Reincarnation - The State He will Attain

[suchandra]

It is stated in Bhagavad-gita 8.6:

 

"Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail."

 

The purport by Srila Prabhupada says,

 

"Maharaja Bharata, although a great personality, thought of a deer at the end of his life, and so in his next life he was transferred into the body of a deer. Although as a deer he remembered his past activities, he had to accept that animal body. Of course, one's thoughts during the course of one's life accumulate to influence one's thoughts at the moment of death, so this life creates one's next life."

 

Maharaja Bharata surely didn't consciously desire to become a deer when he developed attachment to that little deer. Instead, the laws of nature considered, this is what he deserves - to actually become a deer.

Here, people are mad for air trips to the most beautiful places like Bali, Mauritius, Maldives, Seychelles, Egypt etc. Although they don't consciously desire to become migratory birds, this could satisfy that desire - to become a bird and having the plane tickets for free.

Another huge topic is the "missing" happiness hormones within the human mind - people feel they constantly have to consume all kind of stimulants.

Could it be that lower species have such kind of minds who feel all day like intoxicated, the brains filled up with happiness hormones, and thus don't have to worry to get something for counterbalancing any lack of well-being?

Reincarnation could work in such a way that mainly we don't achieve what we desire, but what we deserve?

 

Video of the week, Are You Being Brainwashed?

http://www.gitagita.com/en/others/014.html

[gHari]

You can't always get what you want.

But if you try sometime, you just might find

You get what you need.

[theist]

Desire or deserve?

 

Well there is that verse from Sri Isopanishad where Krsna is described has awrded everyone's desire since time immemorial. So He fulfills desires. But there are natural reactions to whatever we do also whcih interfer with our gettign what we desire and instead we get what we deserve. I may desire to steal something, get caught in the prosess and end up in the monkey house which I deserve for trying to steal. I see a undecipherable entwining of desiring and deserving at play.

 

The details of karmic reactions will always be beyond or ability to figure it all out but the conclusion is very simple. Desires are very difficult to fullfilled within the the reactionary field and even when they are fulfilled they won't satisfy the self anyway.

[suchandra]

 

Desire or deserve?

 

Well there is that verse from Sri Isopanishad where Krsna is described has awrded everyone's desire since time immemorial. So He fulfills desires. But there are natural reactions to whatever we do also whcih interfer with our gettign what we desire and instead we get what we deserve. I may desire to steal something, get caught in the prosess and end up in the monkey house which I deserve for trying to steal. I see a undecipherable entwining of desiring and deserving at play.

 

The details of karmic reactions will always be beyond or ability to figure it all out but the conclusion is very simple. Desires are very difficult to fullfilled within the the reactionary field and even when they are fulfilled they won't satisfy the self anyway.

Prabhupada would sometimes give a hint, like once commenting about Americans fighting against Russians, he said, that by thinking that the Russians are our enemies we think of Russians and thus become born as Russian. This Russian thinks that the Americans are his enemies and by thinking of the Americans he becomes an American. In this way he transmigrates back and forth, American, Russian, American, Russian.

Then Prabhubhupada says, this is maya. Nowadays of course the cold war is over but new concepts of what is an enemy are created and people start to actually think of this. If they would know how this thinking determines the future birth, but this is with no way taken into account. It seems that conditioned souls have no foreboding how their present way of thinking and acting creates and determines their future living condition.

 

"No. That is not solution of problems. The real problem is how to stop your death. That is the real problem. But because it is very difficult subject matter, nobody touches it. “Oh, death—we shall peacefully die.” But nobody peacefully dies. If I take a dagger and I say, “Now die peacefully,” (laughter) the whole peaceful condition finished immediately. He will cry. So these are nonsense, if somebody says, “I will die peacefully.” Nobody dies peacefully, that is not possible. Therefore death is a problem. Birth is also a problem. Nobody is peaceful while within the womb of the mother. It is packed-up, airtight condition, and nowadays there is risk of being killed also. So there is no question of peacefulness, birth and death. And then old age. Just like I am old man, so many troubles I have got. So old age. And disease, everyone has got experience, even headache is sufficient to give you trouble. The real problem is this: birth, death, old age and disease. That is the statement given by Krishna, that janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam. If you are intelligent, you should take up these four problems of life as very dangerous."

 

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Madhya-līlā 20.102

by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda

Baltimore, July 7, 1976

[theist]

 

Prabhupada would sometimes give a hint, like once commenting about Americans fighting against Russians, he said, that by thinking that the Russians are our enemies we think of Russians and thus become born as Russian. This Russian thinks that the Americans are his enemies and by thinking of the Americans he becomes an American. In this way he transmigrates back and forth, American, Russian, American, Russian.

Then Prabhubhupada says, this is maya. Nowadays of course the cold war is over but new concepts of what is an enemy are created and people start to actually think of this. If they would know how this thinking determines the future birth, but this is with no way taken into account. It seems that conditioned souls have no foreboding how their present way of thinking and acting creates and determines their future living condition.

 

Yes this is an essential point. First a thing is manifested in the mind. Then depending on how much energy we invest in it we can make it manifest in this denser world. This happens rather we consciously do it or not. As I understand it this is the principle of how people change genders also.

 

There is an old saying and I think a true one that you become what you hate. This is a big trap that self righteous moralists fall into. Like there is this group of about 15 -20 so-called Christians thatare led by some "pastor" and travel around to wherever homosexuals are having some public function and they hold signs up which read "God Hates FaggotsFaggots Will Rot In Hell" etc. And they shout these things at the homosex people with great venom and verocity, contorting their faces as they scream out. You may have seen them on the news. They are rather infamous.

 

Now what is their life experience. They are merged in the homosexual lifestyle in a sense because they spend so much time tracking what they are up to,where they will be and what they will say to them when they meet them next. By aversion they are solidly attached to to the homosexuals. It would be interesting to track this clan (largely family members) to see how many of them make the pyschological switch and become what they obviously hate.

 

One can hate the sin but he must love the sinner. After all no person is a homosexual or murderer or drug addict. These are all just behaviors. The soul is not doing these things so who is there to hate or try to emmulate?

 

A transcendentalist needs to keep his mind from such attraction and aversions. This is the beauty of sadhana bhakti because the same principle works towards the transformation of us moths into butterflies. By bowing down before the Lord and performing so many other serving actions we start to become what we think ourselves to be...devotees.

 

The danger is if our body bows down and our mind is off wandering somewhere else we won't get the effect. I call it sleepwalking sadhana. Everything is centered around the transformation of the mind so we must be mindful.