We are not human beings with souls, but souls with human
bodies. We have chosen the current body to perform a particular role, let us do
it to our best, remembering that every little thing that comes our way was
designed by us.
We can experience this finite world through our five senses,
but we need to keep in touch with our real world and our real identity, the
soul. This is not possible through the five senses, but through the sixth
sense, which we were all born with, but never bothered to develop. We can
develop it and also get in touch with our soul through meditation.
Meditation
It is a long journey.
Ultimately everybody has to undertake it. We can do it in this life, or in the
next life, or after four lives. There is no hurry. After all, time is only in
the mind!
Several questions arise in the mind, as, Why have we chosen
these bodies? What is the explanation in our philosophy for this phenomenon?
In this Universe, there is only one energy, the Paramatman
or we can call God for the sake of understanding (Remember ‘Tat Twam Asi?). It
wanted to experience itself. When we want to see ourselves, we look at the
mirror. Similarly, the Paramatman created his/her own images to experience
itself - as jeevatman.
Who designs our lives?
When we take birth as a human, we decide a life plan for
ourselves, choose our parents, birthplace etc.,
As we start our lives, we are fascinated by things and beings around us
and instead of sticking to the original plan, we deviate our path and create
new karmas, which will create further bondage.
For example, we look at the ramp walking of the models on TV
and wish deeply to become a model. Then we have to take birth with a body fit
to be a model. Now as the model spends life, she craves for a peaceful family
life, which leads to another life as a home maker. It keeps on happening and
after experiencing a variety of roles, slowly, ‘Virakti’ (disenchantment) sets
in and the mind is ready for long meditative periods to understand the Self and
the purpose of life.
For many people, it is difficult to see the exact role that they
have to play. What are the roles you are playing? A daughter/son, sister/brother,
wife/husband, mother/father, doctor/engineer? What are the duties prescribed
for all these roles? Life is that simple, we have to just perform these duties
without expecting results. That is where the catch lies. We do expect results. When we get expected results, our ego rises,
and attachment to the associated money and fame increases. If we don’t get the
expected results, we experience anger and restlessness. In both these
situations, we are creating karmic bonds which will keep on creating more
incarnations.