KARMA AND THE NEXT BODY🔗

Once the life force leaves the body, within three kshanas, it chooses the next body.

At the time of death the three most enjoyed experiences in that lifetime stand out as one's last thoughts. The choice of the next body arises from the mindset based on these three experiences.

These three thoughts will be based on one from each of the total karma (sanchita), this birth karma (prarabdha) and gathered karma (agamya). Based on this, the prarabdha karma will take shape for the next birth. body that attracts the vasana is like the television set tuned to this channel. The depth of the vasana and the body that matches the vasana attracts the life energy. Just like a television set tuned to the satellite channel's frequency receives the corresponding electromagnetic waves, in the same way, the vasana is attracted by the body.

The life energy, the spirit, departing from the previous body enters the new body that it selected, as that body leaves the womb of the mother. It enters the body in the birth canal. The darkness of the causal layer that it left from the previous body corresponds to the darkness of the mother's birth canal. Since the body has been prepared by the energies of the parents, the life energy chooses the combined energies of the parents based on the desires, the vasanas, the mental attitude, with which it leaves the previous body. So the parents do not choose the child. It is the child that chooses its parents.

Having chosen a particular body, the spirit or life force has to satisfy the other two desires it had but could not choose an appropriate body for. However, during its transition through the darkness, the deep pain experienced by the spirit erases all memories of the vasana it carries before it enters the new body. The new entity no longer remembers the desires with which it left the previous body. Instead of fulfilling the desires with which it left the previous body, since it has forgotten them, the life energy in the new body seeks new desires and collects more karma.

Now, of the three types of karma, if one of them is gone, the choice constraints are fewer and the life force can be more focused in the choices. Cleaning the gathered agamya karma and this birth's prarabdha karma can be done by the individual by understanding about life and by meditating. The master's grace will reduce the total sanchita karma.

Once the total sanchita karma is cleansed, there is no reason to take another body. Then, if the next birth still happens, it is for no reason but out of overflowing joy and bliss. The birth is thus chosen consciously because there is no pull of karma. The life lived is a leela or reasonless play of an avatar or incarnation.

For all of us, our total sanchita karma initially was a divine play. For an enlightened master, it is still a divine play as he has no karma at all. Playing because you can play is the divine play.

We took birth out of choice. We forgot our prarabdha karma, started gath-ering agamya karma and expanded the total sanchita karma. Then, to exhaust the increased load we had to take another birth where we collected more desires and karma. This is how the cycle of life and death continues. the next birth. Corrupted total sanchita karma generates the cycle of life and birth– this is how the wheel of karma starts.

The new body that the life energy occupies does not remember the prar- abdha karma that the life energy brought with it when it took the body. So, you do not remember the desires with which you left your previous body.

Reminding yourself of those desires again and fulfilling them in this birth is what doing tapas (penance) and becoming enlightened is all about.

So what happens when you forget at birth that you have come through divine play? When the total karma weight becomes excessive, you realize, 'There is some problem somewhere.' Immediately you wake up and get enlightened again. The rewinding and coming back is enlightenment.

Sometimes, if you get a really bad dream, only a thought like 'I am dreaming' will come at first. Then, you actually wake up. That thought of 'I am dreaming' coming is turning towards enlightenment. Waking up is getting enlightened.

That thought of 'I am dreaming. This whole world is a dream' and then renouncing the false world and catching the reality is enlightenment. In this world, the same experiences repeat making you tired and bored. It gives rise to the suspicion, 'I amseeing a dream.' Then, you start doubting the world, doubting the promise the world gives.

It is like the newspaper ads about some beachside resort that show the beach, the table, the food, all looking like heaven, giving a promise of luxury. You doubt that promise, because you realize that if hundred people see this and go, not many will actually feel the ecstasy promised. Similarly in life also, you doubt the promises your mind has been making all along but never fulfilling any.

Till now, what we discussed was a preventive measure for incurring karma. As a curative for karma, I will give you a simple technique. Right from this moment, try and remember all the incidents in your life. Start going backwards from this moment to your childhood days. Remember what you can.

Do not bother about what you cannot. Understand: what you cannot remember is only a hangover. It has not touched you deeply. That is why it is not retained in your memory. Try this technique for a year. Re-living is a wonderful way of relieving.

Our second level Life Bliss meditation program – the Nithyananda Spurana Program (NSP) is focused on just this method of exhausting one's karma. It is like a complete spiritual bath in the presence of an enlightened master.

Karma can be exhausted only through deep understanding, awareness and at least one glimpse of consciousness.

What happens when someone has a premature death like in suicide or accident? In the case of premature death, the soul has to wait for the time it was destined to live, before it can take a new body. In the case of suicide, the suffering is much more intense than what would have been if the spirit had continued living. It is like when you have a plate of food in front of you but you don't have hands or a body to enjoy it! In the case of accidents, the spirit has to be without body. But there is no suffering as in the case of suicide. The spirit lives in the same consciousness it would have lived had it been alive. It just waits to get the next body.

Are past life regressions useful and safe? Past life regression should not be done except by an enlightened being. It has such a strong influence it can affect this birth. For example, if you had been a blind person in a past life, when regression happens, you can become blind in this birth! An unenlightened being doing the regression will also suffer the karmas of the person he is doing the regression for. To clear past life regression, one should know how to handle it, clear the past samskaras and close it.

When the master clears the karmas, do we have to go through pain? When the master removes the karma, you call that feeling pain. Actually, the master would be removing in a second the suffering of many births, what would have otherwise taken many births to dissolve. So it is practically no suffering in comparison. Sharada Devi says, the master clearing the samskaras is like you facing a thorn prick instead of suffering a fracture!

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