Muni Kishan Lal
Bhagvan Mahavir attained realization or kaivalya after 12 years, 6 months and 15 days of penance. In kaivalya he realized: ego mein sasao appa, nan damsan sanjao. Sesa me bahira bhava, savve sanjog lakkhana. The soul is immortal and is full of enlightenment; all the other things external and circumstantial. He realized that he is the soul, was the soul and will be soul. This is the truth. Mahavir established the truth that soul is immortal. He taught those who came in contact with him to experience the soul. Indrabhuti Gautam articulated in words, this process of searching within. Once Bhagvan Mahavir attained enlightenment thousands of celestial beings gathered to hear him. The scholar Indrabhuti Gautam who chanced to come that way with hundreds of other scholars came to see him out of intellectual curiosity. Bhagvan Mahavir hailed him by his first name, Gautam and asked him the one question Indrabhuti Gautam had been battling with. "You still doubt about the soul within?" asked Mahavir. The arrogance with which Indrabhuti had come, gave way to complete surrender and he became his disciple. The veil of ignorance had been removed from Indrabhuti's mind. Bhagvan Mahavir accepted him as his disciple.
Similarly Mahavir could discern the philosophical questions plaguing the minds of all the other scholars like Agnibhuti and dispelled their doubts even without speaking. They were all in a state of wonder and awe. On hearing Mahavir, all of them turned to look within, almost instinctively. The bright light from his eyes would pierce, as it were, the other person to reach straight to his heart and mind. Tell me who are you? Where have you come from? From East or West, North or South? Have you come from above or from below? Have you come from some different direction, some unknown direction?" Such questions compelled the people to think and think deeply. He would ruminate- Who am I? Where did I come from? Will my soul have rebirth? Who was I? From where did I come from? Where will I go?
In the present I am myself. But once you start thinking of the past the stream of consciousness becomes clear, concentration improves, the colours in the aura become clear and the veils covering the past fall away. Once the past comes to memory, the person starts seeing it. Recalling the past is just a difference between knowledge and knowledge acquired through the intellect. It is very similar to the situation when one asks somebody, "Where is that precious thing?" the word precious brings with it associations and one is able to recall where the precious thing has been kept. Thus one is able to recall one's colony, home, room, drawers of almirah and the precious thing that is kept there. Remembering one's past life is similar. The knowledge of one's existence is the first step to realize the soul. Call it self realization or God realization.
Man is naturally curious to know about his past and about that which has yet to occur. He tries to know his future by consulting a palmist, astrologer, face reader or people who are able to forecast intuitively. This is a natural curiosity that arises in every human being. To find these answers is called penance or sadhana, spirituality or unraveling the secrets of religion.
Bhagvan Mahavir has laid down three main reasons for recollecting past life:
First - Some people remember their previous birth naturally. It is due to their clean clear understanding. There are a number of incidents which prove that a number of children have recounted the incidents and experiences of their previous birth with special reference to the circumstances, the family and some of the important incidents of their previous lives.
Second - seers who are able to read the previous birth of people on just seeing them and reveal it to them at the opportune moment. Such incidents will be related in accordance with the relevance of episodes.
Third - who after listening to the seers or having heard from others as how one could look into one's past birth get the experience.
The second and the third processes are facilitated through someone who is highly evolved but the first is easily accessed by oneself. When such a person who is accessing his or her past is put under or reminded of any special situation/place, past memories come flooding in. Bhagvan Mahavir was enlightened and so knew everything. Therefore he was able to know his previous birth and about the next birth. That is why such people are able to know about other people's previous birth and future.
While experimenting on the process of recollecting the past, it was observed that it is possible to make a person travel in the past. Travel into the future is relative to both the practitioner and the one who is leading the practice. The attempt to go back in the past can be successful only if the practitioner is fearless and surrenders totally. To recall one's previous birth there is the process of mesmerism in psychology. The person is drawn to his past and then examined and cross- examined. Simultaneously reasons for and cure to current problems/diseases are tried to be uncovered. Some people, as we have seen earlier recollect their past rather naturally. We have seen such cases in every religious community and often find reports in the news papers too. Dr. Stevenson in one of his presentations in a conference in Delhi where delegates of different countries participated in a discussion on previous birth, has quoted some 1200 incidents out of which some 500 were researched, established and found justified by matching descriptions.
