Demystifying Reincarnation 20 – The Freedoms of the Reincarnation Worldview

So we will come in this session to the conclusion of our journey, where we discuss about the freedoms offered by the reincarnation worldview.

We discussed in the previous talk about the freedom from the sense of injustice in the world and the freedom from body based discrimination. Now we'll discuss about freedom from unidimensional materialism. Materialism is the ideology that matter is all that exists or matter is all that matters.

Now this ideology actually leads to devastating ecological, economic and emotional or psychological consequences. And when we have the spiritual worldview centered on reincarnation, then all those negative consequences can be countered. Let's begin with emotional.

Emotionally, we all long for happiness. Materialism makes us believe that we will get happiness by getting attractive material things. And because these material things in this world are limited, therefore we feel we are driven for intense competition towards getting those things.

And most of the time we don't get those things that we dream about and therefore we feel dissatisfied. And even when we get the things that we crave for, even then that doesn't satisfy us. Why? Because those material things being temporary, they give us fleeting pleasure.

The attractiveness itself is temporary. The sheen of the new disappears and then we are left craving what next. In this way, no matter how much we achieve with the materialistic worldview, we still feel dissatisfied.

And further, because we are so obsessed with the material, so we neglect the spiritual. And because of that, we feel eaten away by a gnawing sense of pointlessness, ennui, emptiness. What is the point of it all? What am I living for? This sense deadens us internally and thus we end up materially dissatisfied and spiritually deprived.

Spiritual savants refer to this as the phenomena of a person polishing the cage of a bird while letting the bird within starve. In contrast, when we acquire the spiritual worldview, we understand that the body is meant to serve the soul. The soul is not meant to serve the body.

That means the body is also important because it is a tool for us for functioning. But we give priority to the soul and we give priority to spiritual development by which we find inner satisfaction. And then we harmonize, harmonize our body and bodily needs and bodily desires with our spiritual growth.

And thus we get material satisfaction because we give attention, due attention to our spiritual side without pandering to our material side, without pandering to it. And because we stay spiritually connected, we experience sublime spiritual fulfillment. That's with emotionally we are ravished, we are famished by the materialistic worldview, whereas the reincarnation worldview, we are nourished by it.

And let's look at it from the economic perspective. And the fundamental economic problem in the world is that how to accommodate people's unlimited desires with the limited resources of the world. And the solution centers on training people to manage their desires.

Without that, if people don't learn to manage their desires, then the world will always be fragmented between the haves and the have-nots. Now the haves, no matter how much they have, materialism keeps them dissatisfied. Materialism keeps them craving for more and more and still more.

And in contrast, the have-nots, no matter, the have-nots actually are dissatisfied because they feel that having the material things are what will lead to happiness. And therefore, whereas the haves try to exploit and dominate, objectify the have-nots so that they can be used as tools for increasing what they have, the have-nots see the haves as their enemies, as the tormentors, as people to be overthrown. And society gets locked in a perpetual conflict.

Economically, the consequences of materialistic worldview are dissatisfaction, frustration, and conflict. But spiritually, the reincarnation worldview, we understand that economic development is an important part of life, but it is still a part of life. Our net worth does not determine our self-worth.

Our self-worth comes from our spiritual realization, our connection with the supreme spiritual reality, the sense of spiritual fulfillment that we find therein. And whatever we have materially, we put it to the best use. And when you put it to the best use, frequently grows.

And whatever we have, we get fulfillment through that. Both the haves and have-nots channel whatever they have towards constructive use. And when both of them are spiritually connected, the haves also become more sensitive, more generous.

And the have-nots also don't get paranoid or paralyzed or agonized by feelings of deprivation. But they focus on using what they have. Ecologically, today, the world is tethering on the brink of ecological Armageddon.

The Worldwatch Institute says that, actually, super disasters are no longer a doomsday prophecy. They are an imminent reality. There are many causes for the problems which we collectively call as climate change.

But if you consider, the major cause is the indiscriminate ravaging of the ecology that was actuated from the last 300-400 years by our adoption of an indiscriminately materialistic worldview. So by viewing nature as simply an object to be tamed and tapped for our own gratification, we have laid waste to forests, we have made land barren, we have caused rivers to dry up, we are running dangerously short of fossil fuels, the forest cover is getting exhausted, getting depleted, the air, water are polluted, food is polluted. And all this, if you see at one level, it has happened because of untrammeled materialism and the belief that the more we control and dominate matter and material nature, the more we'll be happy.

But spiritual worldview centered on reincarnation helps us understand that actually we are not meant to dominate nature, we are meant to cooperate with nature. Because we are not meant to make paradise over here, paradise awaits us in another realm. And this realm is a training ground, a preparation, a bridge to be crossed, a test to be passed, an opportunity to be tapped.

We're not meant to make a home here, we are meant to use this as a path to attain home. This understanding of the world helps us to focus our energies on spiritual growth, not on material domination and gratification. And we see nature not as a tool for us, we see nature as a gift from God.

And this vision helps us to infuse our view of nature with a sense of the sacred. And that also fosters harmony. So many prominent ecologists have said that the hope for rejuvenation in a fragile biosphere rests on humanity's finding non-material methods of enrichment.

Non-material methods of enrichment and the reincarnation worldview and the spiritual practices it offers are a profound, a potent, a practical method to non-material enrichment. The reincarnation worldview also offers us freedom from the agony of bereavement. We all live in the world and we all fear the loss of our loved ones.

And when someone is lost, if a loved one is lost, it can be devastating. And when it is so devastating, what is the solution? If we think a loved one was just made of matter and now destroyed, it's the end of it. We may cry our tears, but what more can we do? But when we understand that our loved ones are actually not their fragile bodily shells, they are spiritual selves and they are on an onward journey.

Now we were all together not for our material gratification, but for our spiritual evolution. And we shared some moments with them and now although they're not with us, they are also on a spiritual journey, we are also on the spiritual journey. And although materially we cannot do anything for them, but spiritually we can offer our prayers to them.

We can do our meditation, our spiritual activities can actually benefit them wherever they are. So both ways, our sense of what happened to them, do they exist or do they not exist, that sense of uncertainty and agony that is relieved by spiritual knowledge. And our feeling of helplessness and not being able to do anything for them, that also is countered by our knowing that if we offer prayers, those prayers will benefit them.

And in that way, we can actually overcome the feeling of bereavement, knowing that they are eternal, they continue to exist and they are also on a journey to the same one Supreme Lord towards whom we too are on a journey. That can actually be profoundly pacifying for us when we are overwhelmed by bereavement. Another very important freedom that the reincarnation world offers is freedom from the fear of death.

Actually, death is something so fearful, so revolting to our psyche that we just try to crush our awareness, squelch our awareness of it. Even when we see it in the media, we see it in the news, we often think of death as something of entertainment value. We see it in the media and entertainment and we think it's just more for entertainment.

Don't think of it as an imminent reality that is going to befall us sooner or later. So now, what is it that causes the fear of death and how can it be countered by the reincarnation worldview? We can consider the fear of death in three parts, about the past, about the present, and about the future. The moment of death is a moment of transition.

We are, in a sense, entering into the dark unknown, where life was going a predictable journey and after death, what is going to happen, we don't know. And when we look at the past, we have accumulated so many things and all those things which we love, which we are attached to, we are going to lose them. They are going to be ripped away from us and that, looking at the past, looking at all that we are losing, that causes terrible, terrible devastation.

And in the materialistic worldview, because we don't know anything beyond the material, so we put all our energies in trying to accumulate more and more material things. All our affection, all our emotion, all our love, we put it into material things. And then, when we are forced to confront the reality that we are going to lose it all at the time of death, then we feel, I've lost everything, what is left with me, what is the point of, what is the point, what did I achieve in my life? Everything is a waste.

But in contrast, if we focus on the spiritual worldview, then what do we understand? We see life as a journey of increasing our spiritual attachment towards our Lord. And when we develop that spiritual attachment, we understand that we have relationships in this world and they are of value, but our ultimate relationship is with our souls. The Gita wisdom explains that we as souls are parts of a whole.

That whole is known by different names in different traditions. The Gita reveals Him, so He may be known by the names Allah, Jehovah, Yahweh, like Buddha, but that one absolute is known in the Gita tradition by the name Krishna. Krishna means one who is all attractive, one who embodies within himself all the various things that attract us to different people, different things, that all attractive person is Krishna.

So then we understand that actually our life's purpose is to increase our attachment towards Him. So spiritual growth essentially means growth in our attraction to the supreme spiritual reality. The more we are thus growing spiritually, the spiritual credits that we acquire, they always stay with us.

The Bhagavad Gita states in 2.40 that Neha, Bhikram, and Aashosti It says that actually Neha, Bhikram, and Aashosti, that actually whatever spiritual credits we have, they will never be diminished, they will never be destroyed. A little spiritual credit can save us from great danger. This means that whereas at the material level, whatever we acquire, it's going to be lost.

At the spiritual level, whatever we acquire is not only going to stay with us, it's always going to be there with us. So when we look at the past, after having led a spiritual worldview, we feel satisfied that whatever material things I have, I've used them constructively for whatever purpose they were meant. But I have acquired a treasure with me, within me, in my developed consciousness and my attraction towards God, which is going to be with me forever.

So far from feeling that sense of pointlessness and wastedness, oh my life was a waste, we feel a sense of fulfillment because we have achieved something which is going to stay with us forever. The fear of loss because of being wrenched away from everything that is dear to us, that is countered by the spiritual worldview. Similarly, what about the present? In the materialistic worldview, we identify with the body and as we watch with our eyes, this very body crumbling down, succumbing under the attack of a thousand different possible ailments, then it's crushing to the spirit.

When we identify with the body and we feel the body is being destroyed, we feel as if I am being destroyed. And not only is there the trauma of the destruction of that which we are identifying, but also there is the far greater trauma of annihilation of our self-existence itself. In contrast, when we understand that the body is a tool, then we understand that okay, the body as a tool serves its purpose.

It's like we are going on a long journey and in the journey somewhere a car breaks down. Now when we see that this car has broken down so badly that I cannot fix it, then we look for another car. If we are too attached to the car, if we identify with the car, then we don't want to leave that car.

But if we are attached to the journey and the purpose of the journey, then okay, this car has broken down. Let me take another car. Let me move on.

So that attachment to that which is doomed for destruction causes devastation. But when our attachment is to that goal which is beyond all destruction, then we too go beyond the feelings of devastation. We keep growing in our spiritual journey.

So in the present, also certainly when the body breaks down, even for spiritualists, they will feel a sense of problem. But that is more of a discomfort than a disaster. For materialists, the destruction of the body is the ultimate disaster.

For spiritualists, it is a discomfort. Okay, the vehicle I was using, the vehicle is broken down. Now I have to look for another vehicle.

I have to wait till I'm taken to another vehicle. It's a discomfort, no doubt. But it's definitely not a devastation.

The scale of the pain that we experience in the time of death, it is substantially downgraded with this positive attachment to the purpose, not to the tool. And moving on, what about the future? In the materialistic worldview, the life ends with death. Or so then the whole idea of, you know, I'm existing now and one day I'll just not exist.

It's just psychologically beyond processing for most people. We just can't be able to think of a future in which we have no part to play. Or if we have some vague sense of future, there's also the growing fear that I have done so many wrong things.

I have not used my time and energy properly and I'm going to have to bear the consequences for that. So both ways, either non-existence or consequences, both of them can cause us enormous fear about the future. But when we have a spiritual worldview, when we understand that death is not a termination, nor is death a judgment, that is a transition.

We are on an evolution and that is a transition. If we have lived our life in a spiritually productive way, then we will be elevated to a higher destination. If we have lived in a fully spiritually purposeful way, then we will be elevated to the highest destination, we'll be liberated.

So just like when a girl who's getting married to some unknown man, she suddenly has to go to that house, leaving everyone she loves. She's filled with uncertainty, misery, fear. But if there's been a long courtship that has preceded that marriage, then the girl is looking forward to go to her beloved's home.

She knows that although she's leaving this place, she's going to a place where she'll be loved and cherished. So like that, if we have learned to direct our love towards the eternal Lord, then when we see death, it is not that death is not the time when we leave home, we see death as the time when we go home. When we go to be united with our eternal Lord, and that is life's supreme success.

That is the zenith of spiritual evolution, to come to a level where we attain life eternal. And thus, when we understand the spiritual worldview that is offered through with reincarnation and center peace, and we practice the spiritual practices of yoga, especially the process of bhakti yoga, which enables us to very easily and effectively among all yogas, to direct our heart, direct our love towards the all attractive supreme, who exists at the summit of spiritual reality. The purpose of yoga, in general, is to direct our consciousness from the material level to the spiritual level.

And bhakti yoga, by channeling our emotions, enables this redirection in the most expeditious and effective way. So, through the practice of bhakti yoga, when our love is directed towards the eternal, then we attain the eternal. At that time, reincarnation is demystified, death is transcended, immortality is attained, the mission of life becomes permanently successful.

Thus, we come to the end of our journey in this series of demystifying reincarnation. In this session, summarize quickly what we discussed, and then I'll do a quick overview of the course. We started in this session by talking about the freedoms of the reincarnation worldview.

We discussed the freedom from unidimensional materialism, that there is the economic, ecological, and emotional harms of the materialistic worldview and the joys of the spiritual worldview. Then we discussed freedom from bereavement, rather than feeling agonized about the non-existence of our loved one or the helplessness of not being able to help them. We feel relieved that they continue to exist and they are on the same journey on which we are.

And by our own spiritual practices, we feel empowered that we can help them even now. And the fear of death, the agony associated with death, when we, rather than losing what we have attached to, which is what happens in the materialistic worldview, we carry what we are attached to, our spiritual consciousness, when we have lived spiritually. And rather than seeing the body's destruction as a disaster, we see it as a discomfort.

We see it simply as changing from one vehicle to another. And then, with respect to the future, rather than seeing this as leaving home and leaving everything to go into a deep dark unknown, we see it as going home to be with our eternal Lord. Thus, reincarnation empowers us in our life journey to take that journey to supreme success.

So in our course, we started with a scientific overview of the evidence pointing towards reincarnation, the past life memories, the near-death experiences, and the mystery of consciousness. And what this contemporary scientific evidence is pointing to, we saw how wise people have pointed towards the same thing throughout history and across geography. Then, when there are pointers towards reincarnation, but where is the worldview which can explain reincarnation? For that, we look at the Gita-centered Vedic worldview, and therein we understood the concept of the soul as a concrete higher dimensional entity, and how the three-level model of the self helps us to understand past life memories, near-death experiences, and consciousness, something which scientific materialism can't explain.

Then we discussed the mechanism of reincarnation, how our desires and our karmic score directs our journey. We discussed the mechanism by which reincarnation takes place. We addressed common doubts about reincarnation.

And finally, we discussed about the freedoms that come from the reincarnation worldview. And by assimilating and applying the insights of the reincarnation-centered worldview, we can attain for ourselves life's ultimate freedom, the freedom for everlasting happiness. Thank you.

Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.