The Flight Of The Subtle Body IV

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The Supreme World of the Creator

Scripture promises perfect evolutionary success to those rare few who have gained the required spirit of renunciation. As the following verse states:

"But those who perform tapas and sraddha in the forest, having control over their senses, who are learned and living the life of mendicants, go , through the orb of the sun, their good and bad deeds being consumed, where the immortal and un-decaying Purusa is". (Mundaka Upanisad, Chapter I, Section 11:2)

It is a Vedantic theory that those who merely perform karmas, on departing from here, take to the Southern path to live in Pitrloka.

And after enjoying it for a period of time they come back. Those who not only perform the Yajnas and Yagas, but also meditate upon the great Truth of Vedantic philosophy (that is, those who perform karma and upasana), leave the body and take the Northern route. Through the corridors of the Sun they go beyond and enter Brahmaloka, the supreme world of the Creator.

It is the belief that they along with the Creator, at the end of the Yuga, during the Pralaya (dissolution), become merged with the supreme absolute Awareness. This method of liberation is technically called Krama mukti (gradual liberation). But in the case of Buddha, Shankara, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Ramana Maharshi, Aurobindo and other masters, there is no coming or going; they reach what is called pure liberation (Kaivalyamukti) or immediate liberation (Sadyo mukti).

The theory of gradual liberation accepted by Vedanta, says that ritualism (Karma) accompanied by meditation (Upasana) takes the ego to the realm of the Creator (Brahmaloka).This is where, at the end of the Kalpa (the cycle of creation and dissolution) it merges with the Supreme. Even in Brahmoloka it is necessary that the ego must, through self effort, live strictly all the spiritual directions of the Creator. And through constant contemplation upon the Self, come to deserve the total liberation, by ending all its connections with ignorance. Those who have not reached the realm of the Creator, may not come to enjoy the supreme merger. They will, at the end of the cycle, have to come back and take their manifestation in embodiments, ordered by the remaining vasanas. Keeping this principle in mind, Lord Krishna says in the Gita that rebirth is for everyone, even for those who have attained the higher planes up to Brahmaloka: Having reached Brahma1oka, however, there is no return and the jiva rises to merge with the Self.

"Worlds up to the world of Brahmaji, are subject to rebirth, O Ariuna but he who reaches Me, O Kaunteya has no birth again. (Gita Chaptervm: 16)". To those who have awakened to the rediscovery of their eternal nature, and realized themselves to be the one, all-pervading Self, there is no return to the plane of limited existence. To the waker there is no more readmission into the dream-realm. To awaken is to drop forever the joys and sorrows of the dream. After attaining the waker-hood (Me) there is no return into the dreamland (Samsara).

About The Author

Swami Chinmayananda

Swami Chinmayananda's lectures were an outpour of wisdom. He introduced the Geetha Gnana Yagna. He wrote a lot of books on spirituality, commentaries to Vedantic texts, children books etc. He then started spreading His teachings globally.