Posted on: 23 Apr 2023
[Ms. Thrylokya asked: You told that Sage Ashtaavakra stated in explaining spiritual knowledge that the mother of a son is born as his wife in the next birth. Is it not a sin?]
Swami replied: It would have been the most serious sin if that mother in the previous birth came as wife in this birth along with her own body. The inner soul is having only theoretical ideas (samskaara) and the external physical body is just like the external dress of a person. The soul is also losing all the memory of the feelings and thoughts of the previous birth. Only the bodies or the external clothes unite with each other like husband and wife and not the souls, which do not at all remember even one idea of the previous births. These worldly bonds are like cinema shooting bonds. The same actors act as husband and wife in the old cinema and act as mother and son in the latest cinema (You can see the film tradition in which the hero continues as hero for very long time whereas the heroine becomes older quickly so that she is selected for the role of mother.). But, for both the cinemas, the producer-cum-director is only one person (let us assume). The cinema bonds are unreal because Shankara says that which is temporary is always unreal (Yadanityaṃ tat kṛtakaṃ hi loke). What Shankara told is quite logical because you cannot say that the cinema bond of the two actors is true at least during the time of the cinema shooting. There is no bond before shooting and there will be no bond after shooting and hence, the bond was unreal in the past and will be unreal in the future. By this, you may say that the bond is real during the cinema shooting at least. But, that which is temporary in the present is unreal in all the three times. How? Let us analyze this cinema bond even during the shooting time. Is it true at least during the time of the shooting? Hence, temporary means unreal. Real means real in all the three times (past, present and future). Ashtaavakra is telling that these worldly bonds are temporary limited to this birth and hence, they are always unreal. He is further advising that the bond of the actor with the producer-cum-director is always permanent and real about which every actor shall care, and the actor need not care for the bond with another actor in a cinema, which is always unreal. This means that you have to leave these temporary unreal worldly bonds and be attached to the permanent real bond with God.
[Ms. Thrylokya asked: People say that husband and wife continue to be couple for seven births. Then, how is this possible?]
Swami replied: During marriage, seven steps are taken by the bridegroom and the bride while promising oaths to each other. Poetic people have said that these seven steps are seven births continuously. It is only a colourful imagination of certain poetic elders.