113. Pre-natal state of spirit entities

DISCOURSES ON

RADHASOAMI FAITH

BY

MAHARAJ SAHAB

Pandit Brahm Sankar Misra, M.A.

113. PRE-NATAL STATE OF SPIRIT ENTITIES

            173. As already stated, the denizens of the purely spiritual regions are not subject to death, as these regions are free from dissolution. In the second grand division also, death, in the sense we know of, does not occur. In the majority of cases, the denizens of Brahmanda live as long as the time of the great dissolution does not arrive. With the dissolution of Brahmanda, the denizens are transformed into the pre-creational condition, and at the re-evolution of the second grand division, they are reborn. The change, which takes place on the descent of some of the denizens of Brahmanda into the third grand division, does not bear a similarity to the change produced ordinarily by death. The descent is, however, accompanied by conditions which are similar to those preceding the birth of a human entity. It may be observed here that the pre-natal conditions referred to, do not refer to the uterine existence preceding birth, but to the subjective spiritual condition of the entity which is to take birth,

            174. It is a well recognised fact that there is no respiration while the foetus is developing in the womb and that at the time of birth, the function of respiration is set at work. The development of the physical body of the foetus proceeds at the expense of the blood supplied by the mother. The sole worker in the formation of the physical body of a foetus is thus the mother; and the spirit entity, which is eventually to take seat in that body is, in a very distant manner, connected with the body during its uterine formation. The condition of the uterine formation, which is void of respiration, may be likened to the condition of catalepsy in which, by means of a very subtle spiritual link, the spirit remains associated with the body; otherwise, the spirit is, in a large measure, as free as that of a really dead person. The pre-natal condition of the spirit, which we have described above, is known as chaitanya samadhi (conscious absorption). In the case of man, this samadhi takes place in the region of Jyoti Narayana, as the spirit of man has its seat in the sixth nervous centre and a disassociation from the body, as in the case of death, can take place only when the spirit-entity enters Brahmanda. The three lower spheres of Brahmanda, being highly charged with the tendency of descent, are not fit for the samadhi referred to; and the sphere of Jyoti, which is comparatively much more stable, is thus a suitable place for the pre-natal sojourn of the kind we have been speaking of. After death too, a human entity is drawn up to the presence of Jyoti, but of this we shall speak more fully later on (vide Article 114).

            175. As the third grand division is subject to more frequent dissolutions than the second grand division, it would follow that, for the purpose of proper recoupment of energy of a higher order, more frequent changes are needed in that portion of the creation which is less spiritual than the other higher regions. For a similar object, the denizens of the lower regions, i.e. the third grand division, have frequently to undergo the change known as death. This division is also, therefore, known as the Mrityu Loka (death-sphere).