Continued from above…

 

That is the question. Many people are saying that you will have a choice.

 

Unfortunately these magnanimous souls are not in charge of Nature and nature will not give a hoot about their freewill proposals.

 

So Nature has to decide if you will need a body and it will do so taking your social security contributions into consideration. If you know this, then it makes sense to work to suit.

 

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Caroline wrote:

She tried very hard to push off as much of her mother work onto me as she possibly could, even when I was at an age when I was hardly capable; the result for me was that I swore I would never have children in this life, and I didn't.

 

MiBeloved’s Response:

Usually this happens to a child who was a capable parent in the past life. Even though this infant is using a child’s body, the new parent intuitively senses the past life content of the child, and feels instinctively that this particular child can carry the weight of responsibilities for its siblings.

 

In the old cultures, this burden usually fell on the eldest child, because then actually the family lineage in the astral world was not as disordered as in modern times when there is jet travel and so much moving away from home. In the old cultures for the most part, the eldest child was an ancestor who was the most capable.

 

I am not saying that this is your situation with your Mom. I am just explaining it in a general sense.

 

Now in the case where a person is proficient as a parent in the past life, material nature itself will put that person into positions of responsibility which is larger than life, larger than what it will demand of others.

 

But some persons who are like this do develop a resentment towards their parents and also they carry a residual resentment from past lives when they were used and used as a parent in many past lives.

 

This is actually a resentment towards time and circumstance, which really means a big disagreement with the all-powerful Nature. This even applies to births in animal life, like among other species like cows, lions, apes and the like.

 

Whatever we do not like which was imposed on us by Nature in previous animal or human births, we carry with us in our individual psyches as a resentment of I-am-not-going-to-serve-Nature-in-this-way-any-longer. And so the parent who tries to impose those responsibilities on us becomes frustrated due to the predisposition we carried over from the past lives.

 

As a teenager of 16 years of age, I made up my mind not to have a family. I had seen what my father did and his father before. I saw how awkward it was for men to be tied down in monogamous relationships. I was at the time somewhat aware of some of my past lives as a yogi ascetic. I knew for sure that I took this body for purposes of practicing yoga as the priority.

 

But some of my ancestors who were already departed (ancestors of my body) met me astrally and warned that if I would not have any children, they would pray to God to fix me in some way or the other. These were Christian people for the most part because I grew up in a Christina household.

 

Because I took this body from them, they felt that I owed them a favor, so I figure that was a fair deal. If you owe someone it is only fair to pay up without complaint.

 

Later I was again hesitating. This was around 1969. At the time I thought that I would just be wasting my time to write books about yoga. This is because I used to speak to people about astral projection and they would not take anything I said seriously.

 

I got discouraged and thought that there was no point in continuing with this body. Then however there was a voice in my mind which said that whatever I did not complete would be accredited as my irresponsibility.

 

After this then I decided that okay, I will raise children and also do my yoga mission as best as I could.

 

It really comes down to understanding how material nature operates on the natural and supernatural levels and working to suit in one’s long ranged interest, irrespective of what others (parents included) did or did not do.

 

Suppose I commit a grievous crime. Suppose I am never discovered. That means that human beings won’t confront me. I would not be put before a court. I would not be punished by human agency in this life.

 

What then?

 

Has Nature not taken a note of my activities?

 

Will nature not react in its own time?

 

The problem we have is that we just see this one life. And we think that everything is under the thumb of human agency but the reality is quite different.

 

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As I wrote above, I was not discussing your individual situation but only giving a general purview of that sort of situation where a person reacts to a new life circumstance with instincts developed in past lives.

 

However you hit the nail on the head in that if someone is a monk or nun who served the community through prayer and spiritual comfort, then that person automatically has pious credits (Sanskrit – punyas) which would qualify for taking birth in any of the families where they deposited those services.

 

We see that in the developed countries, people who were born in those locations have certain rights as citizens. And yet foreigners sometimes are awarded those rights. Under certain conditions such as having a university education, having lots of money, marrying a native of a developed country, having a specific skill, seeking asylum etc, others come into the country and live with the same rights as those who are native to those developed lands.

 

Similarly even if someone did not contribute by begetting progeny in a certain family line, that person might successfully take a body in that line, through having performed a service to that family, or through have a karmic skill set which that family desires to have.

 

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Your Question about whether a family line would deny a monk or nun was written like this:

 

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I am thinking of Tibetan monks especially in this. Do you think their ancestors would be so mean as to deny them bodies if they still need to incarnate?

 

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This question is like passing a loaded gun to me while you have your finger on the trigger. So as not to get shot, I have to be careful with it. You never know because there can always be an accident when a gun is loaded.

 

First of all this question is based on the assumption that the ancestors can arbitrarily make such decisions.

 

They cannot. They can only decide that based on the resultant karmic credits of the person concerned. In fact the charisma of the person might nullify all of their objections and the person might get the body anyhow, purely on the basis of the person’s influence over them and over circumstances.

 

Right now we see that there is a black race person in the White House. How is that possible? The guy’s mother was white but still how did the person come out of nowhere and get into the White House in a politically white-dominated culture.

 

So this person’s influence overrided the culture.

 

Where did he come from?

 

What are his credits in his past lives which gave him such charismatic power?

 

Was he a white man before and now as a black man his past life race is hidden but his past life political influence is exposed?

 

The easiest way to get into the White House used to be that you had to be white first of all, and possibly you had to have political connections and be in a family which peddled in politics. But this individual broke the mold.

 

So even though the most frequent method when transmigrating is to do so on the basis of being a parent in a particular family line, there are all sorts of other methods on breaking that mold.

 

Thanks for your views on this.

 

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Narendra  on Linkedin Wrote:

This subject does not benefit me personally as I wish to be 100% dependent child or friend of Lord Krishna but it is of immense benefit to most of present day individuals. I have sent your views/experience to most of my family members. I agree with you in general.

 

As I understand from my individual life, our scriptures speak a lot about ekadasi fasts. Specially Moshada ekadasi is very good for deceased parents. You can hold ekadasi fast for your parents for their better life in astral body. Whenever you perform ekadasi fast you offer the benefits or virtues of the fast to your parents. These will overcome their shortcomings.

 

Thanks for sharing your great experience.

 

MiBeloved's Response:

Narendra,

 

You are making those statements about ekadashi and mokshada ekadashi based on guarantees in the Vedic scriptures. I am a bit familiar with ekadashi particularly with how it is serviced in the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition.

 

I do however want to assure you that even through these guarantees are given in those very genuine scriptures, modern Indian cannot extract those guarantees until they can adjust their cultures to be exactly as it was in the genuine brahmin families at the time in history when their traditions were introduced. So I cannot buy into what you are saying.

 

In this respect we may take a hint from Christianity, where there is a statement to the effect that God is not mocked and whatever a person sews, so shall he reap. It means that one cannot conveniently exploit a scriptural guarantee.

 

There is a nice discourse in the Mahabharata, you may be familiar with it, the one between King Dhritarashtra and Vidura, where Vidura called Sanat Sujatiya to answer a very touchy question which was of interest to the King.

 

Sanat explained that no one can exploit the Vedic mantras and also be living a life which is not totally consistent with the Vedic information. He cited the case of birds on a tree, where if the tree is disturbed all the birds fly away.

 

It means that the promised effects of Vedic mantra and procedure will escape from those who try to exploit the statements and who are not in the tradition in a satisfactory way.

 

I lived in an ashram once, where we observed the ekadashi vrats. What I experienced is that we did not get the effects described? But what we got were promises about what we would get in the next life.

 

Each religion issues post-life benefits which cannot be realized during the life time, which really means that it cannot be verified because mostly we do not remember our past lives and have no idea of what we were doing or what happened after we left the last body.

 

But if the ekadashi pledges concerning the benefits we can reap now while we have the body, are not effectively manifested, I do not see how they will be manifested after death, or how they can be transferred to someone who is deceased.

 

My challenge to you is for you to present one single advantage like this which you got in this life, as a result of following ekadashi vrat. Please do not misunderstand this. Do not think that I lack faith in the Vedic pledges. I have confidence in it but I do not have any confidence that it will work if the devotee is not fully compliant with the cultural habits and behaviors which are required.

 

Dean 6 years ago

Michael wrote:

Then however there was a voice in my mind which said that whatever I did not complete would be accredited as my irresponsibility.

 

After this then I decided that okay, I will raise children and also do my yoga mission as best as I could.

 

It really comes down to understanding how material nature operates on the natural and supernatural levels and working to suit in one’s long ranged interest, irrespective of what others (parents included) did or did not do.

 

Dean's question:

Is this what Krishana speaks about karma yoga?

 

MiBeloved 6 years ago

Basically yes, one has to master the obligatory cultural activities. If one does not do it in the karma yoga way which Krishna explained to Arjuna, then one will make many mistakes and further ruin's one's situation.

 

Cultural activities have to be met but if we meet them in ignorance then it will be our undoing all over again.

 

To learn how to manage them effectively, one has to apply karma yoga techniques.

 

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From Sonia on LinkedIn:

Thank you Michael, i hope it was helpful to you hearing this from her, like you i go to the astral planes, i find how we see and think on that level is so different than when we are in our body, my mother and father give so many messages, it is fulfilling and sad at the same time. Your mothers comment brought back to me 28 yrs ago when my ex husband kidnapped my son and i lived without him for a year, the pain was horrific, and for some reason your mothers comment led me to relive it, maybe now i can clear it.

GOD bless your mother.

Namaste

 

MiBeloved’s Response:

As a male I have no idea how a female feels when she is deprived of the opportunity to raise her child, but I do know this much, that even for those women who are spiritually advanced it may be very traumatic.

 

In the animal kingdom I observed once that a nanny goat was unconcerned and completely ignored her kid during the first three hours after birth. But then after that if you took the kid out of the nanny goat’s sight, she shouted in defiance and ran here and there screaming off the top of her lungs as if someone was pushing a sword through her.

 

My conclusion was that in her case, the instinct for mothering was delayed but once it kicked in, anyone who got between her and the kid goat was accursed as far as she was concerned.

 

It is seen sometimes also that if a woman gives up a child for adoption, then soon after she regrets it and goes through the rest of life, thinking about it and feeling an emotional emptiness because of it.

 

Once I knew this woman who had one daughter. The father was an irresponsible drunk. She then had another daughter by a responsible man. After that delivery she swore that she would never again get pregnant because of the pain of the labor.

 

Soon after she got a tubal operation which blocked her fallopian tubes. But then some years after she used to complain about it, saying that it should never have been done because she felt the need to have more children.

 

There is a nice story in the Srimad Bhagavatam where Krishna was born from a woman named Devaki (day-wuh-kee). This lady was in a political family. As the story goes, she was imprisoned with her husband at the time of the birth. They were what we could call political prisoners, today.

 

Anyway just after the birth, her husband, Vasudeva, took baby Krishna to another’s house and switched out the infants. Another woman gave birth to a girl child just about the same time that Krishna was born and Vasudeva knew about it.

 

Since they were imprisoned, Vasudeva escaped from the prison, went to the other’s woman’s house and took the woman’s child and placed his child by the side of the sleeping woman who had just fell asleep due to the exhaustion of labor.

 

He did this because he was imprisoned because of the fear of the King that Vasudeva’s son would be the King’s assassin.

 

Shortly after, the king found out that Devaki had a child. This king rushed to the prison. He demanded the child, explaining that since the death of his life was born, he would immediately kill the child as a matter of self-preservation. But this king then noticed that it was a girl child. The parents told the king that since he was expecting a boy child who would kill him, there was no need to hurt the female infant. But the king did not care about that. He was paranoid for his life and so he took that female child and dashed it to the stone floor killing it.