Reincarnation, Karma and Yoga
“Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.
As the embodied soul continuously 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.”
Bhagavad-Gita 2.12-13
Before I sat down to write this story, I read an article on The Cut discussing the world’s most expensive skin moisturizer, Estee Lauder’s Crème de la Mer. Andrew Bevacqua, Estee Lauder’s senior vice-president of research and development, confirms the bizarre theory that rocket scientist Max Huber invented the cream to heal himself after a chemical burn accident caused serious damage to his face; and that Estee Lauder hired a psychic medium to contact Huber from beyond when first attempts to re-create his formula following his death were unsuccessful.
The concept of reincarnation and theories of afterlife in general are mostly taken to be outside the scope of science and left a matter of personal belief. To some they even seem to defy logic because they imply that consciousness is incorruptible, and its endurance lasts even well after death. At death all brain activity shuts off and the body decomposes. How then does consciousness survive? And how do we subject theories of what happens after death to testable explanations?
Explanations for observable phenomena are generally developed and evaluated through the empirical approach of science. For example, the empirical methodology accepts that matter exists because sometimes we can see and feel it in its solid, liquid and gaseous phases. We can do experiments to prove the existence of matter when we don’t perceive it through our senses. For example, how do we know air is there? We know that all matter has weight and takes up space. So fill a balloon with air and throw it into a box, it will take up space, an empty one won’t. Next, take two empty balloons and tape them to the ends of a meter stick, hang a meter stick on a piece of string so it’s perfectly balanced. Repeat the experiment with only one of the balloons filled with air and the end with a full balloon sinks because it now weighs more than the end with an empty balloon.
Physicists use the theory of quantum mechanics to study matter at the level of atoms and subatomic particles. And the results appear counterintuitive; such as in the “Double slit experiment”. For instance, suppose lots of tiny solid particles like marbles are randomly shot at the screen and pass through two closely positioned slits before hitting the screen, they form two parallel lines on the back screen. But when a beam of light passes through the two slits, the result is a series of many bright and dark stripes called interference pattern, and this behavior characterizes light as a kind of a wave. Quantum particles of matter such as electrons would be expected to behave like tiny marbles; surprisingly, they can also create interference patterns like waves. Even stranger is that over time, electrons still reveal an interference pattern even when passed through the slits one by one to eliminate the possibility of them interfering with each other like waves do. Theoretically, this means a single electron simultaneously goes through both slits and it goes through neither; it goes through just one slit and it goes through just the other! All of these possibilities are said to be in “superposition" with each other. However, when physicists put a detector to observe which slit each electron actually goes through, the electrons go back to behaving like tiny particles; they produce a pattern of two parallel lines. The sheer act of observing causes a collapse of the superposition state and each electron now goes through only one slit, not both. Now the question becomes, what actually is matter; particles or waves (and waves of what)? And how is the observer’s mind linked to any of these?
According to the theory of holism, parts of a whole (as of living organisms) are in unified interconnection, such that they cannot exist independently of the whole; thus, the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts.
The perspective of Sanskrit texts of ancient India known as the Vedas, which are a compilation of realizations from practices of Yoga and meditation, has always been that the entire functioning of nature is driven by consciousness and can only be properly understood in reference to the unifying consciousness. We sometimes come across this holistic view of reality in expressions such as “mind over matter” as well as the idea of karma that describes how one’s experience of reality at any point in time is a manifestation of their mindset or consciousness as well as an outcome of actions they previously performed to influence reality.
The Vedas divide spectrum of physical nature into eight material elements – five gross elements called the panchabhutas (or “five elements”), which combine to form unconscious objects; and the three subtle elements that form the psychic mind in living beings. The five gross elements (earth; water; fire; air; and ether) are equivalent to states of matter and are responsible for the formation of the gross body. Earth corresponds to the solid state; water to liquid; fire takes different forms of energy such as light and heat; air is gases; while ether is the fabric of space and has a tendency to contain and keep things together. Each of these five elements is composed of all previous ones.
Through yoga and meditation, the seed of consciousness has been located deep within the chambers of the heart in the form of the atma (the immortal living force which is conscious in character; often called the soul), and from that point it spreads throughout the entire body; just as a candle situated in one place shines its light around. The text called Bhagavad-Gita (2.23-24), the most prominent authority on the dynamics of the soul, states that “The soul can never be cut to pieces by any weapon, or burned by fire, or moistened by water, or withered by the wind. This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be neither burned nor dried. He is everlasting; present everywhere, unchangeable, immovable and eternally the same.” In the Svetasvatara Upanishad and Srimad Bhagavatam texts the size of the soul is said to be 1/10,000th the tip of a hair. The sage Parasara Muni is reputed to have realized the same through perfection of yoga.
By nature the soul is sat-cid-ananda (eternal, all-knowing and full of ever-expanding bliss). But this quality is not expressed when the soul is in contact with unconscious matter. Therefore, the soul becomes covered with the three subtle elements that make up the psychic mind or subtle body through which it experiences the gross body and external environment. Imagine there is a chariot being drawn by five horses. The body is the chariot and the soul is the passenger seated in the back of the chariot and is not in control. A mirror image of the soul’s consciousness is created on the inner layer of the psychic mind called ahankara (false ego – “I” and “me” – the charioteer in control of the five horses; which are senses of hearing, smell, vision, taste and feel). On account of false ego and five senses, the otherwise eternal soul becomes conditioned and develops perception of identity and ownership in relation to matter, and thus the struggle for self-preservation begins. We retain the exact same sense of “I” and “me” even after undergoing various bodily changes and transitioning between different states of identity such as from childhood into adulthood because the conscious soul never changes. The second layer of the subtle body is the buddhi (intelligence (or instinct as in animals and plants) – the harness by which ego controls senses through the bias of “right” or “wrong”). The outer layer of the subtle body is called manas (the mind or personality), and is an impression of memories and intentions formed during the conditioned soul’s sensory experiences with the external environment. The genetic information of the gross body is an outward self-similar pattern of the subtle body or psychic mind.
In addition, the atma or eternal living force as well as lifeless matter are described to be fractal expansions from the cause of all causes called Bhagavan (Personality of Godhead).
The Isopanishad states that:
“The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.”
The Personality of Godhead has a form that is sat-cid-ananda (eternal, full of knowledge and ever-expanding bliss); therefore the soul which sparks from Him also has such qualities. The variation in this self-similarity is that the soul is finite in size and possesses a single body at a time, but the Personality of Godhead expands himself as the Paramatma (Super-soul) and simultaneously accompanies each soul in every material body; the Super-soul is also present within every paramanu (atom). Moreover, both Bhagavan and his Paramatma expansion are full of consciousness and therefore able to exert will over matter – the atma or soul shares this quality. But Bhagavan and Paramatma are self-sufficient and always remain transcendental to matter, while the soul has a tendency to become attracted to matter.
There are two types of energy emanating from the Personality of Godhead. One is His own eternal effulgence called Brahman; from which the other energy (this phenomenal world) which is characterized by its dull and temporary nature expands via sound vibration. The physical world retains the mirror image of its eternal and conscious source through systemic cycles of formation, endurance and deterioration, as well as various consistent laws and principles.
This means the eternal soul conditioned to identify with matter becomes a perpetual pleasure seeker and has to constantly change material bodies not only according to its own intentions but also in accordance with laws and principles that regulate the physical nature. Bhagavad-Gita (2.22-27) declares that “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.” Thus, “One who has taken his birth is sure to die, and after death one is sure to take birth again.”
All living beings undergo this cycle of repeated birth and death. Which type of body one will accept next depends on the impressions left upon the mind at the moment of death. Sometimes events such as accidents and illness result in the psychic mind existing without the gross body, as it appears to be the case with Max Huber, although such situations are temporary. All karma must end!
The soul only reaches state of full consciousness when reunited with the Personality of Godhead through the practice of yoga (hence yoga means “union”). There are two processes of yoga; the ascending process and the descending process. In the perfection stage of the ascending process one realizes the impersonal Brahman effulgence pervading the entirety of matter; and from that experience speculates that the soul dissolves to become one with Brahman. As such, in the Isopanisad such yogis are called “killers of the soul”. In the descending process a devotee seeks to develop bhakti (loving-potency) in order that the soul is awakened to its form of sat-cid-ananda (eternity, cognizance and ever-expanding blissfulness) and thus penetrate the impersonal Brahman effulgence and reunite with the Bhagavan or eternal personal form of the Complete Whole.