Nimananda Das Adhicary

Transmigration of Souls
(part 1)

Journal 'The Harmonist'
Edited by
Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur

(No. 10, Vol. XXV, March 1928)

THE theory of transmigration of soul is the special feature of Hinduism and it distinguishes it from the other two religions — Christianity and Mahomedanism. In explanation of the diversities of the world this theory is propounded. The current idea about it is incomplete and, in many respects, erroneous. To remove this wrong idea we propose to discuss it in the light of the teachings of Shri Gaur Sundar.

As the knowledge of the subject is hinged on the knowledge of the soul that is supposed to migrate, we would first endeavor to find out what this soul is.

This is the subject upon which the philosophers of the world are racking their brains. And the result of this racking of brains is confusion. Everybody tries to interpret it in his own way, in the light of knowledge he has gathered by means of his senses, without caring at all for the revelation as recorded in scriptures. Then we try to bring our intellect to bear upon a region where our intellect cannot go, such a confusion is but inevitable. The result of this confusion is obvious. We have lost the substance and are running after the shadow.

In German folklore a story is narrated about a man who lost his shadow. Ah! the man was in a bad plight. He lost all, and was deserted by his friends and relatives. Now what are we to think of men who have lost, not the shadow, but the substance? There may be some hope for a man who has lost the shadow and has retained the substance. But what hope can there be for a man who has lost the substance and has retained the shadow? Quite an overwhelming majority of us, consciously or unconsciously, are running after the shadow, and are suffering all the more for that. We identify ourselves with this body, and madly run after the gratification of material senses. We look upon worldly enjoyment as the only object of our life and care to live only for it. Herein we mistake. Instead of rendering dues of ‘Caesar unto Caesar’ and dues of ‘God unto God’, we are rendering dues of one to the other who has no claim over them. We are mistaking the pleasure of the body and the mind for that of the soul. The latter is different from and far above the former. It has pleasures of its own, and they cannot be obtained and should not be sought for in this material plane of existence. All our material quests bring untold miseries on us, and the highest good (?) that they propose to achieve defeat its own purpose. Hence in the Bible it is written, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he who doeth the will of God abdeth forever” (Jhoa, Chap 2).

What is the revealed truth about our real self then? Vaishnavism has shown from our scriptures that our real self or the soul is a differentiation of the esoteric super- prakriti and as such it is in constitution, the same as his Lord Vishnu, whereas the not-self — the body, the mind etc. as they are at present, is a differentiation of the a-chit prakriti which is the perverted reflection of the chit prakriti. The former, — the real self — is ever spiritual and the latter, the not-self — is ever material. The difference between these two kinds of manifestations is such as admits of no mutual partnership under any law of human conception. Yet under Providential dispensation the impossible has been made possible. Chit and a-chit now function together as a single whole. But none the less the difference is there. Though ignored, it has not been obliterated so as to end in material triumph, in negation of any spiritual necessity.

The real self coming of its own accord to manifest in this a-chit world, has been compelled to put on two mortal garments — one physical and the other subtle; and thus crippled by Maya, it ceases to function in the chit world and roams in this a-chit one as a helpless entity in various forms. Forgetful of its celestial character, it now runs after material achievements that constantly allure it but fail to bring it permanent relief when obtained.

Now does the soul migrate? The answer is in the negative. It does not migrate, and it cannot migrate. Svarupe sabara haya golokete sthiti — In self all exist in the chit world, Goloka. As real self, the soul is ever unchangeable and cannot admit of such changes as deaths and births. The latter cannot work out any change in the spiritual character of the soul. For instance, a man in the running train is said to perform a journey from one place to another. But the man does not actually move himself to go the way. It is the train to which is due the locomotion, and the journey that it makes is simply ascribed to him. So is the case with our soul, the real self. The changes wrought by deaths and births are ascribed to the soul although it has itself nothing to do with them. And the cause of this ascription is our ignorance. Duped by Maya we forget our own self; and, in ignorance thus imposed on us, we say, “I am migrating, he is migrating, the cat is migrating, the tree is migrating and so on.”

But at the same time we cannot deny the existence of such phenomena as deaths and births; we cannot say we are not migrating. If our real self does not migrate, it must be something else. And what can this something else be! It is our apparent self. Our apparent self is responsible for this function, and we wrongly hold our real self responsible for its doings. All that we do as this man and as that woman, as a Hindu and as a Mahomedan, as a cat and as a dog, as a tree and as a stone, are the doings of our apparent self, our real self having nothing to do with them.

Now what is our apparent self? It has been made clear that Maya, although she has extended her sway over the real self of a baddha-jiva (jiva in bondage of Maya), has in no way entered into its composition. But the apparent self or rather its component factors, the present body and the mind are entirely composed of Maya or the matter. How, then, the body and the mind which are jada or a-chit, devoid of any animation, have come to be animated. Whence is their animation? In fact they are inanimate; and their animation comes from their being in close proximity to the real self. So long as the real self inhabits them, it animates them with its own animation. For instance, if a crystal be placed near a rose it will be tinged with the color of the rose. Put as soon as it is removed away from the rose it assumes its own color. In the same way the body and the mind are animated with the animation of the soul or the real self and appear as a distinct entity with an ego.

As soon as the soul is set free from them, they return to their own nature. A further scrutiny will disclose a fact, that, of the body and the mind, the body is merely a tool in hands of the mind and enables the latter to function in this gross material world. The mind with the soul’s animation is then the apparent self that migrates.

What does make it migrate? It is jiva’s own karma or action. The apparent self being the handy-work of Maya, falls an easy prey to her temptations, and acting up to these temptations it does certain things the resultant force of which propels it for fresh, and very often entirely new actions which necessitate new births for their accomplishment. Thus action begets action and birth begets birth, and the jiva is kept perpetually moving on the wheel of births and deaths. The jiva, who is a man now, may, by his own action, be born again as a cat, and vice versa. One birth controls another; and they are just in measure with one’s own karma. This is the law of Nature that governs our births in this world. There is no modification of it, and there is no flying away from it. It is irrevocable and irresistible. From the highest man to the meanest protoplasm, nay, the most trifling sand grain are all bound by this law.

Now, one question that may naturally arise in our mind is — what karma did the soul do in its pre-mundane existence, and what bad deed could it do then that made it fall into this unhappy realm? The existence in the soul itself, of an innate tendency to do wrong is quite incompatible with the absolute purity of the soul itself. But the cause must be there in the soul itself. There lies in the soul some constitutional defect, and not any material external circumstance that is responsible for its worldly migration made up exclusively of chit element or atmic principle, the soul is free from all material impurity. But being anu-chit or a minute particle of chit, it must, like the spark of a fire, have the defect due to quantitative smallness. Owing to this permanent defect the soul may, in exercise of its own free will, come to be tempted by Maya or the a-chit world. It may, if it like, as well enter into chit world or the ‘Kingdom of God’ and remain there forever in the service of its Lord, Krishna, without any fear of being tempted to journey world-ward. Hence in the scriptures the jiva has been described as tatastha, capable of functioning in both the chit and the a-chit worlds, and as such, its original place of abode has been located in the meeting line of these two worlds where it gets the option of deciding for one or the other of them. When it decides for enjoyment it becomes enslaved by Maya. Its decision for enjoyment of the material world is the first crime committed by jiva against Krishna that earns for it as punishment this perpetual bondage of Maya.

How does the apparent self migrate? It is clear from what has been discussed hereto that the apparent self propelled by motives commensurate with its perverted ego, establishes, as enjoyer, wrong connection with matter, which results in certain actions, on its part, to the fruit of which it is inextricably bound. It must reap as it has sown. The karma or action of one birth shapes and controls that of another. The subtle body or the mind stores up the seeds of actions of one birth in a subtle form and carries them over to another. These seeds of actions not only decide what sort of body the apparent self is to have in its next birth, but chalks out a new line of action to be followed by it in that birth. Thus action begets birth and birth begets actions; and there is a never ending succession of births and deaths as waves in the continuous stream of actions. This is the inexorable and inflexible law of karma. This apparently never-ending line of actions is arrested when the jiva returns to itself and takes to the service of his Lord, Krishna. Such a returning is possible only by devotion to Krishna and by no other means. On the strength of devotion he ceases to be allured by the material pleasures of the world, and follows a new line of action which, being divide in character does not only not become the cause of further births but automatically overcomes the intensity of actions of past births. This is called salvation. It means, on one hand, the complete dissociation of the soul from its material deflections resulting in a complete cessation from the pursuit of worldly enjoyments, and on the other, the attainment of the service of Lord Krishna eternally existing with Him as His associate in His eternal abode, Baikuntha.