** Hari Om Namo Narayana! **
The science of reincarnation is actually detailed in The ‘Sankhya Shastra’. The ‘Sankhya’ is actually one of many ancient Indian texts and the work on the Sankhya is attributed to the great sage Kapil.
According to the Sankhya, our soul’s inspiration is the guiding light of our purpose here on this material plane. To decode the purpose of our rebirth or incarnation we must understand that as a soul, as a ‘jeeva atman’ we are replicating the experiences of many many lives over and over again until we are finally ready to transcend from the material plane, having learnt what we needed to and having developed how we wanted to.
The Sankhya differentiates between the ‘mann‘ (mind), ‘buddhi‘ (intellect) and ‘ahankar‘ (ego) as entities separate from the ‘aatman’ (soul). In Kapil Muni’s texts, the Mind, Intellect and Soul are assigned the responsibility of zeroing in on the ‘jeeva’ (living body) most suitable to carrying out the will of the ‘aatman’ or the soul.
But once the soul (‘aatman‘) and the body (‘jeeva‘) are united as one, as the ‘jeeva atman’, the Soul becomes just a mere observer as active choices are made and decisions taken in accordance with the preferences of the mann, buddhi and ahankar.
To simplify it for you in a single line: In the waking life, the soul’s agendas often stand hindered by those of the mind, intellect and ego.
Now, another interesting concept is that among Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh, who form the holy trinity in Hinduism, Brahma, the creator, is described as the only deity still undergoing evolution. Since creation is ever evolving and Brahma is the creator, it seems fitting that he must evolve as well with everything that he creates. In many ways, that sums up the circle of life and death and the purpose of our existence succinctly.
The purpose of incarnation and reincarnation is evolution. Along with the jeeva, the atman evolves with each new innings on the material plane. It continues to evolve until it has evolved just enough to realize the parmantman (supreme power) within. In the final stage, it ‘maxes out’ so to speak, and becomes ‘whole’ instead of a being just part of the whole. That final step is thus called moksha (liberation).
All of creation including the stars, planets, nebulae, comets, asteroids, dark matter, trees, animals… everything that you can think of.. is ever evolving. It means that we are ever evolving. It means that our lives are ever evolving and with each minute, we are all better versions of ourselves than we were a minute ago.
We might fall ill the next minute and that is a part of our growth too. The body discovers a new set of pathogens to defend against and stores the information of that successful defense to survive a future onslaught from the same set of pathogens. Humans living in colonies often share these pathogens through interaction and develop related defense mechanisms to guard against them. The ones that fail to do so, die out and the ones not wiped out by plagues or epidemics, strengthen the species by developing defense mechanisms that are passed on over generations through gradual evolution.
Quite similarly you see, our Karmas or actions shape our lives. The present life is a result of our actions over a number of lives and our present karmas or actions are what shall shape our future. We have learnt to master some skills and some areas through continuous practice over many many lives and a lot of traits are passed on to our future generations as well. Sometimes the traits being passed on may be beneficial and sometimes they may be too much of a burden to bear.
This may sound fatalistic but on a more mundane level, any problems that you face in your waking life, points out to a pattern or a rut that you’re trying to break or break through and have been trying for many many lives and failing miserably at it.
And who is to say you’re failing miserably at it? Well, you’re still here. Aren’t you?
Yes, you may not fail this time and you may fulfill your soul’s desire and ascend this time but since you’re still here, it points to a lot of work that still needs to be done.
But you see, the problem is, we are so far removed from our deepest and most important ‘life goals’ (literally speaking) that we often find ourselves caught up in the cage we’ve built ourselves by our past karmas. As if that wasn’t enough, we proceed quite unwittingly and redundantly, to spend almost our entire life fighting those circumstances. Repeatedly.
For example:
If someone was orphaned at birth, there isn’t much she can do about it as an infant. She will have to spend a great deal of his life dealing with that situation first .Only if and if ever, she reaches a point where she somehow balances that karmic debt handed out to her as a helpless infant can she begin to find a way to balance herself and proceed towards the pursual of her ‘soul’s desire’. Of what she really deeply needs to grow and the absence of which she can feel as well.
Our inner inspiration is guiding us at every bend on the road, trying to nudge us towards taking the required step ‘this time around’. It’s always trying to guide us to our deepest passions and desires but we just cower away at the last step… every time like the last time.. until we finally break out of it and Do It !
To break out of these patterns is necessary and I recall my favorite motivational speaker Les Brown’s lines on this topic: ” Not only is it important that you have your dream, it’s necessary that you have it. “
Why is it ‘necessary’? Because it’s pointless living out an unfulfilled life.
If your soul’s desire is to create a masterpiece of art, you’re only ever going to find fulfillment on this material plane pursuing that purpose in your waking life. Consciously. The more you delay, the more you are bound to suffer. Ultimately, with each passing birth, your karmic appendages from the previous lives all begin to pile until you’re so caught up in this pattern, in this rut that it goes on increasing and increasing until you reincarnate only to repay your karmic debts.
And so…a lot of people question the amount of suffering on the planet. But it’s quite clear just why there is so much of it. Isn’t it?
Most people never follow their soul’s calling. Most people never follow their dharma. They’re so caught up in the patterns that they’ve stuck to for so many years that they’ve forgotten just how to walk out of the false security paradigm that they’ve created for themselves.
And which is the planetary indicator for this ‘rut’ we never seem to break?
The South Node of the moon, Ketu.
The South Node of the moon, Ketu, is that entity in your birth chart that points out to your past. Ketu is your muscle memory, your reflex, your ‘instincts’. The position of Ketu in the birth chart of a person is what needs to be studied for understanding and decoding the patterns that they find themselves ‘stuck’ in. That is why Ketu is portrayed as a headless planet.
Ketu is headless because Ketu contains information from the past that you can no longer add anything more to… anymore! You’ve maxed out the area where Ketu is sitting and it indicates that no further advancements in that area can bear you any fruit.
Ketu is that portion of your life that you simply cannot get around no matter how much you try. The thing is, you’ve worked so much with that area of your life that it’s time for you to let it go but you can’t because that is the only area you’ve learnt to master in all of your previous lives. Whenever you’re faced with a threat or challenge, your first nature is to react in the fashion of the placement of Ketu in your chart.
Only much later in their lives do most people learn how to let go of the security paradigms of Ketu. That is usually around the time one turns 48 as that is the Ketu maturation age. Most people who come to me for astrological readings near the age of 47/48 are shocked at just how suddenly their ‘security’ has blown away.
What they don’t realize is that it’s not their security that is being blown away, it’s the security paradigm of Ketu that has been blown away. The rest of their lives will mostly turn out better because of it. However the pattern acquired over many many life times prevents them from wiping their karma slate clean, getting right down to pursuing their soul’s calling and being done with it!
This is where, studying Ketu in detail turns out to be extremely beneficial for an astrologer. Understanding the South Node of the Moon’s agenda and the crippling security paradigm that it is keeping the client chained to, opens up just about everything about the client’s past life and the purpose of his rebirth here, on this material plane.
In some cases, I have observed that Ketu’s security paradigms just cannot be overcome simply because there is a lot of karmic debt being indicated by Ketu’s position that the client must work to pay off in this lifetime. Usually such indications are derived through understanding Ketu’s conjunctions and involve a history of several events of sabotaging the self.
** Hari Om Namo Narayana! **
