Why Birth?

2005, October 25. 11 am.

Gajaraj Swamigal: Why were we born?

Sage Agastya: What kind of question is this? It is a well-known fact that we are born as small children after ten months of formation in a mother's womb. It is a known fact that through birth and eating, our bodies grow and become adults.

Growing up, listening to, and learning from parents and those around us, we understand many things, explore, and through work we understand that different situations develop.

Reaching adulthood, getting married and experiencing pleasure, we also gather difficulties and worries, and occasionally some of us look up and ask a question “Why was I born? Is this life?” We also see some getting disgusted and arriving at a state of mind where they ask the same questions.

Sage Agastya asked again: What kind of question is this? Some create a small war within and around themselves thinking that life is only about eating, sleeping, engaging in various activities, enjoying material things, and enjoying the pleasures found in nature. In the pursuit of more and more happiness, they think of all this as great happiness.

Where does this happiness end? Can one reach the limit of this happiness? These questions may arise in the mind at that time.

“Alas, I am unable to bear this terrible situation!” says a person who has experienced suffering and then begins to wonder whether there is any other way to resolve such a situation.

This is not a question posed by someone who enjoys money, possessions, fame, and fortune. It is only when man suffers that he poses such questions.

We read in history that when a great prince, Siddhartha, asked such a question, he had no want for anything. This question arose for him only when he realized that even though he had everything he wanted, and as much as he wanted, there was no lasting peace in it!

Why was man born? Why do diseases occur in the body? Why is it that one becomes old, and becomes physically weak and is no longer able to enjoy all this even if he gets them? Why does one who takes birth live? Why does one go through such a cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, which is not conducive to peace?

Siddhartha asked such a big question not only for himself but to show a way to the human race created by God. With a firm resolve to receive a complete answer, he left his kingdom. He left his wife, who was sleeping in his embrace and went far away.

Sitting under a tree, closing his eyes, he reflected on these questions over and over again in his mind. He remained in that state of meditation for a long time, hoping to find an end to all this.

Meditation means sitting without having any thought in the mind, in a kind of state of nothingness; losing awareness of one’s own being, remaining in the state of samadhi for a very long time.

The state of meditation that Siddhartha was experie
ncing that day was different. He had a very strong question in his mind. On the other hand, there was also a determination to know the answer to this. Without paying heed to rain, wind, heat, going beyond thirst and hunger, forgetting himself in one state; forgetting the world around him; Siddhartha remained completely engrossed in meditation.

One day the seed of light was born. It was on that day that he attained enlightenment, and after realizing this, when he taught others what he had understood, everyone began referring to Siddhartha as Buddha.

Siddartha, who was a bhogi (one who enjoys), transformed into a yogi! He learned that pain was more prevalent in wanting. In experiencing what one wants, there is a mixture of both pleasure and suffering.

He understood that there was no limit to desire. That Maha yogi, Buddha, understood that one who experiences too much pleasure will have to experience disease and suffering equivalent to it. It is this lesson that he taught others.

He also understood that it is in saying ‘no,’ to pleasures of the world, and rejecting them, that one finds peace. And finally he understood that every man must engage in efforts to strive for salvation, without having to take rebirth.

He gave us a great book called ‘Bodhi Dharma,’ in which the meaning of his teachings can be understood even by ordinary folk.

In life, one must enjoy things to a limit, at the right time, and then remove the desire to enjoy them more and more. One must stop the inclination to search for them. After that, one must walk on the path of righteousness, without doing any harm to others, and helping others as much as one can.

Buddha is asking all of us to help spread the light of love and righteousness in the world.