人是一个决心步上漫长旅程的朝圣者;他从石头开始,进入植物与动物然后达到了现今的人类阶段。他还有一段很长的路途才能抵达神,所以,他不应该滞留,耽搁。每一刻都很宝贵;每一步都必须把他带到更前更近。
你已凭借劣等生命体的许多前世所累积的功德而赢得人身,而糟蹋这人身难得的机会于劣等生命体的行为,委实愚不可及。
希斯乐普博士(Dr. John Hislop):降级有可能吗?人类会转世为畜牲吗? 赛:这种可能性不容否定,但不常发生而已。由于缺乏美德,人类会轮回转世为较为低下等级的人。总的变化过程往往是存在的。
你看不到一幢高楼大厦的地基。你因此能争辩说大厦仅仅坐落在地面上吗?我们这一生的地基已在诸多前世中深深地奠定。这结构已被那些前世的初步计划所拟订。看不到的地基决定转角和终止:楼数,高度和重量。
提供每一个人这特别能力的是什么?这难道不是他从前世中继承过来的吗?你或争辩说,那是你努力所达致的,使你成为一个诗人或一个歌唱家。事实并非如此。你必须想一想,在没有任何特别训练之下,这些个人有时则展示那样的特别技巧,这该怎么解释!
耶稣来到了菲利皮的凯撒勒雅境内,就问他的门徒说,“人们说人子是谁?”他们说,“有人说是施洗者约翰;有人说是以利亚;也有人说是耶利米亚,或其中一位先知。”
只有在‘永恒之法’(Sanathana Dharma)里,塑造人之命运的业,其重要性是那么的强烈和清晰的规定;而这命运其实就是,人必须轮回许多世以便不再轮回,而神的化身降世,在人之中活动,相伴,救渡他们并通过他们来救渡世界,就是赐予人的莫大恩典。如果你怀疑任何这些伟大的真理或真相,你肯定受苦。
你只知道今世发生于你眼前的一切;你不知道今世与前世的关系及今世为来世路程所作的准备。它就像是一出电影荧幕上的标题和提示;当字幕一个一个地过去,你也跟着读完它们。每一个新的字洗掉出现于你眼前的字,就如每一世洗掉你所体验的那一个记忆一样。
你或许不记得十年前某个特别的日子偶发的事件,但那不意味着你在那天并不存活。所以,你一样也不会忆起过去世或前世所发生之事,但毫无疑问的,你曾经拥有那些生命。
人的轮回转世有三大因素。第一个是罪孽,第二个是尚未实现的欲望,对某种体验而言,第三个是无知。欲望尚未圆满的感觉,而要转世来实现这个欲望,是一个主因。人做一些坏事,犯一项罪行;他就得转世来体验果报。在这些情况下,无知使你寻求轮回。这三者构成我们转世的基础。
人处在归向神的一条漫长的朝圣之旅。他从一个生命跳到另一个生命以达致荣耀的目标。在途中,他必须进住于许多旅馆,然而,不论旅馆有多么舒适,他都不能在那儿生根而必须提醒自己,非抵达旅程的终点不可!
如果不在记忆中珍惜和怀念着目标 -神,你就必须在许多世中徘徊,很晚才回到家。
Man is a pilgrim set on a long journey: he has started from the stone, moved on to the vegetable and animal, and has now come to the human stage. He has still a long way to go to reach the divine, and so he should not tarry. Every moment is precious; every step must take him further and nearer.
You have earned this human body by the accumulated merit of many lives as inferior beings, and it is indeed very foolish to fritter away this precious opportunity in activities that are natural only to those inferior beings.
JH (Jack Hislop): Is degrading possible? Is there a rebirth back to the animal? Sai: The possibility is not denied, but it is only rarely that such a thing happens. The degrading of human life due to lack of virtue will normally result in rebirth as a lower grade of human. The total process is always present.
My Baba and I, p.188
You do not see the foundations of a multi-storied skyscraper. Can you, therefore, argue that it simply sits on the ground? The foundations of this life are laid deep in the past, in lives already lived by you. This structure has been shaped by the ground plan of those lives. The unseen decides the bends and the ends: the number of floors, the height, and weight.
What is it that gives each individual this special ability? Is it not what he is carrying with him from his previous birth? You may argue that it is the effort that the individual puts in that is responsible for his becoming either a poet or a singer. This is not the case. You will have to think how, without any special training, these individuals are sometimes exhibiting such special skills.
When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do men say that the Son of man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elija, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
It is only in the Sanathana Dharma that the importance of karma in shaping the destiny of man, the fact of the individual undergoing many births in his progress towards birthlessness, and the mighty grace of God’s coming as a man among men to gather them around him in holy companionship for saving them and saving the world through them, is so strongly and clearly laid down. If you doubt any of these great truths, you are certain to suffer and sorrow.
You know only the present, what is happening before your eyes; you do not know the present is related to the past and is preparing the course for the future. It is like the headlines and titles of a film on the screen: as the letters gleam one after the other, you read them and pass on to the next that comes to view. Each new letter or word wipes out the one already before your eye, just as each birth wipes out the memory of the one already experienced.
You may not remember the incidents of a particular day ten years ago, but that does not mean that you were not alive that day. So, too, you may not recall what happened in the previous life or in the life previous to that, but there is no doubt that you had those lives.
There are three reasons for man to be born. One is sin, the second is an unfulfilled desire for some experience, the third is lack of knowledge, or ignorance. The feeling that he has not fulfilled a desire and his wanting to take birth again to fulfill such a desire is one main reason. Man does several bad things and commits a sin; he has to be reborn to experience the consequences. Ignorance makes you seek a rebirth under these circumstances. These three constitute the basis for our rebirth.
Man is on a long pilgrimage towards God. He moves from one life to another to the goal of splendor. On the way he has to take shelter in many caravanserais, or rest houses, but however attractive these may be, he cannot strike root but has to remind himself of the journey’s end!