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Parental Responsibilities – Reincarnation and Karma
Understanding Parental responsibilities and Reincarnation and Karma
A young man, upset with his parents for not meeting his needs, approached a wise old man seeking his approval for his stand.
Young Man – “Namaste Guruji – I seek your guidance to understand something that is troubling me, I never asked to be born. As I see, it was my parents who were responsible for my birth and hence, I feel right in demanding that they take due care of me for my lifetime, even arranging for my care when they are no longer alive, but they do not seem to understand this and keep expecting me, as a grown man now, to help look after them.”
Guruji – “How about when you decide to get married and have your children, would you accept such a responsibility for their lifetimes?” asked the wise man.
Young Man- “Of course. I stand by my opinion.“
Guruji- “Well, since the decision to get married and have children is yours, obviously according to you, the responsibility of your parents should stop when you so decide?”.
Young Man- “Not Really! However, I see your point. Perhaps it does cease then”
Guruji- “Now let me ask you whether you believe that you are an Atma, a soul that had lived earlier before being reincarnated into this body in this life?”
Young Man- “I would like to believe that I am more than just my body and mind, and I have heard of reincarnation, but I do not really believe in it”.
Guruji- “If you read the writings of the so many people who have studied the claims of reincarnation and the hypnotic regression stories, all of which have so resoundingly validated the claims of reincarnation, you would soon realize that not to believe in this concept is to be irrational and blind to reality.
The question – Did you have a choice to be born, should rightly be answered as ‘Yes’ and not as today generally answered as ‘No’. This is because you are now not aware of having made the choice. Though it is evident that the yet to be parents prayed only for a child, for any child, not you, as they would not have been aware of you. If they really sought for a particular child then they would have gone in for adoption. So, be assured, the choice of your parents and the time you sought to be born are entirely of your making, in order to in all statistical probability be given the opportunity to learn the lessons your Atma decided you needed to learn in this Life.
Re-incarnation is today beyond question and so is the existence of an Atma/Soul as something more than the body / mind that you are now conscious of.
Young Man- Re-incarnation connotes the acceptance of re-birth to enable one to balance out or compensate for misdeeds in an earlier life and brings in the concept of living as destined by the Karma of the past. I would rather believe in my own ‘Free Will’ directing my life’s course”.
Guruji- Aah! Herein lies your misconception. Karma is not fate or destiny determined as a punishment for past wrongs, in this or previous lives by some God, It is your own Atma that reflects on your actions and seeks understanding of such wrongs that then directs you to seek to learn what your Atma deems as the necessary lessons in this life, the lack of which learning led you to err in your deeds in your past lives. It is the path your Atma chooses for this life to allow it to most probabilistically workout its own solutions to its misunderstandings and errors of judgment and actions of its past lives and thus seek to learn what it needs to better itself This is ‘Free Will: but along a path selected by the Atma as that most likely to ensure the right learning, and thus elects when and to which awaiting couple to be born to.
You must understand that all futures, and even prophecies of the future, are only probabilistic and not deterministic. Hence, prophecies are properly recognized only in hindsight, when they have already been realized. So is Karma. It too is a probabilistic pathway you choose of your own ‘Free will’ to learn the lessons that your own understanding of your past lives determines you need to learn. Your ‘Free will’ may also, be exercised as you traverse this selected path to stay on it or move away as you see the circumstances you find yourself in there changing and so decide.
It is your Atma/Soul, that reviews your past lives and decides on what you next need to learn and compensate for, and then seek where and when to be re-born to most probably be in a position to do so. You may be guided by other enlightened souls in this understanding, but the final decision is entirely yours. You then choose your parents. As I had said earlier, your parents only prayed for, or sought for, a child, not specifically for you. If they really sought a specific type of child, they could have chosen to adopt one.
It is you, as the Atma/Soul, which sought to be that particular child, as you evaluated that probabilistic life as best suited for the Karmic lessons you needed to learn. Your parents only happily accepted you, and brought you up the best way they could.
It is this concept of Karma that requires you to experience and so learn there from that so comprehensively answers the many questions that arise when we view the inequalities and seemingly unfairness in the lives of many. It also, so well explains miscarriages, still births and many congenital conditions and disabilities. Still births could arise because the Atma sees changes in earlier foreseen probabilities, perhaps due to changes in circumstances or lives of the to be parents. Disabilities could be chosen by an enlightened soul or one that itself needs to properly understand love and caring, would seek to be so born, seeking to learn itself or to teach its caregivers a lesson that as an Atma it had decided is necessary in caring and loving.
Reincarnation is the only philosophy that explains all of the aspects of a life. Even so it is only probabilistic in its path.
As Bertrand Russell said – “Destiny is the hand you have been dealt. Free Will is the way you play it’: Reincarnation shows that it is your Atma that selects the deck from which the hand you are dealt with would most probably be selected.
In view of all that I have explained, I trust that you are no longer of the opinion that your parents are responsible for your life, and now recognize that you actually need to thank them for giving you as happy and fulfilling a childhood and also, for according you the opportunity to learn to stand on your own feet, as their circumstances best allowed This you can expect and demand of them, anything more that they may have given you is a bonus. You should also, thank them for giving you the opportunity to live your own life so as to best learn the lessons you have yourself, as your Atma, decided you need to learn, and thus show gratitude to your parents. You therefore need to accept responsibility for your own life and in turn nurture your children as best you can till they too can walk the path of their lives by themselves.
Young Man- “Thank you Guruji, I now understand that my life’s path is my own choosing and am therefore myself responsible to make the best of it and learn the appropriate lessons from it. You have indeed clarified my thinking and brought me out of the fog of self-centeredness into the sunlight of recognition of my path forward and my responsibility for the future and also, given me an understanding of the gratitude and obligation I owe to my parents who nurtured me as best they could till I grew up and became able to walk the path of my life by myself”.
JAI BHARAT! – JAI HIND!