Posted on August 27, 2012 by shantanup
One has only one life on this Earth and there is no second life in any form (upper level or beneath in status) or a second chance for a jiva to improve upon one’s living as in the thoughts of those who believe in reincarnation and rebirths; also there is no afterlife abode such as heaven, paradise, where apparent devas as divine souls go to live and enjoy the fruits of their good lives on Earth, and similarly no hell either for those who are not living good lives here on Earth. The only thing that exists is a memory bank called Brahmaloka, ie Swarg in the mind of Sri Krishna where the life stories of those who have lived perfectly decent lives on Earth get stored. This is the only mechanism in Vedanta of how the jiva reaches an eternal association with Paramatma, with the atma spirit simply dissolving into the impersonal Brahman reality on death of the jiva.
With reference to Bhagavad gita 2:13, there are lots of verses in the Bhagavad Gita that I agree with and this is why I have said that it is the outstanding piece of scripture in Hinduism. Beyond that I study and form my own opinion on the contents of the scripture. I do not take every verse or its interpretation without questioning. In other words what is the evidence that something (a spirit that scientists cannot detect yet) called an atma/soul comes out of the human body and enters another new-born child’s or animal or even plant’s body from the space of the universe that is perfectly right for the level of karma attained by that atma (soul). It would mean that there are millions of souls of different levels of karma floating about in the atmosphere just waiting for a child or an animal/plant to be born that is just right for it and in perfect geographical position to enter that new being. This sounds too complicated to be true. It can only be accepted on faith. I have not received direct knowledge from Sri Krishna yet concerning its validity so stick to my own idea.
And my idea currently is very simple. That atma is a spirit of sat-chit-ananda that emanates from Brahman through the action of prarabhda and Maya, the mechanism for by which Sri Krishna manifest itself as the Impersonal Brahman. The atma is present in the sperm, the mother’s egg, and the subsequent zygote, embryo and the foetus as the mother’s atma. When the new child is born it also breathes in atma from the atmosphere and from its food because atma is present in everything. This atma continues in the child throughout his life and becomes part of his body that is saturated by it. When the child dies the atma is released back into the atmosphere and the universe. Since the Paramatma is hidden in that atma as an atma-Paramatma spiritual complex, Sri Krishna can potentially guide that child from within during its life through the truth-consciousness mechanism or by direct visions and messages. That is vedanta and it is possible to attain this realisation directly without recourse to the scriptures. The scriptures are only a guide to Realisation, nothing more.