The mundane world is a plane of exploitation. No one can live there without exploiting others. It has been described in the scriptures as bhogamaya bhumika.
ahastani sahastanam apadani chatus-padam
phalguni tatra mahatam jivo jivasya jivanam
«Those who have hands live on those who have no hands. Those who have four legs live on those who have no legs. The big live on the small. No living being can maintain its body without exploitation because every living being’s food is another living being.»
In the mundane world everyone is exploiting everyone. No one’s life can continue without exploitation. The jiva-souls are by nature active; they must always do something, and in this world the jiva-souls cannot do anything without exploiting others. If someone eats something, he eats someone else’s energy. If someone builds a house, or a stadium, or anything, he has to take the material to build that from somewhere. Even if someone wants to fill in a hole, he must dig up earth from elsewhere to do that. Every jiva-soul takes the energy it needs to act and maintain its body from other living beings in the form of the products produced by the sky, air, fire, water, and earth. In this way the embodied jiva-souls are forced to exploit each other to fulfil their needs and desires in this mundane world. This is always the situation in the mundane environment: exploiting to exist.
We have seen that sometimes scientists who study the mundane world come to understand something about scriptural thought. For example, I have heard from Srila Guru Maharaj about Isaac Newton and his third law of motion: «To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction». Newton’s third law is a perfect explanation of karma. The theory of karma is very clearly explained in Srimad Bhagavad-gita. What Newton recently ‘discovered’, the law of karma, was actually explained in Srimad Bhagavad-gita five thousand years earlier:
te tam bhuktva svarga-lokam visalam
ksine punye martya-lokam visanti
evam trayi-dharmam anuprapanna
gatagatam kama-kama labhante
«Within the mundane universe pious jiva-souls enjoy in the heavenly planets, and impious jiva-souls suffer in hellish planets after leaving their earthly bodies. When the jiva-souls’ positive or negative karmic reactions are finished, they are born again in the earthly plane.»
Srimad Bhagavad-gita explains in this way how creation and the wheel of karma revolve within the material environment.
The mundane universe is a passing show (gachchhati iti jagat). The jiva-souls are constantly revolving up and down through the different species and planes of life in this universe according to their karma. The jiva-souls try in many ways to find satisfaction, but none of their attempts are successful.
kabhu svarge uthaya, kabhu narake dubaya
dandya-jane raja yena nadite chubaya
«In material life, the jiva-souls are sometimes raised to heaven or material prosperity, and sometimes drowned in a hellish situation by their karma. This experience of the jiva-soul is similar to a king’s punishment of a criminal. When a king wants to punish a criminal, he orders his servitor, ‘Take this criminal, drown him until he is nearly dead, raise him up, give him one breath, and then force him under water again.’»
The jiva-soul’s existence and passing enjoyment in this world is comparable to being forced above and below water again and again. The equal and opposite reactions of the jiva-souls’ exploitative actions, done even for survival, force them into this condition.
We can also recognise Newton’s third law in another verse of Srimad Bhagavad-gita:
matra-sparsas tu kaunteya sitosna-sukha-duhkha-dah
agamapayino ’nityas tams titiksasva bharata
«Heat, cold, happiness, sadness, and all the other phases of mundane life come and go. They are a passing show. Whenever happiness comes, sadness follows it, and whenever sadness comes, happiness follows it. This is the nature of the material environment.»
The jiva-souls must tolerate these changes. Happiness and sadness are actually the reactions to the jiva-souls’ own activities. All of the jiva-souls’ experiences and actions register within the cyclic system of karma, and no jiva-soul can avoid the reactions produced by karma.
In the Mahabharata, Dharmaraj asked Yudhisthir Maharaj, «What is the news in this world?» Yudhisthir Maharaj replied:
masarttu-darvi parighatnena
suryagnina ratri-divendhanena
asmin maha-moha maye katahe
bhutani kalah pachatiti varta
«The news of this world is that the conditioned jiva-souls are being cooked by Mahakal [Universal Time] in the pot of worldly illusion, which is heated by the fire of the sun and burns on the firewood of the days and nights. The pot is stirred by the ladles of the months and seasons, and within the pot the jiva-souls are suffering so much, covered with the masala [flavouring] of kama [lust], krodha [anger], lobha [greed], mada [pride], moha [illusion], matsarya [envy], and the desires for kanak [wealth], kamini [women], and pratistha [fame]. This is the only news in this world.»
Dharmaraj then asked Yudhisthir Maharaj, «What is miraculous in this world?» Yudhisthir Maharaj replied:
ahany ahani bhutani gachchhanti yama-mandiram
sesah sthavaram ichchhanti kim ascharyam atah param
«Day by day the embodied souls are suffering so much in their worldly lives and finally departing for the house of death. Day by day, before their eyes, death takes away their father, mother, sons, daughters, neighbours, and so on. But the jiva-souls who stay behind think, ‘I will not go. I will never die. I will stay here and enjoy everything. So many others have gone, but I won’t. I will stay here and enjoy. Everyone else has died, but death will never come for me. I will stay here forever.’»
This is the foolishness of the conditioned souls, and Yudhisthir Maharaj described it as the greatest wonder in the world. The conditioned souls think they will live this particular life eternally. It is simply not true. Srila Guru Maharaj used to quote this English verse,
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power
And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave
Awaits alike the inevitable hour:
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
Here the position of everything in this world is very simply explained: according to everyone’s culture, qualities, karma, and so on, their position within material life goes up, then down, up again, down again, and finally to the grave. The conditioned souls, however, are not able to properly understand this. When any soul does realise their position in this world, they feel:
Dina yaminyau sayam pratah
sisira-vasantau punar ayatah
kalah kridati gachchhaty ayus
tad api na munchaty asa-vayuh36
Again and again the sun rises, the sun sets, and days pass by, but the conditioned souls never really consider it. The conditioned souls always absorb themselves in eating, sleeping, fearing, and enjoying (ahara-nidra-bhaya-maithunam cha). They only think about what they will have for dinner this evening, what they will have for breakfast tomorrow, and so on. While they are thus absorbed in material life, the days continue to pass, and beyond their control Time flows on.
Death and birth are very important questions for conditioned souls. The jiva-souls want to enjoy their existing lives forever. They make houses and families for this purpose. But at any time a car accident can happen and take anyone away from their house and family. The jiva-soul cannot actually control anything. The reactions to one’s previous actions (karma-phal), can always forcibly oust one from any position in this world. Karmic reactions bring birth, death, old age, disease, happiness, and sadness to the jiva-souls within this material world. The jiva-souls never know when death will come to them and they will have to leave everything to take another birth.
According to their karma, jiva-souls may receive a human birth again or may revolve through the 8,400,000 varieties of species in this world. No one can stay in their present body forever. Everyone must change bodies according to the laws of karma. No one knows where their karma will take them, where they will stay, what they will do, or what their future will be. They only know that the karma-chakra, the wheel of karma, must push them forward. «To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction.» Within the material environment the karma-chakra is always cycling, and the reactions to everyone’s previous actions are happening automatically.
The waves of birth and death are always flowing within this environment, carrying away the jiva-souls. Some people think that dying in a plane crash is very terrible, but actually it is not an unhappy way to die. Before a plane crashes, when it is falling towards the earth, people lose their senses. When they die they do not feel what happened. They only later realise, «I am out of my body», and wonder, «Where is my body? Where is my leg?» When their awareness returns to them after they die, they immediately recognise, «I am detached from my body». Then they begin to search for their body. When they see one body part over here and one body part over there, they think, «How could I ever live in that body again? It is not possible.»
After jiva-souls depart from a body, they often try to enter back into it. But when a jiva-soul leaves a body there is no power for the body to run, and because of that the heart does not beat and the body stops functioning. When this happens, the body begins to degrade, and after it has degraded it cannot work again properly. In this way it becomes impossible for jiva-souls to re-enter their previous bodies. After trying to re-enter his former body and being unsuccessful, a departed jiva-soul becomes very sad and finally begins following his body around. Even though he can’t enter back into his body, he cannot forget his body. Until his body is cremated a departed jiva-soul follows his body, and again and again tries to enter into his body. But once a jiva-soul has left his body, and the body degrades, the jiva-soul cannot enter into his body again. It is like Paradise Lost.37
When a jiva-soul follows his body to its cremation ground or grave, he thinks, «What are my relatives doing? Why are they burning my body? They should keep my body for some more time so I can try again to enter back into it.»
When his body is finally burned or buried, the jiva-soul feels very helpless. He wonders, «Where should I go now?» After his body is cremated the jiva-soul visits his house, his old bedroom, and the homes of his relatives. He sees his son or mother or father crying, and he also feels very sad. He wants to show himself to his relatives, but he cannot. He tries to talk to his relatives, but they cannot hear him talking. Frustrated, he may go back to the cremation ground where his body was. Left without shelter the jiva-soul wanders around and around restlessly. He may stay at the cremation house thinking of his body, and other souls who were also cremated the same day may be there as well. He will see those souls and talk with them. They may be the souls of rickshaw wallahs, or kings, or anything else. In life a rickshaw wallah cannot speak with a king, but when they have left their bodies, they may live together in a tree near their cremation ground.
In this way the departed soul lives after his body is cremated, and he feels very hungry and thirsty, although he is unable to eat or drink. The departed soul still has his subtle body, his mental body, which contains all his feelings and desires. So he lives in a very helpless condition: full of desires with no way to satisfy them.
It is a Vedic rule that three days after a jiva-soul departs his relatives on his daughter’s side offer him some water and milk. This is done through mantram after his body’s cremation.
Sasa nasto niralambho vayu-bhuto nirasrayam
idam ksira idam nira sraddhaya diya te ’pi mam
This mantram means, «You are living now in this cremation field. You have no place to rest and your soul has no formation (niralambho). Your form is now like a vayubhuta, an air form like a ghost, and you have no shelter (nirasrayam). I am your daughter and I am offering you this water and milk. Through this mantram you will receive it and you will feel peaceful.»
Mentally the departed jiva-soul then drinks that water and milk. Later his sons offer pinda, traditional sacrificial articles. His sons will become the proprietors of his land, so they must do something good for their father. Ten days after his departure they shave their heads, take a bath in the Ganges or a body of water, put on new cloth, and make an offering to their father or whichever relative of theirs has departed. The departed soul accepts all the offerings through mantram. Through mantram there is communication on the mental plane. The departed soul then feels peaceful, «I have no body or I have no existence among my relatives, but they are still remembering me and they are still doing something good for me. I am not so helpless. Help is coming to me from my relatives.» In this way the departed soul feels some mental peace.
After offering pinda the departed soul’s relatives perform a sraddha ceremony. In remembrance of his necessities — maybe a pair of shoes, an umbrella, some cloth, or some food — they make an offering in his name to a group of brahmans. There are sixteen items used in this offering. When the departed soul’s relatives supply brahmans in the ceremony with these necessities, the departed soul receives a year’s supply of his necessities mentally.
In this way, on the mental level, the departed soul’s subtle body receives ten or twelve years of food when a group of ten or twelve brahmans is fed. In his name his relatives feed a group of brahmans, and all the property they offer is enjoyed by him mentally. Each of his relatives bears witness, «This sraddha ceremony is the Vedic practice for departed jiva-souls, and I am offering these articles for the benefit of my father», or mother, or other relative, according to their relationship. Then the sraddha ceremony is finished. The brahmans from the ceremony take responsibility for the departed soul’s spiritual advancement and bring some light to him. Within a few days he feels the darkness of his situation leave, and he feels detachment in his mind.
This is the traditional Vedic process. If a departed soul is a Vaisnava, then all of this is not necessary. The best thing that can be done for him is to offer some preparations to the Lord in His Deity form and then serve the Vaisnavas with that prasadam. Serving the Vaisnavas in the name of the departed soul is the best way to help him, and no problems will come to that Vaisnava if a traditional sraddha ceremony is not held.
Anyhow, after his death a departed soul wants to speak with his relatives, but he cannot. At that time his experience is very bitter. Some days after the ceremony for his passing the grief of his relatives begins to fade and the departed soul thinks, «What is this? Now they are forgetting me. I need to move on and choose my future path. Where shall I go?»
When a jiva-soul is not embodied he can move very quickly over the earth. The departed soul begins to search for his previous connections who still may be on the mental plane. He searches for his forefathers or persons from his past life that have already departed. He searches for his former associates and maybe he finds his grandfather seated under a tree meditating in the Himalayas. Even if he finds some of his previous connections, none of them say to him, «Oh, there you are! Come here! Come here!» No one responds to him like that. The other departed jiva-souls he meets in the mental plane look at him innocently. They advise him, «It is natural, your feelings. Our feelings were the same as yours when we first left our previous bodies. Now you should try to understand our sober mood and try to proceed towards a higher destiny.»
Question: Maharaj, there is an Indian lady here who lost her son a few months ago. She is still grieving very much as though it happened yesterday. Will the soul of her son suffer because of this?
Srila Govinda Maharaj: That soul may or may not suffer. That soul knows his mother is foolishly crying for him. He knows he cannot go back to her and she cannot see him. Sometimes in that situation a departed soul may avoid his mother. But if he has much affection for her, he may continue to live near her. Also, sometimes a departed soul may take on a shadow form through great concentration with his subtle body. That means he may become a bhut [ghost]. Through concentration a soul may take the form of a ghost because of his attachment for his previous worldly life and relatives, but he cannot exist in that form for a long time.
Generally a departed soul will try to see how he can go towards a higher standard of life. According to his previous karma he gets an opportunity to stay in some place he desires, and he also gets the opportunity to do what he desires. This all happens on the mental level. On the mental level the vision of departed souls is clearer than the vision of humans. Actually, it is the opposite of human vision. Departed souls can see things very far away from them but they cannot see things near to them. If a departed soul thinks of the ocean, the ocean will come to him on the mental level. If a departed soul thinks of a garden, a garden will come before him. Whatever he thinks of will come before him according to his karma (previous experience).
When things come before him, he thinks, «What shall I do with this?» Then he thinks, «What shall I do with this?» If his previous karma is good and he also had some association with sadhus, he will use his thoughts to try to satisfy the Lord. If someone has given him good association and advised him, «O boy, while you are here (in this disembodied mental state) try to meditate», then he will think, «I am happy when I think of a flower garden so I will meditate on that to satisfy the Lord.» Then he will think of a flower garden, the flower garden will come into his mind, and if he has a proper cultured mood, he will offer flowers from that garden to a Deity mentally. In this way he can offer the fruits of his karma, the qualities of his previous experience, to the Lord according to his cultured mood, and when he will offer that to the Lord he will receive double the satisfaction he would by enjoying it himself. In this way a departed soul is tested on the mental plane and must try to do something positive there.
As he is living on the mental plane a departed soul’s previous karma also pushes him forward. On the mental plane there are always waves moving, the waves of janma and mrtyu, birth and death. These waves are always flowing throughout the mental plane. Generally the souls existing in the mental plane avoid the waves of birth and death. When those waves come to them they try to move out of the way. They do not want to be carried away by those waves to take birth again. The waves of birth and death come like thunder. When departed souls see the waves of birth and death, they think, «These waves will knock me senseless.» When souls on the mental plane see the thunderous wave of birth coming towards them they feel afraid. They know that that thunderous wave will knock them senseless and take them to an unknown destination. They avoid that wave and live in the mental plane according to their karma.
Mostly, departed souls try to move towards a higher standard of thinking while they are living in the mental plane. If they have a tendency to enjoy and some pious karma (punya), then they will feel some sort of air come and push them up to Svargaloka (heaven). In heaven there are many enjoyable things and departed souls enjoy them there according to their karma. The reactions to the actions they did in their previous lives come to them and they enjoy the heavenly environment.
If a departed soul has some bad karma, he is taken to an unpleasant environment. There he feels fearful and hungry. He feels burning sensations. He feels as though he is in the middle of a thunderstorm. He feels many varieties of miseries. In India you will see images of narak [hell]: people being killed, burned, scalped, eaten by vultures, and so on. All these reactions happen to a departed soul in his subtle body on the mental level in hell, and he cries so much as he suffers. According to a soul’s karma he will either suffer in Narak or enjoy in Svargaloka.
When a departed soul’s karma is finished he must again take birth. This is the law. He will not be able to avoid it. It will happen suddenly as though in the meantime. The waves of janma and mrtyu, birth and death, will come and take him forcibly to his birth. He will be knocked senseless and forced down to the ground of the earth. Unconsciously he will take on the form of a tree or plant and then a fruit. From the fruit he will move into the body of a human, animal, or insect according to the reactions of his karma. If his next body will be a human body, he will take the form of some rice or some food, and in this way move into the body of his future father. From his father’s body he will move into the womb of his mother.
Sometimes when a soul is in the womb of his mother, his consciousness will suddenly come back to him. He will see his own form as an atma [soul], and he will see that the Paramatma [Supreme Soul] is living with him. Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur has described this experience within the womb:
janani-jathare, chhilama yakhana
visama bandhana-pase
eka-bara prabhu! dekha diya more
vanchile e dina dase
[«While I was bound in the terrible confines of my mother’s womb, You once revealed Yourself to me, O Lord! Yet since then You have deprived this poor servant.»]
Not everyone receives this consciousness in the womb, but Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur has described it in one of his songs. When the jiva-soul is living in the womb of his mother he has some general consciousness and feelings. When the jiva-soul’s body and senses form within the womb, his awareness begins to come back to him, though it is not so strong, after being knocked senseless by the waves of birth and death. But when he is born and comes out from his mother’s womb, he forgets everything. His next life begins from that moment.
Sometimes some persons can see mental pictures of their previous lives even after they have taken on a new body. Sometimes when a child is sleeping or looks into the sky, his vision goes beyond this planet, and he sees into another plane of experience. This has been researched in the past.
After birth the jiva-soul loses all memory of his previous experience, and his karma provides him with opportunities for his future.
purva janmarjita vidya purva janmarjitam dhanam
purva janmarjitam karma agre dhavati dhavati
If he performed some pious activities, or gathered some knowledge or wealth, in his previous life, that follows him into his future life. He cannot see how this happens but it happens. For example, I remember seeing a young girl who played harmonium like an expert the first time she touched a harmonium. She could immediately play and sing very difficult tunes after hearing them only once or twice. She could easily play music that many adults could not play. This quality came to her through her previous karma. According to one’s karma one may have particular qualities that bring them quickly to an advanced stage of practice.
In this way the next birth of a soul begins. The atmosphere of his birth may sometimes help him, and may sometimes go against him, according to his karma. Finally that birth passes and his body goes to the grave again. In this way the waves of janma and mrtyu, birth and death, always flow throughout this mundane world, and the jiva-souls revolve through the passing show of material existence.
36 «Day and night, dusk and dawn, winter and springtime come and go again and again. Time plays on, and life passes away, but the disease of desire never leaves me. (Everything in this world comes and goes in the course of time except the false hope of material happiness.)»
Srila Govinda Maharaj wrote two poetic Bengali translations of this verse by Sankar Acharya:
Divasa-rajani sandhya-sakala
sad-rta-sane khele mahakala
nase paramayu; tabu asa-vayu
na chhade amaya, e visama-daya!
«Time plays with the days, nights, dusks, dawns, and six seasons, and takes away my life. Yet the disease of desire never releases me. This is my dire condition!»
Divasa-yamini-sandhya-prabhata
vasanta-sarat kare yatayata
kala setha khele nase paramayu
tabu nahi chhade dusta asa-vayu
«Day and night, dusk and dawn, and fall and spring come and go. Time plays amongst them and takes away my life. Yet the disease of wicked desire never releases me.»
37 Paradise Lost is an epic by John Milton in which the fate of the souls who turn away from God is examined. There death, sorrow, and emptiness are understood to be the consequences of accepting Satan’s proposal, «Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven.»