Darshan of Swami Krishnananda in 1999

by Swami Krishnananda

34. Where the Soul Goes After Death

(Darshan given in July 1999)

Swamiji: The whole universe is squeezed; then the essence comes out. That spot of essence will be the place where the soul will go. It is not independently walking on the road. You can walk even to Delhi and nobody will know, but here it is not like that. The whole universe will know what is happening at birth, at life, in activity, and at passing. At the birth of a child, the whole universe is supposed to be in travail. Travail means 'birth pang'. Women feel the pang when the child comes. The whole universe feels the pain when the child is born. It is the universe that is dying, in one aspect; it is the universe that is born, in one type of adjustment in its parts.

It is impossible to think in the mind, so we simply keep quiet as if everything is okay. Some tremendous activity is taking place in every corner of the universe, due to which we are breathing, due to which we are talking, due to which we are imagining that we understand everything, and due to which we are eating, we are talking about the Sun. Who cares for the Sun? Every day he comes and goes. Let him come and go, what does it matter to us? In what way are we benefited by his coming and going? If you think over this matter, you will know you will not exist without him. Even in the night he influences the whole Earth.

It is mentioned in the Brahma Sutra that a person who passes away during daytime will go to a higher world. It is not entirely true. Even if a person passes at night, he can go to Brahmaloka because the Sun sheds his rays on the entire Earth. The whole Earth is inundated by the Sun's rays even in the night – if not here, somewhere else. But there is a contradiction between this statement and what the Gita says. The Gita says uttarayana, dakshinayana, and all that, and the Brahma Sutra says it is true. The person who passes away during uttarayana will have a higher, greater blessing. But this does not apply to a person who is immersed in Brahman-consciousness. A jnani has no uttarayana, dakshinayana. Anywhere he may pass away. He may pass away in a pariah's house, not necessarily in a temple, and he will attain Brahman. For Brahman there is no pariah. They don't exist at all. He will be simply absorbed into the cosmos.

An ashramite: Swamiji, what about a man who has not done good deeds, and he passes away?

Swamiji: Then he will be reborn once again so that he may complete what he has not done, and enjoy or suffer what he has done. There will be rebirth. The soul does not die, nor is it born, but the karmas attached to this individuality will make you feel that you are reborn and that you are dying. A detachment of the consciousness from the circumstances created by the karmas looks like death, and an attachment to karmas of a similar type which have to be experienced in one particular life, they look like a birth.

Actually, it is not a child that is born. It is a karma that is born. It is a desire that is born. The desire that is responsible for the birth of a form assumes limbs. Sometimes crooked limbs, sometimes good limbs, sometimes he cannot see, sometimes he can see – it all depends upon its previous actions. Otherwise, why are people born blind and legless and handless, and all that? They are all the repercussions of the previous deeds. Sometimes the previous deed need not be of the previous birth only. It can be the effect of births of several series back. It may be tenth or eleventh or twelfth previous birth. That action did not mature because it is not strong enough, and so the stronger one came forward and pushed into a new birth, but the old one which is not strong enough will slowly germinate, like seeds on the earth. The seeds which do not receive proper water and manure, etc., they don't germinate. They will wait for the time when it rains properly and manure is put, and then they will germinate. There are weeds, simply growing like grass. It doesn't grow like that. It grows only when circumstances are suitable. Like that, nobody dies and is reborn unless circumstances permit. The circumstances are nothing but what we have thought in our mind and what we entertain in our hearts, and what we are thinking. Day and night, what are you thinking? Nobody blesses us and nobody punishes us. We bless ourselves and we punish ourselves by our discontinuity and non-congruity of relationship with others. 'Others' means the whole universe.

It is impossible to describe. The human mind is not capable to understand how it is born and how it dies. The whole universe squeezes, as I mentioned, and throws out a little part as a human being. It can be a human being or it can be any other animal also. In the Upanishads, all the... A tiger when it sleeps, it is not a tiger. The sleeping tiger is not a tiger. It is like any other sleeping thing. When it wakes up, it is a tiger. So the consciousness at a particular level determines the species and the type or character of an individual. When a snake sleeps, it is like anybody sleeping. When he gets up, it is something else. When you go to sleep nicely, the whole night you are sleeping, and nobody knows who is sleeping because a person is non-existent there. When he gets up, Panigrahi gets up.

Every day meditation is necessary. You must think over this. The whole universe is God's body, the body of God. We are sitting on it, we are touching it, we are breathing it, and yet we are thinking we are totally independent. There is no such thing as independence. The whole universe is independent by itself, God is independent, but no individual can be independent. The word 'independence' is a misnomer. It is total dependence on the cosmic structure. The fingers cannot be independent. They are moving because of the order given by the entire body. Nothing will take place unless the whole system gives the order. “I am going somewhere. I will come tomorrow.” You cannot say like that because the order must be given by the entire physical system: Move! When the entire body orders “Go,” it will go. It will go to Rishikesh and come back. It is not the legs that are walking. Your whole personality orders the walking. So likewise, no individual does any action. It is the whole universe that is telling, “Move in this way,” and it moves.

The mind cannot think all this. How you are involved in this universe is inexplicable. Every day you must sit and do vichara, vichara, satsanga and meditation. Then something comes out.

You are everywhere, you are connected to everything, and you are responsible for every event that is taking place in the universe. You should not say, “I am not concerned.” You are concerned with even a leaf moving. They are not outside us. You are a cosmic person. You are not coming from Orissa, and all that. This idea must go away. A cosmic person – the Earth has no divisions. The Earth does not feel, “I am America,” “I am India,” and all that. There is no such thing. They don't exist. They are only some demarcations made by man for his own personal convenience. There are no nations, no countries; there is no language. They are all adaptations for the purpose of a particular convenience. The Earth will not know that you are from Orissa – only you are saying like that – because Orissa does not exist, America does not... It is only a demarcation on the body of the Earth. You have made a line: This is America, this is Europe. This is the hand, this is the nose. The body will not be thinking always that this is the nose, this is the ear. It thinks entirely, wholly: “I am doing it.” So it is not America doing and India doing, and all that. The whole Earth is doing. And if you go further, the whole universe is doing. And still further, God is doing everything. Thus, be blessed.