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"Born Again"

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sadagopaniyengar • October 25, 2002 


         
Srimate SrivanSatakopa Sri Vedanta Desika yatindra Mahadesikaya Nama:

 

         Born  Again!

 

          Reincarnation or Rebirth is a cornerstone of our philosophy. It is extremely significant, and enables us to explain the apparent arbitrariness of life. A child is born to wealthy parents, never lacks for anything right from the moment of birth, attends the best of schools, is given the most nutritious food, and grows up into a strong, intelligent human being.



Side by side, we have the phenomenon of another child, born of parents for whom each day represents a struggle to live, for whom even a square meal a day is a luxury. This child can at best look at good food or playthings with longing but can never hope to possess them.

 

 This appears to be a patent injustice to the latter child. Why should it suffer for no fault of its, while the first kid is born with the proverbial silver spoon in its mouth? Is the Lord so whimsical that he bestows His favours on one child while apparently turning a blind eye to the sufferings of the other? Or does He too play favourites, showering some with the choicest of life's blessings, while allowing some to wither away uncared for? 

 

 These and similar other questions are difficult to answer for people of other faiths, who have to necessarily say that it is the wise God's will that this is so. However, even the most pious would find it difficult to believe in a divine wisdom that has apparently no rational basis, is patently arbitrary, and dispenses reward and retribution without regard to reasonable criteria.

 

It is here that the Reincarnation theory comes to our rescue, by attributing whatever one enjoys or suffers in this birth to the actions, good and bad, which one has undertaken in one's previous births. By putting the responsibility for our actions squarely on our own shoulders, this concept also absolves the Lord of the stigma of arbitrariness in His dispensation. The Lord is but an Arbiter ("KarmAnurUpa phala prada:"), who ensures that we work off some of our burden of Karma in every birth. In the process, He is perhaps kind enough to see that all the bad deeds are not allotted to any particular janma, so that life doesn't become one long saga of suffering.

 

 When we talk of rebirth, we usually refer to being born again after one life cycle: that is, we are born, grow up into adults, age into senior citizens and then pass away one day, either suddenly or as a result of illness which is the harbinger of the end. Some people have their lives cut short by accidents or disease, which cause a premature demise.

 

  We also talk of rebirth in another context, especially when one has been saved from certain death. The passenger in the front seat of the vehicle, who escapes miraculously while the driver is killed instantaneously in an accident,



the shipwrecked person who manages to stay alive, clutching on to bits of wood and eating whatever he could lay his hand on and surviving till he is rescued,

 

the lone survivor in an air crash which takes a toll of several hundred human lives

-it is common for all these survivors to exclaim," I have been given a fresh lease of life". Though not literally, they consider themselves to have been born again. And even to this day, when medical advance is at its pinnacle, delivery or childbirth is considered to be a "Punarjanma" for some ladies, due to the myriad potential complications. All this represents a concept of rebirth, which does not entail leaving one's current mortal coils.

 

 Azhwars talk of Rebirth in another sense. As long as we remain shackled by desire, ignorance, anger, etc., we are as good as not having been born. For, after all, we have been blessed with a human birth so that we may realise the folly of our ways, resolve not to get caught in the vicious cycle of samsara ever again and adopt a suitable strategy for liberating ourselves from this eternal tedium of births and deaths. If we fail in this and continue merrily on our errant ways, this human birth is indeed wasted on us, and we are as good as not having been born at all. 

 

"andru nAn pirandilEn" says Sri Tirumazhisai PirAn, reiterating that it is not a birth at all, which doesn't  make us think constantly of the Lord and His splendour.

 

 When we realise that we are the servants of Emperuman, that He is our Lord and Master, that it is our past karma which precludes us from realising our own selves and our relationship with the Supreme Being, that once we surrender ourselves to Him, He washes off our sins as if cleaning up a dirtied diamond and affords us eternal bliss in His constant company- when we realise all this, it is then that we are "born" in the real sense of the term. For samsaris like us, such realisation constitutes a Rebirth. We are "born again" as "SEshAs", whose principal aim is to please the Lord through thought word and deed, all through our lives here and thereafter in Paramapadam.

"andru nAn pirandilEn, pirandapin marandilEn" says the Azhwar. Once we are blessed with such a rebirth, we are never able to forget the Lord or His innumerable auspicious attributes. He is constantly in our thoughts and all our actions are directed towards pleasing Him in all possible ways. When our conduct is fashioned along these lines, we find ourselves unable to commit sin (for it displeases the Lord), unable to get angry at fellow human beings, (who also represent Bhagavat Svaroopam), unable to covet others' belongings (for everything belongs to Him).

 

And how do we attain such a "Rebirth"? 

It is the Acharya who, by bestowing on us true knowledge, makes us "Born Again" Vaishnavas. Here, knowledge refers not to acquisition of degrees, diplomas and certificates, which are not worth the paper they are written on, once we leave this mundane morass. These are  "SumayAna KalvigaL", which are but a burden. That which liberates can only qualify for the epithet

" Knowledge"("sA vidyA yA  vimuktayE"). And the Acharya, by blessing us with such liberating knowledge, initiates us into a new life, where we start with a beautifully clean slate and can draw the most beautiful pictures hitherto unknown to ourselves.

 Describing the matchless contribution of the Acharya in Sri NyAsa Vimsati-"Janma Pradhvamsi janma prada". The birth our parents give us is capable of leading us deeper and deeper into the quagmire of samsara. In striking contrast, the VidyA janma, which the Acharya bestows on us, is so powerful that it destroys all future births. It strikes our ignorance at the roots, ensuring that it never raises its ugly head again.

 Every eligible person is said to be reborn upon undergoing the samskAra of Upanayanam, which makes him eligible to learn the Shruti. It is only by performing rites such as Sandhyavandanam, Brahmayagyam, agnihOtram, oupAsanam, Bhagavat ArAdhanam, etc., that one can call oneself a "Dwija" or the Reborn One. However, even this rebirth pales into insignificance when compared to the one afforded by the Acharya, since the latter effectively destroys the tree of samsara and rescues us from the vicious cycle of births and deaths.

 

Srimate Sri LakshmINrsimha divya paduka sevaka SrivanSatakopa Sri Narayana Yatindra Mahadesikaya Nama:

Dasan, sadagopan.



 

 



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