There are two kinds of births & deaths: the breath way
& the astral way.Human birth is accompanied by the presence of breath , inhalation & exaltation of the airborne cosmic
currents.Earthly death is marked by the absence of bodily breath.The breath-marked births & deaths are peculiar to the
earthly plane of existence.The astral way of birth & death has a deeper meaning.In the physical world the soul is encased
in a fleshly body made of 16 gross elements.After death he soul is rid of its heavy overcoat of flesh but remains encased
in its two other subtle garments---the astral body of 19 subtle principles & the casual body of 35 ideas or thought forces.(body
signifies any encasement whether gross or subtle which surrounds the soul). When a devotee by divine ecstasy completely identifies
himself with omnipresent spirit,he goes out of the three bodies & attains omnipresence.But when a man leaves the physical
body in ignorance,he awakens in an astral world,encased in his astral body.In accordance with karmic law,he lives & develops
in the astral world for some time,working out some of his past tendencies.A the timing of the cosmic law,man again experiences
the death-disintegration of the astral body & is reborn once more in the physical world. At physical death man loses his
consciousness of the flesh & becomes conscious of his astral body in the astral world.Thus physical death is astral birth.Later,he
passes from the consciousness of luminous astral birth to the consciousness of dark astral death & awakens in a new physical
body.Thus astral death is physical birth.These recurrent cycles of physical & astral encasements are the ineluctable destiny
of all unenlightened men.
A truth seeker realizes by introspection & self analysis & by study under god
realized guru that the universal laws which governs the phenomenal world ordain that the karma pursued man must undergo this
series of births & deaths.The wise devotee does not grieve over his dire fate & difficult future experiences rather
he concentrates his utmost powers to destroy those evil karmas by identifying himself with the omniscient SPIRIT.Births &
deaths are inevitable for man only during the state of ignorance in which he thinks he is body & cannot exist without
it.Only the man who will not seek the awakening of wisdom must suffer the nightmares & delusive dreams of births &
deaths & the fanciful miseries & limitations attending them.A man through persistent wrong living may suffer from
continual nightmares that he is being suffocated & murdered.Only by right living may he disgorge his subconscious
mind of those evil impulses which are the sole cause of his nightly halluniciations.A man with an extreme fear of the cycle
of births & deaths may dream every night that he is being born as a baby & then that he dies after he becomes an adult.These
dreams may continue indefinitely with us until by wisdom the man becomes free from the harrowing fears that are motivating
his dreams.The same truth may be applied to the soul,if a man through delusion experiences births followed by deaths,he must
inexorably continue to do so until wisdom,meditation,discrimination & ecstatic communication with god he identifies his
soul with spirit.A man awake in omnipresent spirit loses all delusive nightmares.
