The law of karma and life after death

The law of karma and life after death can’t be proven to be true with the means available with us; the mind and the physical senses. Yet clear signs of spiritual realities can be perceived in our life like:

1) How science has found that laws of cause and effect operate in every sphere of existence, and how the law of karma explain the impact of action and reaction upon all living beings?

2) How karmic law predicts that any action which causes a person or animal to suffer will result in suffering being returned to the doer of that action, and how research on the health effects of meat eating illustrates this point?

3) How most people appear to have a sincere desire to do right and avoid wrong, which is natural if everyone has a soul, an element of pure consciousness that is inclined towards the ultimate positive reality?

Cameras placed on remote sensing satellites transmit photographs of earth that enable us to see large-scale weather patterns that could not be predicted earlier in absence of satellite technology. In similar way, mystics, the spiritually experienced, communicate to us their experience of higher planes of consciousness.

Who basically are mystics? Mystics refer to those people who, throughout history and in all parts of world, have spoken of a level of spirit or consciousness that is common to all great religious traditions. They are those noble souls who – through direct experience, perception and illumination, not through thinking or analysis (that is philosophy) – have experienced the formless loving power in which all life has its source. Building our foundation on our reason and logic accompanied by faith and love, if we take their broad vision and understanding as our framework, we will find our life endowed with meaning and purpose.

‘Life’ does not make complete sense to us because we have no sense of the completeness of life.

Mystics describe reality of life in terms of two fundamental principles: Love, the very stuff of existence, the positive power that energizes everything; and justice, the law of cause and effect that weaves and dyes the complex patterns of creation and ensures that its fabric never wears away.

It is simple: positive actions produce positive results; negative actions produces negative results; no action goes unanswered; and the principle of perfect justice links everyone and everything through all time and space. At the individual level, once we understand that we only get back from life what we give, it makes sense to act positively if we want a positive and happy life.

We may ask that why only mystics and why not ordinary people are aware of the higher spiritual planes? What prevents everyone to know the facts of spirituality and perceive the depths of reality?

Even physical scientists know that all tools of modern science have failed to penetrate the mysteries of life and consciousness. The reason from a spiritual perspective is given that the available tools are not adequately suited for such type of research. The answers to these riddles or mysteries of life and consciousness lies within life and consciousness itself, not outside in, counters and computers, experimental gadgets, nor in complex mathematical equations that describe only the smoke of physical reality and not its creative fire.

Pure consciousness, says the mystic, is life’s creative fire. Spirit, or consciousness at its highest and more refined level, is the basic building block of all life, and indeed of all existence. This is the ultimate reality or ‘theory of everything’ that physical science seeks to discover. And the only tool we need to experience this truth, says the mystic, is our human consciousness.

Our human consciousness, or ‘soul’ is capable of experiencing universal consciousness, “spirit.” It generally requires great efforts to transform our weakened, scattered psyche into a powerful, focused meaning of contacting the highest reality. Yet the struggle is worthwhile, for if we come to know our essence, the building block of all life, we know everything, having our true self, we have everything.

We need to become adepts in the science of spirituality if we are to find the answers to life’s greatest questions. We need to work on ourselves, our inner being, and not just the world outside of us – which usually is our main interest. To be effective, this tool of human consciousness has to be in superb condition. So we need to understand everything that effects it for good and ill.

--- shri Vipin Tyaagi