I had always wanted to know my past birth. From small I was reminded that I was a Chinese in my former birth, the reason being that I had an unique birth mark on my right forearm. Chinese who saw me as a baby had often mentioned to my mother that I was born a Chinese baby but had died upon delivery, in my past birth. Tradition has it that, they brand the little tiny lower arm with a mark so that they could identify the mark and see if the child is born again in their family circle in the next birth.
Until I was 13 I was taken to see a Chinese medium in event I fell sick. I remember pretty well how my parents and I stood in front of a majestic portrait of a Chinese God while the Chinese medium got about doing his stuff.
According to https://en.wikipedia.org, a Chinese medium is known as Tongji.
According to https://en.wikipedia.org, a Chinese medium is known as Tongji.
Tongji is a Chinese folk religion religious specialist, usually translated as a "spirit medium", "oracle", or "shaman". A tongji or jitong is a person believed to have been chosen by a particular shen 神 "god; spirit" as the earthly vehicle for divine expression. A tongji appears to be entirely under the control of forces in the spirit world. Frequently a person who will become tongji experiences himself, at an early time in his or her life, to be coming under the compulsion of some god to be possessed by him. The person may well resist that compulsion. Should his resistance fail, he will from time to time enter into a trance in which he may beat himself with a nail-studded ball at the end of a cord and handle to the point that he draws blood from multiple wounds on his back. While in this trance state he will experience himself, and the members of his community of belief will experience him, as speaking the words of that god.
Very often the medium stood in front of the huge painting placed at the altar and hit his bareback back with the blunt edge of a sword while chanting verses in Chinese. He would then write Chinese characters in red ink on a thin piece of yellow paper and burn that over a glass of water. He would then ask me to drink the water mixed with the ash from the burnt paper. I would be cured. The only time I visited the government hospital for treatment was at age of 13 when I was bitten by a dog. Fearing that I could come down with rabies, I was given medical treatment.
Later in my early twenties, I stopped by a Chinese temple to pay homage to my God father. There I noticed an unique method of fortune telling. I gave it a try. I had to shake an open can of sticks with numbers inscribed on them until a single stick drops out from the can. The number on that stick is then referred to a big book of predictions. Mine was 11. The caretaker read out the writings pertaining to number 11 from the book. He translated the reading into the Malay language that I could understand. With whatever little knowledge of the Malay language he managed to convey to me that I had many friends. "Indeed" I replied to him as I had many friends. He corrected me saying that what he meant was that I had divine friends, as in angels, close to me and caring for me. And so I came to understand that I had Gods looking over my shoulder. What did I do to deserve their grace, I would ask myself occasionally.
In 2002 when I went for my very first Kaanda Nadi reading, Agathiyar through the reading revealed my past. I needed to know my past karma so that I do not make a blunder again. I needed to know my past karma so that I could work on it and work towards a better future. I needed to know my past karma so that I could share and counsel others so that they too do not fall for the trap of illusion.
Many a saint have shared accounts of their lifes and questioned the many possible reasons leading to one having to take a rebirth.
Ramalinga Adigal through his literary work MANU MURAI KANDA VASAGAM wrote a prose that carried the many possible events that might have led to one's birth. Adigal mentions an extensive list of the probabilities for one’s rebirth.
“Did I create fear in others?
Did I hurt my loved ones?
Did I summon and tarnish others,
Did I stop others from making donations?
Did I smear my friends?
Did I sabotage friendships?
Did I speak gossip that lead to families being destroyed,
Did I refused to help one in need,
Did I increase taxes and rob others,
Did I make the poor suffer?
Did I act unjustly?
Did I stop the means of income of others?
Did I entice others and cheat them,
Did I rip work but refused to pay accordingly,
Did I adulterate rice with pebbles?
Did I ignore the hungry?
Did I refrain from feeding the poor?
Did I exposed those that had taken refuge with me,
Did I aid those who committed murder?
Did I scout and spy on behalf of thieves,
Did I snatch properties belonging to others and lie to them?
Did I sleep with those who had lost their virginity?
Did I abuse virgins who I had a responsibility to protect?
Did I rape those who already had had a husband?
Did I lock up birds in their cages?
Did I not feed the calves?
Did I build up this body by consuming meat?
Did I poison drinking water?
Did I fell trees that gave us shade?
Did I destroy others out of revenge?
Did I demolish public halls?
Did I not listen to my parents?
Did I not greet my Guru?
Did I not give my Guru his dues, for his sustenance?
Did I envy the learned?
Did I find mistakes in the writings of the wise?
Did I offend devotees of Shiva?
Did I offend the yogis?
Did I prevent the public from conducting their prayers by shutting the doors to the temples?
Did I smear the name of the Lord?
What sin did I do, I do not know”, questions the Saint.
Listen to a rendition of Adigal's composition set to music at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ0xS8Uwt1Y&list=PLHzSyCuecHydnkZeYI_ZxI9uTVuQ-k81w
Rengaraja Desiga Swamigal throws some light in the preface to his interpretation of Adigal's MANUMURAI KANDA VASAKAM, originally in Tamil, translated into English by R.G.Rajaram,
"The Supreme Grace Light the compassionate to all living beings, the Chief of Gnosis, St. Ramalingar’s “Manumurai Kanda Vasakam” has forty three aphorisms. He discusses very clearly the merits and demerits of virtue and evil (punya and papa). The list of evil that men shall abhor are listed. These are the sins which subject men into irredeemable mundane bondage. By calling out “did I ever commit…….” He lists out sins of the society and advises us to get salvation from them."
R.G.Rajaram translates Adigal's plea as follows,
"Did I ever,
1. Throttle the mind of the Samaritans?
2. Pull them to court on false allegations and spoil their reputation?
3. Prevent people giving alms?
4. Divide the Friends united?
5. Was deceit for true friendship?
6. Enhance tax and burgle?
7. Starve the hungry poor?
8. Punish any one without compassion?
9. Partial in land disputes and spoil their livelihood?
10. Assist Killers?
11. Was a spy for thieves?
12. Enamour the things and lie?
13. Lure and cheat?
14. Close the thorough fare to prevent trespass?
15. Reduce wages for work?
16. Ignore the hunger stricken?
17. Refuse alms for beggars?
18. Carry tales and spoil the relationship?
19. Desert in the midway?
20. Expose the refugees under distress?
21. Be in the company of unchaste?
22. Seduce the modest girl under guard?
23. Rape a Housewife?
24. Abort and enjoy?
25. Feel reluctant to worship my preceptor?
26. Forget to pay preceptor’s fee?
27. Exhibit displeasure of countenance to the learned?
28. Find fault in the composition of great men?
29. Enslave a bird trembling in a cage?
30. Prevent the calf to feed on the mother?
31. Grow my body eating flesh?
32. Sell mixing up paddy and sand?
33. Harm loved ones?
34. Close down potable water pond?
35. Fell shady trees used to rest in scorching sun?
36. Destroy others’crop out of enmity?
37. Demolish Public Hall?
38. Keep the doors of temple closed?
39. Scold violently the disciples of Lord Shiva?
40. Belittle the people on penance?
41. Abuse great Saints?
42. Ignore the advises of parents?
43. Abuse Gods and become Egotist?"
Rengarajar writes in the preface further, translated by R.G.Rajaram
"These 43 utterances summarize the don’ts of humanity. Saint Vallalar addresses to Lord Almighty, whether He was gullible with any of these inhuman qualities and thus driving home, the benevolence of Lord Almighty descends spontaneously on those who are devoid of any of these qualities."
Having stated thus, Adigal provides deliverance from our past sins.
"Moreover if one wants deliverance from those sins, he suggests ways and means also. If one gives up killing and meat eating and prays unto him wholeheartedly, the very moment St. Ramalingar, the supreme grace of light joins him and remedies his sufferings and he will make them realize also”.
Yet another translation by Aasiriyar Arulvanan is posted by Lalitha at http://lalitha-arutperumjyothi.blogspot.my/2011/07/manu-murai-kanda-vasagam.html
Paramahansa Yogananda says, “Knowledge of the law of Karma encourages the earnest seeker to find the way of final escape from its bonds.” He provides a solution too, “Seeds of past Karma cannot germinate if they are roasted in the fires of divine wisdom.”
Tavayogi Thangarasan Adigal says if there is Karma then there is birth. Karma is the cause of birth. Birth is a result of past Karma. “The life we are living now is a result of our past Karma and the life we live now will determine our next birth”, he amply puts it, clear and forcefully.
Padmasambhava says, “If you want to know your past life, look into your present condition; if you want to know your future life, look at your present actions,”
“What you are what you have been, what you will be is what you do now” goes the saying of the Buddha.
The night Buddha attained enlightenment; he went through several stages of awakening. One of it was where he had the recollection of his previous lives.
Sogyal Rinpoche in his book THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYING, HarperSanFrancisco, 1993, quotes Buddha’s THE MIDDLE LENGTH SAYINGS (originally quoted in H.W.Schumann's THE HISTORICAL BUDDHA, London, Arkana, 1989)
He narrates Buddha’s experience.
He narrates Buddha’s experience.
“I remembered many, many former existences I had passed through: (he mentions a hundred thousand - Ed) in various world-periods. I knew everything about these various births: where they had taken place, what my name had been, which family I had been born into, and what I had done. I lived through again the good and bad fortune of each life and my death in each life, and came to life repeatedly. In this way, I recalled innumerable previous existences with their exact characteristic features and circumstances. This knowledge I gained in the first watch of the night.”
In the second watch of the night, he gained knowledge of Karma.
“With the heavenly eye, purified and beyond the range of human vision, I saw how beings vanish and come to be again. I saw high and low, brilliant and insignificant, and how each obtained according to his Karma a favorable or painful rebirth.”
Swami Rajarshi Muni in YOGA - THE ULTIMATE ATTAINMENT, Jaico Publishing House, 2004, explains Karma.
“During each earthly existence, a soul creates innumerable Karmas in the form of thoughts, words, and actions. These Karmas leave behind corresponding subliminal impressions that are carried forward with the subtle body from one life to the next. When these latent impressions become activated at opportune moments in the present life, or in a future life, they awaken into desires, which then amass volitional energy sufficient to lead the soul to perform new Karmas. Thus, the Karmas of the present life lead to the Karmas of future lives. They establish a continuous and unending chain of causes and effects.”
Annie Besant and Bhagawan Das in SANATANA DHARMA by the Theosophical Publishing House, 2000 explain,
“Karma literally means action, but as every action is triple in its nature, belonging partly to the past, partly to the present and partly to the future, it has come to mean the sequence of events, the law of causes and effects, the succession in which each effect follows its own cause.”
“What is called the consequence of an action is really not a separate thing but is a part of the action, and cannot be divided from it. Nothing occurs which is not linked to the past and to the future.”
Paramahansa Yogananda in his AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI, Self-Realization Fellowship, 1990, writes,
“The effort is part of the Karma, as much as the goodness or badness: Karma is not a finished thing awaiting us, but a constant becoming, in which the future is not only shaped by the past but is modified by the present.”
Ram Das in PATH TO GOD - LIVING THE BHAGAVADGITA, Harmony Books, 2004, says,
“Every act we do creates Vasanas, life waves, based on the desires connected with the act. Even when we die, they continue; the physical body dies, and what remains are those subtle life waves, those mental tendencies that function like a kind of psychic DNA code to determine your next round.”
Eknath Easwaran in DIALOGUE WITH DEATH - A JOURNEY THROUGH CONSCIOUSNESS, Jaico Publishing House, 2002, says,
“Hindu and Buddhist mystics would go so far as to say that we have come into this life expressly to fulfill our unfulfilled desires, which as unconscious drives or Samskaras shape everything we do. The slightest thought has consequences, as does the slightest act. Over the years it is the sum of all these consequences, large and small, that shapes our lives. Nothing that he says, thinks or does is without consequences.”
“Thoughts are the very source of our Karma, for from our thoughts flows everything: words, actions, desires, decisions, and destiny. Karma is not imposed by some cosmic lawgiver outside us.”For more on karma see http://agathiyarvanam.blogspot.my/2014/05/if-one-were-to-follow-episodes-posted.html
http://agathiyarvanam.blogspot.my/2014/05/karma-part-2.html
http://agathiyarvanam.blogspot.my/2014/05/karma-part-3.html
http://agathiyarvanam.blogspot.my/2014/05/karma-part-4.html