Meher Baba's Elucidations on Reincarnation by Dr Ward Parks - Australia 2015

Meher Baba's Elucidations on Reincarnation 

by Dr Ward Parks - Australia 2015

In this modern age of high intellectual development conjoined with mass confusion in the domain of values, one of the Avatar's great gifts to the human understanding has been His elucidations on the subject of reincarnation. 

The idea of reincarnation is, of course, an ancient one. In various formulations it dates back to the misty dawn of recorded history especially in the East, but at various times and places in the West as well. Reincarnation and karma - ideas ineluctably linked with each other provide essential metaphysical backgrounds to Hinduism and Buddhism. In a less developed form the belief in reincarnation won a place in the philosophy of Plato and other religious and philosophical systems of the eastern Mediterranean. But in the main part reincarnation has faded in the awareness of the Western world over the last two millennia. The great monotheistic religions of Christianity and Islam have largely rejected reincarnation in favor of a single lifetime rewarded by heaven or punished by hell in the afterlife. And in a very important sense this vision too is true. For as Meher Baba Himself has explained, the mind-the ego self-is born once and dies once. One picks up and drops many physical bodies; and herein lies the truth of reincarnation. Yet the self-awareness of the false self, the experience of the limited "I," continues unbroken from the moment of one's first emergence in stone form until the Realization of the "I am God" state billions of years later. 

Over the last several hundred years, however, with the triumph of science and the spread of secularism, the one-lifetime life-and-afterlife vision of the monotheistic religions has lost much of its grip on the cultural imagination of the modern world. As the tide of faith has receded, especially in the West, confidence in the immortality of the soul and the reality of an afterlife in heaven or hell has fallen into doubt. And without God or an"I" that endures beyond the death of the physical body, wherein lies the permanence that one needs to affirm human value in a wholehearted way? Thus modern man finds himself in a state of existential angst, unable to believe or disbelieve, discovering nothing in nature or the world around him that can serve as an adequate platform for his life as a spiritual being, endlessly witnessing spectacles in the human life parade that seem to make a mockery of justice, beauty, compassion, and all the higher ideals that his heart would like to affirm and aspire towards. 

Amid this mental turmoil and disharmony of head and heart, Avatar Meher Baba's affirmation of the doctrine of reincarnation and karma upholds the fundamental rationality of life and establishes in the human understanding a meaningful context for spiritual pursuit on a basis of truth in values. You reap as you sow: this, in a nutshell, is the law of karma. And karma is the engine of reincarnation. What is Ieft unfulfilled in one lifetime is fulfilled in the next. This lifetime's wrongdoings result in the next lifetime's sufferings; the good deeds of this lifetime bear fruit in one's rebirth. Of course, only advanced souls know the truth of reincarnation as a matter of certitude. But for most of us, the doctrine of reincarnation and karma provides an account compelling enough to inspire our confidence and faith. And this is enough for most of us to go ahead with. An acceptance of reincarnation provides the basis that most of us need to rationalize our efforts in the spiritual line and to bear with the challenges and assaults and ostensible incongruities of daily life. 

Such is the account that "reincarnation and karma" provides for the human condition. And all of this, while contained within the orbit and compass of Meher Baba's spiritual "explanations," has long been understood within the Hindu and Buddhist traditions as well. Yet Meher Baba has provided further elucidations about reincarnation and karma that are quite new and that will transform the understanding of mankind in the age to come. 

One of these involves what we could call the "macro" context for the reincarnation process. For "reincarnation" as such is just one stage in a greater narrative, that is the journey of the soul. Meher Baba named this narrative the "Divine Theme." It has five stages or movements: creation, evolution, reincarnation, involution, and Realisation. That is to say, the creation of the universe arises out of God's Whim to know Himself-"Who am l?" Before He can answer this question, God as the drop-soul needs consciousness: and the achievement of this is the purpose of the evolution of consciousness. Yet having arrived at full consciousness in human form, the soul or jivatma finds itself imprisoned by the sanskaras or impressions acquired in the evolutionary descent: and the cycle of birth and death in human form resulting from the play of sanskaras constitutes what we call "reincarnation." Eventually one tires of reincarnation's merry-go-round and embarks on the inward journey wherein one disburdens oneself of sanskaras: and this is the stage in the soul's journey that Meher Baba designates through the term "involution." In the end, the soul or jivatma comes to the Knowledge of itself as God - "Anal Haqq," "Aham Brahmasmi," "I am God!" And with this Realization the journey of the soul is complete. In short, "reincarnation" represents one phase, one stage, in a greater progress, a greater movement. In this greater context, reincarnation as such does not lack motivation. It contributes its part to a greater cause, which is to say, to a fulfilment of that Purpose which gave rise to the creation itself in the first place. 

In short, Meher Baba has deepened and widened our understanding of reincarnation by situating it within the context of an encompassing narrative of the Divine Theme. At the same time, on the "micro" scale, he has focused in and identified the fundamental mechanism that makes all experience within the false world of duality possible in the first place. 

The name that Meher Baba gave to this mechanism is "sanskara." Of course, this word and - this idea - does not originate with Him. Yet I am not aware of any tradition or school of philosophy that has explained "sanskaras" as deeply and comprehensively as Meher Baba has. A sanskara is an imprint in consciousness-or, strictly speaking, in the mental body-laid or impressed by experience. One might compare it to the imprint of a photograph in the mind. This sanskaric mechanism, in the evolutionary process, captures consciousness and so makes the evolution of consciousness possible. Yet in human form the logic of the spending of old sanskaras and the acquisition of new ones gives rise to what we call the "Iaw of karma" and renders inevitable the cycle of rebirth. In other words, 'leincarnation" and "karrna" need not simply be taken as givens. They stem from a cause, for they represent the playing out of sanskaras. Thus Meher Baba has taken the explanation back another step, to a more primordial process. Sanskaras are the "atom," the smallest unit in the process of experience; and the Divine Theme is the larger form of the playing out of sanskaras in the greater drama of consciousness. Between these two, reincarnation represents the stage in which most of humanity finds itself. In this middle place, between the micro and macro, Meher Baba has illuminated the significance of reincarnation as Hinduism and Buddhism have not done. And in so doing he has provided a greater coherency, in his account of God and creation, which humanity desperately needs at the present time. 

Mankind today needs to understand and accept the fact of reincarnation. Avatar Meher Baba has incorporated it into his cosmological account. And his elucidations about reincarnation, particularly with respect to its embedding in the greater narrative of the Divine Theme and its founding on the basis of the sanskaras, will inform and support the understanding of humankind in the coming centuries as it learns to attune itself to the Divine Pleasure and base its action on the greater wisdom of life.