Religion and Social Values : 31.

3: The Reason for Birth and Death : 10.



Freedom from involvement in this space-time complex relationship is not possible. And why do we get into the clutches of birth and death? Now we come to the point. The world is evolving. The universe is in a state of process, and it is not stable on any permanent ground. It is moving, because the world is a name that we give to the externalisation of experience in space and time. And nature or God or anything that we regard as real is not an externalised something. It is a compact, integrated substance. It is Being—Pure Satta, as Sanskrit philosophers tell us—and division within this Pure Being is not conceivable.


The Ultimate Reality is indivisible; and the world is made up of divisible particles. Time is divided into minute bits of process, and space is again divided into minute bits of extension—and, therefore, the whole of the universe, constituted of its contents, is the opposite of Reality. The indivisible character of Reality is completely defeated in this divisible character of the world. The universe struggles to get back to this indivisibility of being. This effort of the universe to turn away from the divisibility in which it is caught, towards the indivisibility of its essentiality, is the process of evolution. As we are included in this process of movement, we are pushed onward with the world, together with its urge of movement, in the direction of the experience of indivisibility; and transformation takes place.


As we ascend further and further, move onward and onward, we have to put on newer and newer garments for the purpose of a newer and newer type of experience. Just as, if we want to see distant objects we use binoculars, if we want to see far-off things we use telescopes, and if we want to see very minute things we use a microscope, likewise, if we want to have an experience of a larger expanse of the indivisibility of things, we have to put on a new instrument of experience—which is a new body that we put on.

With this body, we cannot have an insight into the inner structure of things—just as we cannot see the minute essentiality of things by looking at them with naked eyes. This is a gross instrument. This body, this mind, this intellect and any apparatus with which we are endowed at present are not subtle enough to gain entry into the inner structure of things. Therefore, the urge of the necessity to go inward towards the indivisibility of Reality compels us to cast off this instrument, as when we want to see a deeper reality we discard the old microscope and use a more powerful one.


Therefore, death is not a curse; it is a necessity under the circumstances. Death is comparable to the throwing off of this body. And birth is nothing but a consequence that follows the throwing off of the old microscope because it is not useful for the further adventure upon which we are embarking. The utilisation of a new instrument for the purpose on hand is the rebirth that we are taking.

Swami Krishnananda

To be continued  ....