The Mystery of Consciousness
Death. Man's most mysterious, relentless, and inevitable adversary. Does death mean
the end of life, or does it merely open the door to another life, another dimension, or another world?
If man's consciousness
survives the death experience, then what determines its transition to new realities?
In order to gain a clear understanding
of these mysteries, man has traditionally turned to enlightened philosophers, accepting their teachings as representative
of a higher truth.
But when man endeavors to understand something beyond the scope of the material senses, beyond instruments
of measurement and the faculty of mental speculation, then there is no alternative but to approach a higher source of knowledge.
No scientist has successfully explained through laboratory investigations the mystery of consciousness or its destination
after the destruction of the material body. Research in this field has produced many divergent theories, but their limitations
must be recognized.
The systematic principles of reincarnation, on the other hand, comprehensively explain the subtle
laws governing our past, present, and future lives.
If one is to understand reincarnation at all, he must acknowledge
the fundamental concept of consciousness as an energy distinct from and superior to the matter composing the physical body.
This principle is supported by examination of the unique thinking, feeling, and willing capacities of the human being. Can
DNA strands or other genetic components possibly induce the feelings of love and respect one person has for another? What
atom or molecule is responsible for the subtle artistic nuances in Shakespeare's Hamlet or Bach's "Mass in B Minor"? Man and
his infinite capabilities cannot be explained by mere atoms and molecules. Einstein, the father of modern physics, admitted
that consciousness could not be adequately described in terms of physical phenomena. "I believe that the present fashion of
applying the axioms of science to human life is not only entirely a mistake, but also has something reprehensible in it,"
the great scientist once said.
Indeed, scientists have failed to explain consciousness by means of the physical laws that
govern everything else within their purview. Frustrated by this failing, Nobel laureate in physiology and medicine Albert
Szent-Gyorgyi recently lamented, "In my search for the secret of life, I ended up with atoms and electrons, which have no
life at all. Somewhere along the line, life has run out through my fingers. So, in my old age, I am now retracing my steps."
Accepting the notion that consciousness arises from molecular interaction requires an enormous leap of faith, much greater
than that required for a metaphysical explanation. As Thomas Huxley, the well-known biologist, said, "It seems to me pretty
plain that there is a third thing in the universe, to wit, consciousness which I cannot see to be matter or force or any conceivable
modification of either..."
Further recognition of the unique properties of consciousness was given by Nobel laureate in
physics Niels Bohr, who remarked, "We can admittedly find nothing in physics or chemistry that has even a remote bearing on
consciousness. Yet all of us know there is such a thing as consciousness, simply because we have it ourselves. Hence consciousness
must be part of nature, or, more generally, of reality, which means that quite apart from the laws of physics and chemistry,
as laid down in quantum theory, we must also consider laws of quite a different kind." Such laws might well include the laws
of reincarnation, which govern the passage of consciousness from one physical body into another.
To begin understanding
these laws, we may note that reincarnation is not an alien, antipodal event, but one that occurs with regularity in our own
bodies during this very lifetime. In The Human Brain, Professor John Pfeiffer notes, "Your body does not contain a single
one of the molecules that it contained seven years ago." Every seven years one's old body is completely rejuvenated. The self,
however, our real identity, remains unchanged. Our bodies grow from infancy, to youth, to middle age, and then to old age,
yet the person within the body, the "I," always remains the same.
Reincarnationbased on the principle of a conscious self
independent of its physical bodyis part of a higher-order system governing the living being's transmigration from one material
form to another. Since reincarnation deals with our most essential selves, it is a subject of the utmost relevance to everyone.
Coming Back explains the fundamentals of reincarnation presented in the timeless Vedic text Bhagavad-gita. The Gita, thousands
of years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls, provides the most complete explanation of reincarnation available anywhere. It has
been studied for millennia by many of the world's greatest thinkers, and since spiritual knowledge is eternally true and does
not change with each new scientific theory, it is still relevant today.
Harvard biophysicist D. P. Dupey writes, "We may
lead ourselves down a blind alley by adhering dogmatically to the assumption that life can be explained entirely by what we
know of the laws of nature. By remaining open to the ideas embodied in the Vedic tradition of India, modern scientists can
see their own disciplines from a new perspective and further the aim of all scientific endeavor: the search for truth."
In
this age of global uncertainty, it is imperative that we understand the real origin of our conscious selves, how we find ourselves
in different bodies and conditions of life, and what our destinations will be at the time of death. This essential information
is comprehensively explained in Coming Back.
Chapter One shows how reincarnation has profoundly influenced many of the
world's greatest philosophers, poets, and artists, from Socrates to Salinger. Next, the process of reincarnation as expounded
in Bhagavad-gita, the oldest and most respected sourcebook on the subject of transmigration of the soul, is presented.
Chapter
Two, a lively dialogue between His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and noted religious psychologist Professor
Karlfried Graf von Durckheim, clearly shows how the material body and the antimaterial particle, the spirit soul, can never
be the same. In Chapter Three, a famous heart surgeon urges systematic research into the soul, and Srila Prabhupada cites
the Vedic version, thousands of years older and strikingly more informative than modern medical science. Three fascinating
narratives from the Vedic text Srimad Bhagavatam constitute Chapter Four. These accounts stand as classic examples of how
the soul transmigrates through different types of bodies under the control of the precise laws of nature and karma.
In
Chapter Five, excerpts from the writings of Srila Prabhupada clearly demonstrate that the principles of reincarnation can
be easily understood in terms of ordinary events and common observations that regularly occur in our daily lives. The next
chapter describes how reincarnation embodies a universal and infallible system of justice, wherein the soul is never banished
to eternal damnation but is constitutionally endowed with a permanent opportunity to escape the perpetual cycle of birth and
death.
Common misconceptions and chic notions about reincarnation form the subject of Chapter Seven, and the concluding
chapter, "Graduate Samsara: End the Cycle of Birth and Death," presents the process through which the soul can transcend reincarnation
and enter realms in which it is finally freed from the prison of the material body. Having once achieved this status, the
soul never again returns to this endlessly mutable world of birth, disease, old age, and death.
SAYINGS OF SRI SRI YOGANANDA ON REINCARNATION
There are two kinds of births & deaths: the breath way
& the astral way.Human birth is accompanied by the presence of breath , inhalation & exaltation of the airborne cosmic
currents.Earthly death is marked by the absence of bodily breath.The breath-marked births & deaths are peculiar to the
earthly plane of existence.The astral way of birth & death has a deeper meaning.In the physical world the soul is encased
in a fleshly body made of 16 gross elements.After death he soul is rid of its heavy overcoat of flesh but remains encased
in its two other subtle garments---the astral body of 19 subtle principles & the casual body of 35 ideas or thought forces.(body
signifies any encasement whether gross or subtle which surrounds the soul). When a devotee by divine ecstasy completely identifies
himself with omnipresent spirit,he goes out of the three bodies & attains omnipresence.But when a man leaves the physical
body in ignorance,he awakens in an astral world,encased in his astral body.In accordance with karmic law,he lives & develops
in the astral world for some time,working out some of his past tendencies.A the timing of the cosmic law,man again experiences
the death-disintegration of the astral body & is reborn once more in the physical world. At physical death man loses his
consciousness of the flesh & becomes conscious of his astral body in the astral world.Thus physical death is astral birth.Later,he
passes from the consciousness of luminous astral birth to the consciousness of dark astral death & awakens in a new physical
body.Thus astral death is physical birth.These recurrent cycles of physical & astral encasements are the ineluctable destiny
of all unenlightened men.
A truth seeker realizes by introspection & self analysis & by study under god
realized guru that the universal laws which governs the phenomenal world ordain that the karma pursued man must undergo this
series of births & deaths.The wise devotee does not grieve over his dire fate & difficult future experiences rather
he concentrates his utmost powers to destroy those evil karmas by identifying himself with the omniscient SPIRIT.Births &
deaths are inevitable for man only during the state of ignorance in which he thinks he is body & cannot exist without
it.Only the man who will not seek the awakening of wisdom must suffer the nightmares & delusive dreams of births &
deaths & the fanciful miseries & limitations attending them.A man through persistent wrong living may suffer from
continual nightmares that he is being suffocated & murdered.Only by right living may he disgorge his subconscious
mind of those evil impulses which are the sole cause of his nightly halluniciations.A man with an extreme fear of the cycle
of births & deaths may dream every night that he is being born as a baby & then that he dies after he becomes an adult.These
dreams may continue indefinitely with us until by wisdom the man becomes free from the harrowing fears that are motivating
his dreams.The same truth may be applied to the soul,if a man through delusion experiences births followed by deaths,he must
inexorably continue to do so until wisdom,meditation,discrimination & ecstatic communication with god he identifies his
soul with spirit.A man awake in omnipresent spirit loses all delusive nightmares.
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