Lessons from the East III: The Science of Moksha – Solving the Salvation – Cutting the cycle of Birth, Life & Death
17 Aug 2022 09:30:24
Why is the concept of Moksha perceived to be transcendental?
Can kin of one know if one has cut the cycles of Birth, Life & death?
What is one of the most important objectives of the soul taking a bodily form?
The Perception
Religions, texts, and spiritual leaders across the globe speak about the heavenly abode. What is heaven and what does it look like?
While some say that one will continue to have satiation of senses, others say that one will be judged for one’s deeds. Some mention virgins and an abundance of food and luxuries, whilst others mention a sinless world.
Another fable, one focuses on is the antonym, the opposite, the converse of heaven. Where it is good, there exists a bad, where there is light, there exists darkness, Where there is god, there is a devil. Thus when one perceives having heaven, there has to be hell.
If there exists heaven, where one’s senses are satiated with nice things, goodies, and objects of gratification – both short-term and long-term, thus hell has to co-exist, where one’s soul is put through atrocities, pain, and angst as a symbol of repentance, penance or atonement of one’s misdeeds, violations, harm, and inhumanity. (At least there is harmony across all religions, that there exists a soul within the body and the soul only goes up, not the body- Pun Intended)
The Inconsistency
The list is never-ending. As many people, as many thoughts, and as many permutations and combinations.
And there exists - Quite a few inconsistencies and lots of unanswered questions!
Deciphering the Dilemma
Let’s try and find the problem.
Dilemma 1 - The problem lies in Duality. What one believes is that - there subsist two worlds, two existences – One body and one soul-both being different. If the body (someone) enjoys harming (sadistic pleasure) someone else, the soul suffers, if the body suffers (sacrifices for others), the soul enjoys. Thus, as per the duality principle, once the body, once the soul necessarily needs to have fun and necessarily pay for the fun. (No free lunches here as well).
Dilemma 2 - If at any point in time, souls are in the human body, or in heaven or in hell, where do the new souls come from that take the new body form? Over 140 million children are born every year in different parts of the world. This means the factory of souls continues to produce more souls.
Dilemma 3 - If the Judgement and thus the punishment has been organized in the next world basis acts in this world, why not finish the matter, why carry forward it to the next world?
Dilemma 4 - God, almighty, Supreme Lord can see what’s happening and who is undertaking what acts, then why doesn’t God stop killing in its name (People slaughter each other in the name of God)? It’s ultimately God’s name that is getting tarnished.
The problem is incoherency. The Problem is a lack of Unity in Universality. The problem is incongruency.
Solving the Salvation
What do Vedic texts and scriptures say?
Everything on this earth and universe is interrelated and is one. There is Jiva-Atma (soul) in every life form including humans, animals, plants, rivers, mountains, metals, earth, stones, etc. Everything created by Mother Nature has life and thus has a soul inside it. The souls of various life forms are interconnected by the Param-Atma (Supreme Soul, the all-pervading one).
The Soul takes the human life form to perform four acts of Purushartha. Dharma (righteousness, moral values, conducting one’s life as per Universal laws), Artha (prosperity, economic values), Kama (pleasure, love, psychological values,) and finally Moksha (liberation, exiting from the cycle of Birth, life and death).
When one is born, one is unaware of any knowledge and has a balanced state of Manifested energy - Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. Defining Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas herein briefly.
As one eats, as one chooses what knowledge, what content, what values, what culture, and what environment one is exposed to, one’s manifested energy skews towards that and thus one performs a particular set of acts.
Thoughts,
Words,
Actions that one performs,
Actions, others perform under one’s instructions. Karma has repercussions.
Karma further has three parts-
Sanchit (Accumulated) Karma Results of past lives that are now due to be affected in the Current Life.
This Sanchit Karma converts into Prarabdha Karma that impacts the form of the body soul gets into (whether plant, human, animal, etc), type of environment one is born into, parents, social circle, people one meets, friends one makes, relationships one enters, life goal & direction one pursues, etc.
The Karma that one performs during current life is known as Agami (Forthcoming) Karma.
Once all one’s good and bad deeds are neutralized, one cuts the cycle of Birth, Life, and Death.
Thus Soul experiences nothing and remains pure forever, it’s the body that acts, relishes, which enjoys, and gets punished. Hell and heaven both are here on this earth in this Universe. Bliss and Pain both exist here basis one’s past and present deeds.
Plants, Animals, Mountains, rivers, and infants have life but they act only for survival. Only humans have the ability to gain knowledge, have the ability to make choices thus make decisions, and finally to act selflessly in the interest of others and for the welfare and wellbeing of other life forms.
The Evidence
Lord Shree Krishna through Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta (Chapter 8, Verse 24 & 25 mentioned above) shares the wisdom with Arjuna that one who dies during the day (After the local sunrise and before the sunset) and during Shukla Paksha (As per the Vedic Calendar, every Lunar month is separated into two Pakshas. The Paksha is a lunar fortnight. It is a period of ~ 14 days. Shukla paksha is the period between the New Moon (Amavasya) and the Full Moon - Poornima. In brief, Shukla paksha is the time of the bright or waxing moon.)
And during the six months of the sun’s northern course – Uttrayan achieves Moksha.
According to Hindu Panchang, there are two Ayans - Solstices in a year. In other words, the Sun changes its position twice every year. These changes are known as Uttarayan (summer solstice) and Dakshinayan (winter solstice). Uttarayan is the period when the Sun travels from the Capricorn sign to the Gemini sign. This period is six months long. In the same way, when the Sun travels from the Cancer sign to Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius signs, the period is known as Dakshinayan.
In simple words, the soul that leaves the body during the time when all three conditions coincide of the Daytime, Shukla Paksha, and during Uttrayan, gets liberated and achieves Karma Mukti (freedom from a state where one has to take birth, one has to perform Karma and accrue both positive as well as negative results of it) or Moksha. The person has attained Brahma Gyan and thus is ready to leave the cycle of Karma and the cycle of Life and death.
One can’t determine the time of one’s death, but surely one's kin can ascertain through this knowledge whether the soul has cut the cord of this material world, of Birth -Life -Death, of the world that is mortal or will it come back wearing another cloak, another form, another body.
Can kin of one know if one has cut the cycles of Birth, Life & death?
What is one of the most important objectives of the soul taking a bodily form?
The Perception
Religions, texts, and spiritual leaders across the globe speak about the heavenly abode. What is heaven and what does it look like?
While some say that one will continue to have satiation of senses, others say that one will be judged for one’s deeds. Some mention virgins and an abundance of food and luxuries, whilst others mention a sinless world.
Whatever may be the case, one thing is certain: those left behind on the earth have limited know-how of heaven or whereabouts of the soul that has departed the body.
Another fable, one focuses on is the antonym, the opposite, the converse of heaven. Where it is good, there exists a bad, where there is light, there exists darkness, Where there is god, there is a devil. Thus when one perceives having heaven, there has to be hell.
If there exists heaven, where one’s senses are satiated with nice things, goodies, and objects of gratification – both short-term and long-term, thus hell has to co-exist, where one’s soul is put through atrocities, pain, and angst as a symbol of repentance, penance or atonement of one’s misdeeds, violations, harm, and inhumanity. (At least there is harmony across all religions, that there exists a soul within the body and the soul only goes up, not the body- Pun Intended)
The Inconsistency
1. The Senses of pleasure surely exist in one’s body. One knows them and one can experience them. But do senses of pleasure exist in the soul as well? If they do, are the Soul senses enjoying, or the senses of the body are enjoying? The soul and the body surely are different and that’s the reason, the soul leaves, while the body remains.
2. If the soul is put to pain in hell thus experiences unhappiness, and the soul experiences happiness on account of enjoying good things, then what’s the difference between this world where the body exists and the soul resides inside it versus the soul only experiencing similar emotions in the other world.
3. Do plants and animals have souls? How are they being judged for their actions? Do their souls stand a chance to go to heaven or that’s completely ruled out?
There exist pets that experience emotions along with humans and there exist wild animals who only care about survival. They attack, on account of their survival instincts and to protect themselves and their offspring. Is it a good deed or a bad deed?
4. What if one thinks of harming someone for one’s benefit and once benefits accrue, share the part of the benefit with the person whom one has harmed, will this be added in a good deed, bad deed, or partial in good and bad both?
5. If someone pursues good deeds initially and bad deeds subsequently, as one falls into the wrong company and in the wrong environment, will one be in hell or heaven?
The list is never-ending. As many people, as many thoughts, and as many permutations and combinations.
And there exists - Quite a few inconsistencies and lots of unanswered questions!
Deciphering the Dilemma
Let’s try and find the problem.
Dilemma 1 - The problem lies in Duality. What one believes is that - there subsist two worlds, two existences – One body and one soul-both being different. If the body (someone) enjoys harming (sadistic pleasure) someone else, the soul suffers, if the body suffers (sacrifices for others), the soul enjoys. Thus, as per the duality principle, once the body, once the soul necessarily needs to have fun and necessarily pay for the fun. (No free lunches here as well).
Dilemma 2 - If at any point in time, souls are in the human body, or in heaven or in hell, where do the new souls come from that take the new body form? Over 140 million children are born every year in different parts of the world. This means the factory of souls continues to produce more souls.
Dilemma 3 - If the Judgement and thus the punishment has been organized in the next world basis acts in this world, why not finish the matter, why carry forward it to the next world?
Dilemma 4 - God, almighty, Supreme Lord can see what’s happening and who is undertaking what acts, then why doesn’t God stop killing in its name (People slaughter each other in the name of God)? It’s ultimately God’s name that is getting tarnished.
The problem is incoherency. The Problem is a lack of Unity in Universality. The problem is incongruency.
Solving the Salvation
What do Vedic texts and scriptures say?
Everything on this earth and universe is interrelated and is one. There is Jiva-Atma (soul) in every life form including humans, animals, plants, rivers, mountains, metals, earth, stones, etc. Everything created by Mother Nature has life and thus has a soul inside it. The souls of various life forms are interconnected by the Param-Atma (Supreme Soul, the all-pervading one).
The Soul takes the human life form to perform four acts of Purushartha. Dharma (righteousness, moral values, conducting one’s life as per Universal laws), Artha (prosperity, economic values), Kama (pleasure, love, psychological values,) and finally Moksha (liberation, exiting from the cycle of Birth, life and death).
When one is born, one is unaware of any knowledge and has a balanced state of Manifested energy - Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. Defining Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas herein briefly.
Sattva is a state of harmony, balance, joy, and intelligence. Rajas is a state of energy, action, change, and movement. Tamas is a state of darkness, inertia, inactivity, and materiality.
One’s acts or deeds form one’s Karma. One’s Karma not only includes one’s deeds but all of the following: -
Thoughts,
Words,
Actions that one performs,
Actions, others perform under one’s instructions. Karma has repercussions.
Karma further has three parts-
Sanchit (Accumulated) Karma Results of past lives that are now due to be affected in the Current Life.
This Sanchit Karma converts into Prarabdha Karma that impacts the form of the body soul gets into (whether plant, human, animal, etc), type of environment one is born into, parents, social circle, people one meets, friends one makes, relationships one enters, life goal & direction one pursues, etc.
The Karma that one performs during current life is known as Agami (Forthcoming) Karma.
Once all one’s good and bad deeds are neutralized, one cuts the cycle of Birth, Life, and Death.
Thus Soul experiences nothing and remains pure forever, it’s the body that acts, relishes, which enjoys, and gets punished. Hell and heaven both are here on this earth in this Universe. Bliss and Pain both exist here basis one’s past and present deeds.
Plants, Animals, Mountains, rivers, and infants have life but they act only for survival. Only humans have the ability to gain knowledge, have the ability to make choices thus make decisions, and finally to act selflessly in the interest of others and for the welfare and wellbeing of other life forms.
The Evidence
अग्निर्ज्योतिरहः शुक्लः षण्मासा उत्तरायणम् । तत्र प्रयाता गच्छन्ति ब्रह्म ब्रह्मविदो जनाः ॥
धूमो रात्रिस्तथा कृष्ण: षण्मासा दक्षिणायनम् | तत्र चान्द्रमसं ज्योतिर्योगी प्राप्य निवर्तते ||
Lord Shree Krishna through Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta (Chapter 8, Verse 24 & 25 mentioned above) shares the wisdom with Arjuna that one who dies during the day (After the local sunrise and before the sunset) and during Shukla Paksha (As per the Vedic Calendar, every Lunar month is separated into two Pakshas. The Paksha is a lunar fortnight. It is a period of ~ 14 days. Shukla paksha is the period between the New Moon (Amavasya) and the Full Moon - Poornima. In brief, Shukla paksha is the time of the bright or waxing moon.)
And during the six months of the sun’s northern course – Uttrayan achieves Moksha.
According to Hindu Panchang, there are two Ayans - Solstices in a year. In other words, the Sun changes its position twice every year. These changes are known as Uttarayan (summer solstice) and Dakshinayan (winter solstice). Uttarayan is the period when the Sun travels from the Capricorn sign to the Gemini sign. This period is six months long. In the same way, when the Sun travels from the Cancer sign to Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius signs, the period is known as Dakshinayan.
In simple words, the soul that leaves the body during the time when all three conditions coincide of the Daytime, Shukla Paksha, and during Uttrayan, gets liberated and achieves Karma Mukti (freedom from a state where one has to take birth, one has to perform Karma and accrue both positive as well as negative results of it) or Moksha. The person has attained Brahma Gyan and thus is ready to leave the cycle of Karma and the cycle of Life and death.
One can’t determine the time of one’s death, but surely one's kin can ascertain through this knowledge whether the soul has cut the cord of this material world, of Birth -Life -Death, of the world that is mortal or will it come back wearing another cloak, another form, another body.