THE EGO, DEATH, AND REBIRTH
How many people are really bothered about finding God or realizing the truth about the Divine? How many people really want to find the true meaning of the ego? Why must we let go of the ego to find God? What is the connection between ego and God? Most of us prefer to live in the domain – 'ignorance is bliss!' We want to be blissful without realizing the truth. But, is ignorance truly bliss?
If we ignore a boil in our body which is cancerous, and live blissfully, will we overcome the anguish that cancer will cause? Those who use their intelligence, attack the cancer at an early phase and eliminate it. Similarly, a few fortunate ones go in quest of the truth and realize the truth about the self and God and ultimately eradicate the darkness of ignorance.
What happens to us at death? Who dies? Will you die? If you are Peter Rodrigues, then Peter will die, but you, who was alive in Peter, will depart. Don't we see this happening every time somebody dies? What do we observe? The person who had a name, religion, a nationality, the person who was somebody's son, somebody's brother, somebody's father, that person ended his journey of life. But if somebody asks, 'What happened to Peter?' we say, 'He left for the heavenly abode. He departed, he passed on.' Why do we say this? Is this a lie? Peter is right here in front of us, dead on the floor. Are we all liars? No! We know for certain that this is not Peter. This is only his dead body. Peter has finished his journey of life. He will never return as Peter Rodrigues. We seem to have no doubt and we are absolutely sure that this is not the Peter who was alive. But we have no clue about what happened to Peter. Where did he go?
Every human being who is born, has to die. None of us can escape death. But we don't realize what exactly happens at death. Every night when we sleep, is that death? Of course not! Because the next morning we wake up. But after a person dies, does that physical person wake up? No! The physical body is lifeless. Where did the life go? The energy that gives us life exists in every cell of our body – over 30 trillion cells. When it leaves, there is no breath. We are dead. We may call this energy life, power, Prana, Chi, Atman, Spirit or Soul. It doesn't matter what we call it. The Japanese call it 'Kotodama'. The German call it 'Seele' and the Arabs 'Alruwh'. Just because the French call 'Ame', it doesn't change what it is. It is that life inside a human being that departs at death. The Soul is our power supply. It is different from the body, and the MIME. When it leaves us, it is like air leaving a balloon. The air merges with the air that is everywhere. So does our Soul! Unfortunately, there are so many myths about the Soul, we call it 'my' soul and 'your' Soul, there are 'good' Souls and 'bad' Souls. All these fairy tales about the Soul confuse us and even make us believe that our Soul will go to heaven or hell. Then our Soul will be reborn. But is this the truth?
When Peter Rodrigues died, he slept forever, but the MIME of Peter Rodrigues woke up in a new body as the Soul power made that MIME start a new journey of life. Most of us are familiar with the Universal Law of Karma or the Law of the Boomerang. It states, 'As you sow so shall you reap.' ‘What you give is what you will get.’ If we plant apples, we will never get mangoes on the tree. This is a Universal Law, and nobody can deny it nor escape it.
Peter through his life had performed so many actions, good and bad. While it seemed that it was Peter doing these actions, these actions were driven by his Mind, Intellect, Memory and Ego – his MIME. It was this very MIME that was born as Peter based on its previous actions, before being born as Peter. Now, after Peter's life journey is finished, the very same MIME starts another journey to settle its Karma, the unsettled actions of all previous life accounts. This is not a fairy tale. It is based on the universal principle of action and reaction and if one wants to realize the truth, one can contemplate and get to the root. That is why jackfruits don't grow on coconut trees. The Universal Law will not permit it.
Do you think a child is born blind just out of luck? Nothing happens by luck. It is all as per Universal Laws, a Divine plan that is unfolding and is not based on chance, but rather on the choices we make that lead to acts. That is why some people are born in fortunate circumstances, whereas others are born in poverty and diseases. Is it because the Creator, whom we often refer to as God, is cruel? How then, can people even imagine that the Divine is responsible for our miseries? Is it so difficult to understand that the Creator is not micromanaging the problems that confront us? Why do we blame the Divine for whatever is happening in our lives?
The answer is simple. Because we do not realize the truth, we can't see a simple fact that unfolds. We human beings live in ignorance. We have not understood the truth about the Creator and how Divine Laws manage the show on earth. We have not pondered over who we are and what our true relationship with the Divine is. We have not discovered the cause of our circumstances and what controls our destiny. Instead of realizing the truth, we often look up at the sky and question, 'Why? Why did this happen to me? Why is there so much injustice? Why do bad things happen to good people?'
The universe operates on some basic Universal Laws. The world seems to be in an auto mode and there is no intervention by anybody in the unfolding of events on earth. Waves in the ocean come and go, the earth rotates causing day and night and people and animals procreate as the world continues its existence based on many Universal Laws. Whatever happens to people is also controlled by a law and a very few people are fortunate to discover this secret as to why things happen, both good and bad, to every human being who lives on earth.
Every day, Peter used to sleep and wake up. But at death, there was only one difference. Peter Rodrigues slept only to wake up as a new person in a new life. His new life is based on the carried forward actions of the MIME that existed in Peter. That MIME might have been Indira before Peter and may now be born as Mustafa. These are different chapters in the book of that MIME. Each chapter is a new life in a new body, with a new name. The only thing that continues with the MIME is its Karma, its actions that remain unsettled.
Death happens suddenly and all our actions can't be settled before we die. In fact, if this was how the world was designed, that we settle all actions before we die, then there would be no continuity. If death was the end, there would be no rebirth, and life on earth would come to an end.
The Law of Karma is now accepted around the globe as a Universal Law. Nobody can escape this law, and we see it unfold in our day to day life. We realize what goes around comes around. What we do, comes back to us.
Where does the ego come into the picture? The ego is a part of MIME – our subtle body. After we are born, the moment we become aware of ourselves as we mature and our mind starts thinking, the 'I' comes alive. While the 'I' never dies, it goes through different phases of peak and valley. The moment the ego dominates, it takes charge of our life. It starts to believe that we are the body. That is why Peter says, 'I am Peter Rodrigues.' This is not true. That is only his name. But his ego is in bloom. Along with the Mind, the Ego becomes ME and forgets its purpose. Our ultimate goal is to be liberated from this cycle of death and rebirth, dying as Indira to be born as Peter. Then dying as Peter, to be born as Mustafa, only to suffer as the body, mind, and ego. This cycle of Samsara, known as transmigration, continues till we are ultimately liberated.
It was the Buddha who was born as Prince Siddhartha Gautam, the crowned prince and who had a beautiful wife and a son, who observed that the world was full of suffering. He wanted to find a way to escape from this suffering. He was Enlightened with the truth, as he went on a quest to realize his true self. He called it Nirvana. He found a way out of this constant cycle of death and rebirth, of suffering on earth. It was only when he was able to let go of his ego, that he found the truth—the very truth that leads us to liberation and to unification with the Divine, our ultimate goal.