Spiritual Musings - 1 - Existence and Evolution

I am just thinking of writing a series of articles on Incarnation of Consciousness in different forms, its evolution through different forms and the purpose behind this whole process. Please consider this one as the first part of this series of articles. As this topic can be a vast one, it is impossible for me to cover everything in one article.

In this article, I will try to write about the basic reason why a soul/consciousness incarnates into any form? Again, as these are going to be articles on spiritual topics and I don’t consider myself as a spiritual person, hence most of this information is what I have read and collected from different sources. One main and obvious source is Osho.

Let’s begin –

Beginning? – So, first question which can come into our mind is from where the whole game started? Where is the beginning of life and where it will end?

Well, there is no beginning and there will be no end. Existence has always been here and Existence will always be here. If we pay attention to this word “Existence” then we will know that this word itself means something which is always Existing. Something which was always here, which is here and which will always be here. It has no beginning and no end.

Another way of understanding it will be splitting this word into two; i.e. Exist + Essence. It means Essence of Existing is Existence. Interestingly, Hindi word for Existence is Astitva and amazingly Astitva can also be split into two parts; i.e. Asti + Tatva. Asti means IS and Tatva again means Esssence. So, Astitva means Essence of IS or ISness which is very close meaningwise to Essence of Existing.

Also, Existence means the whole of space which is covering us from all direction. Existence doesn’t mean the space around us or sky over us. It means the sum total of all galaxies, milky-ways and innumerable planets. So, we have to take the vast meaning of existence here and not limit it with human existence only.

Existence = Energy – Now, it is our choice whether we want to call it Existence or we want to call it Energy. Because just like Existence is spread all over us, likewise Energy is spread all over us. Not to forget that Existence or Energy is also spread within us. It may be difficult to understand now but as we go ahead in this article, I will try to explain this point.

So, Existence, Energy or Consciousness is same. Popular name for these concepts is God. Also, if Energy is there then it is bound to exhibit or express itself through one way or the other, anyhow. Best example to understand this is Children, who do many meaningless activities (as per our perspective) throughout the day because there is a huge flow of energy inside them which is pushing them to act.

So, energy is bound to take many different shapes and incarnations. There is no purpose behind it from existence’s point of view as energy is just bound to exhibit itself through different incarnations. It may be rocks, stones, mountains, rivers, forests and then it can be through animal kingdom and then human existence. It has been the sequence of evolution. Human existence is comparatively very recent if we compare it with existence of other animals and plants.

So, it might be like this that first energy or consciousness exhibited like a Stone or Mountain or Rock then it evolved and took shape of Rivers and Oceans, as Rivers and Oceans are representations of moving consciousness or energy. With Rivers and Oceans in place, Energy had option to move and grow as grass, plants and trees. Although, plants and trees are static but they show the growth of consciousness and energy through their size and shape. Then River or Water provided the perfect environment for animal life to begin and it began from animals living in water. In mythology also, we can see that 1^st incarnation was Matsya Incarnation and we have Pisces and Revati in Astrology which both are represented by Fish. And from their Animal life began which evolved further and further in various incarnation and as per Darwinian theory, after Monkey’s incarnation, Human Life started.

As we can see that consciousness or energy is just flowing from various incarnations. It explores one incarnation and wants to explore another at higher level. So, this energy is always flowing at higher and higher evolution level and wants to evolve further and further. If we understand truly then everything is energy’s game throughout. Energy is playing with itself and enjoying the game.

But with Human Incarnation, things change. Human Incarnation is special. It is junction point. With human incarnation, all the possibilities come into picture. A Dog can only be a Dog in one life. A plant can only be a plant in one life. But with human incarnation, possibilities are immense. We can be animalistic or Buddha at the same time. With human incarnation, another thing which changes is that sense of I or Ego comes. With human incarnation, mind and sense of Doer comes.

If we pay attention, till now, every plant, animal, rock or river was just aligned with energy. They never had the mind and, most importantly, the conditioning that they are doing anything. With human incarnation, mind gets conditioning of society which informs us that we are separate individual as “I” and things are dependent on our effort. So from here begins, the separate identity and ego play. We get separated from the Universe/Energy and starts accepting that my life is result of my actions. Before human incarnation, no other being ever had this idea. That’s why; all other beings are enjoying life and only humanity has issues like depression and anxiety. This sense or feeling or illusion that I am the Doer has brought all perversions to us. We need to realize that if whole existence can move on energy then my home and shop will also be taken care of.

Now, this can easily lead a person to say that there is no need to act. No, there is every need to act as whole of nature is acting; i.e. plant, animals or rivers etc. We need to act and accept ourselves as actors only. But we are acting and accepted ourselves as Directors or Doers. We need to continue doing and let go of the doer. Whole of of nature is acting; i.e. plant, animals or rivers etc. but not considering themselves as the Doer.

Mind and Conditioned Mind – From here, the trouble also begins. It is not that Animals, Plants and Rivers etc. don’t have consciousness. They have consciousness but only thing is that they can’t have conditioned sense of consciousness or conditioned mind. Human Mind can be conditioned by its surroundings. From childhood, we can be made to believe that we have a separate identity and our life depends on us or our karma. This develops sense of Ego or I consciousness and the feeling of “I am the Doer”. And from here only, suffering enters in life because once we start accepting that “I am the Doer” then the next trouble is bound to come as to if the action was good or bad. And in case, the action is considered as bad by any stretch of imagination or conditioning then the guilt factor is bound to come in mind.

Karma and Karmic Debt - From here, all the Karma thing starts. As the human mind starts accepting that I am the doer, it starts taking karma on itself. Popular belief about Karmic Debt is that it depends on doing good or doing bad. But actually, we incur karma only when we think that I am the doer. It is when Ego starts coming in between of any event happening. We start feeling that how can anything happen in this world if we don’t do anything but we forget that human existence is only a few thousand years old and if energy can run the show before the human existence then energy can also run the show along with human existence. We are like that Lizard on Wall which thinks that Wall is stable due to its support. If existence never needed a human hand to run the show till humans came into picture then why it would need now?

Our situation is like this, there is a river and there are a few clay pots floating inside the river and these clay pots have started believing that water inside each of them is separate from each other and river. This is what I was saying that energy is spread all around us and inside us but we have this feeling of separation from energy/existence.

But accepting ourselves as a part of the whole hurts the Ego and Karmic Journey begins. Here ends the Part 1. In next part, I will write about how astral body/mind incarnates itself in different lives in human existence and how it is so difficult to let go of this ego, primarily because Ego doesn’t even exist. It is just an illusion that I am the Doer.

Hope this makes sense. Thanks, 

SPB