Hello and welcome to episode 8 of The Ask Sri Vishwanath Show. Today I want to talk about the master Yogin Krishna says about reincarnation and one of the most coveted words in the literature of Brahman.
Today’s question comes from Mohish . Mohish asks “how does the consciousness of a person, after death choose a body in another family? How do the planets influence the consciousness when choosing a body according to dharma?”
Thanks for the wonderful question. It’s a very broad question. I don’t think we could fully answer it in the space of even one or two videos but I picked your question out because I wanted to offer you some insight into the subject.
Intelligence
The first word I’d like you to explore is intelligence. The intelligence of a body, how we move and such is borrowed from the intelligence of the mind. The intelligence of the mind is borrowed from the intellect and the intellect is borrowed from the consciousness.
Remember this question: where is it borrowed from? You can ask this question of anything in the world. Everything has an intelligence and that intelligence has to be borrowed from somewhere. That’s how you get to the source of the intelligence – through research and knowledge. As you begin this process of getting to the source you will start to notice these things.
Visible and invisible
Some things are always visible. Things like the body, mind and intellect are always visible. Our consciousness, however is invisible. So you need to discover the intelligence behind things, you need to figure out where that intelligence is borrowed from and you need to realise that it has a visible and an invisible part.
Before you can understand reincarnation you must understand Yoga. Yoga involves uniting the visible with the invisible. I’m not talking about the yoga where you position your body. This is good for your health but the Yoga of Krishna is about uniting the visible (the body, mind and intellect) with the invisible (the consciousness).
Once you get to this point, reincarnation and philosophies behind it will become easy for you to understand. It will be crystal clear.
I want to use a film as an example. What are the visible things that you see? You cans see the actor and the actress and the emotions they act out within a scene. What are the invisible things? These would be the script and the director. So the intelligence of the movie will come from the actors and the emotions but that is borrowed from the script and the script is borrowed from the mind of the directors and writers.
Imagine a scene with chariot, reigns, you and the horses. The chariot represents your body, the reigns represent your mind. You are the intellect and the horses are the character.
The intellect gives instruction to the mind and the mind gives instruction to the body. This gets you from point A to point B. Remember though that you are not the initiator of your thoughts and actions. The initiator is always invisible. This is your consciousness within. You will only move from point A to point B if it is scripted for you. This is very important.
Focus on the invisible
Krishna says we must focus on the invisible. Focus on the power of the consciousness. Don’t put your mind out and get swayed by the characters and mixed emotions that happen within the scenes. The scenes are scripted so you must allow yourself to be detached from them and draw your mind in to the invisible. Your strength lies in the invisible. This is what will bring you love, joy and appendance.
So become detached from the scene and do not put your mind out. Draw your mind in as many time as you can during the day. The more times you bring your mind in, the better at it you will be. Do it one hundred times if you have too. Those mixed emotions are borrowed from the script so you must become detached from it. This is the yoga of Krishna.
So how does the soul reincarnate? Krishna says “all living beings are born of food, food is produced due to rain, rain is due to sacrifice. Sacrifice is born of works and works are born of Vedas. Vedas is born of the unmanifest”
Food for the soul
Vivekananda says that when a person dies they travel to the next sphere and then a soul descends onto the earth and enters into a field of crops. A person will come along and eat the food. When that person reproduces the soul is born again in that child. Some people think that parents produce children but it’s actually the child that chooses the parent.
I want to give you an example. Let’s say a child wants a trendy new pair of Nike shoes. He goes to the first shop but he can’t find any. He goes to the second shop but can’t see any he likes and so on. Finally he finds a shop with the pair of shoes he wants. He buys them and then leaves. Did that shop help him or did that child have an intense desire for that particular type of shoe? The answer is the latter. His desire brought him into that particular shop.
The child chooses the parent. The intelligence of the jiva guides the soul and helps it find the right parents. It happens when the time is right and when the planets align themselves in the necessary way. It is the soul that finds the right time and the suitable planetary alignments.
I hope I have given you some insight. Remember you keep asking questions and I’ll keep answering them.
