Who are you?
YOU ARE NOT THE BODY BUT A SOUL COVERED IN A MATERIAL BODY.
This is the main teaching of the Bhagavad-Gita.
“As the embodied soul continously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.” Lord Krishna, Bg. 2.13
You are a soul covered by a material body.
Your are bewildered by maya, the illusion of identifying the self with the body.
In this material body you will suffer the pangs of birth, old age, disease, and death.
You will reincarnate from body to body, life after life. At death you will take on another body in the animal kingdom, or again in the human species. What your next body will be is dependent on your karmic actions (good and bad actions) taken in life.
Just as we change worn out clothes, furniture, cars, shoes, houses, jobs, and even partners. We will change our body at death. Just as a manufacturing company designs products today to make tomorrow. You are designing your next body today with your current actions.
There are 8.4 Million different material bodies that the individual soul keeps circulating in. So don’t get too attached to this body.
Once again you are “too busy” in eating, sleeping, mating, and making a career. Once again you have “no time” to enquire into the absolute truth. Once again you cling to temporary material enjoyment in your short life span. You keep running like mad after the mirages in the desert, castles made of sand, and the gifts of Santa Claus. (Mirages are seeing things which are not there, castles made of sand take hours to make but come down with a single blow, and there is no Santa Claus).
Most people are very busy in the Modern Lifestyle of partying, discoing, meat eating, intoxication, and relationships. While engaging in these demonic activities, you forget the naked truth of death, which you will have to meet.
Like animals, you do not realize that you are going to be slaughtered, by the laws of nature. You are busy in material enjoyment, the so-called jolly life, but actually you are like the chickens, cows, and goats waiting in the slaughterhouse. Death is certain and it can take you at anytime. At death, the laws of nature will act, and will you get another body according to your work.
Human birth is rare and now that you have attained a human form of life, you should utilize your developed consciousness to inquire into the Absolute Truth. Yet most humans engage in the life style of eating, sleeping, mating and defending, which is available even in the animal kingdom without the hassle of nine-to-five jobs, marital problems, medical operations, and the bother of tax returns.
A person in the mode of goodness knows that death is born along with his birth. He knows that he is dying at every second. He therefore prepares himself for the next life or for liberation from the cycle of birth and death all together. He enquries: Who am I ? Where have I come from? Where am I going after this life?
An ignorant person is ‘too busy’ with materialist life, satisfying only his genetals and belly. He forgets that death is certain and just around the corner.
Human or animal consciousness?
If you simply eat, sleep, mate, and enjoy material life. Then you are no different from the animals. The animals also eat, sleep, mate, and enjoy material life. In fact, if you simply want to engage in these activities, then you are better off in the animal kingdom. The animals engage in all these activities without the bother of jobs, bills, marital problems and other humanly conditions of life.
Those humans who spent their life simply eating, sleeping, mating, and enjoying material life will be upgraded to a higher level at death. So they can continue with these activities but without the hassle of jobs, bills, marital problems and other humanly conditions of life in their next life. They will be born in the animal kingdom. God is very fair and merciful, he satisfies all our desires. If you behave like an animal then you will be one in your next life, at your own request.
The difference between human and animal consciousness is that humans are inquisitive.
Real human beings enquire:
Who am I?
Where have I come from?
Where am I going after this life?
Who exactly is God?
How can I escape from the cycle of birth, old age, disease, and death?
How can I become immortal?
Animals do not enquire. They simply eat, sleep, mate, and enjoy material life.
Humans are compassionate, they always think of others. The animals mind their own business and don’t think of others.
Humans are charitable. It is the duty of every human being to perform welfare activities for the benefit of those who are less fortunate with their wealth, intelligence, and words. The animals are not charitable; they simply enjoy everything for them selves.
Are you human or animal?
Human birth is rare - don't waste it.
The Scientific Theory of Evolution – Charles Darwin Theory
Charles Darwin is famous worldwide for his evolutionary theory. According to his theory, one species evolved into another. Thus one body changes into another. We evolved from the animals, our closet relatives in the animal kingdom are the monkeys.
The Vedic Theory of Evolution
The Vedic scriptures also state an evolutionary process, but the definition is different from that of Charles Darwin. There are 8.4 million different species of living beings in the whole of creation as follows:
900,000 species of aquatic.
2,000,000 species of plants.
1,100,000 species of insects.
1,000,000 species of birds.
3,000,000 species of beasts.
400,000 species of human beings
All these species were created by God and like Charles Darwin’s theory; we also evolved from the animals but not by changing the same body, but by transmigration of the soul from one body to another.
Changing bodies from birth to death, and the evolution of 8,400,000 species.
Every living being is a soul (including plants and animals) covered in a material bodEvery living being is a soul (including plants and animals) covered in a material body. The soul takes one body then quits it to take another and so on. Going through all the various species in the plant and animal kingdom (8 million) and then finally taking a human body. The human body is the highest and most elevated of all bodies.
Once we attain the human body, if we misuse or fail to utilize the higher consciousness then we again fall down in the plant and animal kingdom. Then again we have to go through the evolutionary process, moving from one body to the next in the plant and animal kingdom for 8 million births before we get another human birth.
“As the embodied soul continuously passes, in the body from childhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.” Lord Krishna (Bg. 2.13)
“As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.” Lord Krishna (Bg. 2.22)
What Do the Non-Vedic Religions Say About Evolution
The one-man made religions, Christianity and Islam, do not believe in an evolutionary process. The Muslims and Christians believe we only live once, thus this is the only life. They believe in resurrection. At death we are buried and we have to wait in our grave for the Day of Judgment on which day God either sends us to heaven forever, or hell forever. The humans have a soul but the plants and animals do not. They are simply created as food for the humans.
The Vedic scriptures state that even the plants and animals can go to the kingdom of God, but they have to wait for their human incarnation. If one lives a sincere life regardless of his religion, he will slowly be elevated in spiritual life which will one day lead to liberation from the cycle of birth and death and thus attain the kingdom of God. There is overwhelming evidence to support the Vedic theory of evolution, thus transmigration of the soul from one body to the next, reincarnation.
The Vedic theory of evolution is very scientific and only differs from Charles Darwin’s theory in terms of the method.
According to the Vedic religion the plants and animals do have a soul and the animals were not created as food for the humans. The animals are made of flesh and blood just like the humans and they do feel pain and have intelligence, just like the humans.
Higher and Lower Life Forms
There are 400,00 different species of human beings. Most of these species are uncivilized.
Within a species of human beings there are many different conditions in which one takes birth into.
Variety of colors:
Born black.
Born white.
Born gray etc..
Within each color of human beings there are different nationalities that one can be born into. Note that until 5000 years ago, there was only one nationality for all the humans in the world, Bharat Varsian. Which means the sons of Bharat or India. Yes, the whole world was called Bharat Versa or India until 5000 years ago.
Born Indian
Born American
Born Chinese
Born Saudi Arabian
Born African etc..
Within each nationality of human beings there are different religions in which one takes birth into. Note that until 5000 years ago, there was only one religion in the whole world, the Vedic religion.
Born Hindu (Vedic)
Born Muslim
Born Christian
Born Jewish etc..
Within each religion that a person is born into there are different health conditions that one takes birth into:
Born healthy
Born diseased
Within each diseased or healthy body that one takes birth into, there are different financial situations:
Born rich
Born poor
Within each financial situation that one takes birth into, there are different family situations that one can take birth into:
Born with loving and caring parents
Born with mean and un-caring parents
Born without a parent (one parent died before your birth)
Born with no parents (both parents died soon after your birth)
Etc….
There are so many other permutations of conditions that one can be born into. Thus a good human birth is extremely rare.
So What Determines Our Next Body and It’s conditions at Birth?
People are mad after sense gratification. When a person considers sense gratification the aim of life, he certainly becomes mad after a materialistic life style and engages in all kinds of sinful activity.
Every person takes birth in a particular country, in a particular city, on a particular street, to a particular mother with a particular religion and financial situation. Exactly according to what the person (the soul) deserves.
“When one dies in the mode of goodness, he attains to the pure higher planets of the great sages. When one dies in the mode of passion, he takes birth among those engaged in fruitive activities; and when one dies in the mode of ignorance, he takes birth in the animal kingdom.” Lord Krishna (Bg. 14.14-15)
“Those situated in the mode of goodness gradually go upward to the higher planets; those in the mode of passion live on the earthly planets; and those in the abominable mode of ignorance go down to the hellish worlds.” Lord Krishna (Bg. 14.18)
Your consciousness at death will determine your next body
“The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas. Thus he takes one kind of body and again quits it to take another.” Lord Krishna (Bg. 15.8)
“Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail.” Lord Krishna (Bg. 8.6)
Life on all Planets is Miserable
“From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to my abode, O son of Kunté, never takes birth again.” Lord Krishna (Bg. 8.16)
So how do we become totally Happy and free from all miserable conditions?
First you need to know what is real happiness. Becoming free from the cycle of birth and death, and free from all diseases is real and everlasting happiness. This means taking birth in the spiritual universe called Vaikuntha. You cannot go to the spiritual universe with your present body, only when you quit it and also if you have the qualifications to enter it.
“That supreme abode of mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, nor by fire or electricity. Those who reach it never return to this material world.” Lord Krishna (Bg. 15.6)
“That which the Vedäntists describe as unmanifest and infallible, that which is known as the supreme destination, that place from which, having attained it, one never returns-that is My supreme abode.” Lord Krishna (Bg. 8.21)
How Can We Enter The Kingdom Of God?
“One can understand me as I am, as the supreme personality of Godhead, only by devotional service. And when, by such devotion, one is fully conscious of me, one can enter into the kingdom of God.” Lord Krishna (Bg. 18.55)
“Whoever, at the end of life, quits his body remembering me alone at once attains my nature without a doubt.” Lord Krishna (Bg. 8.5)
The Regulative Principles For Human Beings
It’s not easy to give up a materialist and lusty life style, which most people are engaged in. Controlling the senses is like controlling the wind, which is very difficult. But when you realize that if you waste this rare human birth then you will have to go through the evolutionary process of transmigrating from one body to the next for millions of births before you get another chance of human birth, then it becomes a little easy.
Here are some basic starting points to end a demonic life style.
Stop being a serial killer, become a vegetarian.
Stop behaving like the dogs on the street. No sex before marriage or outside marriage.
Stop losing your consciousness, no intoxications (no drugs, no alcohol etc..).
Don’t speculate on your wealth, stop gambling.
All humans dream of going to the kingdom of God (the spiritual universe).
The non-Vedic religions say it’s ok to kill animals (eat meat). But in the kingdom of God there is no killing. So why don’t you start this practice now?
In the kingdom of God there is no sex, so why don’t you moderate your sex life now?
In the kingdom of God there are no intoxications, then why don’t you stop it now?
In the kingdom of God there is absolutely no speculation, so why don’t you stop speculating now
Don’t satisfy your desires
“A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires-that enter like rivers into the ocean, which is ever being filled but is always still-can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires. A person who has given up all desires for sense gratification, who lives free from desires, who has given up all sense of proprietorship and is devoid of false ego-he alone can attain real peace.” Lord Krishna (Bg. 2.70-71)
The plants/animals are on a fixed cycle of transmigration from one body to the next in the plant/animal kingdom. They will have to go through 8 million births before they get another human birth. Yes the plants and animals are ex-humans. And most of the humans will be plants and animals in the future.
The humans have been through the 8 million births in the plant and animal kingdoms. But if a human misuses or fails to utilize the higher consciousness, then he (the soul) will once again have to go through the 8 millions births in the plant and animal kingdoms. Only a fool would waste this rare human birth.
Where Will You Be in 50 years Time?
Where you will be in 50 years time is a serious thought to consider now, because you won’t be here.
A Courtesy of gitamrta.org
