Is my life only a story, starting from my birth and ending with my death? Won't there be any future of myself after I die? Is my life a spark, or a wave in ocean, or a breeze of air or a storm which originates and gets vanished forever? Being a person living in modern era of science I wish I could believe this. But, the moment I get a slightest feeling of this kind I start feeling all unimportant, start losing a sense of purpose, start feeling a meaninglessness, stop getting a feeling to reach somewhere and just get a horrible feeling of myself existing in an isolation. Myself just doesn’t allow itself to believe that it was not existing before it took birth and it won’t be there at all after it dies. A slight feeling of a kind of connection from past and a slight belief of being there forever actually makes me feel all alive. I don’t believe that I would die one day but, in fact, I know I would. Don’t know if I would ever exist after I die but don’t believe that I won’t.
So, I can’t prove my existence before birth and after death but when I contemplate deeply then I start feeling myself in a journey from my past into my present and from this life into my future. Bhagvadgeeta states that body perishes but soul is eternal and is never destroyed. We are always in an illusion to identify ourselves as a body. But, if I believe about my existence before birth and after my death, when my body could not exist, then there must be some form of myself which is not destroyed or created but, only takes shelter for this lifetime into my body. Try to feel that “I” or “My”. The feeling is as same today as it was when you had your first memories from childhood. It means there is something inside you which never changes with time. Whether you are a child, a young or an old person that feeling about yourself is always the same. So, the power , the spark, that unseen or unknown which, keeps us running is known as soul. For e.g. our body is like a machine which is dead unless a current is passed to start it. It is like an automobile engine where as long as spark exists inside the engine it produces power and keeps the engine running. In case of an automobile, engine is the source of power but it is actually the spark which keeps running the engine. Similarly, our heart is the source of power and it is the soul which keeps it running.
When this journey of the soul originated or why it originated is not known. Can’t say exactly where it is destined to but as it is said it is destined to meet its source which is the supersoul. Our soul is all powerful and works under a universal law of karma. It can decide or choose where it wants to go. The nature of this soul or the easy state is to live in an eternal bliss or happiness. It doesn’t want or doesn’t like to be in sorrow. Therefore, we are always making a constant effort to make ourselves happy and peaceful. We are living under a constant effect of illusion. In this world gripped by ‘Maya’ every pleasure or happiness is inevitable to be followed by sorrow. There is nothing which gives us eternal happiness. Why don’t we live in bliss always or why do we feel sorrow at all? What would we get after which we can say we would always be joyous, full of happiness. This is because of our mistake that we are trying to get that eternal peace and happiness in the material objects which are temporary and so our happiness which, is attached to those ephemeral objects.
In our life we are doing some act which results into reaction. This world is under constant effect of our deeds and in the same way we are under a constant effect of the deeds being done by this world. From each of our acts or acts done by others we draw few learning. So, we are always in that self correction mode where we are trying to get the learning and apply then in our lives to achieve a state of perfection. Few times we are lucky to get a chance to apply the learning to situations in a single lifetime. For e.g. If due to some of our mistake or wrong act we bear big loss in life or we get filled up with a sense of guilt then our soul gets burdened with this. It is under a constant effort to apply the learning again to get free from that burden as part of the effort to reach towards the state of perfection. If suppose one doesn’t get that chance to free up the burden and he dies along with those burdens then the soul chooses to be in the circumstances where it can apply those learning. Purpose is to free up the soul with any kind of burden and keep it in an as easy state as possible. All these unfinished learning get reflected as natural tendencies, interests during our next lives. All strong feelings of love, hatred, enmity, greed, guilt, undone deeds, regret etc leave karmic impressions which our soul needs to clear out in next birth. This is due to its tendency to be in eternal peace and happiness. So, in every life we are here for some purpose.
Analogy: Suppose I take a train from Mumbai and I need to reach Calcutta. Condition is that on each station I need to get down and again catch another train for Calcutta. I would be able to catch another train only if I know why I got down at that station and where I was headed to. Unless I know that I would be unaware about my purpose to be on that station. I would probably catch a train which would lead me to wrong destination and so I would get lost in a maze and would keep wandering always.
To map it to the journey of our lives each station is one lifetime during which we need to catch the right learning and identify our right purpose to continue our journey. Destination is to become a perfect soul in peace, and eternal bliss. So, our deeds should always be aimed at making ourselves a perfect soul and earn no negative karmic expressions. Under illusion we keep catching wrong trains and keep wandering always in our lives with no knowledge of our existence, purpose and our destination.
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