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From Here to Eternity
by I.J. SINGH
At his very last moment, one who thinks of wealth, and dies in such thoughts, shall be reincarnated over and over again, as a serpent.
He who dies in thoughts of women shall return as a prostitute.
One who dies thinking of mansions shall be reincarnated as a goblin.
......
At his very last moments, one who thinks of the Lord, says Trilochan, shall be liberated; the Lord shall abide in his heart.
[Trilochan, GGS, p 526]
At a get-together of young and not-so-young Sikhs, in lieu of a direct question, someone handed me a card with these lines of Trilochan and challenged me to respond. How do I interpret them, it demanded to know?
In this citation translated from the Guru Granth, Trilochan cuts to the chase in words that could not be more blunt, challenging and unambiguous. But I submit that they end up being the most obscure and abstruse.
These lines and many similar hymns from the Guru Granth are oft-quoted to support the idea of reincarnation and transmigration that is a dominant theme in Eastern religions, primarily Hinduism.
Most Sikhs, too, are aware of such lines from the Guru Granth because the idea that the soul goes through the cycle of birth and rebirth until liberated seems to occur repeatedly in it. This is a seductively attractive concept because it ties life, death and hereafter to eventual justice.
We can't take a closer look at it without coming to terms about how we think of God, soul, spirituality and religion - in the context of culture and traditions.
The soul is clearly not amenable to measurement. A materialist's reductionist approach would want to define it as something tangible, but we know that at death, even our most sensitive instruments and analyses cannot detect a loss of matter.
And, if I take the strictly spiritual approach, then the soul we carry is an immutable part of the God within us. Just as God is indefinable and immeasurable, so is the soul.
If God is not constructed of any elements we know of and has no color, shape or form, then the soul is no different. The soul is the life force, absolute as is the mind. The fundamental core of a person, his or her essential self, is the soul, without which there is no life, no breath, no heart, and no brain - just an empty shell of rotting flesh.
Arguments on whence the soul came, what day of development it entered the fetus, when it left the dead, or how and where it went, seem to be questions that cannot be rationally construed or answered. They are a credit to human intelligence and imagination, however.
Many models exist to describe death and the hereafter.
Though there is no official Jewish view on afterlife, like other spiritual traditions, Judaism offers a range of possibilities, including images of a torturous hell and heavenly paradise. Judaic references speak of Sheol, a region in the netherworld where the soul resides after death, and Gan Eden, a heaven-like place, not to be confused with the Biblical Garden of Eden. And there is perhaps a place of both punishment and purification, the Gehinnom, where the period of stay is limited to twelve months, that some see as hell.
Christians await the day of Final Judgment as the second coming of Jesus, when all those who have accepted him will be saved and forgiven their sins. (I know the model is more complicated by purgatory and limbo, among other things, but this not the point here.)
Muslims hypothesize a very fanciful heaven where rewards fulfill the wildest earthly fancies of the true believers, while heathens, infidels, pagans and heretics are condemned to everlasting hell.
What all this whimsical modeling of heaven and hell does is to effectively create a three-decker universe with a heaven above where God presides, a dreaded hell below, and us mortal beings in the middle struggling endlessly with our sinful proclivities and lives.
Hindus, to their credit, have a scheme that revolves around a concept of eventual justice. In this, the soul at death is assigned another body and thus another life in a cycle of birth and rebirth. Where and what species this soul would go to depends entirely on the quality of the life it just went through.
If it was good, the soul could return as a human; if not, it might come back to haunt us as a cockroach or snake, for instance; it could also return to serve as a faithful dog or terrorize us as a tiger.
If its sojourn on earth was perfect, it would be freed of the need to return in any form of rebirth, and would supposedly join God for eternity, wherever it is that God resides. Coming back as a human would be reincarnation; returning as a different species is labeled transmigration.
This concept is exactly what Trilochan seems to be referring to in the hymn that I started with. But, it is not quite so simple.
(Hindus also believe that it takes the soul a year to travel from its earthly abode to wherever it is that it must go to. That's why they hold an elaborate function before the year end in which Brahmins, as the intermediaries, are handsomely rewarded to aid the soul along its journey.)
The idea of a God as an old man, somewhat like us but often a lot kinder or a bit more capricious is, in my opinion, also inevitable to the concept of eventual judgment, followed by punishment or reward through the cycle of birth and rebirth that is integral to this intriguing model of life after death.
There are two other views of death and the hereafter that I need to mention before taking on the Sikh point of view.
One that remains particularly appealing is the outlook that Socrates presented when he was asked if there was life after death. He said in effect that if there was, he would have the company of great minds that have gone before him, and if there was not, then it would be like a dreamless sleep. He was an old man, he held, and needed the rest.
The other is the framework presented by the prophet of positivism, Norman Thomas. He opined that, much as a fetus cannot know the world outside the womb, similarly death is a veil through which we cannot see. And much as life for the fetus outside the womb will be good after birth, in the same way, whatever exists after death will be good. Thus, it is best not to obsess about it, but to concentrate on the here and now.
To spend one's life consumed by the idea of death is somewhat like what many students do when they are fearfully fixated on an upcoming exam. My usual response to them is that instead of tormenting themselves about an exam that is yet to come, why not work at the assignment of today. If that is done right, the exam tomorrow will take care of itself. If today is lost in torturing yourself about the exam tomorrow, then neither today nor tomorrow will work out very well.
Such a view, I believe, is fully consistent with the fact that Sikhi does not posit a fearsome hell or a fanciful heaven. I have dealt with this in more detail elsewhere; suffice it to say that Sikhism speaks of heaven as a life imbued with the universal connectivity that is God and hell as a life separated from that infinite reality.
The idea, then, of a heavenly angel like Dharamraj, who will weigh the quality of a life, indicates to me not a place or a person with a fixed address in the hereafter who has that responsibility, but the judgment from our inner self that creates a heaven and a hell for us in the here and now.
Sikhism doesn't direct us to any specific method in how to dispose of the human body at death, when it is no more than an empty shell - one may bury it, cremate it or even cast it into flowing waters.
Sikhism does not venture any opinion on what day of intrauterine development the soul enters the fetus or when precisely does it leave the body at death for regions unknown.
Of death, Sikhism provides us some useful imagery. One is of completion of a mission, of a life well and purposefully lived; the other image is of a wave arising from the sea and merging back into it.
No one is free of death, not even the prophets and seers. No one has ever come back from time spent in heaven or hell to tell us about it.
What then to make of Trilochan's hymn and the myriad other references to incarnation and reincarnation in the Guru Granth?
If one takes the Hindu idea of the cycle of birth and rebirth literally, one would then be logically bound to look for one's ancestors in cockroaches, rats, mice or kings and queens, depending upon how their earthly lives were measured by a heavenly judge. It seems to be a logically consistent model, but not a likely one.
Therefore, I cannot interpret Trilochan in such literal terms.
Just look at the last stanza of his hymn, for instance. Its literal interpretation would tell me that one could sin the whole life to one's heart's content; all that is necessary to be forgiven is to die with the name of God on one's lips. Now, how sensible is that? How does that fit the model of perfect justice?
The poetry and imagery must be kept in mind in exploring the meaning.
What Trilochan says to me is that if you were obsessed with mansions all your life, then you may as well be a ghost or a goblin that supposedly haunts such buildings. If money and treasures have defined your life, you may as well be a snake. (In the Indian culture, snakes are reputed to make their home where treasures are buried.)
Why? Because your character traits have been defined by your preoccupations and values - that is the kind of a person you have become. I interpret all of the examples in his hymn similarly - it is metaphorical language, not to be literally translated.
To my mind, what Trilochan means here is to question what one has become over a lifetime of habits. "Reincarnation", then, is used as a metaphor (this is poetry, right?), for the biological life cycle. So, until we get it "right", we are going to embody the human (or animal) experience over and over again in this life. Put another way, until we learn to live without a personal stake (haumai), we are going to attach ourselves to desires which, unchecked, lead to addictive/neurotic personalities, and so the cycle continues.
It is not possible to talk about "here and hereafter" in the traditional Indian culture without reference to reincarnation. Indians take the matter quite literally. It is not an easy matter to upend the whole applecart. The Gurus, therefore, taught in the language of the people and in the context of the times in which they lived.
This is exactly why the Guru Granth contains this recurring theme on reincarnation and transmigration.
Some level of prophetic language a la Trilochan may be necessary to goad people into the right behavior. Hence the dire warning of transmigration and reincarnation!
Since matter and energy may change form but are neither created nor destroyed, it says to me that we will always be around in some shape or form.
Guru Granth also reiterates, more than once, the Hindu belief that there are 8.4 million species through which the soul may cycle and recycle until liberated. I think the number is not to be taken literally. It is like saying in English that there are a gazillion species; it is not a fixed number.
If tomorrow, greater or less than 8.4 million species are documented by evolutionary biologists, one must not conclude that the ancient Indian philosophers or the Sikh Gurus were in error. For traditional Indian society, this number forms the basis of their deeply held belief; it was thus used as a point of reference for Sikh teaching. Effective teaching always requires that the cultural context not be ignored.
My view would be that, metaphorically reinterpreted, the terms reincarnation and transmigration really mean that after death everyone and every species that exhibits life become part of the greater biological life cycle.
That, then, becomes my understanding of the cycle of birth and rebirth, reincarnation or transmigration.
In this concept of a larger biological life cycle, it remains immaterial whether one ends up pushing up roses or becoming a feeding frenzy for worms; either is equally meaningful.
C'est la vie !
June 13, 2008
Conversation about this article
1: Tejwant (U.S.A.), June 13, 2008, 2:24 PM.
Reincarnation is just a fancy word for recycling. All living organisms survive by devouring other living organisms. "This is the law of the land whether we like it or we understand." (Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes)
2: Brijinder Khurana (Delhi, India), June 14, 2008, 7:15 AM.
I.J. Singh ji, you have very good knowledge about Sikhism and Sikh history. I visit this site daily and read all the articles very carefully to enhance my knowledge. I just want to know from you about the importance of Gurdwara Goindwal Sahib where we take 84 dips in the tank and recite bani 84 times while doing so. Please advise as to your thoughts vis-a-vis the significance of the same.
3: Rawel Singh (New York, U.S.A.), June 15, 2008, 9:57 AM.
This is a remarkably incisive article by the learned author. However, I have a few observations. The author has stated: "whence the soul came, what day of development it entered the fetus, when it left the dead, or how and where it went, seem to be questions that cannot be rationally construed or answered". The question stands answered in the article itself thus: "if I take the strictly spiritual approach, then the soul we carry is an immutable part of the God within us ... whence the soul came, what day of development it entered the fetus, when it left the dead, or how and where it went, seem to be questions that cannot be rationally construed or answered ... the soul, without which there is no life, no breath, no heart, and no brain". Firstly, the very concept of soul is spiritual: The word is derived from spirit - otherwise one might as well talk in terms of Darwinian evolution. Secondly since there is no life when the soul leaves the body, it is rational to believe that the soul's entry into the fetus coincides with commencement of breathing and exit with cessation of it. This is specifically stated in Gurbani thus: Presence of sandalwood is known by its fragrance. Similarly, life in a body is known by its breathing; when breathing stops, the body is reduced to dust and has no value (GGS, p1256). The author also says: "The idea of a God as an old man, somewhat like us but often a lot kinder or a bit more capricious is, in my opinion, also inevitable to the concept of eventual judgment, followed by punishment or reward through the cycle of birth and rebirth that is integral to this intriguing model of life after death". This concept of personality of God is based on the depiction in the Semitic scriptures, namely the Old Testament and the Quran, where God is perceived as a person and talking. It also has to do something with incarnations in the Hindu faith. Gurbani does not buy that and in fact states Let the mouth that talks of God having a physical form, burn (GGS, p1136). In Sikhi, God is Spirit and the source of all souls. Calling the Creator capricious is being unfair and illogical. Every birth is to serve a purpose, otherwise there will be no order in the world. Reincarnation is a result of the creature not fulfilling the purpose for which life was given to it, and coming back. Even cockroaches, earth worms and others have roles to play as have plants, trees and rocks. The article started with examining whether the life form on reincarnation has anything to do with the thoughts near death. It is well known that those thoughts come to mind on death which are there in the subconscious mind. These would be about what has been one's obsession in life. The logic in the life form to be taken on reincarnation has been given by Bhagat Trilochan. If we have a look at different species, we find they have typical characteristics. The deer is attracted by music and smell, the elephant by lust, the dogs by greed, the insects by light and the moth by the flower. They must have acted similarly in past lives and reincarnated according to Karma. Only man has multiple characteristics. Gurbani calls this 'paeiai kirt' which means that with this baggage not only does one get the results of the deeds but also acts accordingly.
4: Bhupinder Singh Ghai (New Delhi, India), June 18, 2008, 2:58 AM.
Once I heard an intersting story during a katha by Sant Singh Maskeen telecast on TV. He said that during one of his visits to Amritsar, he came across a lady who was normally amritdhari but she used to get some fits or episodes where she used to talk in the male gender and chaste Urdu. She used to give the name of "his" native village near Karachi, Pakistan and also said that "he" was a Muslim and meant no harm to the lady in whose body he had taken refuge. Maskeenji was a very learned man and very reasonable and logical. But this seemed bizzare. The lady in question was not literate and had never travelled to Pakistan! I am still not sure whether the lady had a split personality disorder or if there is really something called "soul" and there is really reincarnation. Has anybdy seen or heard this katha? Can somebody provide an explanation?
5: I.J. Singh (New York, U.S.A.), June 18, 2008, 11:01 AM.
I comment briefly on two interesting points raised above: The first breath does not occur until the fetus emerges outside the uterus. The gaseus-exchange in the fetus occurs in the placenta; the lungs, though developed, are not yet functional. But the heartbeat is detectable in the fetus long before birth. Ergo, when life begins is not so easy to answer. Is it when the fetus is viable outside the uterus? I don't really know. Some religions, including Yogi Bhajan, talk about the 40th day of intrauterine development when the fetus acquires a soul. Where that number comes from I don't really know. The second question pertains to the 84 steps at the Goindwal Baoli. Given that Guru Granth clearly states "Teerath naavan jao teerath naam hai", and that "atsatth teerath jeh naavey, utrey nahee(n) mael", in other words, the only pilgrimage is within, not without, it seems to me that the purpose of the Goindvaal baoli was not as a place of pilgrimage but perhaps as a source of much needed water supply. We have, in time, sanctified it and given it meaning that would run contrary to Sikh teaching. I wish liberation and salvation were so simple as walking down 84 steps while repeating prayers. I believe liberation lies in a revolutionary change in the mindset. Yet, steps and stairs along the way might help focus the mind. They might be useful, but they are not the endpoint to anything perse.
6: Rawel Singh (New York, U.S.A.), June 18, 2008, 9:35 PM.
Dr. I.J. Singh has pointed out that actual breathing starts after birth of the baby. I cannot be arguing with him on this subject since he is a Professor of Anatomy and an authority on the subject. The point we are discussing is as to what stage the soul enters the fetus. As per Gurbani, it is when breathing starts. The function of breathing is to provide oxygen for growth and maintenance of the body. For the fetus, it is provided through the placenta and the umbilical cord. Breathing is therefore taking place, though without the the lungs being involved and since there is life, the soul is also present in the body. This seems quite rational.
7: Brijinder Khurana (Delhi / India), June 19, 2008, 5:16 AM.
Respected I J. Singh Ji, Thanks for your reply regarding my querry for Goindwal Sahib. I have visited the website of Baoli Sahib, wherein it states that "Guru Amar Das purchased the land and personally helped in the construction of the Gurdwara and Baoli (well) with 84 steps leading down to it. Guru Amar Das said that whoever recited the entire Japji prayer of Guru Nanak on each of the 84 steps with a pure heart before bathing in the Baoli would receive spiritual emancipation." You are correct in mentioning that the Baoli was constructed as Sikhs were barred from taking water. The same thing is mentioned at the website: "A Baoli is a staircase leading to water. The Baoli Sahib was constructed by Guru Amar Das Ji after Sikhs were prevented from fetching water from a local source. The digging started in 1556 and completed in 1559. The Baoli Sahib was completed with 84 steps. Gurdwara Chaubara Sahib, Goindwal, Dist. Amritsar." I repeat that it seems through your articles that you have a thorough knowledge about Sikhism and you try to explain the meanings very logically and with scientific reasons. Please clarify the meaning of the above lines which is hidden and maybe we are unable to understand.
8: Prabhu Singh Khalsa (Española, New Mexico, USA), June 19, 2008, 11:36 AM.
As the author points out, the Guru wrote in the language of the people. I believe the Sri Guru Granth Sahib was meant to be understood, approached and practiced by any Sikh at any level of understanding. Therefore, I believe in Guru Granth literally and figuratively. I do believe that the time of death reference is about how you lived your life. To remember God at the moment of death, you must remember God frequently, because that moment could come at any time. Likewise, the same applies to the above scenarios where one remembers something else. I don't have any problem in believing that the life forms described here are the life forms taken on the soul journey after completing an unrighteous human birth. I believe in Guru Granth Sahib it is very specific here. Simile or metaphor could have been used, but specifics were given. There are even sakhis from the times of the Guru about animals encountered by the Gurus who were once human and required the blessing of the Guru's house to achieve liberation. A quick note, Yogi Ji taught that the soul enters the womb on the 120th day of pregnancy. I'm sure this comes from his knowledge of yoga and other ancient traditions. It may have also been a practice amongst Sikhs in previous times. A lot of what people don't understand about Yogi Ji or question, I have seen other Sikhs from older generations practicing, including traditional asanas and pranayams. Sometimes people ask about certain mantras that are not contained in the Guru Granth. A couple weeks ago, we listened in Gurdwara to a lecture by Yogi Ji where he mentioned a mantra that is inscribed at Goindwal Sahib, which we use in meditation, but is not found in the Guru Granth. The general belief about Goindwal Sahib, as I understand it, is that if you recite Japji and then dip in the well on each of the 84 steps, you will clear the karmas for each of the 84 lakh incarnations. I also take this literally. Sure science has a taxonomic rank, in which there are more than 8.4 million forms of life, however the taxonomy isn't based on the soul journey and how each life form ranks karmically. There are 8.4 million karmic lives that we must endure to achieve human birth, and as the Guru tells us, we shouldn't waste this opportunity.
9: I.J. Singh (New York, U.S.A.), June 24, 2008, 9:03 AM.
I cannot speak to the authenticity of the statement popularly ascribed to Guru Amardas; it seems so out of character, in view of the lines from Guru Granth that I cited earlier. Hence, I shy away from defining Sikh places of pilgrimage.
10: Hardeep Singh (India), June 25, 2010, 10:08 AM.
My belief is that the comments of Tirlochan are literal - that one is indeed reborn as a snake if one dies thinking of wealth. If one lives one's life thinking of wealth, there is no way you will think of God at the time of death. Take dreams, for example - have you ever dreamt of God on a day when you ran around the whole day worrying about earning money? What you will think of at the time of death is pre-determined by your actions through your life.