3. Yoga Pada: Yoga is the path of deeper spiritual effort with the goal of uniting ones individual awareness with God. In the third stage of spiritual evolution, the effort is in mastering the control of the mind, body and emotions through the practices of
tapas and
dhyana (meditation) usually under the guidance of a guru who will ultimately lead the yogi to God Realization.
4. Jnana Pada: Jnana is spiritual wisdom. It is the fourth and final stage in the sojourn of the soul on Earth. In this stage the soul is dutied to give of its wisdom about life and living that was gained from spiritual maturation through traversing the above stages. Thus the soul becomes a guide for other souls.
The Story of A Soul. "In the Beginning......."
A soul having
emanated from God and born on Earth for the first time experiences many new feelings and impulses. The emotions and desires of the body, thoughts, relationships with others and much more. Just like an innocent baby being bombarded with new experiences as it grows lacks self-control and ever eager to try new things, the soul too at this stage sees life as a child in a toy store. A young soul follows the whims and fancies of its desires and emotions with no holds barred, even if it means others. This is a time similar to when the river is young and full of energy, which turn to violent rapids and corrosive force. However as difficult karmas return to the soul, the suffering it goes through creates an awakening of the need to better manage life. When this awakening happens the soul gains strength and begins to develop its conscience. This then marks the beginning of the
chariya pada.
The Chariya Pada
The
chariya pada is when the soul begins to get itself acquainted with ethics and peaceful living. The soul is still struggling with basic self-control, but is nevertheless striving for less turbulent living. The soul begins to take some interest in religion. Being still immature, its motivating factor for doing good is its fear of sin or
bad karma and its painful consequences. God, for a soul in the
chariya pada is a person to be feared. The fear of going to hell or punishment from God is very real to a
charya pada person and it instills in him the need to control hurtfulness. His intent for doing noble and good deeds at this stage is to gain the favour of God and entrance into heaven or His 'good books'. Good deeds include observing religious duties and sacraments, giving charity and doing voluntary work, reading scriptures, obeying laws and community hierarchies, studying scriptures and following the advice of ones spiritual preceptor. In Hindu scripture the relationship between the devotee and God in
chariya pada is akin to the relationship between a slave to his master. A slave is obedient to its master out of fear instead of dedication. A devotee in this
pada goes to the temple or places of worship as a dutiful requirement instead of devotion. This is the stage in spiritual evolution where the soul learns to lead a virtuous life and gives his services to the needy as a matter of duty. As such, the
chariya pada is also called the path of service. When compared to the stages of a river, the
chariya pada begins as the river is coming out of the rapids and begins its second and much less turbulent stage.
The Kriya Pada
When the soul realizes that kindness and virtuous living are valuable for happiness and peace in life, it enters the
kriya pada. The soul begins to grasp the place of God or a Higher Power from a more spiritual / devotional perspective. In
kriya pada, love for God emerges in the heart of the soul. The soul still continues to cultivate and refine itself in perfecting the
chariya pada, but there is a major shift in attitude towards service and duty. While in the
chariya pada fear was the motivating factor, in the
kriya pada the motivating factor is love and devotion. One performs her religious duties and lives up to her
dharma because she loves to. In this
pada worship takes center stage in life. The desire for heartfelt worship of God and obedience to spiritual and ethical principles blossoms in her life. The soul now becomes a loving devotee of God. She is no longer afraid of God and looks at God as her parent. Going to places of worship is a joy in life and volunteering services brings great fulfillment for her. The soul in this stage is beginning to be successful in its control of its emotions and desires and continues to get better with time. Self-control begins to be a way of life rather than a burden. She still encounters challenges in perfecting herself to live according to the principles of
dharma and her conscience becomes stronger. Even slight transgressions of
dharma or slip-ups in culture weigh heavily in herself. She does not ignore them anymore and actively looks for absolution to resolve wrong doings and put situations right again. In
kriya pada humility and religious correctness becomes important. Also the need to overcome the dark impulses of anger, jealousy, greed and hatred is strong as the divine nature of her soul becomes more evident to her. In the story of the river the
kriya pada is similar to the third stage of the river as it becomes broader and deeper; flowing slower and giving off more of its nutrients to its surroundings.
The Yoga Pada
As the path of love and devotion of
kriya pada progresses reaches its maturity the desire arises in the soul to have much deeper and personal communion with God. The soul begins to crave for the experience of God–to see God or know God personally. In his quest to fulfill this need he begins to look for a guru who can teach him the path to God knowledge. The Scriptures say that it is by God’s grace that a devotee meets his guru. The path of yoga commences when a guru accepts a devotee as his disciple. As yoga training progresses to deeper levels where the disciple is able to have and sustain states of enlightenment, his relationship with God evolves from that of a son to a parent of
kriya pada, to that of lovers. Of all the
padas, this is the most challenging and difficult, for transgressions of
dharma are meted out with almost immediate
karmic rebounds. The role of the guru is important in
yoga pada as he encourages and goads his disciple even when times become harsh and difficult. Only when the soul is well perfected in path of
kriya pada can he find success in
yoga pada for this is a time of mastering the control of body, mind and emotions in preparation for the ultimate experience of God,
nirvikalpa samadhi, the most sought after fruit of yoga by adept yogis. The
yoga pada is akin to the stage of the river as it draws closer to the sea, gaining strength in volume from its many tributaries while giving off more of its nutrients to its surroundings.
The Jnana Pada
Jnana, pronounced “nyaana,” is spiritual wisdom. Success in the
yoga pada confers to the soul the ultimate mastery of life which manifest as the freedom from fear and the fear of losing; and God Consciousness as the normal state of the yogi's consciousness. This makes the yogi a
jnani. A
jnani is a person who has an unique perspective in life because he has realized the
spiritual truths of the unity of man and God from personal experience instead of purely intellectual conjecture. Having pierced through the veils of
anava and
maya and unburdened by
karma, this soul becomes a great repository of knowledge in the inner workings of life and his guidance becomes valuable to the rest of the world. He has completed the purpose of his life on Earth and is now on a mission of imparting his knowledge to all those who comes in contact with him. He becomes a guide and sometimes the leader of a religion. At this stage the relationship between the
jnani and God is that of close companions. God becomes the
jnani's sole sustainer and it becomes the duty of the
jnani to give of his knowledge toward the advancement of his disciples spirituality; and to the perpetuation of his spiritual lineage. The
jnana pada is the final stage of a river as it drops off all its sediments and nutrients that it has been carrying to form fertile deltas just before the river merges in undifferentiated unity with the ocean.
Each of these four stages of spiritual evolution takes many lifetimes to master. They build progressively life after life and pada after pada towards the evolution of the soul. The perfections gained from each pada becomes part of the characteristic and outer personality of the soul; these perfections are the undying inheritance that the soul can take from one life to the next. Thus spiritual evoloution is able to progress from one incarnation on Earth to another without break in continuity. The soul will pick up from where it left-off in the previous birth as its personality will reflect the perfections attained from past births.
Insight: Can a soul achieve complete spiritual evolution by focusing on one pada only?
Reincarnation
Punarjanma is sanskrit for reincarnation. Reincarnation is to be reborn again into another physical body on earth after the death of the previous body. All the mystical traditions of the East such as
Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism believe in reincarnation. These traditions also belief that regardless of ones beliefs, reincarnation effects everybody. The cycle of reincarnation is however not an eternal cycle. There is an end to it. The beginning is when the soul first enters a physical body, and the end is when the soul is freed from the need to be reborn on earth. This freedom is called
moksha in Hinduism, and is the ultimate goal of life for all Hindus.
Moksha comes after completing the highest level of spiritual enlightenment possible on Earth. This level of spiritual enlightenment is achieved when the soul becomes well
grounded in the realization of God known as
nirvikalpa samadhi (experiencing God as
Parabrahman). At this stage of the soul's soujourn on Earth he or she becomes a
jnani. After fulfilling his or her duty as a
jnani, at death, the
jnani attains
moksha. After that there is no more need to return to life in a body of earth. It takes many lifetimes to achieve
moksha. The Late Trichyswami a very accomplished guru from Bangalore, India, once told me, it takes about 800,000 births to achieve
moksha. This number is more an allegorical mumber than an absolute, refering to the numerous, some would say countless, number of births from the start of life on Earth to
moksha. Thus
jnanis are rare and highly sought after by Hindus for spiritual guidance for these are souls living in possibly their final life on earth. They are called
jivanmukta.
Jivan meaning embodied soul, and
mukta means one who has achieved
moksha.
How Reincarnation Works
The afterlife in
heaven or
hell between incarnations on Earth is temporary until
moksha is achieved. Where we go in this afterlife between births is determined by quality of life lived on Earth and the karmas that were accumulated or resolved. Hindu scriptures elucidate that heaven–
svarga or hell–
naraka that a soul experiences between births is a reflection of the sum of the quality of deeds that it accumulated on Earth. The person's creed has little bearing in this determination; faith has some value but it is secondary to the deeds. As you would expect a kind, loving and ethical life on Earth is rewarded with an interlude in heaven before rebirth; hurtful, greedy and hateful living is a pass to hell. My guru even told me that some people may go briefly into hell, then enter heaven before being reborn. Mystical Hindu schools point to the person's consciousness at or close to the point of death as the determining factor to where the souls ends up in the afterlife. Usually there is a natural tendency to review ones experiences and take stock of achievements or notoriety nearing the time of transition, especially when death is anticipated; not sudden or accidental. The general feeling generated from this time of reflection influences heavily the initial entry door that the soul takes to the afterlife upon transition. However, wherever the soul ends up initially in the Second World, it has to go through more intense and deeper reflection of the deeds done in the life past; this can make the afterlife blissfully smooth, like a roller-coaster ride between heaven and hell or arduously bumpy all the way in hell.
Insight: Heaven and hell, realms of nature.
How long we stay in the realms of the afterlife before rebirth depends heavily on the sum of karmas from all past lives on Earth. Rebirth can sometimes occur almost immediately to decades, even centuries before rebirth. Generally the older the soul the longer it wants to and can stay in heaven. Younger souls, because of their immaturity, tend to end up more often in hell; needless to say they want to get out of there as soon as they can! Either way the afterlife is temporary until
moksha is achieved. It is only after
moksha that the soul gains permenant residence to the heavenly realms. These souls will continue their spiritual evolution in these wonderful realms until they merge in
undifferentiated unity with God in an event known as
vishvagrasa. This means that all souls will eventually gain permanent entrance into heaven after their tour of experiences and learning on Earth is over.
Thus our temporary life in heaven or hell in the cycle of reincarnation is based on the sum of our current life. According to all Hindu sects where we go in the afterlife is more a process of nature than a decision God makes. Because of His inseparable unity with us, God never forsakes us whether we be in heaven or hell. God is ever compassionate and he never judges us. Hindu scriptures also point out that no sin nor suffering can taint the soul and God always recognizes us as the pure-soul-child that He spawned out of Himself; the physical body and the astral / mental bodies are but temporary tools to aid in our spiritual evolution. I have personally experienced this quality of God through my guru. He would unconditionally accept anyone who wanted to learn and train under him wholeheartedly, with no discrimination of their past deeds. However to remain in training under him was the challenge, for my guru would make everyone face up to all deeds of their past and make amends for misdeeds. Those who cannot undergo this process left, those who could stayed on to complete their training. Either way my guru always identified with the people who came to him as souls seeking spiritual progress. The quality of their deeds was caused by the nature in which they lived their life; this quality can be improved with right effort and in way does it tarnish the qualities of the soul.
A scripture that my guru revealed (the
Saivite Shastras) explains that during our time between births in heaven we review our past lives with advanced souls–
Mahadevas and gurus, and plan for the next life. The older and more refined the soul the longer it can stay in heaven and the better it can plan its future life on earth, even to the point of choosing his or her parents and deciding on all the
karmas to face. In
swarga we have the freedom of discussing directly with the
Mahadevas on the best course of life for our spiritual evolution and look for parents and community who will be best able to steer us in the right direction. This however does not mean that the planned life on Earth is going to be an easy or even a smooth one. In fact the older the soul the more challenging a life it chooses on Earth. For these souls an opportunity to live on Earth is an opportunity to optimize its time for spiritual evolution. They know of the joys and wonders of living in perpetual spiritual consciousness and yearn to break free from the cycle of reincarnation.
Insight: Learn more about the role of Earth in the spiritual evolution of the soul, its need and preciousness. Such a soul may even choose to be born handicapped and even be born as an animal to expiate some of its most painful karmas that it had accrued in the past.
Our karmas are grouped into three categories. Sanchita karma is the entirety of our karmas from all past lives and karmas accrued in the present life that have not manifested yet. Prarabdha karma are karmas that we had decided before incarnating on Earth to face in the present life. The third category is kriyamana karma, which are the new karmas that we create while living on Earth. Kriyamana karmas may become part of the prarabdha karma or get stored in the sanchita karma for manifestation in a later life.
While in heaven souls have the privilege of choosing the prarabdha karmas for the next birth. In hell however, this privilege of deciding on the karmas to reap in the next life does not occur. It is natural for all souls experiencing hell to want to get out of it as fast as it can. Planning the next life takes time and souls experiencing hell want to spare no time with such meticulousness. Instead the soul's reincarnation on earth is seen as a grace of God, for at least on Earth it can experience good karmas too. However, due to the lack of planning, the karmas it brings along is a mixup that is based on the timing (astrology) of its rebirth. This process of going to hell causes an innate sense of understanding in the soul that there can be no escape from bad karmas. This develops the conscience in the person who then strives to climb upward in consciousness with each life lived on earth.
Insight: Learn more about Life Plans available in the Afterlife!
After Moksha
After
moksha the soul continues its evolution in the heavenly worlds, the
Devaloka and
Brahmaloka. According to the
Saivite Shastras there are duties to perform and responsibilities to hold in these worlds too, especially in guiding the evolution of the billions of souls and other subtle and deeply spiritual work. Not having the physical shell of course frees the soul off the stresses and needs of physical existence. There is no need for sleeping, eating or procreation. Souls may live in the heavens for eons of Earth years; it is said that some may even become
Mahadevas, which is the basis of a traditional number that there are 330 million Gods
(Mahadevas) in Hinduism. The final destination after protracted existence in the heavens is complete and undifferentiated merger with God, our Creator. This end of the cycle of existence of the soul as an individual is called
vishvagrasa. It is as a river merges in complete unity with the ocean.
Some schools of Hindu philosophy, such as the Vaishnavite Krishna Consciousness School holds the souls ultimate destination is to reside at Vishnu's abode,
Vaikuntha. Here the souls remain eternally distinct from Lord Krishna, though they are imbued perpetually in Krishna Consciousness, which is a type of union. There are also schools such as the
dualistic Saiva Siddhanta who contend that while there is a merger of the soul with God in
vishvagrasa at the end of its evolution this union is not complete. This school explains that the merger is not undifferentiated and souls maintain their a distinct but transparent indviduality. The analogy this shcool uses to explain this is as salt in the sea is not distinguishably different from seawater but can still be extracted from it, so to do souls maintain their distinctness though they are merged in God.
Despite these hair splitting differences about the ultimate state of the soul at the end of its evolution, all Hindu schools believe in the process of evolution of the soul, reincarnation and the dynamics of karma that fuel these processes of spiritual life. They all also believe in the necessity of achieving spiritual enlightenment to gain access to moksha. Hindus also believe that all souls, no matter their affiliation to religion or creed, will reach heaven and that there is no such thing as eternal damnation. Comforting isn't it?
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