Philosophy of Reincarnation

Historically, one of our very famous philosopher called make may or this remark, which literally means brahma, which is the highest reality. It's true. Manifested universe is false. Now, consequently, if you actually since you've been to India, you can check or any of the people visiting it. Indians will take care of their own home inside, but not so much of the neighborhood.

So I think these ideas do have some terrible social consequences without question. As if the whole manifestory universe is at a low level, it's not so interesting. Which is why personally in my understanding or at my looking at history of India, which is why India was actually conquered by invaders initially coming from Greece, Alexander, who gets called Alexander the great. There is nothing great about him. I say, Alexander the treacherous.

That's what I can see. But from a western point of view, he's obviously great. And then later on the mobile emperors coming later on the so called British people initially come as a trading company but gradually take over the whole country, etcetera. So it comes about because people are not really taking care of the world around them in one way or the other. On the other hand, There have been some sages in contemporary times particularly aurobindo.

In my judgment is really the one of the most significant sage, and he actually makes this remark even. He's very much against what Shankra was saying. He's not against Shankra because Akilushanra himself wasn't even a poet. It's just his followers keep following this kind of example. And but in any case, our window actually says that what is required is for us to spiritualize the material world rather than getting rid of the material world or forgetting about the material world and just go only in the spiritual world.

So very strong shift he's trying to bring in his own writings and teachings to spiritualize the material world. In fact, when I sometimes point out, In the global culture, this is one of the important area that people from India can actually learn from the the Abrahamic tradition, very much an emphasis on taking care of your neighbors, etcetera, etcetera, you hardly ever see this kind of reference in the Indian context because it's all illusion, as if something else is higher. So much more occupation with subtler and subtler levels, therefore forgetting quite obvious things around one. So I think there are these are as I kept said earlier also that every great idea has this negative side. This is the negative side of this.

Great idea that the spiritual realm is what one needs to connect with, but that doesn't mean what needs to be disconnected with the physical realm, which sadly ends up being one of the consequences for some people. Which is why if you look at some of the contemporary sages in India, for example, Vivekanan or Windu that I just mentioned, or even Raman Marashi, the people often don't realize that the only book that Roman actually read was the Bible. He never even wholly read the bhagwad Giza. And and similarly, of course, many of the western scholars or theologians have been very much influenced by the Indian culture. People like somebody called Krishna Praim sounds very Indian, but his name was Richard Nixon.

He was brought from he was born in England. Went to India, became a Hindu monk, etc. Similarly, he was also coming from Scotland. So there are many people who have been influenced by the Indian tradition or Lamma Govind would be another example. Lamma Govind's father was German, his mother is Latin American, but he was very struck by Buddhism. So he went to first of all, to Sri Lanka, later on to India, and called Lamma Govind.

So but there are examples of both kinds. And one of the reasons I so often emphasized that it is important for us to try to understand both the exalting qualities of the other tradition, as well as what are some of the natural darker sides. Otherwise, to imagine, I often say this, which seem like to me an obvious truth, the reality is not Christian or Hindu. Or American or Chinese. Expressions of reality are Hindu or Christian.

So so the word reality can be replaced if you like by the word god God is not Hindu or Christian. That would be completely silly thing to say. But expressions of what is god, how one approaches it, that can be very Christian or very Hindu or coming from other other tradition. So increasingly, I feel this is actually one of my life's missions. Maybe I should give you first of all an example from history of physics here.

In the nineteen thirties, there was a great crisis in physics. Because some of sometimes the part the energy behaved like particles, sometimes it behaved like waves. And people did not know what the hell is what is the ultimate reality here? Is it particles or waves? Then later on by some great scientists, Swedenburg and not Swedenburg. In any case, I don't need to get into the names.

It was suggested that the reality is neither particle nor wave, but it expresses like this depending on the experimental setup. In some experimental setups, it acts like waves In some other experimental setups, the same thing will act like waves or particles. So my suggestion now is that really whatever we mean by highest reality or by god It's neither Hindu or Christian, but cultural setups are like experimental setups. So in some cases, it behaves like this. In some other cases, it behaves like that.

But reality does not belong to either this category or that category. How to be free of expression of truth? I repeatedly keep saying expression of truth is not the truth. Trying to point to something. And again, I use this example several times, actually. Different fingers can be pointing to the moon If I get so attached to any of those fingers, I'll never get to the moon.

So from my perspective, different teachings, different traditions naturally at their best are actually pointing to the truth to reality, but their very expressions can become dogmatic partly because all the when whenever a religion is organized, it naturally wants to speak to the mass level and gets diminished in its quality. In fact, organized religions have done more harm to spiritual search than any other institution. But on the other hand, we don't need to be against even organized religions. They can preserve great cathedral, great frescoes, etcetera. But more importantly, if you look at any of the sages, in the whole of the Abrahamic tradition who actually experienced something, practically something.

Then you would find them saying something very similar to something experienced by people in the Indian. By the Indian stages, but only at that level. And even there, the words may be different because as I mentioned earlier, the Buddha is, after all, speaking in Pali, to people of Indian background, Christ is speaking in Aramache to people of Jewish background, and the language itself creates a distinction and a problem. So it is important to, first of all, if I take this example from physics, by the way, I should mention here something that might amuse you, that it used to be quite a common practice in physics laboratories, that on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, it was particles on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, there were waves. And on Sunday, the lord rested.

Just because one can't define what they are. So if we if you like on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, god is very much a Christian perspective, Tuesday Thursday or Saturday is the very Hindu perspective. And on Sunday, the lord just rests. But that is just a way of inviting people to be a little free of getting so attached to one thing or the other. In my personal judgment, that is more or less the main reason for studying another tradition, another teaching.

So that one can be more and more free of what is driving me from my own tradition. Because each one of us, as I said earlier, also is very deeply influenced even after death in the near death experiences, very deeply influenced by our cultural religious background. And how to be free of that is not so easy. But one of them can be that if I see two different fingers pointing to the moon, then I don't need to get attached to any of those fingers, but see how I can go to the moon. So it's helpful to have actually studying more than one. This is my life's mission these days actually to speak about spiritual searchers in a global culture. Partly because we are more and more in a global culture.

In fact, I understand that even in The USA, there will be more and more people born of mixed races. And already, you can look at some of your biggest companies here, like Google or Microsoft, who are their big CEOs, people of Indian origin, or Chinese origin. In fact, president Biden even said that the Indian they're taking over America. Now, one doesn't need to take it negatively or positively, but more and more to realize that it is very much a global culture. But, of course, right now, the prime minister of England, or of United Kingdom, is of Indian origin.

And naturally, therefore, he would take his oath as he did on the bhagavad gita, rather than on the Bible, But that doesn't mean that bhagavad Gita is the only avenue to truth and the Bible is not. So I try to point out that again and again one needs to realize that everybody is very deeply conditioned by one's cultural background. And how to be free of it. More and more free of it.