Chapter V - Jīva’s Career after Death

In the Vedānta-sūtras six articles (adhikaraṇas) are devoted to a discussion of jīva’s passage from this to other worlds and back. They are summarised in this chapter.

 

Jīva carries to the other worlds the seeds of the future body.
(Vedānta-sūtras, III. i. i— 7).

(Question):—Does jīva, when departing from this world, carry with him elements of subtle matter (bhūta-sūkṣma), or not?

(Prima facie view):—When the jīva conditioned by the upādhi of prāṇa or vital principle departs from this world to pass into another body, he does not carry with him elements of subtle matter constituting the root-principles of his future body; for, the five elements of matter being easily available everywhere, it is unnecessary to carry them from here.

(Conclusion):—As against the foregoing we hold as follows: Though mere elements of matter are easily available everywhere, those that constitute the root-elements oī the body are not easily available in all places and are therefore to be carried from here. Moreover, the senses (indriyas) which constitute the upādhi of jīva cannot pass into other worlds without material elements, as they are never found disjoined in life. Further the śruti says, “In the fifth oblation, the waters are termed man.”^[1] The meaning of this passage may be explained as follows: Heaven, rain-cloud, earth, man, and woman,—these five objects are represented as fires for the purposes of contemplation. The jīva, going to svarga and returning again, is represented as an oblation in those fires. The jīva who has performed sacrificial and charitable acts ascends to svarga. On the exhaustion of the fruits of the acts, he descends into the rain-cloud and is precipitated to the earth as rain. In the form of food he enters man; and then through man’s semen he enters the woman and there puts on the body. Therefore the five elements of matter which are the root-elements of the body—and which, by metonymy, are here, in the passage just quoted, spoken of as water,—pass with jīva into the five regions beginning with heaven and are transformed in the fifth region into the body called man. Therefore, when passing into the other world, jīva does carry with him the root-elements of the body.

 

Jīva descends to earth with residual karma.
(Vedānta-sūtras, III. i. 8— 11).

(Question):—When descending from svarga, does or does not jīva bring with him any residual karma (anuśaya)?

(Prima facie view):—The man who descends from svarga after enjoying its bliss, comes to earth without anusaya,

‘Anuśaya,’—literally, that which clings to jīva,—means residual karma. No one has any residual karma to carry with him when descending from svarga, all the fruits of karma having.been enjoyed in svarga. Accordingly, speaking of man’s descent to earth, the śruti says “Having lived as long as their works (sampāta) last, then, by this very way they again come back.”^[2] Sampāṭa, —literally, that by which one ascends to svarga,—is the aggregate of one’s karma. So the passage means that jīva lives in svarga until the fruit of ail his karma is enjoyed. Wherefore, when descending from heaven, he brings with him no residual karma.

(Conclusion):—Though the karma which has to yield its fruits in svarga has been exhausted by enjoyment of the fruits thereof, there is still left with jīva an accumulation of righteous and unrighteous acts, whose fruits have not yet been reaped. Otherwise, in the absence of righteous and unrighteous deeds done in this birth, it would be hard to explain why the body that is just born is subject to pleasure and pain.

As to the view, maintained by some, that the whole aggregate of the acts done in one birth is exhausted by enjoyment of the fruits thereof in the next succeeding birth alone, we say it is wrong, because this view, that the whole karma is exhausted in one birth, is untenable, inasmuch as the aśvamedha (the horse-sacrifice) and the like which take the doer to the position of Indra, and the sinful acts such as those which make one born in the body of a hog and so on, cannot both of them yield their fruits in one and the same birth. So that, though, out of the acts done in one birth, the fruits of the acts such as jyotiṣṭoma have been enjoyed, there should remain other acts whose fruits have not been reaped. The word ‘sampāta’ (in the passage quoted above) refers only to the svarga-yielding act, not to other acts. The śruti speaks of the souls who, descending from svarga, put on the human body in the fifth oblation, as also of the existence of the acts of merit and sin which bring about the body:

“Whoso have been of good conduct here, they soon attain good birth, the birth of a brāhmaṇa or the birth of a kṣatriya or the birth of a vaiśya. But whoso are of bad conduct here, they soon attain evil birth, the birth of a dog, or of a hog, or of an outcaste (chaṇḍāla)”^[3]

Thus we are to conclude that souls descend to earth carrying with them the residual of their past karma.

 

The sinful do not reach svarga.
(Vedānta-sūtras, III. i. 12 — 21).

(Question):—Does the sinful man reach svarga or not?

(Prima facie view):—“Whoso from this world depart, to the Chandramas (moon), verily, they all go:” in these words the śruti teaches that even the sinful go to svarga which is here termed Chandramas (lit., a lovely region). It is true that the sinful are not destined to enjoy the bliss of svarga; but we must suppose that they pass into heaven, so that, the fire of woman wherein the souls, on their return to earth, put on the body, may count as the fifth fire.

(Conclusion):—Souls pass into svarga, only for the enjoyment of bliss, not because it is necessary to pass through the five fires named. For, the number of fires vary in certain cases. In the case of Droṇa, for instance, the fire of woman is absent, while in the case of Sītā even the fire of man is absent. The words “they all”, in the śruti quoted above, refer to men of good deeds. As to the sinful, the śruti says that they go to the world of Yama:

“Worship with oblations Yama, son of Vivasvat, the goal of men.”^[4]

This passage means: “Do ye propitiate Yama to whom the sinfiul men will have to go.” Therefore, the sinful do not go to svarga.

 

Jīva’s return from svarga.
(Vedānta-sūtras, III. i. 22).

(Question):—The descent from svarga is described in the śruti as follows:

“They return again that way, as they went, to the ether (ākāśa), from the ether to the air. Then the sacrificer, having become air, becomes smoke; having become smoke, he becomes mist; having become mist, he becomes a cloud; having become a cloud, he rains down.”^[5]

Here the question arises: Does jīva, in his descent from svarga, become of the same nature as ākāśa &c.? or does he become merely similar to them?

(Prima facie view):—He becomes one in nature with them, inasmuch as the śruti, in the words “becoming air” and so on, teaches that the jīva becomes one with them.

(Conclusion):—It being impossible for one thing to become another, we hold that to attain to ākāśā means to attain the subtlety of ākāśa; to become air means to come under its control; to become smoke, etc., is to come in contact with them.

 

The relative speed of jīva when returning.
(Vedānta-sūtras, III. i. 23).

(Question):—After coming down as rain, jīva unites with rice, etc., as the śruti says:

“Then he is born as rice and corn, herbs and trees, sesamum and beans.”^[6]

The question is: Is jīva’s return from ākāśa, prior to his union with rice, &c., slow or rapid?

(Prima facie view):—Nothing in the śruti points to either way. Hence no definite rule.

(Conclusion):—In the words “from this, verily, it is hard to escape,”^[7] the śruti speaks of the difficulty of passage on uniting with rice, &c., and so teaches definitely that on uniting with rice, &c., jīva’s passage is tardy. By implication, therefore, this leads us to the conclusion that, prior to this stage, his passage is rapid.

 

Jīva is not born as a plant.
(Vedānta-sūtras, III, i. 24—27).

(Question):—Are jīvas born as rice, &c., on their descent from heaven? or do they merely unite with them?

(Prima facie view):—The śruti means that jīvas do not merely unite with rice, sesamum, etc., as they do with ākāsa, etc., but that they are actually born as such; for, the śruti says that they are ‘born’ as such. It cannot be contended that it is impossible for the soul descending from svarga after enjoying there the fruit of the meritorious acts to be born as a plant (sthāvara), which birth is the effect of very sinful acts; for, there exists the cause of such a birth, namely, the killing of animals for sacrificial purposes. Therefore we conclude that jīvas are actually born as plants.

(Conclusion):—Being enjoined by the śruti, the killing of animals for sacrificial purposes is no sin. Therefore the word “born” in the śruti means simply that they unite with the plants mentioned. On the contrary, no actual birth is meant, inasmuch as the śruti does not speak of it as due to the operation of any acts. And where actual birth is meant, the śruti refers to it as the result of acts, as when speaking of “men of good deeds” and “men of evil deeds.” Therefore we conclude that, when descending from svarga, jīvas merely unite with rice, etc.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Chhā. Up. 5-9-1.

[2]:

Chhā. Up. 5-10-5.

[3]:

Chhā. Up. 5-10-7.

[4]:

Ṛg. Veda, x. 14. 1.

[5]:

Chhā. Up. 5-10-5-6.

[6]:

Chhā. Up. 5-10-6.

[7]:

Ibid.