In2-MeC

IBSA (ISKCON Bhaktivedanta Sadhana Asrama), Govardhana, India
10 January 2004

What the Upanisads Teach
Part Twelve

Transmigration of the Soul

We have already met in recent installments of this series the basic concepts for understanding the transmigration of the soul as it is taught in the upanisads. While in conditioned life, the eternal jivatma tries to enjoy material nature, which consists of three modes. That soul is responsible for his actions (karma), and so has to enjoy or suffer the reactions of his karma by taking birth in different grades of material bodies. As long as he does not give up maya, the jivatma is faced with three possible general destinations at the time of death: heaven (birth among devatas), earth (birth among human beings), and hell (birth among lower forms of life). If he renounces maya, the soul is freed from repeated birth and death altogether. In this installment, we shall look in more detail at what the upanisads teach about the fate of the conditioned soul after death. The question of liberation will be taken up in a later installment.

Katha Upanisad relates a discussion between Yamaraja, the judge of men's souls, and Naciketas, the son of a brahmana named Vajasravas. Yamaraja teaches Naciketas that the soul is a passenger in the chariot of the body. The intelligence is the driver, the mind is the reins, and the horses are the senses. When the intelligence is weak, the mind is not controlled, and when the mind is uncontrolled, the senses behave badly. The soul in this condition is called impure (asucih) and so cannot achieve the ultimate destination of immortality; he must mount the wheel of repeated birth and death. The supreme destination beyond birth and death is clearly pointed out by Yamaraja in Katha I. 3. 9: sodhvanah param apoti tad visnoh paramam padam--it is the transcendental abode of Lord Visnu.

In describing the process of transmigration, Yajnavalkya, speaking to King Janaka in Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, gives an example that is also taught by Narada to King Pracinibarhi in Srimad-Bhagavatam 4. 29. 26-27. I will quote the Bhagavatam:

The caterpillar transports itself from one leaf to another by capturing one leaf before giving up the other. Similarly, according to his previous work, the living entity must capture another body before giving up the one he has. This is because the mind is the reservoir of all kinds of desires.

Srila Prabhupada explains in the purport:

The conclusion is that the next body is already determined by superior control. The living entity immediately gives up the present body and enters another. Sometimes in the present body the living entity feels that many of his desires and imaginations are not fulfilled. Those who are overly attracted to their life situation are forced to remain in a ghostly body and are not allowed to accept another gross body. Even in the body of a ghost, they create disturbances for neighbors and relatives. The mind is the prime cause of such a situation. According to one's mind, different types of bodies are generated, and one is forced to accept them.

In another passage Yajnavalkya says, sadhukari sadhurbhavati papakari papo bhavati punyah punyena karmana bhavati papah papina--"he who does virtuous acts is born as a sadhu; he who does sinful acts is born as a sinner. " Chandogya Upanisad V. 10. 7 gives a similar account.

tadya iha ramaniyacarana abhyaso ha yat te ramaiyam
yonim apadyera brahmanayonim va ksatriyayonim va
vaisyayonim yatha ya iha kapuyacarana abhyaso ha yat
te kapuyam yonim apadyeran svayonim va sukarayonim
va candalayonim va

Therefore, they who here are of pleasant conduct, for them there is the prospect of arriving in a pleasant birth: a brahmana birth, a ksatriya birth or a vaisya birth. They who here are of stinking conduct (kapuyacara), for them there is the prospect of arriving in a stinking birth: a dog birth, a hog birth or a candala (dog-eater, i. e. barbarian) birth.

What, essentially, is stinking conduct?

tasmad apy adyehadadanam asraddadhanam
ayajamanam ahur asurovatety

Therefore, those who even today are uncharitable, who are faithless, who perform no sacrifice, are called demonlike. (Chandogya Upanisad VIII. 8. 5)

The Kausitaki Upanisad I. 2-3 depicts the paths of upward and downward karma in this way:

hovaca ye vai ke casmal lokat prayati
candramasau eva te sarva gacchanti
tesam pranaih purvapaksa apyayate
tan aparapakse na prajanayati
etad vai svargasya lokasya dvaram
yas candramas tam yah pratyana tam
atisrjate 'tha ya enam na pratyaha
tam iha vrstir bhutva varstai sa iha kito
va patango va sakunir va sardulo va simho va
matsyo va parasva va puruso va 'nyo vaitesu
sthanesu pratyajayate yathakarma yathavidyam. . .
sa etam devayanam panthanamapy agnilokam agacchati
sa vayulokam sa adityalokam sa varunalokam sa
indralokam sa prajapatilokam sa brahmalokam. . .

He [Citra Gangayani] said [to his disciple Aruni]: those who depart from this world go to the moon. He [Candra, the moon deity] thrives in the earlier phase on their prana [life force]. In the later phase he does not produce. This is indeed the gate of svargaloka [heaven], that is, the moon. Those who answer him [Candra] pass by, and those who do not answer him become rain. They fall down here [to earth] and are born again in one condition or another, as a worm or a moth or a bird or a tiger or a lion or a fish or a snake or a man according to karma and according to knowledge. . . . He travels on this deva-yana path to Agniloka, to Vayuloka, to Adityaloka, to Varunaloka, to Indraloka, to Prajapatiloka, to Brahmaloka. . .

Some interpret this to mean that all souls, regardless of their karma, approach the moon after death. Vedanta-sutra 3. 1. 12-17 bring this passage of Kausitaka Upanisad under examination. The conclusion, supported by all acaryas of Vedanta including Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana, is that only souls who have performed pious deeds in accordance with the Vedic scriptures rise to the moon. The impious enter the tritiya-sthanam, a third realm apart from the pitr-yana (the path of the forefathers, which rises to the moon but goes no farther, eventually returning those who follow it back to earth) and the deva-yana (the path of the devas, which extends beyond the moon, ultimately to Brahmaloka). The tritiya-sthanam is the world of lower creatures who, in previous human lives, were very sinful.

In Brhadaranyaka Upanisad adhyaya VI, Jaivali Pravahana tells Gautama that the souls who follow the pitr-yana enter the moon after having passed through the smoke (i. e. the realm of a demigod named Dhuma), the night (the realm of Ratri), the dark fortnight (the realm of Apaksyamana-paksa), the six months of Daksinayana, and Pitr-loka. Having at last reached the moon, these souls become the objects of enjoyment of the higher demigods. When their pious deeds are exhausted, Jaivali says athena evakasam abhinispadyate--"these souls become one with the element akasa and come down through the ethereal space [which separates the moon from the earth]. " They enter the air and then the rain. In this way they fall to earth, where they become anna (food). When that food is eaten by a man, it is transformed into semen by which a woman becomes pregnant. In this way the souls are born again in the human form. Jaivali concludes, ta evameva anupariyartante atha ya etau pathanau na viduh te kita patangah yadidam dandasukam--"But those who do not know the two paths (deva-yana and pitr-yana) are born as insects, moths and as creatures that bite. . . "

Now, it would be wrong to conclude that the upanisads simply encourage the spirit soul to avoid sinful karma and perform pious karma. Chandogya Upanisad VIII. 4. 1 dismisses both piety (sukrta) and impiety (duskrta) as evil (papamana). The atma or spiritual self, this verse explains, is distinct from any material condition--day, night, old age, death, suffering, and even good deeds and bad. All of these are inauspicious when viewed from the transcendental position (naitam setumahoratre tarato na jara na mrtyurna soko na sukrtam na duskrtam papamanah). Prasnopanisad I. 9 advises one on the spiritual path to renounce istapurta--Vedic sacrifices (ista) and charitable work (purta)--for it is by istapurta that the soul remains bound to the cycle of birth and death.

To be continued, starting with the Universe (Jagat)

<< Back