Practicing spiritual life solutions in one's lifetime will reduce the gathered agamya karma of that life because these understandings will help one to live with awareness. Meditation helps to reduce the prarabdha karma. It acts not only upon the conscious and physical levels but also has the capacity to penetrate and clean the unconscious on a physical, mental and being level. However, the largest balance in the bank of karma, the total sanchita karma, can only be dissolved through the master's grace. The more these three karmas are reduced, the less the constraints of choice for the next body. Since each of the three karmas will dictate a corresponding intense experience to be lived, the next body will need to provide a space for these experiences to be lived.

It is like this. If I say, Let me meet a person who can speak English, I have more choice than if I say, Let me meet a person who can speak English, Spanish and German. Similarly, if you have all the three types of karma, there are more constraints on your next birth. For example, the desire influenced by your total sanchita karma may be, I want to be beautiful. The desire influenced by your karma of this birth, prarabdha, may be, I uenced by your gathered or agamya karma, may be, I want to settle down in USA. If you have all the three types of want to be karma, there are rich. The more constraints desire infl- on your next birth. It is more difficult to get a body for your life energy's next birth that will lead to the satisfaction of all the three desires within the short gap of three kshanas.

So, it ends up choosing a body that satisfies the strongest desire amongst the three desires. The combined desires, the mindset, with which the life energy leaves the previous body is the vasana, the seeds of desire we earlier talked about. These three desires, these three thoughts will be seen in one glimpse in three kshanas, as one vasana . The vasana is like a television channel and the body that attracts the vasana is like the television set tuned to this channel. The depth of the vasana and the body that matches the vasana attracts the life energy. Just like a television set tuned to the satellite channel's frequency receives the corresponding electromagnetic waves, in the same way, the vasana is attracted by the body. The life energy, the spirit, departing from the previous body enters the new body that it selected, as that body leaves the womb of the mother.

It enters the body in the birth canal. The darkness of the causal layer that it left from the previous body corresponds to the darkness of the mother's birth canal. Since the body has been prepared by the energies of the parents, the life energy chooses the It is the child that chooses its parents. combined energies of the parents based on the desires, the vasanas, the mental attitude, with which it leaves the previous body. So the parents do not choose the child. It is the child that chooses its parents. Having chosen a particular body, the spirit or life force has to satisfy the other two desires it had but could not choose an appropriate body for. However, during its transition through the darkness, the deep pain experienced by the spirit erases all memories of the vasana it carries before it enters the new body.

The new entity no longer remembers the desires with which it left the previous body. Instead of fulfilling the desires with which it left the previous body, since it has forgotten them, the life energy in the new body seeks new desires and collects more karma. Now, of the three types of karma, if one of them is gone, the choice constraints are fewer and the life force can be more focused in the choices. Cleaning the gathered agamya karma and this birth's prarabdha karma can be done by the individual by understanding about life and by meditating. The master's grace will reduce the total sanchita karma. Once the total sanchita karma is cleansed, there is no reason to take another body. Then, if the next birth still happens, it is for no reason but out of overflowing joy and bliss.

The birth is thus chosen consciously because there is no pull of karma. The life lived is a leela or reasonless play of an avatar or incarnation. How did the cycle of birth and death start? For all of us, our total sanchita karma initially was a divine play. For an enlightened master, it is still a divine play as he has no karma at all. Playing because you can play is the divine play. We took birth out of choice. We forgot our prarabdha karma, started gathering agamya karma and expanded the total sanchita karma. Then, to exhaust the increased load we had to take another birth where we collected more desires and karma. This is how the cycle of life and death continues.

Please understand, your gathered agamya karma is your bondage. The total karma and this birth karma can be a divine play. The result of this play is the karma of that birth. After birth, if we play without gathered karma, it will continue to be a divine play. The bondage comes with gathered karma. Will a human be born as an animal, bird or insect or can he be born as human being in the next birth? This is a very good question. Let me boldly declare this truth and clear all the myths that have been surrounding this one question on the wheel of karma! When a human being takes birth as human once, he will continue taking the life of a human unless he has acted against his consciousness like torturing others or committed violent acts in the physical, mental or verbal forms against Existence which is in the form of the master, nature and human consciousness.

The intensity of these acts is what gets recorded in the cosmic karmic record. Understand, it is not the act itself but the intensity of the act that matters. When a person spends his whole life in lower consciousness, he can be reborn as an animal. For example, if he spends his whole life in only eating or sleeping, he can be reborn as an animal. See, if the person has not experienced the unique human qualities like falling in love, seeking enlightenment, even once in his lifetime, he will be reborn as an animal because he had a human body but the channels of human experience have not been awakened. Sankalpa - Vow or decision. Ashram - A monastery for Hindu or Buddhist monks. Do we have to wait for the next birth if we feel strongly about something but it is not our prarabdha? No.

You can change your prarabdha through a simple, strong will or sankalpa*. The strength of the sankalpa* can cause a rebirth in you in this birth itself. The next birth can happen now itself. For example, people, especially householder disciples who feel they are caught up in their responsibilities ask me, Swamiji, please bless me that I should be with you at least in my next birth. There are so many examples where they have been able to come and live in the ashram* just a few months later. It is just the strength of the will. Enlightenment – Back to Home You are like a wave in the ocean of Existence. The wave rises up from the ocean but it is still connected to the ocean.

It may think it has an individual existence but that is just a myth. Whether it is rising, above the ocean or falling down, it is still a part of the ocean. On its own, because of joy, when the wave takes the body, there will be no gathered or agamya karma. When agamya karma is acquired, it will corrupt the total sanchita karma that was pure. This sanchita karma has to be exhausted in the next birth. Corrupted total sanchita karma generates the cycle of life and birth– this is how the wheel of karma starts. The new body that the life energy occupies does not remember the prarabdha karma that the life energy brought with it when it took the body. So, you do not remember the desires with which you left your previous body.

Reminding yourself of those desires again and fulfilling them in this birth is what doing tapas (penance) and becoming enlightened is all about. So what happens when you forget at birth that you have come through divine play? When the total karma weight becomes excessive, you realize, There is some problem somewhere. Immediately you wake up and get enlightened again. The rewinding and coming back is enlightenment. Sometimes, if you get a really bad dream, only a thought like I am dreaming will come at first. Then, you actually wake up. That thought of I am dreaming coming is turning towards enlightenment. Waking up is getting enlightened. That thought of I am dreaming. This whole world is a dream and then renouncing the false world and catching the reality is enlightenment.

In this world, the same experiences repeat making you tired and bored. It gives rise to the suspicion, I am seeing a dream. Then, you start doubting the world, doubting the promise the world gives. It is like the newspaper ads about some beachside resort that show the beach, the table, the food, all looking like heaven, giving a promise of luxury. You doubt that promise, because you realize that if hundred people see this and go, not many will actually feel the ecstasy promised. Similarly in life also, you doubt the promises your mind has been making all along but never fulfilling any. Techniques to overcome karma Re-living to relieve Till now, what we discussed was a preventive measure for incurring karma. As a curative for karma, I will give you a simple technique.

Right from this moment, try and remember all the incidents in your life. Start going backwards from this moment to your childhood days. Remember what you can. Do not bother about what you cannot. Understand: what you cannot remember is only a hangover. It has not touched you deeply. That is why it is not retained in your memory. Try this technique for a year. Re-living is a wonderful way of relieving.