God’s Ways God Alone Knows

God’s Ways God Alone Knows

By

Satish K Kapoor

Death is not just a physical fact and the human body, a part of the Universal body, is not the complete man. The Invisible Bing operates through the physical vestment in an eternal process of cosmic evolution.

The Rishis prayed for a full life-span (purnayu) of hundred years. ‘May we see a hundred autumns. May we live a hundred autumns (Rigveda, VII.66.16). ‘Living on are ye; may I live, may I live my whole life –time’ (Atharvanaveda, XIX.69.1); the purpose being ‘multi-benevolent activities’ (Yajurveda XXXV.15).

They why do some leave physical frame early and why some live long? Are they governed by the inexorable laws of nature, having little control?

The questions are baffling and may never be solved to the satisfaction of all. The individual mind can never fully grasp the working of the Universal Mind without merging into it. But after merging, there may be no coming back to narrate the experience. Human souls are like waves on the ocean of cosmic consciousness. Just as solid becomes liquid and liquid turns gaseous under certain conditions, the Supreme Spirit becomes embodied in gross matter and then reverts to its original state, in a process of creative motion. Different types of souls come with different assignments.

There are three types of souls – the evolved, the evolving and those in between. The evolved souls come as incarnations to help, support or guide humankind, kindle he light of love and knowledge, and to dilute negative forces. The evolving souls struggle to attain divinity through ethical means and spiritual activities. The middling category fluctuates between the pure and the impure spheres of consciousness.

Death is not the end of journey of life but the beginning of it as there are lives after lives in the cosmic process of evolution till one attains perfection. The cosmic force working through humans stays in the world till its mission is complete. All human activities are made manifest through the working of natural laws.

The impulse of consciousness is lesser in stone than in plants, lesser in plants than in animals. But it is at optimum level i in humans who can move from self consciousness to universal consciousness. Despite man’s will and his freedom to act, he seems to be no more than a puppet governed by the Universal Mind, which decides his role and duration, before providing him suitable vehicle of matter, and infusing in him the spark of life. Vital breaths allotted to a person are determined by his prarabdha karma or past actions of successive lives which shape the events of his present life.

The question, why do some die young, is the same as asking, why do some die old? Death is inevitability in human time. In cosmic time, there is no death. As the Bhagavad Gita says:

 Worn-out garments, Are shed by the body;

Worn-out bodies, Are shed by the dweller

Within the body,  New bodies are donned

By the dweller, like garments.

(Part of the article from The Vedanta Kesari of Sri Ramakrishna Mission, November 2010)