The Purpose of Life

Past Life wanting to know, who I was in my past life

Before we tread into the domain of Past Life... we need to understand the present and the future carefully. Before indulging in our Past Life we also need to know the purpose of life journey as a whole.

Starting from the beginning... in the chronological order as the evolution took place... we shall find that we started the journey as an Amoeba (single cell formation)... this was the first manifestation which occurred in the life of every Human Being.

Travelling further into the Past Life we find the evolutionary tendencies existing within every living being prompted this single cell formation to multiply into two cell formation and finally multi-cell organisms. (All these form the core of Past Life of every Human Being).

With passage of time... the multi-cell organism evolved into an insect, then into plant life, an animal and finally as a Human Being. It takes an average of about 7.3 million manifestations before every journey culminates into the level of a Human Being. A long journey of about 80 earthly million years!

This is by no standard a small journey by our Soul / Atman आत्मा existing within every living being. Here while talking of Past Life we also need to understand that the journey is being undertaken by the Soul within every living being and our body... the manifest from is but the outer covering for every Soul / Atman आत्मा which is necessitated for our soul / Atman आत्मा cannot remove the dross from within on its own. It requires a body for this purpose.

Our Soul / Atman आत्मा never desires to look back into the Past Life... then why is it so that the manifest body... the form of a Human Being strongly desires to look back into the Past Life. Knowing very well that it is not possible to retrace our steps and walk into our Past Life... still the desire within most human beings to look back into the Past Life is very strong.

Why is it so... why do we not get out of the clutches of the remembrances of our Past Life (if any) forever? Is it by any means possible to look back into the Past Life... no, it is not within the means of an average Human Being to look back into the Past Life but some astrologers and people with Tantric powers can look back into our Past Life. But to what avail!

Trying to look back into the Past Life carries no meaning... what we were in our Past Life, what is our relationship with our Past Life, maybe after knowing some incidents of the Past Life we may be able to change our future life... is the hope of many, why?

Why do we fail to understand that such a phenomenon of reflecting back into the Past Life is not permitted by God ? Had it been so... every Human Being, rather every living being would have remembered all the events of past lives... but the truth is absolutely adverse? We do not carry even faint memories of our Past Life the moment we step into the present life.

Remember for a moment that if you come to know that the best friend of yours in this life was the cause of your death in the immediate Past Life... would you be able to carry the same relationship as you are doing it now? Maybe... never! Also if you come to know that you were born into the house of your present parents to avenge your death in one of your past lives... then what would be your fate in this life? Would you continue to give the same respect to your parents... or maybe you go a step further and become the cause of death of your parents in this life!

The total crux of the Past Life is relegated by the power of karma. It is karma कर्म and karma कर्म alone which plays a very vital role from one manifestation to another. The complete residual balance of our acts and omissions in a particular life is carried forward to the next life only through the process of karma कर्म. As we perform so shall we get... nothing more or less!

Whatever was the result of our earlier manifestation lead us to the next manifestation. If the balance of karma कर्म resulted in our being born in the house of a cobbler... then, by no means it was possible that we would have been born in the house of a king. Yet, if we desire so in present life then we need to perform the Karma कर्म accordingly in present life and only if the balance of karma कर्म in present life at the end of life permits our being born in the house of a king in next manifestation... it shall be so and none can change our destiny!

On the contrary... if the Karma कर्म (the actions performed by us in totality) performed by us in present life demands our being born in the house of a farmer in the next life than it shall hold good... come whatever may! None can change the destiny of any being except the being himself. Even God Almighty who always acts as on onlooker (Dhrishta दृष्टा as we call it in Hinduism) never interferes in the working of his.

The balance of karma कर्म from one life to another gets passed on to the next life through the complex process of chromosomes which get activated during the union of the parents. The child thus born carries the balance karma कर्म of all the previous lives one has lived. It is simply like the balance of accounts in a balance sheet which get carried forward from one year to another.

Soul / Atman आत्मा having a light of 16 Sun lights, but the light is covered by the Karma कर्म (As kavatch) these karma कर्म covered carried forward with the soul / Atma  आत्मा.

If we are talking of the year 2004 then we are only concerned with the closing balance of the year 2003 for the closing balance of the year 2002 was already incorporated in the balance sheet of the year 2003.

We also must remember that the present phase of life is a part of the total journey of 84 Lakh Yoni लाख योनि  manifestations which can occur in the life of a Soul (Atman  आत्मा as in Hinduism). It is at the end of the journey that the Soul liberates for ever from the cycle of birth and death... and subsequently the Human Being is said to gain salvation / moksha मोक्ष in Hinduism.

The journey for the Soul from the first manifestation as an amoeba to the last manifestation as a Mahavira महावीर  महात्मा बुद्ध  , Gautama Buddha गौतम बुद्ध  , Jesus Christ or Prophet Mohammed... is spread over a maximum of 84 Lakh Yoni लाख योनि  manifestations. It is purely dependent upon every Human Being when one desires to curtail the journey and achieve the state of Salvation Moksha मोक्ष .

We also need to remember that contrary to the standard practices in account books... some events of past lives do not fructify in that particular manifestation or the next. It is possible that the karma कर्म enacted upon in a particular manifestation may fructify four manifestations later and this is the cause of all agony existing on Earth. Why so?

While deliberating on the subject of Past Life... we need to remember that on the spiritual plane... whatever phase of life we are passing through is not dependent upon the balance of karma कर्म of the earlier lives and the karma performed by us in present life alone. It is also possible that a certain karma कर्म performed by us in one of our previous lives may all of a sudden fructify and spoil the game (known as Prarabdha Karma प्रारब्ध कर्म in Hinduism). The vice versa may also happen.

Explaining the theory of Past Life further... we need to understand that we sometimes find that many people who continue to flout the set patterns of the society by carrying out a horde of sins yet continue to enjoy privileges which should not be available to them. Explaining this further... such a phenomenon is only possible for these people have in their store... a huge asset of pious deeds performed in Past Life.

It is only when the accumulated balance of the pious deeds gets nullified in present life shall these people face the wrath of the society. Never before! To the contrary we also find good people carrying out pious deeds in present life and yet continue to suffer. It is only because they have a good negative balance of karma  कर्म  from the Past Life in their hold and unless this negative balance (from the Past Life) is nullified by the pious deeds of the present life... such people can never enjoy happiness.

Trying to understand the complex process of the Past Life is not difficult, yet trying to get back into the Past Life carries no meaning for if we are suffering in present life... we need to carry out pious deeds and accumulate Punya Karma पुण्य कर्म  (positive balance of karma कर्म ) in present life without heeding to the Past Life in any way. There is no other way to come out of the negative Past Life.

Life has been made like that by God Almighty. None can challenge his authority. Why brood over the Past Life and spoil the present life. If we are to get out of the ills faced by us in present life and which resulted because of the Past Life... the only way out is never thinking of the Past Life and concentrating on the affairs of the present life in order to accumulate more and more of Punya Karma पुण्य कर्म  (positive karma कर्म ) in our favour.

This is the only way out of our Past Life! Why spoil the future by indulging in acts (trying to regress into the Past Life) detrimental to our leading a happy life in next manifestation. We need to live a life of concentration... our every effort leading to earning Punya Karma पुण्य कर्म  (a positive balance of karma कर्म ) in our favour... the only way to leading a healthier and fruitful life! (It is time we stopped thinking what was I in a Past Life).