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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00047 May 2003

 
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adiYen would like to share some thoughts with all
regarding two fundamental pillars of our religion [our
religion has been dubbed as "Hinduism" but truly
should be called Sanaathana Dharma (Eternal
religion)].

adiYen would like to pose to adiYen a question:

Question:
--------
Why should adiYen do good, be good (exhibit kindness,
charity, etc.) and not commit sin (like not killing
others, stealing, etc.)?

Answer:
------
Our Aachaaryaas repeatedly stress the following two
tenets of Sanaathana Dharma:

1. Law of Karma - "what goes around comes around"
2. Rebirth - "life after death of the body, and
reincarnation of the Jeevaathma or soul"

Either: (i) adiYen should believe in the above two
pillars of Sanaathana Dharma implicitly, without any
reservations or doubts whatsoever - because adiYen's
Aachaaryaas have said so (a course of action that
adiYen finds to be the easiest of all) - this may be
called the Path of Faith

OR

(ii) adiYen should find out if the above two are true
by adiYen's own efforts and analysis - this may be
called the Path of Self Inquiry

There cannot be a third alternative - either adiYen
believes without question, or adiYen is prepared to
undertake efforts to verify the veracity of the two
cornerstones of Sanaathana Dharma.

Path of Faith:
=============
adiYen lives by faith day in and day out:
(i) when adiYen goes to sleep at night, the faith is
that adiYen will wake up the next morning
(ii) when adiYen takes to the road, the faith is that
adiYen will not be targeted by any other motorist and
killed
(iii) when adiYen travels in a taxi, ship, train, or
aeroplane, adiYen trusts the drivers/pilots
implicitly, and believes that these strangers, some of
whom adiYen will sometimes not even see (in a plane,
for example) will safely pilot adiYen to adiYen's
destination
(iv) when adiYen has to see a medical doctor, adiYen
trusts the doctor implicitly to cure (and not
exacerbate) adiYen's illness

And so on. Hence adiYen finds that the Path of Faith
is the easiest of all.

Assumption in the Path of Faith:
-------------------------------
The caveat for the Path of Faith is:

One should believe in our true well-wishers - like our
Aachaaryaas, and not in "godmen" and other charlatans
who offer temporary relief, and long-term suffering. 
Where spirituality is concerned, adiYen feels that one
should opt for strategic initiatives in preference to
tactical options.

Path of Self Inquiry:
====================

This Path is strenuous - involves arduous efforts, has
many pitfalls, and may not be suitable for all.

Examination of the tenet of Rebirth:
-----------------------------------

In the Path of Self Inquiry, if adiYen had to verify
the Rebirth principle, adiYen could approach it in the
following way:

If adiYen could somehow dissociate or separate
adiYen's essence (Sookshma Shareera) from adiYen's
gross body (Sthoola Shareera), then adiYen would know
for CERTAIN that adiYen would continue to exist, even
after adiYen's gross body perished - this would
naturally lead to the conclusion that if adiYen could
occupy adiYen's gross body in this birth, then later
on, adiYen could occupy another gross body - and thus
the principle of Rebirth would be verified.

The experience noted in the above paragraph is what
some would call an out-of-body travel experience. It
is said that the Great Aadi Shankaraachaarya left his
body in the safe-keeping of his Shishyaas, and
occupied the body of a king to experience (Kooduvittu
KoodupAidhal), by proxy, Grihasthaashrama.

Out-of-body travel also leads to other conclusions by
extension such as: till the "spirit" (one's essence)
occupies another body, it lives in a "spirit-world";
there are embodied and disembodied spirits - meaning
that we are embodied spirits, and other disembodied
spirits could try to enter our body and take control,
just as we entered this current body of ours; there
are good and bad spirits, etc.

The dangers associated with out-of-body travel (as
outlined by some Experts) are:

(i) One could misuse the gift and invite serious
trouble - it could completely take one off the Path,
and onto a dangerous sidetrack of pain and suffering
(ii) When traveling out-of-body, before one comes back
to one's current body, evil spirits could enter one's
current body
(iii)If not well-versed in out-of-body travel, one may
not be able to come back and occupy one's current body
at all.

All said and done, if one does have an out-of-body
experience, one need not fear death, because one would
know for CERTAIN that what dies is the body, and not
the self (Jeevaathma) - we need to realize the truth
of the Rebirth principle and lose our fear of death,
either by direct experience, or by complete Faith in
our Aachaaryaas.

Examination of the tenet of Law of Karma:
----------------------------------------

In the Path of Self Inquiry, the Law of Karma may be
verified either by direct experience or by inference.

For direct experience, one should develop the power of
intuition (subtle levels of thinking, feeling and
knowing) to be able to link causes and effects in
one's own life - the learned say that meditation of
the right kind will help in this regard. Pitfalls
include pseudo-intuition, sophistical reasoning, etc.

The Path of Self Inquiry is thus dangerous for most
people, the Experts say, because most people do not
qualify themselves BEFORE treading this Path. 
Qualification would include things like Yama, Niyama,
Shamam, Dhamam, celibacy, etc.

For verification of the Law of Karma by inference one
simply has to correlate causes and effects in the
lives of other people. For example:

(i) Jesus Christ/Adolf Hitler (cause and effect)
(ii) Vaali in the Raamaayana (cause) and the hunter
who shot an arrow at Lord Krishna towards the end of
the Dwaapara Yuga (effect)
(iii)Parikshith insulting a Rishi (cause) and his
death after a week (effect)
(iv) Mother Seetha insulting LakshmaNa and disobeying
his requests not to cross the lines he had drawn on
the ground (cause) and Her abduction by RaavaNa and
subsequent Agni Pariksha (effect)

And so on.

------------------------------------------

adiYen,

Ashok K

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