Posted on: 18 May 2017
Shri Anil asked: Some times, we find even just born babies are punished by suffering of severe diseases and accidents that lead to death. There is no possibility of doing any sin in this world in such early stage. If you say that their punishments are due to previous sins done in past births, the soul is receiving the punishments without the memory of its corresponding sin. The sinner is punished in this world by court so that the sinner is aware of sin responsible for the punishment. What is the answer for this?
Swami Replied: A good question indeed. When a soul is born in this world, the attitudes (samskaras or vaasanaas) follow it, provoking the soul to do related deeds and if these are severe, fruits are given in this world itself. Since sins and fruits appear in this life itself, the soul can correlate the fruit as punishment to its related sin and may develop fear towards the sin, which is at least the temporary reformation by reducing the intensity of sinful attitude. Hence, the severe deeds giving immediate fruits in this life itself encourage the soul to do justice and prevent it from doing injustice. In this way, this concept exactly resembles the procedure of courts here.
In this context, your objection is that in the case of children, the awareness of the sin related to the punishment doesn’t exist since the deed was done in the previous birth. As per the above concept, the deed of previous birth doesn’t give the fruit in this birth. The fruits were already enjoyed in the upper worlds and the soul coming down is leftover with reduced sinful attitudes, which grow as the child grows depending upon the external atmosphere and result in fresh deeds here. If the deeds are not severe, their fruits add to the list of punishments to be enjoyed in the upper worlds. If the deeds are severe, the punishments are given here itself. The main reason for this concept is that this world is not the place of enjoyment of fruits (Bhoga loka), but, is the place of doing deeds with discrimination (karma loka). But, the enjoyment of fruits of severe sins is an exception to the general rule since fruits of severe deeds are enjoyed here itself. Exceptions always exist for general rule. But, the exceptions are always few and the general rule applies to majority.
The case referred by you is an exception to the general rule. The general rule is that the past deeds of previous births are not enjoyed in this Karma loka as these are enjoyed in the upper bhoga lokas only. Let Me explain this exception taking an example. A soul killed a small baby in the previous birth and another soul suffered a lot for the death of its baby. Now, this parent-soul kills the baby of killer so that the killer suffers. The suffering soul spontaneously relates this punishment by thinking that it must have killed some baby in the previous birth (or in this birth in the case of severe sin). Hence, this general inference is sufficient to connect a punishment to the corresponding sin. Exact perception is not necessary since such perception-knowledge occupies the brain totally and the soul is unable to do anything in this world.
When a disease kills the baby, the parent soul suffers in this incident also. A driver of a vehicle killed the baby due to careless driving. Here, the driver is not the direct killer with any such intension. But, the parent soul of the baby suffered a lot. This driver is born as the parent soul and its baby is killed by the disease, which is not the personified killer. The careless driving that killed the baby in the previous birth was also not personified. Hence, the driver suffered due to the death of his baby due to non-personified killing in the form of disease. Each case has several parameters and highly specific. A study of exceptional case is very critical and can be understood only by patient analysis of several interrelated three dimensional network. God says that the analysis of cycle of deeds is very complicated (Gahanaa karmano gatih— Gita).
In the above examples, the fundamental question is that the baby also underwent suffering of death due to its previous sin. But, the ignorant child doesn’t relate its death-punishment to the previous sin even by inference, which can be done by an adult only. In what way this is useful to the baby? The sinful parent and sinful baby are associated together so that both souls are punished simultaneously by the single incident through the concept of simplification of procedure. The parent is punished, who realised also through general inference. But, what about the child, which has no power of inference due to its ignorance? The answer for this point lies in the existence of subconscious state, which is filled with undetectable strong attitudes. The general consciousness does not have clear knowledge of this hidden subconscious state that provokes any soul to do the sin in spite of knowledge received and in spite of its efforts. This is the reason for doing sins in spite of the efforts of the soul to control itself. The suffering of death by the baby has reduced the corresponding sinful attitude present in the subconscious state, which is not detected by the general consciousness. For a sin done in this life, the received punishment along with its related sin is in the plane of general consciousness. Hence, in case of such punishments of severe sins, the sinful attitude present in the general consciousness gets reduced. Hence, you can’t say that the death of the baby-soul is useless. The general consciousness of the baby only relates the punishment to the corresponding sin existing in the general consciousness itself. But, this punishment of the baby-soul is not useless since it reduced the intensity of unknown sinful attitude of the sub-consciousness.
When spiritual knowledge is heard, the general consciousness is cleaned from its related sinful attitudes. This is the first state of hearing (Shravana). When you memorise the concept of spiritual knowledge during its propagation, it penetrates the deeper level of the consciousness, which is the sub-consciousness. On such frequent penetrations, it stays forever in the sub-consciousness and cleans it thoroughly. The penetration by memory is the second state (manana) and permanent stay of it in sub-consciousness is called as digestion (Nididhyaasa). Thus, the spiritual knowledge reforms the entire consciousness and brings permanent reformation of the soul.
The previous and present births are like yesterday and today only since the awareness dies in deep sleep and is reborn on awakening as per the Gita (Atha chainam...). The non-eternality of the awareness is understood clearly when the life of a birth is compared to a day and the death is compared to deep sleep. There is a difference also between death and deep sleep. When the awareness disappears in deep sleep, the attitudes are stored in a disk called Chittam in the form of pulses (Sphota). When the awareness is reborn, it takes these pulses into it by coming into contact with the disk. As soon as you are awaken, the general awareness in the first instances is fresh and simple without these pulses. In the death, this general awareness leaves the gross body along with all pulses from disk by entering into the energetic body. The gross pulses that come into contact with awareness easily are called as general consciousness and the general awareness can grasp any desired gross pulse at anytime very easily. The subtle pulses that exist in the awareness without being grasped by awareness are called as sub-consciousness state. You can say that the awareness remains eternal in the energetic body along with all types of gross and subtle pulses. During lifetime the pulses are in a separate disk only in deep sleep and the awareness becomes only general consciousness during the routine daily life since only gross pulses are grasped. In the time of a conflict, these subtle pulses (sub-consciousness) get grasped by the general consciousness and influence the direction of action even though the weak general consciousness is resisting it. The individual soul after leaving the gross body after death does not associate with sleep and the awareness is constantly maintained to receive the fruits in the upper worlds. The concept of sleep exists in this karma loka only, which gives rest to the brain that needs rest being a materialised machine. The brain and nervous system in the energetic body of the soul are very subtle made of energy only and do not require rest. This is the reason for the need of sleep in the gross body and for no need of sleep in subtle body after death.
Mind doing discussion, intelligence giving decision and ego, the pulse representing self or self as body come under Apara Prakruti. Mind and intelligence are occasional modes of work of awareness. Ego is also a pulse like other pulses that is occasionally grasped by awareness. Once awareness (chit) exists, all the pulses are constantly associated with awareness and this bundle of pulses is called as chittam or individual soul (Jeeva). The chittam and chit are constantly associated as long as the awareness exists. The general awareness without the association of any pulse is chit or para prakruti. Chit is the specific work form of energy of a computer when power enters into it. Chittam means the bundle of pulses of electromagnetic energy stored in the disk. Just like the water on evaporation leaves minute solid impurities, the awareness on disappearance in deep sleep leaves the pulses in the disk of the brain. In the energetic body the awareness never disappears and hence the individual soul is always active like water with its impurities. Awareness is the work process knowing the object. The object should be a pulse. All the pulses are filtered in deep sleep and in absence of any object the process of knowing or awareness disappears. In meditation, the general awareness without all the pulses exists still because an impression of awareness acts as a pulse (object) to maintain awareness. When this impression also is filtered, awareness disappears due to the absence of any object and this happens in deep sleep.