Jeeva Karunya Part-3

A LIFE OF COMPASSION

Showing compassion on living beings

To know what is the right to have the melting of the soul which means having compassion on living beings:

All the beings have the same quality, being part and parcel of God's Natural Truth; they are brought into existence by God's Omnigracious Energy into the bodies made up of the basic elements. So they belong to the same kind with the same right. When a brother sees or hears or knows that his brother suffers due to a danger his soul will melt; as we know that this is due to the right of the body, in the same way when a being sees, hears or learns that another being is suffering due to some danger recognising that being as belonging to the same species like himself, having similar soul, its soul will melt. It should be understood that this melting of the soul occurs, as it is the right of the soul.

Even when they see beings suffer some are hard-hearted without compassion; to know why these people do not have the spiritual right:

The eye which is the spiritual knowledge has become dim due to spiritual ignorance or nescience and the spectacles called mind etc., which serve as the auxiliary eyes have lost their lustre and have become opaque and thick, they are therefore unable to see and know the truth. Therefore it should be understood that though the spiritual right prevails, compassion didn't blossom.

But, where will the power of compassion which is the melting of the soul reveal itself?

It should be understood that the power of compassion is revealed where that obstacle among hunger, killing, disease etc., because of which compassion rose, is removed.

To know the answer to the statement of those who say that all the sufferings of the living beings due to hunger, being killed disease etc., are the experience of only the inner instruments and organs like mind, eye etc., and not that of the soul, therefore there is no big use in having compassion on the living beings:

In this body, apart from the soul and the life-force which is God’s manifestation, the knowledge of knowledge the organs and the subtle instruments are mere inert principles, mere tools; they are not the souls which are knowledge itself. Therefore only souls, which are conscious principles can enjoy pleasure and pain and not the other principles which are mere inert things. The subtle instruments like mind and the organs like eye etc., are but the instruments of the small house built by the Grace of God for the being to live. Pleasure and pain can be experienced by the indweller only and not by the instruments of the house like mud, stone, wood, air, fire, water etc. The eyes which have become dim due to consumption and which uses spectacles as auxiliary eyes when they see suffering, shed tears; but the spectacles do not shed tears. Therefore it should be understood that the instruments like mind etc., which serve as auxiliary eyes to the vision of the soul do not know to enjoy pleasure and pain.

When it is said that the mind is happy when that being encounters pleasure and the mind is defected when it encounters pain, does it mean that the mind is experiencing pain and pleasure?

The answer to their query is:

Just as the healthy physical condition and the unhealthy physical condition of the owner dwelling in a crystal house (glass house) are reflected in the house and are visible outside (are seen through the glass), and the fresh or lived conditions of the eyes are seen through the spectacles, the happiness and unhappiness of the soul due to the pleasure and pain it experiences are seen, rather reflected through the subtle instruments and organs like mind, eye etc., and are visible outside.

Moreover when the light placed inside a house is very bright that house and the things within shine very brightly. When that light becomes very dim the house and the things inside also become very dim. Therefore, it should be known that the answer is that pleasures and pains are not the experiences of the mind but that of the soul and that the subtle instruments and organs are but the auxiliary instruments to the soul.

To know why out of all the beings created by God many are suffering from hunger, killing, disease etc., very much:

In their previous body, those beings were not willing to lead a life of compassion towards all beings and had been hard-hearted and had led a vicious life. Therefore by the Omnigracious law ordained by God they are subjected to a lot of suffering from hunger, killing, disease etc.

How can one know that there was previous body: A family man, who has come to occupy a house for rent, should have lived previously, in another house by paying rent for it; he couldn't have run a family without a house; if any dispute arises over the present house he will again shift to another house; if he builds a house on his own, for himself he will avoid shifting to another house, therefore it should be understood that the being which has come to occupy the present body by paying rent in the form of food should have occupied another physical body, by paying the same sort of rent in the previous birth and existed and that without a body a being cannot exist and if any calamity happens even in this body he will transmigrate into another body and if he earns for himself an eternal house of Grace, he will not occupy any more body.

To know why some people argue thus, putting forth various arguments - some people say, if one takes a body once own will not have another body afterwards; in case the present body perishes he who dwells in it will also perish; some others say he will be liberated, some say that he will enjoy sins and virtues for ever; some others say he will be without body in the same place where his body has perished:

All such persons are attached to the principles of the worldly religions which say that body itself is the soul and enjoying worldly pleasures alone is liberation; therefore they have not understood the Truth, that there is soul which is knowledge itself in the inert body and that the soul has bondage and liberation and that till it is liberated it will take body after body according to its different bondages. They do not realise this Truth by such evidences, as direct perception and on experience and for their principles there is no proof, inference or experience. These should be understood.

To know how it is not like that:

If it is true that beings have the freedom to have bodies and enjoy pleasures according to their wish, they should obtain bodies and pleasures as they desire; but this is not so. Some get bodies without defects and enjoy material pleasures and some others get defective limbs which are unfit to satisfy their material desires. Therefore it should be understood taking these as proof that beings do not get bodies and pleasures as they desire; if it is said that each one gets them because of nature, Nature should be without any change at all times with the same quality; as it is not of the same type and there are so many varieties it is not due to nature, that bodies are obtained. If it is due to God's will, God is full of compassion and always just, he would have made all the beings experience pleasant things uniformly; but as He has not done so it is not God's Will. In the first creation created by God's Grace, as the beings had not observed the laws ordained by Him, to attain His Natural Bliss because they had failed in their effort due to age old impressions recorded due to their actions, because of the differences in the efforts put forth by the beings due to the beginningless impression, many sorts of bodies and enjoyments came into existence during the second creation. This should be understood with these proofs.

If no other body is taken after the present body is lost - one cannot keep count of the bodies that had been destroyed from the first creation to this date; similarly the souls too are countless. Therefore the souls too should not take my more bodies; but it is not so; they are going on taking bodies again and again. But it is said that the souls are created anew again and again and bodies are provided anew for them - only bodies can be created anew again and again, the soul dwelling in the body, cannot be created anew again and again; the soul exists and manifests always; it doesn't have birth and death; it is neither created nor destroyed. If souls are made like pot, they will not know to experience pleasure and pain; they will not beget virtue and vice they will be destroyed like a pot. If they are destroyed, there will be neither bondage nor liberation; even young children know that when the pot is broken the air and the Ether (Space) within it are not broken. Therefore, it should be known by inference, that when the body gets destroyed the manifestation of the soul and that of the God within that body will not be destroyed and that it is true that he souls obtain bodies and pleasures which vary according to the efforts they put forth.

At a particular time twins are born to a mother and father. Among them one is fair and the other one is dark. One is handicapped and the other is without any defect; one drinks milk and vomits milk while drinking it; one has disease and the other has no disease; one child speaks when it is two years old; and the other doesn't know how to speak. When it is enquired into deeply, how the differences between these twins came to exist at this place without any obvious reasons, it will be found that this is due to the difference in the efforts on the deeds of the body taken in the previous birth When the twins are three years old while they are about to eat the eatables given to each one of them by their parents, in case a third child comes apart from these two, on seeing it, one of the two gives to it the eatable in its hand, while the other prevents it from giving, asking it not to give; one of them takes up a book and reads it like a young body, the other one snatches it and throws it away saying that the first child should not read it and beats the child. One is afraid, and the other is fearless. When we begin to enquire, how among these two children one has and the other does not have mercy, love, knowledge, activity etc., at such an early age even without being taught by their mother or father, it will be learned by inference coming out of experience, that the impressions of the habits formed in the body in the previous births, have come over to the present body without being taught. If this is understood, it will be clearly seen that beings had bodies before, and will have bodies after the present body.

Moreover, even before the present body gets destroyed, the soul takes various bodies and enjoys different strange experiences in the dream. Therefore it need not be said that when the present body goes away the soul will take another body and enjoy the experiences according to the impressions of the past deeds. If a man can enter another body leaving his present body, by the supernatural power got by perfecting himself, it need not be said that when this present body gets destroyed, the soul dwelling in the body will enter another body according to the effects of its past deeds.

Moreover, if a bird can come into the body of a chick from the body of an egg, due to the change of time and qualities, it need not be said that souls on leaving the present body will come in another body, according to the effects of its past deeds. Moreover, if a germ can come into the body of a wasp from that of a germ, because of a wasp, it need not be said that a soul leaving the present body will come into another body according to its past deeds.

Moreover, if a soul even in a single birth can come into the body of a child from that of an infant, into the body of a youth from that of a child and into the body of an old man from that of a youth, it need not be said that a soul can come into one physical body from another physical body according to its past deeds. Moreover, if in a single birth souls can transmigrate into the body of a male from that of a female and into the body of a female from that of a male, by the effects of mantras and tantras - chanting divine names or worshipping the divine, it need not be said that they will take another body due to the effects of its past deeds.

Another instance; the soul dwelling in a plant body, comes into the body of a worm called the emerald-germ (maragathakirumi), even while it is in the same body. Moreover, an ant comes into the body of the ant-bird (Pipeelika pakshi), while it is in the same body, and a snake remaining in the same body, comes into another body called the snake-bird (sarpa-pakshi).

Similarly, as the souls dwelling in the human beings, animals, birds, reptiles, aquatic beings, plants etc., while in the same bodies take other bodies, it need not be said that when the bodies get destroyed other bodies are taken by the souls.

Some people ask, " If it is true that there was a previous body, who were you and what was your history? Tell us" When a person asks a man of seventy, "What was your history when you were five years old?" the reply comes immediately, "In the present state of my age, when I am at a loss to narrate what happened during yesterday itself how can I narrate what happened when I was five? How can you ask me?" Therefore the reply is: If he is bewildered and unable to remember and narrate even what had happened in the same birth, how can we, who are bewildered by various stages and states of mind, remember and narrate our history - that is all that had happened in the previous birth?

To know how the virtuous deeds and the vicious deeds done in the previous birth will follow the being into this body also:

If a family man had invited bad people to the house where he was running the family and had moved with them freely, they would follow him even when he leaves that house and occupy another house and would move closely with him. In the same way, if a being had done sinful deeds out of his own will in the previous body where he had dwelled, those sinful deeds would follow him when he occupies another body, and be with him even in that body; this in applicable is the virtuous deeds also.

To know the answer to the simple question that if it is the Omnigracious law of God to make the beings who had walked in the sinful path, leaving the path of showing compassion to the living beings, in the previous birth, to suffer from hunger, thirst etc., in this birth, will it not be violating the Omnigracious Law to have sympathy with those beings and give them food etc., and give relief to them: The example of the ring feeding his servant earlier proves this idea.

A Thus feeding the hungry, extending mercy to the suffering, prevention of killing i.e. violence, having an attitude of Ahimsa in thought, and deed and above all a compassionate approach to all problems is a must for man to obtain divine bliss. Arutprakasar said that he languished at the mere sight of languishing crops. We have to languish at the mere sight of sufferers of any kind. Then only there will be the proper and effective realization of God's natural manifestation. When that takesplace man becomes immortal.

- Original Jeeva Karunya Ozhukkam is in Tamil and it was translated by Smt.Sethu, Sadhana Nikentan, Kumbakonam