Hello and welcome to episode 141 of The Ask Sri Vishwanath Show. Today is part seven of what happens after death.
This has been a long series full of great information. To really understand it I highly recommend you read the last 6 episodes. I will give a short recap but to really understand it you need to see the last 6 episodes in full.
In 135 we spoke about the sacrifice of Nachiketa. How a young buy asked his father to sacrifice his best asset, himself. He was sent to the chamber of death where he met Yama who offered him three boons. For his last boon he wanted to know what happened after death. Yama tried unsuccessfully to distract the boy and in the end, revealed his secrets to him.
In 136 we learned that Yama told him that destruction is only going back to the source. How there are some things that die with the body and some things that do not. The spirit never dies. The spirit is what is important and what we should focus on.
We talked about that source, sound and how all creation began with sound. As before we discussed the most powerful sound in the universe, AUM. We talked about how AUM makes up the entire sound matrix and how mediating on it, feeling it vibrating through every part of your body can really help you get back to your consciousness.
In 137 we spoke about the different realms and how heaven is not the final destination. Heaven is a stop of on a transit journey. If you have not formed the gold image then your stop off in heaven will be used to better equip you in your next life. We also learned that a high level of sattvic gunas ensures a better position in heaven with the greatest teachers.
In 138 we talked about the 5 spheres, the earth sphere, lunar sphere, electric sphere, Brahma Lok and the un manifest. We spoke about the difference between matter and force and how it changes between the spheres because the higher the vibrations the hard it is to distinguish between the two. As you go up through the sphere’s the vibrations get higher so in the Brahma Lok and un manifest you cannot distinguish between particles and force.
We learned that once you reach the electric sphere you do not come back. The great ones exist in the Brahma Lok and have power over everything except creation.
In episode 139 we learned about how we are all born through food, sacrifice and rain. The wise ones would create sacrifices of fire to the rain gods so they would bring the rain and the crops would grow.
In episode 140 we learned about time and how there are two types of time: real and apparent. We talked about the life force, prana and how there are two columns of this force called pingala and ida which run around our spines on either sides. We spoke about how we can make use of this life force through Raja yoga which allows us to create a new channel and be more aware of the consciousness.
Children
Today we are going to talk more about children because a lot of people asked how children chose their parents. Commonly people say parents produce children through an act of love but that’s not how it happens. The consciousness of the child is already within the father’s semen waiting to be born.
Krishna says that there are two types of people in the world; the divine and the demonic. “The demonic men don’t distinguish between action and in action. They have no truth and observances. They hold that the world is ungrounded, godless, mutual born and lust born. Holding onto this view having lost their souls. With puny intellect they fiercely try to destroy the world. Full of hypocrisy and egoism, filled with lust and wrath they destroy me dwelling within.”
Desire or deserve?
So keeping this in mind I want to give you a different example of how the child chooses the parent. Here is an example. A child wants to buy a pair of Nike shoes so he goes into a shop. He doesn’t find the ones he wants. The same happens in shop number two. The same happens in shop 3 and 4. Finally he finds the ones he wants in shop 5. So would you say the child got the shoes because of shop 5 or the child had a deep desire for a certain type of shoes which led him to shop 5? Obviously the second is the answer.
It’s the child’s tendency, karma and gunas which leads it to a certain home. Then he selects that home based on his gunas and karma. The child is called the embodied soul because its karma has not been dissolved.
The same rule applies to everything in life. You get what you deserve not what you desire. If we automatically got what we desired then everyone would have everything. There would be no poverty and no war. We get what we deserve based on our tendencies.
Environment
Remember the child is looking for a great environment so it can exhaust its tendencies and karma. That is its purpose for coming back into the world. They need to destroy the karma and this can only be done by coming back and forming the gold image. This is why environment is so important.
So if you are a parent reading this you need to know that your child chose you and you should be proud of that. They chose you for a good reason and because of this you must ensure that you provide them with a good environment. That’s all they need. They don’t need instructions or guidelines, just a good environment.
Love
In my case, my parents never taught me love but their presence never left me short of love. This is the mark of a great parent. A parent should never have to shower a child with gifts. Just being there should be enough so that when they grow they can themselves be loving, do great works and help a lot of people while helping themselves.
To create a good environment there should be no fighting in a household and that’s a rare thing today. Remember a child is always listening and watching. This is how they learn. If they see fighting they will think this is an ideal environment.
Respect consciousness
Parents need to show children a respect for the higher consciousness by reading good books to them and talking to them again and again about it. Discussion is so important. Parents tend to be very focused on college education but Vivekananda says this only distracts people from the great works that are on a completely different level. A parent can teach a child everything they need to know just by creating a good environment.
Formal education stifles the brain by overloading it with so much stuff that we don’t need to know. Vivekananda said that if there was a pill that could make him forget everything he knew then he would be the first one to take it. I don’t think there has ever been a person on earth who has expressed god as beautifully as Vivekananda.
Sacrifice and giving
Parents also need to teach children about sacrifice. They do this by example, by sacrificing things for their children. They need to do this as well as giving to others. By being a role model for sacrificing and giving the will automatically be teaching their children.
Parents must simply be great teachers. Great teachers will produce great students by simply being an example for them. A good teacher should not need to discipline their children. If they do then they have not been good teachers.
Parents must have a broad mind. The first thing the Bhagavad gita tells us is to respect all religions regardless of what they believe. If you cannot do that then you are not Hindu. It is the first thing we are taught. Remember Krishna is the thread that runs through the pearls of all religion. The differences in religions are insignificant and the important aspects are the important ones.
So if you follow these steps you will be doing your children a great service. Be a good teacher not by instructing, by providing a great environment.
We still have a few more episodes to go in this series but until then you keep asking questions and I’ll keep answering them.
