Karma Reincarnation Liberation: 8 Facts

8 Facts About Karma, Reincarnation and Liberation

• 8.4 million species
• 4.32 billion years of transmigration
• Liberation possible only in human life
• Karma Yoga’s 3 progressive stages
• Rebirths tied to core tendencies
• Celestial pleasures vs. eternal joy
• Transmigration through higher and lower lokas
• Role of a Guru in ending the cycle

Why Reincarnation is Essential to Understand the Law of Karma

The Law of Karma is the single most authority that manages affairs of this material world. No one has escaped the blows or loving pats of Karma. Since we have a past, a very distant past, Karma has come into being. Thus re-incarnation forms the basis of Karma in the Vedic ethos. 

The Law of Karma shall have no meaning if there were no re-incarnation. If one just had one life as certain man-made religions, there is no question of accruing Karma. If that were so, how does it matter how one lives? 

Even if one is judged as per just a single birth without past or future, it is scary to face an unforgivable judgement day, which knows no mercy and dispatches the being to eternal hell or heaven, with no possibility of uplift or improvement.

The Illusion of Rights and the Vedic Emphasis on Duties

On the other spectrum, man may think we just have one birth so why worry. The obvious mindset will be to exploit and talk and seize rights that to humbly seek responsibilities or be held accountable. Given man’s flimsy behaviour  rights would mean indulging in objects of the senses and doing everything possible that that pleases the senses. 

Why would anyone care for duties, when you have just one life? Whom do we then want to satisfy, other than ourselves? Contrary to this quite abject idea, the Vedic ethos tells man “Do not talk of rights, you have none. Talk only about duties”, which makes it binding on us, to probe deeper. 

Reincarnation: The Foundation of Spiritual Accountability

This probing shall take us into the domain of re-incarnation of the soul. If we want a better life, we should have been well-behaved in a previous life-time. Rights are reserved. Only if duties are well executed, there is a possibility that “certain” rights may be awarded, but that too depends on how many times one has gone against Dharma or the eternal laws of the spirit. So re-incarnation sets the basis for our life on this planet.

The Soul’s Journey Through 8.4 Million Lives

Fundamentally re-incarnation follows some broad outlines as enunciated by the Vedic writings and as expressed by fully-evolved or God-realized beings known as sages or seers. There are 8.4 million species that represent the various species on earth as well as species of different dimensions, who cannot be perceived by the five senses of humans directly, such as ghosts, goblins, celestial beings and those too of wide, varied nature. 

Depending on what one has performed and what one has failed to perform, appropriate and inappropriate, in line with or against the perfect Vedic injunctions, 8.4 million bodies are possible to be attained by a living entity and each body has a specific life-time, again depending on the law of Karma. 

Life-force or that entity which “lives” is universal, it has no respite and animates through these multitudinous bodies. The living entity is the individualized form of the Absolute. Along with it exists the aspect of matter. When these two come together, the living form of plants, animals or humans result. 

The living entities are technically ageless, simply changing bodies over infinite lifetimes, trying to crack the code of life, they are beginningless just like the Absolute. 

From Distortion to Divine Realization

However, because of their constant association with matter, the other aspect of the Absolute Personality of God, Bhagawan, there is distortion which differentiates the living entity from Bhagawan. 

Matter, although emerges from Bhagawan, is incapable of introducing distortion in Him. In that sense the Absolute Personality of Bhagawan is the parent of matter but remains undistorted and pure, although matter represents distortion and impurity. That aspect of the Absolute that gets distorted by matter is verily the living entity. 

The whole panorama of life is the journey of the living entity from almost complete distortion to a state of absolute clarity, realization of Bhagawan and attaining oneness with the Him and rendering Loving devotional service to Him, which is the only possibility for the living entity to keep itself clean, pristine and unsullied, unaffected by the distortions of matter, being certain that no other means is available.

Nature’s Response: How the Glutton Becomes a Hog

The philosophy of reincarnating and attaining the human form is explained further. For example, I am a human being, and I am attached to eating, eating from morning to night. I think of food all the time and I take the first opportunity to grab at food and talk to friends about food. 

I have developed a tendency, a certain tendency suiting a particular body, which should ideally not be present in the human body. Now each category of animals has been described in detail in Vedic Scriptures. Now, based on one’s understanding, when I am interested in food, like this, which animal is one reminded of? It is, of course, the “hog”. 

This is the most striking feature of my life, the very basis of my life. But this human body is not meant for slavish activities that only revolve around eating, mating, sleeping and defending as its primary or primitive motive. 

So a glutton shall obviously re-incarnate as a hog, so say the scriptures. This is done with a good intention, by Nature. We have been given this human body as Grace, as a blessing, for a higher life, for a higher goal. But if this life is wasted after food, Nature becomes particularly kind to the living entity. 

She says this human body is now wasted, so She gives you another body , where you enjoy “food”, you eat so much, so much more that you become fed up with food where there remains no hankering for tasty food. In your prior life-time before you became human, by arrangement of Nature, you could not enjoy food, during the natural course of evolution. You then became human; in that birth, Nature found out that your interest in food is similar to that of a hog. The hog’s body is suited for eating voraciously. 

As a human if you eat too much you may get sick, but as a hog, you need not worry about health, the more you eat “whatever”, the more you “enjoy”. 

How Nature Mirrors Our Desires Through Rebirth

Similarly humans who overtly engage with sex, take bodies of monkeys in their next life. Ladies who like to show their bodies, are reborn as trees, so that they get “fed” up, standing at the same place naked for hundreds of years and so on. Descriptions of all species and their particular tendencies are found extensively in the Puranas.

The soul is busy transmigrating all the time. For every tiny emotion, Nature has a body for you. For 4.32 billion years you transmigrate through 8.4 million bodies. However when the living entity enters final maturity after going around for millions of Kalpas ( Each Kalpa is 12 hours of Lord Brahma which is 4.32 billion earth years), intelligence becomes a possibility because of the individual living entity retains samskaras of pain and disinterest, the more it transmigrates and slowly learns all its lessons. 

The Journey Beyond Earth: Realms of Higher and Lower Rebirths

That is why you may find many intelligent people who may not be known to be particularly spiritual are attracted to knowledge so much so that they disengage from unnecessary eating, mating, sleeping and defending. Out of the 8.4 million species there are about 3 million lower species like ghosts, goblins etc who get that body because of excessive or unfulfilled desire, people who commit suicide and so one, where the suffering is many million times severe than that experienced by humans. 

Then there are about 1 to 2 million species of the higher planetary systems which science can perhaps never discover, the higher vibratory realms where the enjoyment is many many millions of times higher than what the richest man of earth can ever imagine, where this richest man of earth may appear as the poorest individual, having much lesser wealth when compared to the servant of the below ordinary being of that dimension of existence that we call the heavens. 

7/8 Questions from Sanatana Dharma

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The Endless Cycle of Rebirth: Beyond Earthly and Heavenly Attachments

Until people realize that the goal of life is neither to go to these upper subtle realms of enjoyment nor try to settle on earth, they go on recycling between the higher realms and earth without respite. 

If good Karma is stuck to them, which is also reincarnation in a higher subtler body, where pleasure seeking becomes the goal, bad karma  shall result on this earthly plane taking them to subtler hellish planets where the soul suffers for many million earth years. 

Liberation Lies Only Through Human Birth on Earth

The reincarnation is in subtler heavier bodies which undergoes severe pain and yet one does not die or leave that body for millions of years.  This is where the concept of liberation comes into being, a dimension of no return. 

This can be attained only while quitting the body the very last time from the earthly plane and that too when one gets the rare opportunity of reincarnating as a human. 

Such a human reincarnation can happen perhaps once in a thousand billion earth years. Of course the higher planetary subtle systems of the Devatas etc are pleasurable but they do not constitute “eternal happiness“, they do not guarantee joy “forever”, because the body of the heavenly and ghastly domain denizens are “Bhoga Yonis” or special bodies that are designed to only enjoy or suffer the fruits of bad actions they performed while having taken birth as a human being on the earthly plane. 

The Earth remains the only option for any being to exhaust all Karma through right action and wisdom thereby making redemption a possibility, never possible in any other dimension of existence.  Hence based on good Karma , a man of higher reckoning stays for say 70 years on earth and transmigrates a billion times in the higher realms, which Vedic scriptures call as “unfortunate”.

The life span of Devatas (celestials) is many many millions of years and the life span of Devatas can range over a few Kalpas, before one gets an opportunity to come down to earth. 

The scriptures say that even Devatas pine for a human body because they are fed-up with enjoyment and now they desire liberation. Liberation is only possible through the human body. This is the speciality of attaining human birth. Many of the successful people on earth may do good, but do not aim for liberation and hence they regurgitate between the higher and lower dimensions for several million cycles and never reach a point of liberation. 

The Liberated Soul Transcends Karma Forever

Liberation becomes the desire of the heart only by the Grace of a true sage, when a human associates with a sage, who is already liberated and “appears” on the earthly plane by the will of the Lord, to guide the frustrated soul. Such a person remains liberated forever and is never born or dies like so-called ordinary individuals.

A being only comes to peace and enters the eternal plane, the plane of perfect rest, when one does not have to undergo Karma, after all Karma has been exhausted, when liberation happens. This is the stage of God-realization, the perfectly intuitive state. 

This state is fully governed by the will of the individual, a power handed over to him by the Absolute, post-liberation, in perfect consonance with Divine Will. 

At this stage, the liberated one, shall be relieved of the suffering of birth and death, his appearance or disappearance on the earthly plane shall be, only to help other living entities attain liberation. 

Categories of Karma Yoga According to the Gita

Having understood how Karma is linked to Reincarnation it shall make more sense to discuss Karma Yoga, the ideal methodology a being has to adhere to so that during his visit to the earthly plane he does not lose the opportunity to escape the 14 worlds or “Bhuvans” of the Material Plane managed by Sri Brahma and graduate towards Moksha, redemption

There are these fundamental categories in which the science of Karma Yoga has found division in Srimad Bhagavad Gita, the Song of the Lord Govinda. These are:

(1) Karma Yoga with special emphasis on Action.

(2) Karma Yoga blended with Devotion.

(3) Karma Yoga, dominated by Devotion.

Karma Yoga with special emphasis on Action

Karma Yoga with Emphasis on Duty: Business as a Divine Offering

It is the preliminary stage of evolution, for the newly initiated practitioner of Karma Yoga. In this case, the practitioner performs duties and activities as enjoined in the scriptures. The practitioner does not involve himself in those activities where lies are excessively spoken. 

The practitioner also does not undertake tasks against the voice of conscience. These tasks shall fall under the category of what is suitable according to one’s outlook and temperament. It is not expected that a person with business mindset takes up activities like teaching the scriptures etc, where it is clear that his outlook is unsuitable to carry out the task. 

In this case the business man can very well carry out business sans cheating tendencies, sans keeping profit as his only goal and so on, so that the activities are carried out to the best of interests of oneself and of society, with Truth or Satya being the edifice of his business and serving society following the dictum that “The Customer is a representative of God”, as his motive.

At this stage the practitioner is expected to renounce the desire for fruit or returns, although he is expected to charge an non-exploitative fee for his product or service . 

He should attempt to renounce attachment to ambitions other than fulfilling with utter integrity, his duty as a business man or trader, that which he is privileged to carry out since it is handed over to him by Divine Will and also authorized to charge for his services and products. 

Renunciation of Fruits and Attachment: The True Essence of Karma Yoga

In His teaching, our dear Lord Sri Krishna exhorts at certain places only the renunciation of the fruit of Karma (Chapter 5, Verse 12; Chapter 12; verse 11; Chapter 18 Verse 11). At other places He lays emphasis on renunciation of attachment alone (Chapter 3, Verse 19; Chapter 6 Verse 4); while at some other places He has demanded both the renunciation of fruit, as well as of attachment (Chapter 2 verses 47, 48; Chapter 18 verses 6, 9). 

However the import of the above statements is that if renunciation of the fruit is intended, the purpose is to renounce attachment too. When a person renounces attachment it proceeds that he will have no interests in the fruit and fruit is attained through direct mercy of the Absolute, and the person should never own the fruits as an output for the service he has rendered. The Lord is unequivocal when he demands “ You are entitled to action alone, never to the results.” 

It was a clever way in which Lord Sri Krishna encouraged renunciation of both fruits of work and attachment to the work in one way or the other. It follows that both, renunciation of fruits and attachment to work are insisted upon. 

Karma Yoga Blended with Devotion: Witnessing the Divine Hand in Action

A person graduates to the second stage of Karma Yoga only when the mind relieves its grip on both the fruit of work and attachment to work.

In Karma Yoga blended with Devotion, the striver is commanded by the Lord to perform work for the pleasure of the Lord. Here too the striver has to embrace only that work which is in tune with his outlook and temperament. 

The striver is to see the Lord in all his activities, whatever he takes up (Chapter 18, Verse 46). This is the stage when the man of action is able to get a glimpse of the higher world, the higher law. 

This is also a stage when material laws are slowly submerged into the background and the great workings of the Lord come to the forefront. This is the stage in which the Karma Yogi is able to appreciate the hand of God emerging in all the activities that he takes up. 

He is able to then appreciate how work simply happens and flows. As the Karma Yogi progresses in his practice he shall be able to observe that it is not he, who is executing the tasks and “getting” results, but that everything is proceeding from a higher dimension and he is simply a spectator to the gamut of happenings and work that manifest.