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worlds to which sakala souls belong, there are regions where higher souls dwell for untold aeons, who have not attained to perfection from the Agamic view point, but who yet have gone beyond the planes of life and activity within the regions of praksti. I am speaking of souls who have attained the perfection of siddhi and gone beyond the jurisdiction of the Lord of death. These persons are adopts and immortals of the supercosmic regions who under the orders of the Supreme Lord come down on the lower plane within nature and take birth as human beings to fulfill certain cosmic ends. These souls belong to the category of Adhikarika soul and may be sent down by the Highest Lord to function in the direction of amelioration of the human race in a given period. They are more or less like the so called avatāras of the Paurāņika literature. The great Sankarācārya speaks of similar souls coming down in the past history of the human race.
He says :
___ अपान्तरतमः प्रभृतयोऽपीश्वराः परमेश्वरेण तेषु तेप्वधिकारेषु नियुक्ताः सन्तः सत्यपि सन्यग्दर्शने कैवल्यहेतावक्षीणकर्माणः यावदधिकारमवतिष्ठन्ते ।।
In this context we learn that the great Krşnadvaipāyana Vyāsa, the author of the Mahābhārata etc. was really a reincarnation of Apāntaratamaḥ in the past aeons. Skanda was the reincarnation of Sanatkumāra. Maitrāvaruņa was the reincarnation of Vasiştha. Dakşa, Nárada etc. had also to take reincarnation as told in the Paurā ņika literature. These people who take their birth in human families from time to time are not like ordinary people who are ignorant (Avivekī) and under the law of Karmaic operation have to take birth from time to time. These people being ignorant do not remember their past lives but the higher souls of whom I am speaking here, belong to a different category. They take their birth as man under direct orders from the Divine and are not ignorant like ordinary people but remember their past incarnations also. They move about from one body to another of their free will (of course under the Divine Command), and their memory of their past incarnation remains intact. They are to be
1. Sankara Bhaşya on Brahma Sutra, 3.3.32.
