1) Good morning, friends. Well, we’ve just had our election a few days ago, and by and large, the old saying still applies, that you get the government that you deserve. This is nothing more than the Law of Karma in operation, that cause must have its exact effect. This cosmic law is intimately tied in with the concept of reincarnation, which simply means being born again, of living another life again, and this is what I’d like to talk to you about this morning.
2) Now, nothing that you are about to hear will convince anybody of the principle of reincarnation, who does not already believe in it, since a belief in reincarnation is a point of consciousness. By this is meant that many people can accept the Law of Karma,but may find it difficult to believe that they have actually lived physical lives before this present one, and will indeed live again in a physical body at a later stage in the earth’s evolution.
3) To understand reincarnation, you first have to understand the meaning and purpose of life, else you will not comprehend the idea of, nor the need for, reincarnation. Therefore, don’t try to investigate it, until you have thought deeply and seriously about the many aspects of life in the physical. Also, you should not try to equate it with the teachings of any organised religion, but rather according to the inspiration and intuition of your own consciousness.
4) If you can accept that life on the earth plane is a school to which you go to learn, analogous to the way of schools on earth which you have all attended earlier, then you will know that there will be term-times and holidays, because you cannot learn continuously without a break. Term-times and breaks are fixed, and it is the same with life. When you return to school after each holiday, you have within you all the knowledge and experiences gained previously and if there are examinations which you have failed, so to speak, you get the opportunity to write them again after more lessons, and before progressing further. This is a very much simplified and superficial description of life on the physical level and may sound as if it happens only in ideal circumstances.
5) The question could then arise in your minds, what happens about all the tragic events and accidents which are reported, since people cannot learn anything when they are dead? Here, of course, you have to consider what is being learnt, and who is doing the learning through the act of death. Always remember that this lesson is predominantly being learnt by the people remaining behind. For the person dying peacefully or after a long and painful illness, the act of death is as nothing, or a pleasant relief. Much of the suffering occurs to those who watch it all happen, and because a hole has been left in their lives, and very often it causes them to become introspective and perhaps find reasons for what they have just gone through, and maybe also to find their answer to the question which is often asked, of why God, or their concept of God, allows such suffering to take place, implying that God is to blame for what happened, this being their point of consciousness. However, when someone dies a violent death, such as in a plane crash or in war, there is a great influence on the soul at the time of death, since the soul is jarred, and so it is mainly the one concerned who is learning. Also, having heard all this, you should remember that you come into incarnation with the divine gift of free choice, and that nothing happens by chance – karma at work
again.
6) It has been mentioned on other occasions, that you reincarnate on earth for two basic reasons: firstly, to learn and secondly, to repay karma. Someone whom you have wronged or hurt may well say that he has understood and forgiven you for your actions, but this does not absolve you for a moment from paying theprice and making amends. If, for example, you have wilfully or inadvertently killed someone in this incarnation, then the universal scales of justice will be adjusted so that you will have the opportunity to compensate the other party exactly, if at all possible in this lifetime, for what you have done. If this is not possible, it will be deferred to a later incarnation. It does not mean that the person you killed has to kill you. That is not karmic repayment. In shortening his life you may, for example, be able to compensate, presently or later, by, in some way, and of your own free choice, sacrificing something very dear to you in order that he may learn an important lesson. The time element depends on the nature of the cause that will produce the effect. Thus, there are actions which will produce their reactions whilst you are still in the world, with the spiritual results being mechanical in their aftermath.
7) Leading on from this, it is difficult for souls who have limited knowledge, to understand why people should die before their allotted lifespan, however long they may consider that to be. How often have people wished that a particular man were dead? If someone had committed a murder, perhaps people might be relieved when he had been executed by the authorities as his punishment? Therefore, your judgment of whether or not a man has lived his intended lifespan is influenced by your point of evolution. However, the important factor which has to be considered in all this, is that each one of your lives is planned. Not only do you choose the body into which you are to incarnate, your parents, the planetary influences at your birth, the country in which you are to live, your way of life and your life’s partner, but also the manner and moment of your death, which are all determined by the lessons which you have come to learn.
8) Bear in mind, therefore, that even when making mistakes, you do learn in the process. You may, for example, have come to learn the lesson of poverty. If you did not accept it gracefully, and recognise that it is merely a condition of mind and not a spiritual fact, you might well return many times until that lesson had sunk in, before you could progress. To give another example, you might be a king in one lifetime and a beggar in another, indicating that you behaviour in one life will greatly affect your next incarnation. The Law of the Universe, of Infinite Spirit, is quite dispassionate in its outworking, and always has to remain in balance.
9) All the incidents in your life have a significance. All those times when you think ‘fate’ is just being cruel to you, have a meaning. So try to look for it. Think back in your life to what you have done. Examine each incident and try to look for the underlying meaning, and you will then see and understand the greater purpose in life. There is no such thing as chance or blind fate, since everything happens for a reason. In that you are all born with the divine gift of free choice, so in choosing you will have an effect, not only on yourselves, but also on those around you. Karma applies not only to you and your fellow men, but also to towns, cities, countries and, of course, planet earth as a whole.
10) Yet another question which may arise in your minds is, why does man not remember his previous lives, so that it would be easy to accept reincarnation. This has been purposely done by your Creator so that until you have reached a certain level of evolution in a particular lifetime, you may not draw upon memories of your past lives. Occasionally, people do have flashes of remembrance about them, triggered by incidents in this life, but generally man does not remember them, his awareness encompassing only his present life.
11) Slowly, as he evolves, man draws upon the wisdom and knowledge, retained from past lives, in what has been termed his conscience, for living his life in the present. He will feel that it is wrong to steal or kill, or not to help his fellow man when asked to do so. This is because he has learnt all these things before and has taken them into his being.
12) In conclusion, there is no real point in knowing about past lives, since this may well influence your conduct in the present one, and stimulate your ego if you had been somebody famous, thereby detracting from the job in hand. Try to understand and accept what has happened, instead of railing against present circumstances. Realise that this predicament is only temporary, since you live for so short a time on the physical plane, and transmute things as far as you can, instead of looking inwards and feeling sorry for yourself. If this was widely understood and practised, how much better the world would be, so therefore please try to motivate your actions with the purest and highest spirituality, thereby doing your best to make it come about.