid in physical terms nor in terms of money or things. It is what one has received while inside the womb. The following verses from brihadaranyaka Upanishad indicate that a man bestows the bhuh, bhuvah and svah into his child -------------------------- "24 When the son is born, he should light a fire, take the child on his lap, put a mixture of curds and clarified butter in a bell—metal cup and offer oblations in the fire repeatedly, uttering the mantra: "May I increase as the son in my own home and support a thousand people! May the Goddess of Fortune never depart, with children and cattle, from his line! Svaha! The vital breath that is in me, I mentally offer to you. Svaha! If I have done anything too much or too little in this ceremony, may the all—knowing and highly beneficent fire make it just right and proper for me. Svaha!" 25 Then, putting his month to the child's right ear, he should say thrice: "Speech! Speech!" Next he would mix together curds, honey and clarified butter and feed the child with a golden stick which is not placed inside the month, saying these mantras: "I put the earth (Bhuh) into you; I put the sky (Bhuvah) into you; I put heaven (Svah) into you. The whole of earth, sky and heaven I put into you." --------------------------(end quote)----------------------------- And this is what he says to his son while departing… -(Brihadaranyaka------------------------- 17 "Now therefore follows the entrusting: When a man thinks he is about to die, he says to his son: "You are Brahman, you are the sacrifice and you are the world." The son replies: "I am Brahman, I am the sacrifice, I am the world." The Sruti explains the thoughts of the father: "Whatever has been studied by me (the father) is all unified in the word Brahman. Whatever sacrifices have been made by me (the father) are all unified in the word sacrifice. And whatever worlds were to be; won by me (the father) are all unified in the word world. All this it indeed this much. He (the son), being all this, will protect me from the ties of this world." Therefore they speak of a son who is well instructed as being conducive to the winning of the world; and therefore a father instructs him. When a father who knows this departs from this world, he—along with his own organ of speech, mind and vital breath—penetrates his son. If, through a lapse, any duty has been left undone by him, the son exonerates him from all that; therefore he is called a son. The father remains in this world through the son. The divine and immortal organ of speech, mind and vital breath enter into him (the father)." -----------------------------(end quote)-------- By declaring that he (the father) has done everything as sacrifice, all in the name of Brahman, he reveals that he has led a life where he has not incurred any debt. But by taking the "divine and immortal organ of speech, mind and vital breath" with him, he is leaving a debt to his son. It is something left to his son, can be undone by his son only. His son has to exonerate him from this. Thus there is a two way connection with the son (children) One, when the child receives the bhuh, bhuvah and svah from mother in the womb which is solemnized by the father after it is born, as in the first quoted one and Two, what the son is entitled to pay back happens after his father / parents have left. By saying the father has penetrated his son, (in the above verse), it means what the son has bequeathed in the 3 levels from his father. The son is thus indebted to him, the one who is indebted to the nature while alive. The son has to pay back what he has received at a level that is not of living in flesh and blood on this earth, only through the means which are not of living in flesh and blood on this earth. That is, after the death of his father – parents. That is why, it is said that pithru kaaryam is 'pithru-kadan' – a debt. It is also said that a person may not have had good relations with his parents, may have lived away from them not willing to even see them and may not have been present for doing funeral rites. But once they are gone, he HAS to do the pithru kaaryam. The repayment of what he is indebted to them, and through them to Pancha bhoothas begins only after their death. By paying back after the death of his father, he is indeed paying back to nature – the Elements. He can then be able to lessen his debts, his obligations so that he as an individual soul carry Works or karma to that extent lessened. Since his father is also in un-replenished state in having drawn from Nature (particularly at the level of the 4 th agni in Panchagni vidya in the father's body for 2 months inside the sperm during which time the soul gets 'synthesised' to be born), he is waiting be replenished by means of paying back what he has drawn for the sake of his son while he was inside his sperm. Thus the 3 levels of the departed soul does contain elements which need to be paid back by his son. Why this must happen? Only if he (father) pays back his debt, at least in parts, can he gain more when he enters another womb!! It is like how the ocean is always able to remain full, not more or not less. The ocean is able to receive the continuous flow from rivers and rains through out the globe only because it is at the same time giving back water to Nature through evaporation. Similarly the son has to pay back what he has received, only then can he become free of debts and draw more for the sake of his children. Can anyone who is already indebted be lent money by others? No. Can the person who has not paid his debt to his parents, draw the goodness from nature and endow them to his children? No. Every man is a link to the previous and the future generation. Whatever goodness he wants to transfer to the future generation can happen, only if he is full and be able to give. If he is already depleted, he can not give. What he gives to his children will be his accumulated debt only. This is how the genesis of genetic diseases going down the generations begins!! Unless he pays back to the previous generation, he can not give something to the future generation. By paying back he ensures that they (pithrus) would not "Punish us not for any sin, O Fathers, which we through human frailty have committed." (Rig veda – XV -6) It ensures that he (doer) gains energy "Lapped in the bosom of the purple Mornings, give riches to the man who brings oblations. Grant to your sons a portion of that treasure, and, present, give them energy, ye Fathers." (Rig veda XV –7) With this energy, it is ensured that he gets " riches with a multitude of hero sons." (Rig veda XV- 11) Here the riches are the children themselves! For the one who has departed, unless what he has lent to his children is paid back, he can not have fresh resources to continue new life. The body he will be taking after re-birth will be of inferior nature. If he has to begin a new journey with the already following speech, mind and prana, which is depleted by having lent to his children and which by itself a liability in having it derived from the Elements, his new form will not be of superior nature. So They have to be given their own body - the body that existed prior to drawl from Nature which he did for the sake of his children. "Grant them, O Sovran Lord, the world of spirits and their own body," (Rig veda XV 14) For the Released Soul, the question of repayment does not arise. Because it is Released, that means, has shed all the three levels and goes to Devayana without anything attached to it. (To be continued) Regards, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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