r e i n c a r n a t i o n
FIVE LECTURES ON REINCARNATION ---- Swami Abhedananda.
III.
THE AMAZING ACHIEVEMENTS OF MODERN SCIENCE HAVE BEEN OPENING EVERY DAY NEW GATES OF WISDOM AND SLOWLY BRINGING HUMAN MINDS NEARER AND NEARER TO THE ULTIMATE REALITY OF THE UNIVERSE.
The fire of knowledge kindled
by science has already burnt down many dogmas and beliefs, held sacred
by the superstition of the past, which stood in the way of
truth-seeking minds. In the first place science has disproved the
theory of the creation of the universe out of nothing by the action of
some supernatural power. It has shown that the universe did not appear
in its present form or come into existence all of a sudden only a few
thousand years ago, but that it has taken ages to pass through
different stages before it could reach its present condition. Each of
these stages was directly related to a previous stage by the law of
causation, which always operates in accordance with definite
rules. The phenomena of the universe, according to science, are
subject to evolution, or gradual change and progressive development
from a relatively uniform condition to a relative complexity. From the
greatest solar system down to the smallest blade of grass, everything
in the universe has taken its present shape and form through this
cosmic process of evolution. Our planet earth has gradually evolved,
perhaps out of a nebulous mass which existed at first in a gaseous
state. The sun, moon, stars, satellites and other planets have come
into existence by going through innumerable changes produced by the
evolutionary process of the Cosmos. Through the same process plants,
insects, fishes, reptiles, birds, animals, man, and all living matter
that inhabit this earth have evolved from minute germs of life into
their present forms. The theory of Evolution says that man did not
come into existence all of a sudden, but is related to lower animals
and to plants, either directly or indirectly. The germ of life had
passed through various stages of physical form before it could appear
as a man. That branch of science which is called Embryology has proved
the fact that "man is the epitome of the whole creation." It tells
that the human body before its birth passes through all the different
stages of the animal kingdom—such as the polyp, fish, reptile, dog,
ape, and at last, man. If we remember that nature is always
consistent, that her laws are uniform and that whatever exists in the
microcosm exists also in the macrocosm, and then study nature, we
shall find that all the germs of life which exist in the universe are
bound to pass through stages resembling the embryonic types before
they can appear in the form of man.
But there is another nature in man which is higher than this. It
expresses itself in various ways, but on a higher plane. Love of
truth, mastery over passion, control of the senses, disinterested
self-sacrifice, mercy and kindness to all creatures, desire to help
the distressed, forgiveness, faith in a Supreme Being and devotion;
all these are the expressions of that higher moral and spiritual
nature. They cannot be explained as developed from animal nature by
means of the struggle for material existence. For these qualities are
not to be found in lower animals, although the struggle for existence
is there. The moral and spiritual nature of human beings cannot be
traced as the outgrowth or gradual development of the animal
nature. There is a dispute among the Evolutionists as to the method of
explaining their cause. Some say that these higher faculties have
evolved out of the lower ones and have developed by variation and
natural selection; while others hold that some other higher influence,
law or agency is required to account for them.
Professor Huxley says: "As I have already urged, the practice of that
which is ethically best—what we call goodness or virtue—involves a
course of conduct which in all respects is opposed to that which leads
to success in the cosmic struggle for existence. In place of ruthless
self-assertion, it demands self-restraint; in place of thrusting aside
or treading down all competitors, it requires that the individual
shall not merely respect, but shall help his fellows; its influence is
directed not so much to the survival of the fittest as to the fitting
of as many as possible to survive. It repudiates the gladiatorial
theory of existence. It demands that each man who enters into the
enjoyment of the advantages of a polity shall be mindful of his debt
to those who have laboriously constructed it, and shall take heed that
no act of his weakens the fabric in which he has been permitted to
live. Laws and moral precepts are directed to the end of curbing the
cosmic process, and reminding the individual of his duty to the
community, to the protection and influence of which he owes, if not
existence itself, at least the life of something better than a brutal
savage." ("Evolution and Ethics," pp. 81-82.)
Prof. Calderwood says: "So far as human organism is concerned, there
seem no overwhelming obstacles to be encountered by an evolution
theory, but it seems impossible under such a theory to account for the
appearance of the thinking, self-regulating life distinctly human."
Thus, according to some of the best thinkers, the explanation of the
moral and spiritual nature of man as a development of the animal
nature, is quite insufficient and unsatisfactory. The theory of
natural selection in the struggle for existence cannot explain the
cause of the higher nature of man. We cannot say that a theory is
complete because it explains many facts. On the contrary, if it fails
to explain a single fact, then it is proved to be incomplete. As such,
the theory that cannot explain satisfactorily the cause of the moral
and spiritual nature of man cannot be accepted as a complete
theory. That explanation will be considered as complete which will
explain most satisfactorily all the various manifestations of the
animal, moral and spiritual nature. Moreover, supposing the "tendency
to vary" has evolved into the moral and spiritual nature of man,
science does not explain the cause of that tendency to vary, nor how
animal nature can be transformed into moral and spiritual nature. Is
that "tendency to vary" indefinite, or is it limited by any definite
law? Science does not say anything about it.
The explanation of the theologians, that the spiritual nature has been
superadded to the animal nature by some extra-cosmic spiritual agency
is not scientific, nor does it appeal to our reason. Now let us see
what Vedanta has to say on this point. Vedanta accepts evolution and
admits the laws of variation and natural selection, but goes a step
beyond modern science by explaining the cause of that "tendency to
vary." It says, "there is nothing in the end which was not also in the
beginning." It is a law which governs the process of evolution as well
as the law of causation. If we admit this grand truth of nature, then
it will not be difficult to explain by the theory of Evolution the
gradual manifestation of the higher nature of man. The tendency of
scientific monism is towards that end.
Some of the modern scientists who hold the monistic position have
found out the same truth which was discovered long ago by the Vedantic
philosophers in India. J. Arthur Thomson, an eminent English scientist
of the present day, in his book on "The Study of Animal Life," says:
"The world is one, not two-fold-, the spiritual influx is the primal
reality and there is nothing in the end which was not also in the
beginning." But the evolutionists do not accept this truth. Let us
understand it clearly. It means that that which existed potentially at
the time of the beginning of evolution has gradually manifested in the
various stages and grades of evolution. If we admit that a unicellular
germ of life or a bioplasm, after passing through various stages of
evolution, has ultimately manifested in the form of a highly developed
human being, then we shall have to admit the potentiality of all the
manifested powers in that germ or bioplasm, because the law is "that
which exists in the end existed also in the beginning." The animal
nature, higher nature, mind, intellect, spirit, all these exist
potentially in the germ of life. If we do not admit this law then the
problem will arise: How can non-existence become existent? How can
something come out of nothing? How can that come into existence which
did not exist before? Each germ of life, according to Vedanta,
possesses infinite potentialities and infinite possibilities. The
powers that remain latent have the natural tendency to manifest
perfectly and to become actual. In their attempt they vary according
to the surrounding environments, selecting suitable conditions or
remaining latent as long as circumstances do not favor them. Therefore
variation, according to Vedanta, is caused by this attempt of the
potential powers to become actual. When life and mind began to evolve,
the possibilities of action and reaction hitherto latent in the germ
of life became real and all things became, in a sense, new. Nobody can
imagine the amount of latent power which a minute germ of life
possesses until it expresses in gross form on the physical plane. By
seeing the seed of a Banyan tree, one who has never seen the tree
cannot imagine what powers lie dormant in it. When a baby is born we
cannot tell whether he will be a great saint, or a wonderful artist,
or a philosopher, or an idiot, or a villain of the worst type. Parents
know nothing about his future. Along with his growth certain latent
powers gradually begin to manifest. Those which are the strongest and
most powerful will overcome others and check their course for some
time; but when the powers that remain subdued by stronger ones get
favorable conditions they will appear in manifested forms. As, for
instance, chemical forces may slumber in matter for a thousand years,
but when the contact with the re-agents sets them free, they appear
again and produce certain results. For thousands of years galvanism
slumbered in copper and zinc, which lay quietly beside silver. As soon
as all three are brought together under the required conditions silver
is consumed in flame. A dry seed of a plant may preserve the
slumbering power of growth through two or three thousand years and
then reappear under favorable conditions. Sir G. Wilkinson, the great
archaeologist, found some grains of wheat in a hermetically sealed
vase in a grave at Thebes, which must have lain there for three
thousand years. When Mr. Pettigrew sowed them they grew into plants.
Some vegetable roots found in the hands of an Egyptian mummy, which
must have been at least two thousand years old, were planted in a
flower-pot, and they grew and flourished. Thus, whenever the latent
powers get favorable conditions, they manifest according to their
nature, even after thousands of years.
REINCARNATION AND EVOLUTION WALK HAND IN HAND.
SIMILARLY, THERE ARE MANY INSTANCES OF SLUMBERING MENTAL POWERS.
After
remaining dormant for a long period in our normal condition, they may,
in certain abnormal states—such as madness, delirium, catalepsy,
hypnotic sleep and so forth-flash out into luminous consciousness and
throw into absolute oblivion the powers that are manifesting in the
normal state. Talents for eloquence, music, painting, and uncommon
ingenuity in several mechanical arts, traces of which were never found
in the ordinary normal condition, are often evolved in the state of
madness. Somnambulists in deep sleep have solved most difficult
mathematical problems and performed various acts with results which
have surprised them in their normal waking states. Thus we can
understand that each individual mind is the storehouse of many powers,
various impressions and ideas, some of which manifest in our normal
state, while others remain latent. Our present condition of mind and
body is nothing but the manifested form of certain dormant powers that
exist in ourselves. If new powers are roused up and begin to manifest
the whole nature will be changed into a new form. The manifestation of
latent powers is at the bottom of the evolution of one species into
another. This idea has been expressed in a few words by Patanjali, the
great Hindu evolutionist who lived long before the Christian
era. [Footnote: The reader ought to know that the doctrine of
Evolution was known in India long before the Christian era. About the
seventh century, B. C., Kapila, the father of Hindu Evolutionists,
explained this theory for the first time through logic and
science. Sir Monier Monier Williams says: "Indeed if I may be allowed
the anachronism, the Hindus were Spinozites more than 2,000 years
before the existence of Spinoza; and Darwinians many centuries before
Darwin; and Evolutionists many centuries before the doctrine of
Evolution had been accepted by the scientists of our time and before
any word like Evolution existed in any language of the world." (P. 12,
"Hinduism and Brahminism.") Prof. Huxley says: "To say nothing of
Indian Sages to whom Evolution was a familiar notion ages before Paul
of Tarsus was born." (P. 150, "Science and Hebrew Tradition.")] In the
second aphorism of the fourth chapter (see "Raja Yoga," by Swami
Vivekananda, p. 210) it is said, "The Evolution into another species
is caused by the in-filling of nature." The nature is filled not from
without but from within. Nothing is superadded to the individual soul
from outside. The germs are already there, but their development
depends upon their coming in contact with the necessary conditions
requisite for proper manifestation. We sometimes see a wicked man
suddenly become saintlike. There are instances of murderers and
robbers becoming saints. A religionist will explain the cause of their
sudden change, by saying that the grace of the Almighty has fallen
upon them and transformed their whole nature. But Vedanta says that
the moral and spiritual powers that remained latent in them have been
roused up, and the result is the sudden transformation. None can tell
when or how the slumbering powers will wake up and begin to
manifest. The germ of life, or the individual soul as it is ordinarily
called, possesses infinite possibilities. Each germ of life is
studying, as it were, the book of its own nature by unfolding one page
after another. When it has gone through all the pages, or, in other
words, all the stages of evolution, perfect knowledge is acquired, and
its course is finished. We have read our lower nature by turning each
page, or, in other words, by passing through each stage of animal life
from the minutest bioplasm up to the present stage of existence. Now
we are studying the pages which deal with moral and spiritual laws. If
any one wants to read any page over again he will do it. Just as in
reading a book, if anybody feels particularly interested in any page
or chapter he will read it over and over again and will not open a new
page or a new chapter until he is perfectly satisfied with
it. Similarly, in reading the book of life, if the individual soul
likes any particular stage, he will stay there until he is perfectly
satisfied with it; after that he will go forward and study other
pages. One may read very slowly, and another very fast; but whether we
read slowly or rapidly each one of us is bound to read the whole book
of nature and attain to perfection sooner or later.
According to Vedanta, the end and aim of Evolution is the attainment
of perfection. Physical evolution of animal life reached its
perfection in human form. There cannot be any other form higher than
human on this earth under present conditions. It is the perfection of
animal form. From this we can infer that the tendency of the law of
Evolution is to reach perfection. When it is attained to, the whole
purpose is served. Do we see in nature any other higher form evolved
out of the human body? No. Shall we not be justified if we say that
the end of physical evolution is the attainment of the perfection of
animal form? Again as the purpose and method of natural laws are
uniform throughout the universe, the end of intellectual, moral and
spiritual evolution will be attained when intellectual, moral and
spiritual perfection are acquired. Intellectual perfection means
perfection of intellect; and intellect is perfect when we understand
the true nature of things and never mistake the unreal for the real,
matter for spirit, non-eternal for eternal, or vice versa. Moral
perfection consists in the destruction of selfishness; and spiritual
perfection is the manifestation of the true nature of spirit which is
immortal, free, divine and one with the Universal Spirit or
God. Evolution attains to the highest fulfilment of its purpose when
the spirit manifests perfectly. The tendency of nature is to have
perfect manifestation of all her powers. When certain powers
predominate they manifest first while the others remain dormant. As we
find in the process of evolution, when animal nature manifests
perfectly the moral and spiritual nature remain latent. Again when
moral and spiritual nature manifest fully, the animal is in
abeyance. It is for this reason we do not find expressions of moral
and spiritual nature in lower animals or in those human beings who
live like them. Man is the only animal in whom such perfect
expressions of moral and spiritual nature are possible. When the
individual soul begins to study its spiritual nature, its lower or
animal nature is gradually eclipsed. As the higher nature becomes
powerful the lower nature dwindles into insignificance; its energy is
transformed into that of the higher nature, and ultimately it
disappears altogether and rises no more. Then the soul becomes free
from the lower or animal nature. There are many stages in the higher
nature, as well as in the lower. Each of these stages binds the
individual soul so long as it stays there. As it rises on a higher
plane the lower stages disappear and cease to bind. But the moment
that any individual, after passing through all the stages of the
spiritual nature, reaches the ultimate point of perfection, he
realizes his true nature which is immortal and divine. Then his true
individuality manifests. For lack of true knowledge, he identified
himself with each stage successively and thought that his
individuality was one with the powers which were manifested in each
stage. Consequently he thought by mistake that he was affected by the
changes of each stage. But now he realizes that his real individuality
always remained unaffected. He sees that his true individuality
shines always in the same manner, although the limiting adjuncts may
vary. As the light of a lamp appears of different colors, if it passes
through glasses of different colors, so the light of the true
individual appears as animal or human when it passes through the
animal or human nature of the subtle body. The subtle body of an
individual changes from animal nature through moral and spiritual into
divine. As this gradual growth cannot be expected in one life we shall
have to admit the truth of Reincarnation, which teaches gradual
evolution of the germ of life or the individual soul through many
lives and various forms. Otherwise the theory of Evolution will remain
imperfect, incomplete and purposeless. The doctrine of Reincarnation
differs from the accepted theory of Evolution in admitting a gradual
but continuous evolution of the subtle body through many gross
forms. The gross body may appear or disappear, but the subtle body
continues to exist even after the dissolution of the gross body and
re-manifests itself in some other form.
The theory of Reincarnation when properly understood will appear as a
supplement to the theory of Evolution. Without this most important
supplement the Evolution theory will never be complete and
perfect. Evolution explains the process of life, while Reincarnation
explains the purpose of life. Therefore, both must go hand in hand to
make the explanation satisfactory in every respect.
James Freeman Clarke says: "That man has come up to his present state
of development by passing through lower forms, is the popular doctrine
of science to-day. What is called Evolution teaches that we have
reached our present state by a very long and gradual ascent from the
lowest animal organizations. It is true that the Darwinian theory
takes no notice of the evolution of the soul, but only of the
body. But it appears to me that a combination of the two views would
remove many difficulties which still attach to the theory of natural
selection and the survival of the fittest. If we are to believe in
Evolution let us have the assistance of the soul itself in this
development of new species. Thus science and philosophy will
co-operate, nor will poetry hesitate to lend her aid." (P. 190, "Ten
Great Religions," II.) Evolution of the body depends upon the
evolution of the germ of life or the individual soul. When these two
are combined the explanation becomes perfect.
WISE MEN DON'T FEAR DEATH.
THE THEORY OF REINCARNATION IS A LOGICAL NECESSITY FOR THE COMPLETION OF THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION. If we admit a continuous evolution of a
unit of the germ of life through many gross manifestations then we
unconsciously accept the teachings of the doctrine of Reincarnation.
In passing through different forms and manifestations the unit of life
does not lose its identity or individuality. As an atom does not lose
its identity or individuality (if you allow me to suppose an atom has
a kind of individuality) although it passes from the mineral, through
the vegetable, into the animal, so the germ of life always preserves
its identity or individuality although it passes through the different
stages of evolution.
Therefore it is said in the "Bhagavad Gîtâ," as in our ordinary life
the individual soul passes from a baby body to a young one and from a
young to an old, and carries with it all the impressions, ideas and
experience that it has gathered in its former stage of existence and
reproduces them in proper time, so when a man dies the individual soul
passes from an old body into a new one, and takes with it the subtle
body wherein are stored up all that it experienced and gathered during
its past incarnations. Knowing this, wise men are never afraid of
death. They know that death is nothing but a mere change from one body
into another. Therefore, if any one does not succeed in conquering the
lower nature by the higher, he will try again in his next incarnation,
after starting from the point which he reached in his past life. He
will not begin again from the very beginning, but from the last stage
at which he arrived. Thus we see that Reincarnation is the logical
sequence of evolution. It completes and makes perfect that theory and
explains the cause of the moral and spiritual nature of man.
This text was borrowed from Project Gutenberg. Contact the webmaster Rob Sullivan at bunyarra@hotmail.com. Anticopyright February 2007.
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