Sri Ramana and the problem of past lives

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Is reincarnation a fact?

Bhagavan: You are incarnated now, aren't you? Then you will be so again. But as the body is illusion then the illusion will repeat itself and keep on repeating itself until you find the Real Self.

Question: What is death and what is birth?

Bhagavan: Only the body has death and birth, and it [the body] is illusion. There is, in Reality, neither birth nor death.

Question: How much time may elapse between death and rebirth?

Bhagavan: Perhaps one is reborn within a year, three years or thousands of years. Who can say? Anyway what is time? Time does not exist.

Question: Why have we no memory of past lives?

Bhagavan: Memory is a faculty of the mind and part of the illusion. Why do you want to remember other lives that are also illusions? If you abide within the Self, there is no past or future and not even a present since the Self is out of time--timeless.

"Who" (K. L. Sarma)states in his book "Maha Yoga" that the one great difficulty that the intellect finds in accepting the teaching that "happiness is just the return of the mind to its source, the Self" because it (the intellect) demands a rational link between the world it knows and the Self or Reality it is told about. Such a bridge does not exist and cannot be built by anyone – even by a Sage. The reason is extremely simple, namely the fact that the world and the Reality are negations of each other.

In illustrating this point, Vedic literature often points to the example involving the illusion presented by a rope when it is imagined to be a snake. It is then pointed out that the snake and the rope cannot be seen simultaneously. This is more or less the same as the situation often illustrated in Western psychology texts where the image used involves the perception of the figure and the ground. Depending on which aspect of such an illustration is seen by the mind as dominant, either one of two dominant visualizations of such an image will be perceived.

This sort of an analogy is then "stretched" to fit the idea of the Self and the ego-world, particularly the world. Here it is pointed out that there is no bridge possible between the two. This may well be true in the sense that act of bridging takes place in the "flash" of an instant where recognition changes from recording the world of plurality to immersion within the Self. But this figure/ground analogy (snake/rope) is itself flawed since it is the mind (ego-function) which records the transposition from one to another.. In that ordinary world sense the mind is truly the bridge between the snake and the rope but the transition takes place in that ordinary world sense the mind is truly the bridge between the snake and the rope but the transition takes place in a "flash".

Similarly with the Infinite Consciousness (the Self) indescribable, and the ego mediated world of plurality – again transition from one identity (viewpoint) to another takes place in a "flash" but in the immediate and instantaneous aftermath, there is a aspect of the Self that still knows of the world and in particular knows of the ego-trace, the manifest record of outside existence, left by the experience of all the personal selves (past lives) at least in the context, if not the direct involvement expressed by the ego-self, as a being in the world. The aspect of the Self that is so witnessed is able to comprehend this flashing transition from one to the other in terms of the Higher Self (the Atman). The Sage of Arunachala did indeed observe that past lives were of the same nature as the ego-based current life but pointed out that both categories of ego-construct were false and therefore unreal and unworthy of attention in relation to the infinite certitude and desirability of the Self, the Supreme Consciousness. He therefore questioned why anyone would bother with the past lives let alone the current life when it must be realized that the Truth dealt in neither. He also said "Even with knowledge of the present life (one is not) happy. Knowing past lives will only increase (your) unhappiness. All such knowledge is only a burden to the mind".

Neti-neti (not this, not this) is perfectly acceptable as a description of the Self but it is of no help whatsoever in defining and delimiting the path to the point of termination.

In my view, for the ordinary mortal in search of such insight and lacking the immediate capability expressed by the Sage, a comprehension of past life experience might be most desirable because this precisely provides a mechanism whereby the bridge can be crossed (in a flash) and furthermore the resultant transition to the Higher Self carries with it the comprehension of the world which can then be released on immersion into the Supreme Self and beyond.

Bhagavan Sri Ramana is reported to have said:

"Why bother about previous births? Find out first if now you have been born."

Now "Who" again in the book Maha Yoga, tells us that the way to proceed in this matter is to go in quest of the real Self which consists in gathering together all the energies of the body …. and directing these to a single current, namely the resolve to answer the question "Who am I" or "whence am I". For the Sage, being a manifestation of the Supreme Consciousness, no doubt this is the most direct route. For myself however, I did try this method (of my own accord) for 3 years or so and while I must admit I did have some partial success, I subsequently abandoned it for some 25 years or so before starting out on what proved to be a variant of the procedure. Part of my initial problem was undoubtedly that I was practicing alone. For instance I managed to obtain the "formless" I where the consciousness begins to shine brightly. This was the state of "I am I" but for various "social" reasons I became convinced that this represented some form of megalomania and I therefore terminated the practice without attempting to progress further.

Different people will of course be compelled to follow different paths but the simple question:"Who am I" did not prove for me to be as effective as the same query with two past lives held firmly in the frame together with my present life. So that is the answer to Bhagavan's question - in some cases it may well be helpful to recall a past life or two before asking that pertinent question in a meaningful manner.

Click here for more: Nisargadatta on Reincarnation

Robin Harger March 2003