Conception Reincarnation Recurrence

The self is not located upon any eternal wheel, nor is it subjected to fate, reincarnation, or recurrence. It is the jiva which is subject to reincarnation, etc. The jiva associated with yourself and myself is the atman identified with an individual nature, identified with someone who exhibits all the various characteristics of you and I. The atman has identified with someone or something it is not.

It happens like this... being pure consciousness, together with the fact that consciousness is one and is everywhere, the atman identifies with whatever it sees. To explain... the consciousness that is atman and the consciousness that is present as the object appearing before atman are the same one consciousness, therefore atman moves, identifies with, and relocates in the object because it believes it is itself. The atman believes 'I am you, you are I'. Identified and relocated, the atman now looks out from the object. The atman has become one with the consciousness of the object and can now look out using the object's consciousness. They are the same are they not? Subtly, that is ignorance. I would guess we have all made the same mistake. We are not what we appear to be.  Advaita offers the well known aphorism: If you can see it, you cannot be it. It is the jiva, which is the combination of the atman identified with a nature, or the atman identified with a non-existent being, who we mistake to be ourselves and who, surviving death, is subjected to reincarnation etc. Philosophically it is necessary to separate atman and nature when discussing someone. One, they unknown are, whereas the other, they appear to be. Fortunately or unfortunately, it is the natures of both you and I that are eternally located in 'the wheel', 'The wheel', is part of the turning cosmic cogs of prakriti. Prakriti is an inexorable cosmic mechanism, when it moves and engulfs you, you hear the wrath of God. The individual nature of both you and I is prakriti (Nature).

The fact that atman moves, identifies, becomes what it is not, is the essential problem.

Our consciousness moves. Brahman does not move. Brahman is eternal stillness. Nor does Brahman identify with anything. It is the atman that has moved, separated from Brahman. This universe is about the poignancy of separation.

An interesting question is to enquire: where has the person, the nature, come from? Advaita suggests that it is a combined creation of Isvara and Maya. My ordinary sense of self, as the person covering the nature, is an illusory creation of Maya and is part of prakriti. I, as the jiva, am nothing other than a projection (vikshepa) upon the screen of mind. Someone is playing with me, and is probably playing with each of us. My nature is merely a part in the play of creation, a drama which is said to have no beginning and no end. Sankara says that transmigratory existence is like a wheel that rolls on forever. Just like a reel of film in a cinema projector, 'a wheel' slowly unwinds and presents the life of myself upon the screen of my particular inner space, my mind, and when fully unwound, it stops. When it stops it is probably rewound. Time is not something that is outside one, it is coiled up inside one, inside the body, in the solar plexus, in the subtle body. The life unwinds and then it is rewound. Recurrence is merely watching, viewing, the 'same' life again. If you want to rescue yourself from this subtle cinema, or theatre, you have to tell your consciousness, tell your atman, to stop identifying with one particular favourite character upon the screen and, if he can.... get out.

Theoretical mathematicians and astro-physicists are certain that time and space are curved, and some philosophers have said that the individual life is also curved, resulting in a circle, so that its end and its beginning are the same. Others say that the circle doesn't meet exactly its starting point, and there is a small gap, so that a spiral or helix is a better description.  Recurrence is therefore passage from one circle of time to a parallel circle of time which is subtly spatially located alongside it. Everything, every detail, in the two parallel lines of time appears to be the same, but significantly they are not precisely the same circle, and thus there are rare small differences. However, there are some  incomprehensible consequences as a result of the structure of recurrence.... there are at least two of everything you have experienced.... you have two mothers and in fact two of everything else. But you only have one self.  Here is a  story told by Shantanand, the former Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math....

'Now we will consider a divine creation.

The child Krishna once wanted to go out grazing cows along with the other boys. Everyone dissuaded him as he was too young to remain out the whole day, but he insisted on going. Yashoda, his mother, then gave some sucking sweets to the boys and asked them to give them to him when he felt hungry, to save him from the hot sun, fatigue, etc. Then the boys and Krishna went to the bank of the river Yamuna to graze the cows. There Krishna appeared to be eating the sand of the Yamuna instead of the sweets, and he did not stop when told not to indulge in that dirty habit.

In the evening, when they returned to the village they complained to Mother Yashoda about Krishna's mischievous behaviour. She questioned Krishna, and he denied it point-blank. Then she caught Krishna with one hand, took up a stick with the other, and threatened to beat him. Krishna said: “ Mother, just peep into my mouth. If I ate sand, you will surely see it there.”

Yashoda looked into Krishna's mouth. First she saw only his lovely pinkish lips and pearly teeth. But soon she began seeing in it the whole village – their own house – another Yashoda holding another Krishna – another earth and another sky – mountains and rivers – and everything. She was completely non-nonplussed. Seeing her frightened out of her wits, Krishna withdrew the vision and assumed his former appearance.'
 
Life is very different from Hell. In life there is the possibility of moving, the possibility of evolution and compensation, there is the possibility of understanding, there is the possibility of self remembering, although it is extremely difficult. In Hell there seems to be no possibility. It is pure pathos. The jivas smash each other into bewildered fragments and the spirits are buried in delusion (avarana), covered over for aeons of time in self forgetfulness.

Perhaps you may say: 'I hope my next life will be a life in which I can understand the things I didn't before. If I want it, of course',  the interesting idea here is that one doesn't have to accept the life. It is inevitable that eventually, at conception, the divine arranger of lives will offer you a life. The secret is to somehow realize that the being who is offered the life is not your genuine self. The first part is quite easy. The person in the life offered, the being who you will have to get into, and who will live out the life, is clearly seen to be not yourself. From a distance you may be deceived, but close-up it is nothing like yourself. The much more difficult realization to make is that the person who is being offered the life is not your genuine self either. It is very subtle. You are merely the observer of conception, not the conceived, not the incarnated, not the transmigrant. The genuine you is not offered a life, it is only someone who you think you are, the someone who you have mistaken to be yourself for a long time, and who is being offered the life. But, considering where one has come from, considering that one cannot stand being a jiva, considering one cannot bear one's limited nature, considering that one is searching for oneself, considering one's natural inclination to help another, considering the poor quality of the intellect available to one at conception.... does one have any choice? Worse... the divine arranger of lives may well trick you into accepting. He has his own secret aim. You and I are here, therefore we must have accepted the life, either willingly or perhaps reluctantly.

It is possible to realize that you are not a physical body, not a person, not a nature, not a spirit, not even a god.... only when you see that they are all mere mechanisms. We all want to be spiritual, but when we discover our spirit we find that it is a mechanism. A subtle mechanism. A definition of the self could be... that which is not a mechanism. If you are in search of the self then.... the search goes on. Someone is playing with us. I am certain that someone is playing with myself, but I can only assume someone is also playing with you. Assumptions are often wrong.