The need is for a physical birth to attain nirvikalpa samadhi, the highest realization of God, the Absolute. We have to transmute, refine the physical instinctive forces to help in our realization, to burst through to the Self. A certain amount of kundalini force is needed. The kundalini force of man relates to the kundalini force of our fiery planet. We want to make the state of consciousness at the point of death as high as possible; what we desire determines what happens on the astral plane. The absolutely real is the part of us in which there is no change and there is no birth or death, the ageless immortal soul who is never born, can never die.

Master Course Trilogy, Merging with Siva, Chapter 50, Lessons, 349, 350.

Unedited Transcript:

Good morning everyone.

Continuing on our "Merging with Siva" series going through all of the lessons in chronological order. Continuing with Chapter 50, "Reincarnation", a talk that was given in 1958 at the Sutter Street Temple.

"The next theory of reincarnation, governed by the throat, brow and crown chakras, states that when an advanced soul leaves the body through the brow chakra, or third eye, he enters a highly refined force field world from which he is able to pick and choose exactly when and where he will return. At this point he does not have to reincarnate as an infant, but could take an already well-matured physical body. In such a case, the soul inhabiting the body would have karmically ended this life and be involved in the reincarnation process, either dead or preparing to die. The advanced yogi would flow his awareness into the nerve system of the body, revitalizing it with the spark of his will and consciously bring it back to life.

"He would face the problem of amalgamating himself with the memory cell patterns still resident within the mature brain. Affectionate detachment would have to be practiced as he adjusted to his new family and friends who wouldn't feel as close to him anymore. They would sense that he had changed, that he was somehow different, but would not understand why. Once his mission in that body had been completed, he could leave that body consciously, provided he had not created too much karma for its subconscious while inhabiting it. All such karma would then have to be dissolved before dropping off the body. This practice is exercised only by souls who have sufficient mastery of the inner forces to leave consciously through the ajna chakra at death. (So the key word there is consciously.) Those who leave through that force center unconsciously would then reincarnate as an infant.

"A related law, for those far advanced inwardly, states that the reincarnation process can begin before actual death takes place. While still maintaining a body on this planet and knowing that death is imminent, the inner bodies begin their transition into a new body at the time of conception. After a three-month period, the first signs of life appear and the advanced being enters the newly forming physical body. During the nine-month gestation cycle, the waning physical body is in the slow process of death, and exactly at the time of birth the death finally comes.

"If evolution continues on the astral and other inner planes, and is in some ways more advanced in these realms, then do we need a physical body at all to unfold spiritually? Is it perhaps an unnecessary burden of flesh? According to classical yoga precepts, you must have a physical body in order to attain nirvikalpa samadhi--the highest realization of God, the Absolute. This is due to the fact that on the refined inner planes only three or four of the higher chakras are activated; the others are dormant. For nirvikalpa samadhi, all seven chakras, as well as the three major energy currents, have to be functioning to sustain enough kundalini force to burst through to the Self. The very same instinctive forces and fluids which generate material involvement, uncomplimentary karma and the body itself, when transmuted, are the impetus that propels awareness beyond the ramification of mind into the timeless, spaceless, formless Truth--Siva."

So then we have some comments from me.

The last sentence I think is a really good summary of the need for a physical birth. Course the last that was read: "...The very same instinctive forces and fluids which generate material involvement, uncomplimentary karma and the body itself, when transmuted, (Key word there was transmuted which means turned into a more subtle form) are the impetus that propels awareness beyond the ramification of mind...).

So we need all the, the physical instinctive forces but we have to transmute them. We have to turn them into something more refined and then they're able to help us in our realization. The sentence before that brought up the idea of the kundalini force is needed: "...For nirvikalpa samadhi, all seven chakras, as well as the three major energy currents, have to be functioning to sustain enough kundalini force to burst through to the Self." So we need a certain amount of kundalini force functioning in order to realize the Self.

And that reminded me of some interesting quotes from Lemurian Scrolls:

"When a planet becomes old, it cools. Everything becomes static in it and on it. The beings inhabiting it exist together like a flock of birds or school of fish, so peaceful they are. Souls, who need fire to realize the Self, could not do so on such an old planet, so the leaders pilgrimaged with their followers...Souls, who need fire to realize the Self, could not do so on such an old planet, so the leaders pilgrimaged with their followers to perform the austerity of evolution on a fire planet such as Earth, a hot planet, a young planet. There will be other planets ready to be colonized at the end of the Kali Yuga. Inhabitants of Earth will be able to rapidly access them by traveling as a ray of their own inner light. (Now it's the next sentence that's important.) The fire planet is cooling and there is a kundalini force that comes from the inner part of it, deep within its Second and Third World--a very refined, primal force of which man's primal force on this planet is an extension."

So that's what I was leaning for there that kundalini force of man actually relates to the kundalini force of the planet which relates to it being fiery on the inside.

Back to the text:

"If you were to die at this very moment, where would what you call you go? Where would your awareness be drawn? The laws of death and reincarnation tell us that your awareness would go into various refined force fields of the mind, similar to some states of sleep, according to where you are in the mind at the time of death. (So we made that point before that the state of consciousness at the point of death is a very important one and we want to make it as high a state of consciousness as possible.) By a similar law on this plane, when a wealthy executive and a mendicant enter an unfamiliar town, one finds himself lodged at the finest hotel among other businessmen of his caliber, and the other is drawn of necessity to the slums. The entire process of reincarnation is the inner play of magnetic force fields.

"Should you reincarnate now, you would undoubtedly enter a force field which would approximate where you are inside yourself, unless, of course, you had broken through barriers into a force field different from the one in which you are now living. In other words, to use an analogy that can also be applied to states of instinctive, intellectual and superconscious awareness, if you were living in America, but had your mind centered in the force field called France, owned things imported from France and spoke fluent French, you would undoubtedly reincarnate in France and act out that drama to its conclusion"

So that again is that point of how what we desire determines what happens in the astral plane.

"Reincarnation and karma in its cause-and-effect form are practically one and the same thing, for they both have to do with the pranic forces and these bodies of the external mind. The sannyasin's quest is Self Realization. To make that realization a reality, he always has to be conscious consciously of working out these other areas. Why? Because the ignorance of these areas holds and confuses awareness, preventing him from being in inner states long enough to attain the ultimate goal of nirvikalpa samadhi."

That's a very useful insight, we need to have a certain understanding of the states of consciousness so we don't, aren't constantly drawn into thinking about them.

"Little by little, as he goes on in his esoteric understanding of these mechanics, he unwinds and re-educates his subconscious. He conquers the various planes by cognizing their function and understanding their relation one to another. This knowledge allows him to become consciously superconscious all the time. He has sufficient power to move the energies and awareness out of the physical, intellectual and astral bodies into sushumna. Then the kundalini force, that vapor-like life force, merges into its own essence.

"It is therefore the great aim of the aspirant on the path of enlightenment to live a well-ordered life and control the forces of the mind that propel him into cycles of life and death. He must strive to gain a fundamental knowing of the life-death-reincarnation processes, and to be able at the point of death to leave the body consciously, as a matter of choice, depending upon the consciousness leading to the moment of transition. He must throw off the false identification with this body or that personality and see himself as the ageless soul that has taken many, many births, of which this is only one, see deeper still into the total unreality of life and death, which only exist in their seeming in the outer layers of consciousness, for he is the immortal one who is never born and can never die."

So that last sentence is a really good one to comment on. We're looking at two levels of reality at the same time. Gurudeva calls one of them relatively real and the other absolutely real. So the relatively real is life and death, being different people the change takes place. The absolutely real is the part of us in which there's no change and there's no birth or death. So both parts are functioning in us and we need to, at the point of transition, move out of the external one into the internal one. So Gurudeva is saying.

Thank you very much. Have a wonderful day.