Karma and Rebirth

Author(s): T G Kalghatgi
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 78

Rebirth-A Philosophical Study
separate existence comes to him. As a result the body is formed and consciousness of a separate ego and through it the individual self can develop itself and maintain its relation with the Cosmic spirit. Through it only the individual can receive its unity with God and get rid of its separateness and ego consciousness. But this truth cannot be an isolated phenomena, It must be followed by rebirth and that by another rebirth and so on. This succession of births will stop with the emergence of the Supermind. There the isolation of the individual soul with the Spirit comes to an end.
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According to Shri Aurobindo's Philosophy of Integralism, Immortality can be considered in three aspects (i) the psychic (ii) the spiritual and (iii) the material. The spirit in its transcendental aspect is Brahman, in the universal aspect is Iivara and in the individual aspect is the jtvätma. The spirit in all these aspects is immortal in the sense of non-temporal. This is the spiritual immortality, as it does not connote persistance in time, but a sort of ineffable timeless being. There is also something in man which survives death and and carries him along the road of gradual spiritual development. This element is called a psychic being which is the highest representative of the jivatman in man. The persistance of the psychic being through birth and death is called psychic immortality. The eternity of the spirit assumes the forms of immortal existence ensuing through a long succession of births. The empirical self steadily advances through the succession of births towards the timeless perception that belongs to the transcendental spirit. Shri Aurobindo points out, that it is a psychic being that survives the death of the body and then goes to the psychic plane for a thorough rearrangement of the past experiences and the final determination of the next birth. "It is the psychic being that descends into the evolution of the empirical self, evolves with it, sustains and secretly guides from within the physical, vital and mental elements of its nature and serves as the central representative within the evolving empirical self of the transcendental individual Self. As the spark of the Divine in the evolving creature, the psychic being secretly guides the individual through the long succession of births towards the realisation of the transcendental Self as an eternal portion of the Divine Being and as a centre of the working of the Divine sakti,"
During my discussion with Padmashree Dr. Bendre, the eminent Kannada poet, on the problem of Rebirth, Dr. Bendre suggested that the term. rebirth is not appropriate. It is better to use 'new incarnation,' as the old self is not born in its old form. It is in the process of evolution towards the Transcendental Spirit. It would not be correct to look at the problem of rebirth as a process of doling out punishments and rewards, as an act
67. Shri Aurobindo, The Problem of Rebirth: Significance of Rebirth.