Muni Kishan Lal
Knowledge is knowledge. Knowledge is categorized on the basis of the tools with which it is accumulated. That knowledge which is harnessed through the mind and the senses is called mati gyan. When mati gyan is used to teach others, it is called shrut gyan. Most people have mati and shrut gyan. Those who have the right perspective, samyak darshan, have mati and shrut gyan. On the basis of less of more a person is believed to be having knowledge or not. This is known as knowledge gained through the senses. That knowledge which is beyond the senses, is called ati-indriya gyan or extra sensory knowledge. It is also called avadhi gyan. Avadhi gyan that does not have the right perspective but is delusional, is called perverted ignorance. Even though this is also knowledge that lies beyond the senses only the knowledge which is on the right path is called knowledge. Otherwise because of the person with the extra sensory knowledge not having the right perspective, it is termed as a kind of ignorance. Mati gyan is collected in the brain and on finding the right stimulus to unveil the past responds. Humans and all five sensed animals can recollect their past, but of animals we can not say for they cannot express themselves, only man can. Deep meditation and introspection leads to recollection of previous birth. Balanced bent of mind can even be in animals and birds. They too have the capacity to recall. Big alligators too have the capacity to recall. They do sometimes fast and do penance. They even follow a period of inactivity during the monsoon season.
The capacity to recall the past life is vested with those living beings who have five senses, so the Agamas say. Of course unless they have slipped into a tiryanch yoni (birth as vegetation or animals) in between or have been born as lower sensed organs in between their other births.
This knowledge is lodged in brain like a tape. When we play a tape in the recorder it repeats the whole thing whether music or speech or mantra. The same way that a video enables us to listen and see, so too can the brain playback our past. Once you start thinking through association it flashes upon your inward eye. Thus through meditation and the aura that surrounds, it helps in recalling the past. As one goes deep into it with continuous introspection one is able to visualize one's past and they flash back very much like a story that is seen on a TV screen. He gradually learns to know who he was. Where did he come from? What were the circumstances? Thus gradually all the incidents start descending one by one into his memory. One is able to look into one's own past.
