Reincarnation According to Avatar Meher Baba
Meher Mount
Immortality of the Soul
"The worldly man completely identifies life with the manifestations and activities of the gross body. For him, therefore, the beginning and the end of bodily existence are also the beginning and end of the individualised soul. [1]
"The recurring incident of death is matched by the recurring incident of birth." - Avatar Meher Baba
"The overwhelming importance of death is derived from man's attachment to particular forms, but death loses much of its sting and importance, even for the worldly man, if he takes a broader view of the course of life.
"In spite of their transitoriness, there is an unbroken continuity of life through these forms, old ones being discarded and new ones created for habitation and expression.
“The recurring incident of death is matched by the recurring incident of birth.
“Old generations are replaced by new ones; life is reborn in new forms, incessantly renewing and refreshing itself..." [2]
The Three Forms of Nature
“Immortality of the individualised soul is rendered possible by the fact that the individualised soul is not the same as the physical body.
“The individualised soul continues to exist with all its sanskaras [impressions] in the inner worlds through the medium of its mental and subtle bodies, even after it has discarded its gross body at the time of death.
"So, life through the medium of the gross body is only a section of the continuous life of the individualised soul; the other sections of its life have their expression in other worlds."
“The whole of nature may therefore be conveniently divided into three parts – (i) the gross world, (ii) the subtle world and (iii) the mental world. [3, 4, 5]
“When the individualised soul has incarnated itself in a physical body, it expresses its life in the gross world.
"When it drops the outer sheath, the physical body, it continues to have its expression of life either in the subtle world through subtle body, or in the mental world through the mental body.” [6]
Sanskaras
“Ordinarily, life in the physical body is terminated only when the sanskaras [7] released for expression in that incarnation are all worked out. [8]
"When the soul drops its physical body it is completely severed from all connections with the gross world, though the ego and the mind are retained with all the impressions accumulated in the earthly career.
“...ordinary spirits try to reconcile themselves to severance from the gross world, and conform to the limitations of changed conditions and sink into a state of subjectivity in which a new process begins of mentally reviewing the experiences of the earthly career by reviving the sanskaras connected with them.
“Thus death inaugurates a period of comparative rest consisting in a temporary withdrawal from the gross sphere of action. It is the beginning of an interval between the last incarnation and the next.” [9]
Karma
“In the successive incarnations of an individual soul, there is not only a thread of continuity and identity…but here is also an uninterrupted reign of the law of cause and effect through the persistence and operation of Karma.
“The successive incarnations with all their particulars are closely and unfailingly determined by rational law... ”
“The actions of past lives determine the conditions and circumstances of the present life, and the actions of the present life have their share in determining the conditions and circumstances of the future lives.” [10]
Footnotes
[1] Meher Baba, Discourses, 6th Edition. Myrtle Beach: Sheriar Foundation, © 1947 by the Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Trust, Volume III, page 51.
[2] Baba, Discourses, 6th Edition, Volume III, page 52.
[3] Gross body/form is the physical body or form which functions in the gross sphere. The gross sphere (also gross world) is the world of matter; the visible and invisible worlds in creation, which can be experienced by the gross body through one’s dense, gross impressions. “Baba’s Words: The Master’s Glossary” compiled by Frank Davis, 2000.
[4] Subtle pertains to the body of energy (subtle body), the world of energy (subtle world), or the experience of the world of energy (subtle consciousness). “The Master’s Glossary" compiled by Frank Davis.
[5] Mental body is the causal body, which functions in the mental sphere; the seat of the mind. “The Master’s Glossary.”
[6] Baba, Discourses, 6th Edition, Volume III, pp 54-56.
[7] Sanskaras (also samskara) are impressions; impressions which are left on the soul as memories from former past lives, and which determine one’s desires and actions in the present lifetime. “The Master’s Glossary” complied by Frank Davis.
[8] Baba, Discourses, 6th Edition, Volume III, page 56.
[9] Baba, Discourses, 6th Edition, Volume III, page 57.
[10] Baba, Discourses, 6th Edition, Volume III, page 83.