Poojya Swamiji Pranamam,
The following facts were appeared clear and convincing to me hearing you through various discourses:
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Human life is the most rewarding because of the chance to use body-mind-intelligence combination to realize SELF and hence to the path for liberation.
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The (mis)concept of rebirth since SELF is known to be eternal.
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If people do believe doing good karma gives a better life it should be simply seen as a way to lead GOOD life (Krishna in Gita).
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How could we justify the above facts in case of the birth of a person with certain mental illness or with various cognitive disorders?
Kindly remove my ignorance if I could not understand the facts clearly.
Swamiji, to me you are the Krishna, Yogi Vasihta, Vyasa, Adi Shankara and the many more who scripted the knowledge since without you I doubt I would ever know them except for some fancy stories.
Pranam Swamiji,
JS
Answer
Dear and blessed JS,
Harih Om Tat Sat.
I am happy that the first three points you have listed are very good and clear to you. As for the fourth question also try to have the necessary clarity. It is in this way.
Though fire is different from the firewood, fire can become manifest only through the medium, in this case the firewood. In the same manner, though our body is matter-energy aggregate and the sentience or consciousness manifest in it is completely different. The consciousness will not become manifest except through a biological aggregate like this. This biology itself is what consciousness has given rise to, when matter and energy get animated they become biological.
In the whole world, most of the space is occupied by inert matter and energy. Very rarely you have biologised or animated matter. While deriving a birth a child not merely inherits the body but also the functional sentient part. This is primarily focussed in the brain.
Dear JS, do you know of instances where physical and physiological disorders can be the result of untimely use of medicines or an excessive use of medicines etc. There is a disease called 'cleft palate'. This happens when a woman in pregnancy happens to take some very powerful antibiotics, especially in ignorance or in forgetfulness.
So a physical disorder can come by virtue of a wrong medical application. In the same manner most of the disorders are in the brain. So children when they are getting born, as the part of the body they also inherit the brain, and this brain disorder is what gives rise to many of the mental illnesses like schizophrenia, some times epilepsy, narcissistic personality, kleptomania and the like.
We generally identify it as the mind, but it is not just the mind alone. For the mind to function there must be a physiological or a physical connection and that is the brain. If you agree that the physical body is inherited from the parents, its features, complexion, the type of limbs etc. in the same manner, the brain functions also are to a large extent inherited from the parentage. So all these problems are due to brain disorders.
In trying to speak about marriage and arranging it properly our shastras say: 'make sure that for 7 generations in the past, the persons do not have any history of mental disorders'. Is it possible for us to go into seven generations? Who knows about them? Maybe we know maximum about our grand-parents but not beyond. So this (mental disorders) comes mostly by virtue of heredity.
We do have freedom, and choice, but the choice and freedom are to be employed by an inherited co-ordinate. Just like you can walk in any direction but only with the legs available. You can see only with the eyes available, in the same manner, we can only think and act with the brain setup that we have.
So my answer is in all these instances it is the hereditary factor that governs and moves forward. That is why we say we must first of all have a good birth in a good family.
In the matter of getting good children, there is an intricate science at work, generally nobody worries about it. Where from shall we start? I think we should start from the pregnancy that is being caused by the couple.
Now, who caused the pregnancy? The couple. So before instituting pregnancy, both of them will have undergo a period of good discipline and refinement. They must select the day and time of the meeting and then they should meet. The purpose of the meeting should be to cause pregnancy so the sole focus should be on that. It cannot be an elational meeting or an exhilarational meeting only taking the body into account. It should a very choice meeting, thinking that today our meeting will result in pregnancy and in the pregnancy we would like to have a good child. The moment you say a good child, the attention goes to the mind, character, behaviour and the like.
Then when the pregnancy is on, the mother as well as the father will have to have corresponding good and noble thoughts to shape the child in the womb. You will find that we have got something like the shodasha-samskaras; 16 items of culturizing a person. Items of culture for an individual, so garbhadhana is one then while the pregnancy grows, it is pumsavanam is another. As soon as the child is born, jata-karma then nama-karana the naming ceremony, then bahir-gamana - taking the child outside, thereafter chaula etc. etc.
All these are supposed to institute the mento-intellectual sublimity, refinement and elegance into the new born. So I think this subject has to be understood in greater depth and gravity. Everything comes from heredity. We are all born from our parents and parental lineage and all the good as well as the bad that we are having to the extent it is inborn it has come from the parents. Let us be very clear about it.
By saying this I do not want you or anybody else to get in to a state of distress and pathos. Understanding should give you a kind of a poise and a confidence and clarity to face anything that is in life.
We can always walk with the legs available, we can hold with the hands available. We cannot complain that my hands are not strong or my legs are short. Manage with whatever is because our freedom should be more in the sphere of the mind and the intelligence.
I wonder whether it is clear to you.
Love and ashirvaad. Ma Gurupriyaji and Swami Nirviseshananda Tirthaji also send their loving good wishes.
Antaraatma
Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha.