Why Birth?
Gajaraj Swamigal: Why are we born on earth?
Sage Agastya: What a question! Creation and birth are respected
as God’s play. The soul that comes from the Absolute is pure. It is known as ‘Sat
Chit Ananda[1]’
by everyone. That soul is hidden in the body which has the five elements and
the senses. The soul attempts to free itself from the confines of the body.
That is why the soul desires to walk on the righteous path and employ the body,
mind, and senses in pure, righteous, and clean actions alone.
That which is between the body and the soul is the mind. It
is that which makes the physical body transgress by walking on the path of
unrighteousness. The karmic fruit of these wrong actions get attached to the
soul. So, the soul creates the opportunity for rebirth to get rid of these bad
karmas.
I tell you - rebirth is only the
desire of the soul, not the will of Absolute as some say.
Just as a man finally understands his true purpose; the moment
the drop realizes that its destination is not the earth, it turns into vapor
and returns to become one with the clouds again.
In the same way, it is the nature of the soul when it takes
birth in human form, to struggle through life, age, and die, and after that leave
the physical body, look upwards and proceed.
To summarize, the soul that comes out of the Supreme Power,
is born on the earth, and for some time commits good and bad actions, and
finally leaving even that idea of differentiation between good and bad behind;
desires to return to that place whence it came. This is the nature of atman,
the soul.
Rebirth
Sage Agastya: Man is reborn to experience that which he had
not been able to experience in his previous life; to accomplish that which he
couldn’t accomplish, in a state where he is not able to see the blessed feet of
God. Aside from this, he takes birth to complete what he needs to complete;
gain what he needs to gain; and accomplish what he needs to accomplish.
A honeybee that goes in search of a flower dies getting
caught in the spider’s web that is on its way, unable to accomplish what it set
out to do. Another bee, without getting caught in the web, finds an alternate
route, accomplishes what it needs to accomplish, and returns to the place it
came from because of the fruit of its good actions.
In the same way, man gets caught in unnecessary webs of
illusion that are avoidable in several lives, and struggling, becomes food for
the spider.
That is why God creates the circumstances for man to take
birth again. That is why each man must keep what he wants to accomplish in mind
and keep that as a goal, to go forward in life. While proceeding in this way,
some may have to free themselves from some troubles in life that occur like the
web of the spider.
Hence, man must follow the path of righteousness in life,
accomplishing everything with honesty and then taking the experiences that he
is undergoing as the blessings of God and, experiencing them properly; keeping
the mind determined; must continue on his path and making progress; achieve his
goals.
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