{"id":998,"date":"2013-07-13T01:31:52","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=998"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:31:52","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:31:52","slug":"10-rebirth-vol-22-letters-on-yoga-volume-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/22-letters-on-yoga-volume-22\/10-rebirth-vol-22-letters-on-yoga-volume-22","title":{"rendered":"-10_Rebirth.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n

S<\/font>ECTION<\/font>
\nE<\/font>IGHT<\/font><\/b> <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nRebirth<\/b><\/font><\/span> <\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n


\n               
\nT<\/font><\/b>HE<\/font> soul takes
\nbirth each time, and each time a mind, life and body are formed out of the
\nmaterials of universal nature according to the soul’s past evolution and its
\nneed for the future.
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When the body is
\ndissolved, the vital goes into the vital plane and remains there for a time,
\nbut after a time the vital sheath disappears. The last to dissolve is the
\nmental sheath. Finally the soul or psychic being retires into the psychic world
\nto rest there till a new birth is close. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is the
\ngeneral course for ordinarily developed human beings. There are variations
\naccording to the nature of the individual and his development. For example, if
\nthe mental is strongly developed, then the mental being can remain; so also can
\nthe vital, provided they are organized by and centred around the true psychic
\nbeing; they share the immortality of the psychic. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The soul gathers
\nthe essential elements of its experiences in life and makes that its basis of
\ngrowth in the evolution; when it returns to birth it takes up with its mental,
\nvital, physical sheaths so much of its Karma as is useful to it in the new life
\nfor further experience. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 It is really for
\nthe vital part of the being that and rites are done \u2013 to help the being to get
\nrid of the vital vibrations which still attach it to the earth or to the vital
\nworlds, so that it may pass quickly to its rest in the psychic peace.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

I only said what was originally
\nmeant by the ceremonies \u2013 the rites. I was not referring to the feeding of the
\ncaste or the Brahmins which is not a rite or ceremony. Whether śrāddha<\/i><\/span>
\nas performed is actually effective is another matter \u2013 for those who perform it
\nhave not either the knowledge or the occult power. <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 433<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

After leaving the body, the soul,
\nafter certain experiences in other worlds, throws off its mental and vital
\npersonalities and goes into rest to assimilate the essence of its past and
\nprepare for a new life. It is this preparation that determines the
\ncircumstances of the new birth and guides it in its reconstitution of a new
\npersonality and the choice of its materials.
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The departed
\nsoul retains the memory of its past experiences only in their essence, not in
\ntheir form of detail. It is only if the soul brings back some past personality
\nor personalities as part of its present manifestation that it is likely to
\nremember the details of the past life. Otherwise, it is only by Yogadrishti<\/span> that the memory comes. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Karana-purusha<\/span> is what is called the central being by us, the Jiva.
\nIt stands above the play, supporting it always. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There may be
\nwhat seems to be retrograde movements but these are only like zigzag movements,
\nnot a real falling back, but a return on something not worked out so as to go
\non better afterwards. The soul does not go back to the animal condition; but a
\npart of the vital personality may disjoin itself and join an animal birth to
\nwork out its animal propensities there. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There is no
\ntruth in the popular belief about the avaricious man becoming a serpent. These
\nare popular romantic superstitions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

The soul after it leaves the body
\ntravels through several states or planes until the psychic being has shed its
\ntemporary sheaths, then it reaches the psychic world where it rests in a kind
\nof sleep till it is ready for reincarnation. What it keeps with it of the human
\nexperience in the end is only the essence of all that it has gone through, what
\nit can use for its development. This is the general rule, but it does not apply
\nto exceptional cases or to very developed beings who have achieved a greater
\nconsciousness than the ordinary human level. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is not the
\nsoul (the psychic being) that takes a lesser form, it is some part of the
\nmanifested being, usually some part of the vital that does it, owing to some
\ndesire, affinity, need of particular <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 434<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

 experience. This happens fairly
\noften to the ordinary man.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

At the time of death the being
\ngoes out of the body through the head; it goes out in the subtle body and goes
\nto different planes of existence for a short time until it has gone through
\ncertain experiences which are the result of its earthly existence. Afterwards
\nit reaches the psychic world where it rests in a kind of sleep, until it is
\ntime for it to start a new life on earth. That is what happens usually \u2013 but
\nthere are some beings who are more developed and do not follow this course.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

The soul goes out, after death,
\nin a subtle body. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Recollections
\nlast only for a time, not till rebirth \u2013 otherwise the stamp would be so strong
\nthat remembrance of past births, even after taking a new body, would be the
\nrule rather than the exception.
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You say
\n\u201crelationships of one birth persist in successive births, the chances depending
\non the strength of the attachment\u201d. This is possible, but not a law \u2013 as a rule
\nthe same relationship would not be constantly repeated \u2013 the same people often
\nmeet again and again on earth in different lives, but the relations are
\ndifferent. The purpose of rebirth would not be served if the same personality
\nwith the same relations and experiences are incessantly repeated. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is not the
\ncase that there is complete annihilation of the ego in respect of forms of life
\nlower than man after death.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That was spoken
\nof as being in a static condition of complete rest is not the ego, but the
\npsychic being after it has shed its vital and other sheaths and is resting in
\nthe psychic world. Before that it passes through vital and other worlds on its
\nway to the psychic plane. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is possible
\nto come into direct touch with the departed so long as they are near enough to
\nthe earth (it is usually supposed by those who have occult experience that it
\nis for three years
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 435<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

only) or if they are earthbound
\nor if they are of those who do not proceed to the psychic plane but linger near
\nthe earth and are soon reborn. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Universal statements cannot be
\neasily made about these things \u2013 there is a general line, but individual cases
\nvary to an almost indefinite extent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

There is after death a period in
\nwhich one passes through the vital world and lives there for a time. It is only
\nthe first part of this transit that can be dangerous or painful; in the rest
\none works out, under certain surroundings, the remnant of the vital desires and
\ninstincts which one had in the body. As soon as one is tired of these and able
\nto go beyond, the vital sheath is dropped and the soul after a time needed to
\nget rid of some mental survivals passes into a state of rest in the psychic
\nworld and remains there till the next life on earth.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One can help the
\ndeparted souls by one’s good will or by occult means, if one has the knowledge.
\nThe one thing that one should not do is to hold them back by sorrow for them or
\nlongings or by anything else that would pull them nearer to earth or delay
\ntheir journey to their place of rest.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

It may happen to some not to
\nrealise for a little time that they are dead, especially if the death has been
\nunforeseen and sudden, but it cannot be said that it happens to all or to most.
\nSome may enter into a state of semi-unconsciousness or obsession by a dark
\ninner condition created by their state of mind at death, in which they realise
\nnothing of where they are, etc., others are quite conscious of the passage. It
\nis true that the departing being in the vital body lingers for some time near
\nthe body or the scene of life very often for as many as eight days and, in the
\nancient religions, mantras and other means were used for the severance. Even
\nafter the severance from the body a very earthbound nature or one full of
\nstrong physical desires may linger long in the earth-atmosphere up to a maximum
\nperiod extended to three years. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 436<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

Afterwards, it passes to the vital
\nworlds, proceeding on its journey which must sooner or later bring it to the
\npsychic rest till the next life. It is true also that sorrow and mourning for
\nthe dead impede their progress by keeping them tied to the earth-atmosphere and
\npulling them back from their passage.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

The movement of the psychic being
\ndropping the outer sheaths on its way to the psychic plane is the normal
\nmovement. But there can be any number of variations; one can return from the
\nvital plane and there are many cases of an almost immediate birth, sometimes
\neven attended with a complete memory of the events of the past life. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hell and heaven
\nare often imaginary states of the soul or rather of the vital which it
\nconstructs about it after its passing. What is meant by hell is a painful
\npassage through the vital or lingering there, as for instance, in many cases of
\nsuicide where one remains surrounded by the forces of suffering and turmoil
\ncreated by this unnatural and violent exit. There are, of course, also worlds
\nof mind and vital worlds which are penetrated with joyful or dark experiences.
\nOne may pass through these as the result of things formed in the nature which
\ncreate the necessary affinities, but the idea of reward or retribution is a
\ncrude and vulgar conception which is a mere popular error. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There is no rule
\nof complete forgetfulness in the return of the soul to rebirth. There are,
\nespecially in childhood, many impressions of the past life which can be strong
\nand vivid enough, but the materialising<\/span> education and
\ninfluence of the environments prevent their true nature from being recognised.
\nThere are even a great number of people who have definite recollections of a
\npast life. But these things are discouraged by education and the atmosphere and
\ncannot remain or develop; in most cases they are stifled out of existence. At
\nthe same time it must be noted that what the psychic being carries away with it
\nand brings back is ordinarily the essence of the experiences it had in former
\nlives, and not the details so that you cannot expect the same memory as one has
\nof the present existence. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 437<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

A soul can go straight to the
\npsychic world but it depends on the state of consciousness at the time of
\ndeparture. If the psychic is in front at the time, the immediate transition is
\nquite possible. It does not depend on the acquisition of a mental and vital as
\nwell as a psychic immortality \u2013 those who have acquired that would rather have
\nthe power to move about in the different worlds and even act on the physical
\nworld without being bound to it. On the whole, it may be said that there is no
\none rigid rule for these things, manifold variations are possible depending
\nupon the consciousness, its energies, tendencies and formations, although there
\nis a general framework and design into which all fit and take their place.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

It is necessary to understand
\nclearly the difference between the evolving soul (psychic being) and the pure
\nAtman, self or spirit. The pure self is unborn, does not pass through death or
\nbirth, is independent of birth or body, mind or life or this manifested Nature.
\nIt is not bound by these things, not limited, not affected, even though it
\nassumes and supports them. The soul, on the contrary, is something that comes
\ndown into birth and passes through death \u2013 although it does not itself die, for
\nit is immortal \u2013 from one state to another, from the earth plane to other
\nplanes and back again to the earth-existence. It goes on with this progression
\nfrom life to life through an evolution which leads it up to the human state and
\nevolves through it all a being of itself which we call the psychic being that
\nsupports the evolution and develops a physical, a vital, a mental human
\nconsciousness as its instruments of world-experience and of a disguised,
\nimperfect, but growing self-expression. All this it does from behind a veil
\nshowing something of its divine self only in so far as the imperfection of the
\ninstrumental being will allow it. But a time comes when it is able to prepare
\nto come out from behind the veil, to take command and turn all the instrumental
\nnature towards a divine fulfilment. This is the beginning of the true spiritual
\nlife. The soul is able now to make itself ready for a higher evolution of
\nmanifested consciousness than the mental human \u2013 it can pass from the mental to
\nthe spiritual and through degrees of the <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 438<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

spiritual to the supramental
\nstate. Till then there is no reason why it should cease from birth, it cannot
\nin fact do so. If having reached the spiritual state, it wills to pass out of
\nthe terrestrial manifestation, it may indeed do so \u2013 but there is also possible
\na higher manifestation, in the Knowledge and not in the Ignorance. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Your question
\ntherefore does not arise. It is not the naked spirit, but the psychic being
\nthat goes to the psychic plane to rest till it is called again to another life.
\nThere is, therefore, no need of a Force to compel it to take birth anew. It is
\nin its nature something that is put forth from the Divine to support the
\nevolution and it must do so till the Divine’s purpose in its evolution is
\naccomplished. Karma is only a machinery, it is not the fundamental cause of
\nterrestrial existence \u2013 it cannot be, for when the soul first entered this
\nexistence, it had no Karma. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What again do you
\nmean by \u201cthe all-veiling Maya\u201d or by \u201closing all consciousness\u201d? The soul
\ncannot lose all consciousness, for its very nature is consciousness though not
\nof the mental kind to which we give the name. The consciousness is merely
\ncovered, not lost or abolished by the so-called Inconscience of material Nature
\nand then by the half-conscious ignorance of mind, life and body. It manifests,
\nas the individual mind and life and body grow, as much as may be of the
\nconsciousness which it holds in potentiality, manifests it in the outward
\ninstrumental nature as far as and in the way that is possible through these
\ninstruments and through the outer personality that has been prepared for it and
\nby it \u2013 for both are true \u2013for the present life. <\/p>\n

I know nothing
\nabout any terrible suffering endured by the soul in the process of rebirth;
\npopular beliefs even when they have some foundation are seldom enlightened and
\naccurate.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

1. The psychic
\nbeing stands behind mind, life and body, supporting them; so also the psychic
\nworld is not one world in the scale like the mental, vital or physical worlds,
\nbut stands behind all these and it is there that the souls evolving here retire
\nfor the time between life and life. If the psychic were only one principle <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 439<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

in the rising order of body, life
\nand mind on a par with the others and placed somewhere in the scale on the same
\nfooting as the others, it could not be the soul of all the rest, the divine
\nelement making the evolution of the others possible and using them as instruments
\nfor a growth through cosmic experience towards the Divine. So also the psychic
\nworld cannot be one among the other worlds to which the evolutionary being goes
\nfor supraphysical<\/span> experience; it is a plane where it
\nretires into itself for rest, for a spiritual assimilation of what it has
\nexperienced and for a replunging<\/span> into its own
\nfundamental consciousness and psychic nature. <\/p>\n

2. For the few
\nwho go out of the Ignorance and enter into Nirvana, there is no question of
\ntheir going straight up into higher worlds of manifestation. Nirvana or Moksha
\nis a liberated condition of the being, not a world \u2013 it is a withdrawal from
\nthe worlds and the manifestation. The analogy of pitryāna<\/i><\/span> and devayāna<\/i><\/span> can
\nhardly be mentioned in this connection.
\n <\/p>\n

3. The condition
\nof the souls that retire into the psychic world is entirely static; each
\nwithdraws into himself and is not interacting with the others. When they come
\nout of their trance, they are ready to go down into a new life, but meanwhile
\nthey do not act upon the earth life. There are other beings, guardians of the
\npsychic world, but they are concerned only with the psychic world itself and
\nthe return of the souls to reincarnation, not with the earth. <\/p>\n

4. A being of a
\npsychic world cannot get fused into the soul of a human being on earth. What
\nhappens in some cases is\u00a0 <\/span>that a very
\nadvanced psychic being sometimes sends down an emanation which resides in a
\nhuman being and prepares it until it is ready for the psychic being itself to enter
\ninto the life. This happens when some special work has to be done and the human
\nvehicle prepared. Such a descent produces a remarkable change of a sudden
\ncharacter in the personality and the nature. <\/p>\n

5. Usually, a
\nsoul follows continuously the same line of sex. If there are shiftings<\/span> of sex, it is, as a rule, a matter of parts of
\nthe personality which are not central. <\/p>\n

6. As regards
\nthe stage at which the soul returning for rebirth enters the new body no rule
\ncan be laid down, for the <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 440<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

circumstances vary with the
\nindividual. Some psychic beings get into relation with the birth-environment
\nand the parents from the time of conception and determine the preparation of
\nthe personality and future in the embryo, others join only at the time of
\ndelivery, others even later on in the life and in these cases it is some
\nemanation of the psychic being which upholds the life. It should be noted that
\nthe conditions of the future birth are determined fundamentally not during the
\nstay in the psychic world but at the time of death \u2013 the psychic being then
\nchooses what it should work out in the next terrestrial appearance and the
\nconditions arrange themselves accordingly.
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Note that the
\nidea of rebirth and the circumstances of the new life as a reward or punishment
\nof punya<\/i><\/span> or
\npāpa<\/i><\/span> is
\na crude human idea of \u201cjustice\u201d which is quite unphilosophical<\/span>
\nand unspiritual and distorts the true intention of life. Life here is an
\nevolution and the soul grows by experience, working out by it this or that in
\nthe nature, and if there is suffering, it is for the purpose of that working
\nout, not as a judgment inflicted by God or Cosmic Law on the errors or
\nstumblings which are inevitable in the Ignorance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

It is difficult to give a
\npositive answer to these questions, because no general rule can be laid down
\napplicable to all. The mind makes rigid rules or one rigid rule, but the
\nManifestation is in reality very plastic and various and many-sided. My answers
\ntherefore must not be taken as exhaustive of the subject or complete.
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. He [the Jivanmukta]
\ncan go wherever his aim was fixed, into a state of Nirvana or one of the divine
\nworlds and stay there or remain, wherever he may go, in contact with the
\nearth-movement and return to it if his will is to help that movement. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This [going
\ndirect from the world of the soul’s present highest achievement to a still
\nhigher world] is doubtful. If originally he is not a being of the evolution but
\nof some higher world, he would go back to that world. If he wants to go higher,
\nit is logical that he should return to the field of evolution so long as he has
\nnot evolved the consciousness proper to that higher plane. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 441<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

The orthodox idea that even the
\ngods have to come to earth if they want salvation may be applied to this
\nascension also. If he is originally an evolutionary being (Ramakrishna’s
\ndistinction of the Jivakoti<\/span> and Ishwarakoti<\/span>
\nmay be extended to this also), he must proceed by the evolutionary path to
\neither the negative withdrawal through Nirvana or some positive divine
\nfulfilment in the increasing manifestation of Sachchidananda. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As to the
\nimpossibility of return, that is a knotty question. A divine being can always
\nreturn \u2013 as Ramakrishna said, the Ishwarakoti<\/span> can at
\nwill ascend or descend the stair between Birth and Immortality. For the others,
\nit is probable that they may rest for a relative infinity of time, śāśvatīh<\/i><\/span> samāh<\/span><\/i>,
\nif that is the will in them, but a return cannot be barred out unless they have
\nreached their highest possible status. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

No, that [return
\nto the psychic world before a new birth] is part of the evolutionary line only,
\nnot obligatory for divine returns. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. An advanced
\npsychic being may mean here one who has arrived at the soul’s freedom and is
\nimmersed in the Divine \u2013 immersed does not mean abolished. Such a being does
\nnot sleep in the psychic world, but may remain in his state of blissful
\nimmersion or come back for some purpose. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The word
\n\u201cdescend\u201d has various meanings according to the context \u2013 I used it here in the
\nsense of the psychic being coming down into the human consciousness and body
\nready for it; that descent might be at the time of birth or before or it may
\ncome down later and occupy the personality it has prepared for itself. I do not
\nquite understand what are these personalities from above \u2013 it is the psychic
\nbeing itself that takes up a body.
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. No, the
\npsychic being cannot take up more than one body. There is only one psychic
\nbeing for each human being, but the beings of the higher planes, e.g., the Gods
\nof the overmind<\/span> can manifest in more than one human
\nbody at a time by sending different emanations into different bodies. These
\nwould be called Vibhutis of these Devatas. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4. These [the
\nGuardians of the psychic world] are not human souls nor is this an office to which
\nthey are appointed nor are they functionaries \u2013 these are beings of the psychic
\nplane
\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 442<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

pursuing their own natural
\nactivity in that plane. My word \u201cguardian\u201d was simply a phrase meant to
\nindicate by an image or metaphor the nature of their action.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

The escape from birth was a
\nuniversal ideal at that time except with one or two sects of the Shaivas<\/span>, I believe. It is not at all consistent with the
\nDivine taking many births, for the Gita speaks of the highest condition not as
\na laya<\/i><\/span>, but
\nas a dwelling in the Divine. If so there seems to be no reason why the mukta<\/i><\/span> and siddha<\/i><\/span> who has
\nreached that dwelling in the consciousness of the Divine should fear rebirth
\nand its troubles any more than the Divine does.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

The Pitriyan<\/span>
\nis supposed to lead to inferior worlds attained by the Fathers who still belong
\nto the evolution in the Ignorance. By the Devayan<\/span> one
\ngets beyond the Ignorance into the light. The difficulty about the Pitris<\/span> is that in the Puranas<\/span>
\nthey are taken as the Ancestors to whom the Tarpan<\/span> is
\ngiven \u2013 it is an old Ancestor worship such as still exists in Japan, but in the
\nVeda they seem to be the Fathers who have gone before and discovered the supraphysical<\/span> worlds. <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

The psychic being at the time of
\ndeath chooses what it will work out in the next birth and determines the
\ncharacter and conditions of the new personality. Life is for the evolutionary
\ngrowth by experience in the conditions of the Ignorance till one is ready for
\nthe higher Light.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

The dying wish of the man is only
\nsomething on the surface \u2013 it may be determined by the psychic and so help to
\nshape the future but it does not determine the psychic’s choice. That is <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 443<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

something behind the veil. It is not
\nthe outer consciousness’s action that determines the inner process, but the
\nother way round. Sometimes, however, there are signs or fragments of the inner
\naction that come up on the surface, e.g. some people have a vision or
\nremembrance of the circumstances of their past in a panoramic flash at the time
\nof death, that is the psychic’s review of the life before departing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

The psychic being’s choice at the
\ntime of death does not work out the next formation of personality, it fixes it.
\nWhen it enters the psychic world, it begins to assimilate the essence of its
\nexperience and by that assimilation is formed the future psychic personality in
\naccordance with the fixation already made. When this assimilation is over, it
\nis ready for a new birth; but the less developed beings do not work out the
\nwhole thing for themselves, there are beings and forces of the higher world who
\nhave that work. Also, when it comes to birth, it is not sure that the forces of
\nthe physical world will not come across the working out of what it wanted \u2013 its
\nown new instrumentation may not be strong enough for that purpose; for, there
\nis the interaction of its own energies and the cosmic forces here. There may be
\nfrustration, diversion, a partial working out \u2013 many things may happen. All
\nthat is not a rigid machinery, it is a working out of complex forces. It may be
\nadded, however, that a developed psychic being is much more conscious in this
\ntransition and works out much of it itself. The time depends also on the
\ndevelopment and on a certain rhythm of the being \u2013 for some there is
\npractically immediate rebirth, for others it takes longer, for some it may take
\ncenturies; but here, again, once the psychic being is sufficiently developed,
\nit is free to choose its own rhythm and its own intervals. The ordinary
\ntheories are too mechanical \u2013 and that is the case also with the idea of puņya<\/i><\/span> and pāpa<\/i><\/span> <\/i>and their results in the next life.
\nThere are certainly results of the energies put forth in a past life, but not
\non that rather infantile principle. A good man’s suffering in this life would
\nbe a proof according to the orthodox theory that he had been a very great
\nvillain in his <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 444<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

past life, a bad man’s prospering
\nwould be a proof that he had been quite angelic in his last visit to earth and
\nsown a large crop of virtues and meritorious actions to reap this bumper crop
\nof good fortune. Too symmetrical to be true. The object of birth being growth
\nby experience, whatever reactions come to past deeds must be for the being to
\nlearn and grow, not as lollipops for good boys of the class (in the past) and
\ncanings for the bad ones. The real sanction for good and ill is not good
\nfortune for the one and bad fortune for the other, but this that good leads us
\ntowards a higher nature which is eventually lifted above suffering, and ill
\npulls us towards the lower nature which remains always in the circle of
\nsuffering and evil. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

There is no such thing as an
\ninsuperable difficulty from past lives. There are formations that help and
\nformations that hamper; the latter have to be dismissed and dissolved, not to
\nbe allowed to repeat themselves. The Mother told you that to explain the origin
\nof this tendency and the necessity of getting rid of it \u2013 there was no hint of
\nany insuperable difficulty, quite the contrary.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

These words [mūdhayonisu<\/i><\/span> <\/i>or adho<\/i><\/span> gacchanti<\/span><\/i>] do not necessarily refer to
\nthe animal birth, but it is true that there has been a general belief of that
\nkind not only in India but wherever \u201ctransmigration\u201d or \u201cmetempsychosis\u201d was
\nbelieved in. Shakespeare is referring to Pythagoras’s belief in transmigration
\nwhen he speaks of the passage of somebody’s grandmother into an animal. But the
\nsoul, the psychic being, once having reached the human consciousness cannot go
\nback to the inferior animal consciousness any more than it can go back into a
\ntree or an ephemeral insect. What is true is that some part of the vital energy
\nor the formed instrumental consciousness or nature can and very frequently does
\nso, if it is strongly attached to anything in the earth life. This may account
\nfor some cases of immediate rebirth with full memory in human forms also.
\nOrdinarily, it is only by yogic development or by
\nclairvoyance that the exact memory of past lives can be brought back. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 445<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

It is when the vital gets broken
\nup, some strong movements of it, desires, greeds<\/span>, may
\nprecipitate themselves into animal forms, e.g., sexual desire with the part of
\nthe vital consciousness under its control into a dog or some habitual movement
\nof excessive greed may carry part of the vital consciousness into a pig. The
\nanimals represent the vital consciousness with mind involved in the vital, so
\nthat it is naturally there that such things would gravitate for satisfaction.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

The fragments [of a dead person]
\nare not of the inner being (who goes on his way to the psychic world) but of
\nhis vital sheath which falls away after death. These can join for birth the
\nvital of some other Jiva who is being born or they can be used by a vital being
\nto enter a body in process of birth and partly possess it for the satisfaction
\nof its propensities. The junction can also take place after birth.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

All human incarnations or births
\nhave naturally a psychic being. It is only other types like the vital beings
\nthat have not, and that is precisely the reason why they want to possess men
\nand enjoy physical life without being themselves born here, for so they escape
\nthe psychic law of evolution and spiritual progress and change. But these formations
\n[vital fragments of a dead person] are different, they are things that do not
\nleave the earth and do not possess but simply attach themselves to some human
\nrebirth (of course with a psychic in it) which has some affinity and therefore
\ndoes not object to or resist their inclusion.<\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 446<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

Āsurīsu1 <\/sup>cannot
\npossibly mean \u201canimal\u201d. The Gita uses precise terms and if it had meant animal
\nit would have said animal and not Asuric. As for the punishment, it is that
\nthey go down in their nature to more depths of Asurism<\/span>
\ntill they touch bottom as it were. But that is a natural result of their
\nuncontrolled tendencies which they freely indulge without any effort to rise
\nout of them while in the cultivation of the higher side of personality one
\nnaturally rises and develops towards godhead or the Divine. In the Gita the
\nDivine is regarded as the controller of the whole cosmic action through Nature,
\nso the \u201cI cast\u201d is in harmony with its ideas! The world is a mechanism of
\nNature, but a mechanism regulated by the presence of the Divine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

As far as I know, the births
\nfollow usually one line or the other and do not alternate \u2013 that, I think, is
\nthe Indian tradition also, though there are purposeful exceptions like Shikhandi’s<\/span>. If there is a change of sex, it is only part
\nof the being that associates itself with the change, not the central being.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

What do you mean by the popular
\nidea? All the instances I have heard of in the popular accounts of rebirth are
\nof man becoming man and woman becoming woman in the next life \u2013 except when
\nthey become animal, but even then I think the male becomes a male animal and
\nthe female a female animal. There are only stray cases quoted like Shikhandi’s<\/span> in the Mahabharata for variations of sex. The
\nTheosophist conception is full of raw imagination, one Theosophist even going
\nso far as to say that if you are a man in this birth you are obliged to be a
\nwoman in the next and so on.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

Not sex exactly, but what might
\nbe called the masculine and<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1 <\/sup>Ksipāmyajasramaśubhānāsurīsveva<\/i><\/span> yonisu<\/span><\/i>. \u201cI
\ncast down continually into more and more Asuric births.\u201d  Gita, Ch. XVI, 19.<\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 447<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

feminine principle [is there in
\nthe psychic being]. It is a difficult question [whether sex is altered in
\nrebirth]. There are certain lines the reincarnation follows and so far as my
\nexperience goes and general experience goes, one follows usually a single line.
\nBut the alteration of sex cannot be declared impossible. There may be some who
\ndo alternate. The presence of feminine traits in a male does not necessarily
\nindicate a past feminine birth \u2013 they may come in the general play of forces
\nand their formations. There are besides qualities common to both sexes. Also a
\nfragment of the psychological personality may have been associated with a birth
\nnot one’s own. One can say of a certain person of the past, \u201cthat was not
\nmyself, but a fragment of my psychological personality was present in him.\u201d
\nRebirth is a complex affair and not so simple in its mechanism as in the
\npopular idea.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

The question as put in your
\nletter seems to me to be too rigidly phrased and not to take into sufficient
\naccount the plasticity of the facts and forces of existence. It sounds like the
\nproblem which one might raise on the strength of the most recent scientific
\ntheories \u2013 if all is made up of protons and electrons, all exactly similar to
\neach other (except for the group numbers, and why should a difference of
\nquantity make such an extraordinary difference or any difference of quality?)
\nhow does their action result in such stupendous differences of degree, kind,
\npower, everything? But why should we assume that the psychic seeds or sparks
\nall started in a race at the same time, equal in conditions, equal in power and
\nnature? Granted that the One Divine is the source of all and the Self is the
\nsame in all; but in manifestation why should not the Infinite throw itself out
\nin infinite variety, why must it be in an innumerable sameness? How many of
\nthese psychic seeds started long before others and have a great past of
\ndevelopment behind them and how many are young and raw and half-grown only? And
\neven among those who started together, why should not there be some who ran at
\na great speed and others who loitered and grew with difficulty or went about in
\ncircles? And then there is an evolution, and it is only at <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 448<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

a certain stage in the evolution
\nthat the animal belt is past and there is a human beginning; what constitutes
\nthe human beginning, which represents a very considerable revolution or
\nturnover? Up to the animal line it is the vital and physical that have been
\ndeveloping \u2013 for the human to begin is it not necessary that there should be
\nthe descent of a mental being to take up the vital and physical evolution? And
\nmay it not well be that the mental beings who descend are not all of the same
\npower and stature and, besides, do not take up equally developed vital and
\nphysical consciousness-material? There is also the occult tradition of a
\nhierarchy of beings who stand above the present manifestation and put
\nthemselves into it with results which will obviously be just such a stupendous
\ndifference of degrees, and even intervene by descending into the play through
\nthe gates of birth in human Nature. There are many complexities and the problem
\ncannot be put with the rigidity of a mathematical formula. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A great part of
\nthe difficulty of these problems, I mean especially the appearance of
\ninexplicable contradiction, arises from the problem itself being badly put.
\nTake the popular account of reincarnation and Karma \u2013 it is based on the mere
\nmental assumption that the workings of Nature ought to be moral and proceed
\naccording to an exact morality of equal justice \u2013 a scrupulous, even
\nmathematical law of reward and punishment or, at any rate, of results according
\nto a human idea of right correspondences. But Nature is non-moral \u2013 she uses
\nforces and processes moral, immoral and amoral pell-mell for working out her
\nbusiness. Nature in her outward aspect seems to care for nothing except to get
\nthings done \u2013 or else to make conditions for an ingenious variety of the play
\nof life. Nature in her deeper aspect as a conscious spiritual Power is
\nconcerned with the growth, by experience, the spiritual development of the
\nsouls she has in her charge \u2013 and these souls themselves have a say in the
\nmatter. All these good people lament and wonder that unaccountably they and
\nother good people are visited with such meaningless sufferings and misfortunes.
\nBut are they really visited with them by an outside Power or by a mechanical
\nLaw of Karma? Is it not possible that the soul itself \u2013 not the outward mind,
\nbut the spirit within \u2013 has accepted and chosen <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 449<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

these things as part of its
\ndevelopment in order to get through the necessary experience at a rapid rate,
\nto hew through, durchhauen<\/span>, even at the risk or the
\ncost of much damage to the outward life and the body? To the growing soul, to
\nthe spirit within us, may not difficulties, obstacles, attacks be a means of
\ngrowth, added strength, enlarged experience, training for spiritual victory? The
\narrangement of things may be that and not a mere question of the pounds,
\nshillings and pence of a distribution of rewards and retributory<\/span>
\nmisfortunes! <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is the same with the problem of the taking of animal life under the
\ncircumstances put forward by your friend in the letter. It is put on the basis
\nof an invariable ethical right and wrong to be applied to all cases \u2013 is it
\nright to take animal life at all, under any circumstances, is it right to allow
\nan animal to suffer under your eyes when you can relieve it by an euthanasia?
\nThere can be no indubitable answer to a question put like that, because the
\nanswer depends on data which the mind has not before it. In fact there are many
\nother factors which make people incline to this short and merciful way out of\u00a0 <\/span>the difficulty \u2013 the nervous inability to
\nbear the sight and hearing of so much suffering, the unavailing trouble, the
\ndisgust and inconvenience \u2013 all tend to give force to the idea that the animal
\nitself would want to be out of it. But what does the animal really feel about
\nit \u2013 may it not be clinging to life in spite of the pain? Or may not the soul
\nhave accepted these things for a quicker evolution into a higher state of life?
\nIf so, the mercy dealt out may conceivably interfere with the animal’s Karma.
\nIn fact the right decision might vary in each case and depend on a knowledge
\nwhich the human mind has not \u2013 and it might very well be said that until it has
\nit, it has not the right to take life. It was some dim perception of this truth
\nthat made religion and ethics develop the law of Ahimsa \u2013 and yet that too
\nbecomes a mental rule which it is found impossible to apply in practice. And
\nperhaps the moral of it all is that we must act for the best according to our
\nlights in each case, as things are, but that the solution of these problems can
\nonly come by pressing forward towards a greater light, a greater consciousness
\nin which the problems themselves, as now stated by the human mind, will not
\narise because we shall have a vision which will <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 450<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

see the world in a different way
\nand a guidance which at present is not ours. The mental or moral rule is a
\nstop-gap which men are obliged to use, very uncertainly and stumblingly, until
\nthey can see things whole in the light of the spirit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

You must avoid a common popular
\nblunder about reincarnation. The popular idea is that Titus Balbus<\/span>
\nis reborn again as John Smith, a man with the same personality, character,
\nattainments as he had in his former life with the sole difference that he wears
\ncoat and trousers instead of a toga and speaks in cockney English instead of
\npopular Latin. That is not the case. What would be the earthly use of repeating
\nthe same personality or character a million times from the beginning of time
\ntill its end? The soul comes into birth for experience, for growth, for
\nevolution till it can bring the Divine into Matter. It is the central being
\nthat incarnates, not the outer personality \u2013 the personality is simply a mould
\nthat it creates for its figures of experience in that one life. In another
\nbirth it will create for itself a different personality, different capacities,
\na different life and career. Supposing Virgil is born again, he may take up
\npoetry in one or two other lives, but he will certainly not write an epic but
\nrather perhaps slight but elegant and beautiful lyrics such as he wanted to
\nwrite, but did not succeed, in Rome. In another birth he is likely to be no
\npoet at all, but a philosopher and a yogin<\/span> seeking to
\nattain and to express the highest truth \u2013 for that too was an unrealised trend
\nof his consciousness in that life. Perhaps before he had been a warrior or
\nruler doing deeds like Aeneas or Augustus before he sang them. And so on \u2013 on
\nthis side or that the central being develops a new character, a new
\npersonality, grows, develops, passes through all kinds of terrestrial
\nexperience. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As the evolving
\nbeing develops still more and becomes more rich and complex, it accumulates its
\npersonalities, as it\u00a0 <\/span>were. Sometimes
\nthey stand behind the active elements, throwing in some colour<\/span>,
\nsome trait, some capacity here and there, \u2013 or they stand in front and there is
\na multiple personality, a many-sided character or a many-sided, sometimes what
\nlooks like a universal <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 451<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

capacity. But if a former
\npersonality, a former capacity is brought fully forward, it will not be to
\nrepeat what was already done, but to cast the same capacity into new forms and
\nnew shapes and fuse it into a new harmony of the being which will not be a
\nreproduction of what was before. Thus you must not expect to be what the
\nwarrior and the poet were. Something of the outer characteristics may reappear
\nbut very much changed and new-cast in a new combination. It is in a new
\ndirection that the energies will be guided to do what was not done before. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Another thing.
\nIt is not the personality, the character that is of the first importance in
\nrebirth \u2013 it is the psychic being who stands behind the evolution of the nature
\nand evolves with it. The psychic when it departs from the body, shedding even
\nthe mental and vital on its way to its resting place, carries with it the heart
\nof its experiences, \u2013 not the physical events, not the vital movements, not the
\nmental buildings, not the capacities or characters, but something essential
\nthat it gathered from them, what might be called the divine element for the
\nsake of which the rest existed. That is the permanent addition, it is that that
\nhelps in the growth towards the Divine. That is why there is usually no memory
\nof the outward events and circumstances of past lives \u2013 for this memory there
\nmust be a strong development towards unbroken continuance of the mind, the
\nvital, even the subtle physical; for though it all remains in a kind of seed
\nmemory, it does not ordinarily emerge. What was the divine element in the
\nmagnanimity of the warrior, that which expressed itself in his loyalty,
\nnobility, high courage, what was the divine element behind the harmonious
\nmentality and generous vitality of the poet and expressed itself in them, that
\nremains and in a new harmony of character may find a new expression or, if the
\nlife is turned towards the Divine, be taken up as powers for the realisation or
\nfor the work that has to be done for the Divine. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

The non-materialistic European
\nidea makes a distinction between soul and body \u2013 the body is perishable, the
\nmental-vital consciousness is the immortal soul and remains always the same <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 452<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

(horrible idea!) in heaven as on
\nearth or if there is rebirth it is also the same damned personality that comes
\nback and makes a similar fool of itself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

The being as it passes through
\nthe series of its lives takes on various kinds of personalities and passes
\nthrough various types of experiences, but it does not carry these on to the next
\nlife, as a rule. It takes on a new mind, vital and body. The mental capacities,
\noccupations, interests, idiosyncrasies of the past mind and vital are not taken
\nover by the new mind and vital, except to the extent that is useful for the new
\nlife. One may have the power of poetic expression in one life, but in the next
\nnot have any such power or any interest in poetry. On the other hand,
\ntendencies suppressed or missed or imperfectly developed in one life may come
\nout in the next. There would be therefore nothing surprising in the contrast
\nwhich you noted. The essence of past experiences is kept by the psychic being
\nbut the forms of experience or of personality are not, except such as are
\nneeded for the new stage in the soul’s progress. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The being in its
\nlong course of experience may permit for a time the search after sensual
\npleasure and afterwards discard it and turn to higher things. This can happen
\neven in the course of a life-time, a fortiori in a second life where the old
\npersonalities would not be carried over.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

I do not remember the context in
\nwhich the phrase [\u201cother forces\u201d] was used. But what you suggest is true \u2013 that
\nis to say when it is some past personality which or part of which is strongly
\ncarried over into the present life. It is, I believe, true that you were a
\nrevolutionary in a past life or if not a revolutionary, engaged in a violent
\npolitical action. I can’t put a name or a precise form on it. But it was not
\nonly the sudden angers and violences<\/span>, but probably
\nalso the desire to help, to reform, to purify and other intensities and vehemences<\/span> that came from there. When a personality is
\ncarried over like that it is not only the <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 453<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

undesirable sides that are
\ncarried over but things that purified and chastened can be useful.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

Certainly, the subconscient<\/span> is formed for this life only and is not
\ncarried with it by the soul from one life to another. The memory of past lives
\nis not something that is active anywhere in the being \u2013 if by memory is meant
\nthe memory of details. That memory of details is quiescent and untraceable
\nexcept in so far as certain constituent personalities taken over from the past
\nretain the memories of the particular life in which they were manifest e.g. if
\nsome personality that was put forth by one in Venice or Rome remembers from
\ntime to time a detail or details of what happened then. But usually it is only
\nthe essence of past lives that is activised<\/span> in the
\nbeing, not any particular memories. So it is impossible to say that the memory
\nis located in a particular part of the consciousness or in a particular plane.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

No, the subconscient<\/span>
\nis the instrument for the physical life and disappears [after death]. It is too
\nincoherent to be an organized enduring existence. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

For most people the vital
\ndissolves after a time as it is not sufficiently formed to be immortal. The
\nsoul descending makes a new vital formation suitable for the new life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

If one has had a strong spiritual
\ndevelopment that makes it easier to retain the developed mental or vital after
\ndeath. But it is not absolutely necessary that the person should have been a
\nBhakta or a Jnani<\/span>. One like Shelley or like Plato for
\ninstance could be said to have a developed mental being centred round the
\npsychic \u2013 of the vital the same can hardly be said. Napoleon had a <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 454<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

strong vital, but not one
\norganised round the psychic being.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

[Survival of the \u201ccentres<\/span>\u201d after death:] Not as they are. What remains and to
\nwhat degree depends on the development in each case. Of course the centres<\/span> themselves remain \u2013 for they are in the subtle body
\nand it is from there that they act on the corresponding physical centres<\/span>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

As there are many personalities
\nin a man in his conscious ordinary planes of consciousness, so also several
\nbeings can associate themselves with his consciousness as it develops
\nafterwards \u2013 descending into his higher mind or other higher planes of being
\nand connecting themselves with his personality. That is for the principle. But
\nas for the particular information, it is inaccurate. It has probably reference
\nto the period when Mother was bringing down beings to aid in the work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

It is always possible for a being
\nof the higher planes to take birth on earth \u2013 in that case they create a mind
\nor vital for themselves or else they join a mind, vital and body which has
\nalready been prepared under their influence \u2013 there are indeed many ways and
\nnot one only in which they can manifest here.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

But too much importance must not
\nbe given to past lives. For the purpose of this yoga one is what one is and,
\nstill more, what one will be. What one was has a minor importance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

Seriously, these historical
\nidentifications are a perilous game and <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 455<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

open a hundred doors to the play
\nof imagination. Some may, in the nature of things must, be true; but once
\npeople begin, they don’t know where to stop. What is important is the lines,
\nrather than the lives, the incarnation of Forces that explain what one now is \u2013
\nand, as for the particular lives or rather personalities, those alone matter
\nwhich are very definite in one and have powerfully contributed to what one is
\ndeveloping now. But it is not always possible to put a name upon these; for not
\none hundred-thousandth part of what has been has still a name preserved by
\nhuman Time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

It is a little difficult to
\nexplain. When one gets a new body, the nature which inhabits it, nature of
\nmind, nature of vital, nature of\u00a0
\n<\/span>physical, is made up of many personalities, not one simple personality
\nas is supposed \u2013 although there is one central being. This complex personality
\nis formed partly by bringing together personalities of past lives, but also by
\ngathering experiences, tendencies, influences from the earth atmosphere \u2013 which
\nare taken up by one of the constituent personalities as suitable to his own
\nnature. Such an influence left behind by X or one of his disciples may have
\nbeen taken up by you without your being an incarnation of either.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

These things [seeing Buddha,
\nRamakrishna, Vivekananda, Shankara frequently in vision] are the result of past
\nthoughts and influences. They are of various kinds \u2013 sometimes merely
\nthought-forms created by one’s own thought-force to act as a vehicle for some
\nmental realisation \u2013 sometimes Powers of different planes that take these forms
\nas a support for their work through the individual, \u2013 but sometimes one is
\nactually in communion with that which had the name and form and personality of
\nBuddha or Ramakrishna or Vivekananda or Shankara. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is not
\nnecessary to have an element akin to these personalities \u2013 a thought, an
\naspiration, a formation of the mind or vital <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 456<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

are enough to create the
\nconnection \u2013 it is sufficient for a vibration of response anywhere to what
\nthese Powers represent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

The Mother only speaks to people
\nabout their past births when she sees definitely some scene or memory of their
\npast in concentration; but this happens rarely nowadays. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is
\nremembered mainly from past lives is the nature of the personality and the
\nsubtle results of the life-experience.\u00a0
\n<\/span>Names, events, physical details are remembered only under exceptional
\ncircumstances and are of a very minor importance. When people try to remember
\nthese outward things they usually build up a number of romantic imaginations
\nwhich are not true. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I think you
\nshould dismiss this idea about the past lives. If the memory of past
\npersonalities comes of itself (without a name or mere outward details) that is sometimes
\nimportant as giving a clue to something in the present development, but to know
\nthe nature of that personality and its share in the present constitution of the
\ncharacter is quite enough. The rest is of little use.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

It is not necessary to attach any
\nentire belief to these ideas of past births. X’s idea of Y’s rebirth is
\nevidently a mere idea \u2013 nothing else. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When there is
\nany truth in these things, it is most often a perception that some Force once
\nrepresented in a certain person has also some part in one’s own nature \u2013 not
\nthat the same personality is here. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Of course, there
\nis rebirth, but to establish that one is such a one reborn, a deeper experience
\nis necessary, not a mere mental intuition which may easily be an error.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

Ideas of this kind about X and Y
\nare ideas of the mind to which the vital strongly attaches itself \u2013 the truth
\nof the past lives <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 457<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

cannot be discovered in that way.
\nThese mental ideas are not true. You must wait for direct knowledge in a
\nliberated nature before you can know who in past lives you were.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

The psychic does not give up the
\nmental and other sheaths (apart from the physical) immediately at death. It is
\nsaid that it takes three years on the whole to get clear away from the zone of
\ncommunicability with the earth \u2013 though there may be cases of slower or quicker
\npassage. The psychic world does not communicate with earth \u2013 at any rate, not
\nin that way. And the ghost or spirit who turns up at seances<\/span>
\nis not the psychic being. What comes through the medium is a mixture of the
\nmedium’s subconscient<\/span> (using subconscient<\/span>
\nin the ordinary, not in the yogic sense) and that of the sitters, vital sheaths
\nleft by the departed or perhaps occupied or used by some spirit or some vital
\nbeing, the departed himself in his vital sheath or else something assumed for
\nthe occasion (but it is the vital part that communicates), elementals, spirits
\nof the lowest vital physical world near earth, etc., etc. A horrible confusion
\nfor the most part \u2013 a hotch-potch<\/span> of all sorts of things
\ncoming through a medium of \u201castral\u201d grey light and shadow. Many communicants
\nseem to be people who have just gone across into a subtle world where they feel
\nsurrounded by an improved edition of the earthly life and think that that is
\nthe real and definitive other world after earth \u2013 but it is a mere optimistic
\nprolongation of the ideas and images and associations of the human plane. Hence
\nthe next world as depicted by the spiritualist \u201cguides\u201d and other seance<\/span> communicants. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

Not much confidence can be placed
\nin all that [communications from spirit guides]. If examined closely it will be
\nseen that these spirit guides only suggest to their subjects what is in the
\nmind of the sitter or sitters or in the air and it comes to very little.
\nInfluences from the other worlds there are of course and any <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 458<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

number of them, but the central
\nguidance is not of this kind except in very rare cases.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

Automatic writings and
\nspiritualistic seances<\/span> are a very mixed affair. Part comes
\nfrom the subconscious mind of the medium and part from that of the sitters. But
\nit is not true that all can be accounted for by a dramatising<\/span>
\nimagination and memory. Sometimes there are things none present could know or
\nremember; sometimes even, though that is rare, glimpses of the future. But
\nusually these seances<\/span> etc. put one into rapport with
\na very low world of vital beings and forces, themselves obscure, incoherent or
\ntricky and it is dangerous to associate with them or to undergo any influence. Ouspensky<\/span> and others must have gone through these
\nexperiments with too \u201cmathematical\u201d a mind, which was no doubt their safeguard
\nbut prevented them from coming to anything more than a surface intellectual
\nview of their significance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

What do you mean by a ghost? The
\nword \u201cghost\u201d as used in popular parlance covers an enormous number of distinct
\nphenomena which have no necessary connection with each other. To name a few
\nonly: <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. An actual
\ncontact with the soul of a human being in its subtle body and transcribed to
\nour mind by the appearance of an image or the hearing of a voice.
\n <\/p>\n

2. A mental
\nformation stamped by the thoughts and feelings of a departed human being on the
\natmosphere of a place or locality, wandering about there or repeating itself,
\ntill that formation either exhausts itself or is dissolved by one means or
\nanother. This is the explanation of such phenomena as the haunted house in
\nwhich the scenes attending or surrounding or preceding a murder are repeated
\nover and over again and many other similar phenomena. <\/p>\n

3. A being of
\nthe lower vital planes who has assumed the discarded vital sheath of a departed
\nhuman being or a fragment of his vital personality and appears and acts in the
\nform and perhaps
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 459<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

with the surface thoughts and
\nmemories of that person. <\/p>\n

4. A being of
\nthe lower vital plane who by the medium of a living human being or by some
\nother means or agency is able to materialise<\/span> itself
\nsufficiently so as to appear and act in a visible form or speak with an audible
\nvoice or, without so appearing, to move about material things, e.g., furniture
\nor to materialise<\/span> objects or to shift them from place
\nto place. This accounts for what are called poltergeists, phenomena of
\nstone-throwing, tree-inhabiting Bhutas<\/span>, and other
\nwell-known phenomena. <\/p>\n

5. Apparitions
\nwhich are the formations of one’s own mind and take to the senses an objective
\nappearance.
\n <\/p>\n

6. Temporary
\npossession of people by vital beings who sometimes pretend to be departed
\nrelatives etc.
\n <\/p>\n

7. Thought-images
\nof themselves projected, often by people at the moment of death, which appear
\nat that time or a few hours afterwards to their friends or relatives. <\/p>\n

You will see
\nthat in only one of these cases, the first, can a soul be posited and there no difficulty
\narises.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

Each person follows in the world
\nhis own line of destiny which is determined by his own nature and actions \u2013 the
\nmeaning and necessity of what happens in a particular life cannot be understood
\nexcept in the light of the whole course of many lives. But this can be seen by
\nthose who can get beyond the ordinary mind and feelings and see things as a
\nwhole, that even errors, misfortunes, calamities are steps in the journey, \u2013 the
\nsoul gathering experience as it passes through and beyond them until it is ripe
\nfor the transition which will carry it beyond these things to a higher
\nconsciousness and higher life. When one comes to that line of crossing, one has
\nto leave behind one the old mind and feelings. One looks then on those who are
\nstill fixed in the pleasures and sorrows of the ordinary world with sympathy
\nand wherever it is possible with spiritual helpfulness, but no longer with
\nattachment. One learns that they are being led through all their stumblings and
\ntrusts to the Universal Power that is watching and supporting their existence
\nto do for them <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 460<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

whatever for them is the best.
\nBut the one thing that is really important for us is to get into the greater
\nLight and the Divine Union \u2013 to turn to the Divine alone, to put our trust
\nthere alone whether for ourselves or for others.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

It is a very intricate and
\ndifficult question to tackle and it can hardly be answered in a few words.
\nMoreover, it is impossible to give a general rule as to why there are these
\nclose inner contacts followed by a physical separation through death\u2014in each
\ncase there is a difference and one would have to know the persons and be
\nfamiliar with their soul history to tell what was behind their meeting and
\nseparation. In a general way, a life is only one brief episode in a long
\nhistory of spiritual evolution in which the soul follows the curve of the line
\nset for the earth, passing through many lives to complete it. It is an
\nevolution out of material inconscience to consciousness and towards the Divine Consciousness,
\nfrom ignorance to Divine Knowledge, from darkness through half-light to Light,
\nfrom death to Immortality, from suffering to the Divine Bliss. Suffering is due
\nfirst to the Ignorance, secondly to the separation of the individual
\nconsciousness from the Divine Consciousness and Being, a separation created by
\nthe Ignorance \u2013 when that ceases, when one lives in the Divine and no more in
\none’s separated smaller self, then only suffering can altogether cease. Each
\nsoul follows its own line and these lines meet, journey together for a space,
\nthen part to meet again perhaps hereafter \u2013 they meet once more to help each
\nother on the journey in one way or another. As for the after-death period, the
\nsoul passes into other planes of existence, staying there for a while till it
\nreaches its place of rest where it remains until it is ready for another
\nterrestrial existence. This is the general law, but for the connections of
\nembodied souls, that is a matter of personal evolution of the two on which
\nnothing general can be said, as it is intimate to the soul stories of the two
\nand needs a personal knowledge. That is all I can say, but I don’t know that it
\nwill be of much help to her as these things are helpful usually only when one
\nenters into the consciousness in which <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 461<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

they become not mere ideas but
\nrealities. Then one grieves no longer because one has entered into the Truth
\nand the Truth brings calm and peace.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

There is a vital connection generally
\n\u2013 the psychic is comparatively rare. It is something in past lives usually that
\ndetermines these connections in this one, but the connection in this life is
\nseldom the same as that of the past which determined it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

I can understand the shock your
\nwife’s catastrophic death must have been to you. But you are now a seeker and
\nsadhak of the Truth and must set your mind to rise above the normal reactions
\nof the human being and see things in a larger greater light. Regard your lost
\nwife as a soul that was progressing through the vicissitudes of the life of
\nIgnorance \u2013 like all others here; in that progress things happen that seem
\nunfortunate to the human mind and a sudden accidental or violent death cutting
\nshort prematurely this always brief spell of terrestrial experience we call
\nlife seems to it especially painful and unfortunate. But one who gets behind
\nthe outward view knows that all that happens in the progress of the soul has
\nits meaning, its necessity, its place in the series of experiences which are
\nleading it towards the turning-point where one can pass from the Ignorance to
\nthe Light. He knows that whatever happens in the Divine Providence is for the
\nbest, even though it may seem to the mind otherwise. Look on your wife as a
\nsoul that has passed the barrier between two states of existence. Help her
\njourney towards her place of rest by calm thoughts and the call to the Divine
\nHelp to aid her upon it. Grief too long continued does not help but delays the
\njourney of the departed soul. Do not brood on your loss, but think only of her
\nspiritual welfare.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

What has happened must now be
\naccepted calmly as the thing decreed and best for his soul’s progress from life
\nto life, though <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 462<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

not the best in human eyes which
\nlook only at the present and at outside appearance. For the spiritual seeker
\ndeath is only a passage from one form of life to another, and none is dead but
\nonly departed. Look at it as that and shaking from you all reactions of vital
\ngrief, \u2013 that cannot help him in his journey, \u2013 pursue steadfastly the path to
\nthe Divine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n⁂<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Of course, that is the real fact
\n\u2013 death is only a shedding of the body, not a cessation of the personal
\nexistence. A man is not dead because he goes into another country and changes
\nhis clothes to suit that climate. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 463<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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