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The Conscious Psychic Being Choosing Its Next Incarnation, Part 1 · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The interaction and interplay between the divine
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  manifestation, the psychic being, and the processes of
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  rebirth are generally outside the direct experience of most
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  people. Scientists who study the
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  processes of the universe are able to identify certain
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  principles and details of the way things develop over time.
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  Similarly, those who study processes involving the
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  evolution of consciousness have been able to identify certain
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  principles and details in that regard.
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  There are many stories or legends about the rebirth of an
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  individual across lifetimes. Some of them, of course, are
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  somewhat fanciful, yet others align with the life experience.
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  We can see and extrapolate from the facts we perceive.
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  In the Tibetan Book of the Dead, we see the considered views and
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  experience of those who have made the issue of death and
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  rebirth a focus for their study. This text deals with the general
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  case of an individual who is still living the external life.
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  Primarily, the individual at the time of death undergoes an
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  extensive process over a period of time that provides the now
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  disembodied being with various signs that either repel or
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  attract him. Eventually, he gravitates
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  towards an attractive light or energy and is reborn in a
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  particular circumstance. The mother addresses a case
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  where there is a conscious and awake psychic being that is
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  systematically gaining experience in order to achieve
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  fulfilment. In this instance, there can be a
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  more directed and focused energy working at the time of death
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  that guides the being towards the next step in the fulfillment
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  as set by the psychic being in its developmental role.
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  It must be noted that this is not the ego personality or the
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  external consciousness of the individual that is deciding how
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  to proceed, so it is not based on the normal criteria that we
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  tend to choose when we act from the standpoint of the ego.
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  The mother notes another very important point in that the
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  unity of the creation involves both the psychic being's choice
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  and the interaction of that choice with an aspiration or
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  focus on the part of the birth mother that creates the pathway
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  for the next opportunity in the soul's development to take place
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  through affinity, correspondence and energetic resonance, the
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  mother writes. Quote I'm going to give you
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  quite a concrete example. Let us take a psychic being that
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  is decided for some reason or other, to enter the body of a
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  being destined to become king, because there is a whole series
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  of experiences it can have only under those conditions.
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  After having passed through these experiences of a king, it
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  finds that there is a whole domain in which it cannot make a
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  progress due to these very conditions of life where it is.
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  So when it has finished its term upon earth and decides to go
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  away, it decides that in its next life it will take birth in
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  an ordinary environment and in ordinary conditions, neither
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  high nor low, but such that the body which it will take up will
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  be free to do what it likes. For I do not tell you anything
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  new when I say that the life of a king is the life of a slave.
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  A king is obliged to submit to a whole protocol and to all kinds
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  of ceremonies to keep his prestige.
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  It is perhaps very pleasant for vain people, but for a psychic
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  being it is not pleasant. For this deprives it of the
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  possibility of a large number of experiences.
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  So, having taken this decision, it carries in itself all the
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  memories which a royal life can give it, and it takes rest for
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  the period it considers necessary.
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  Here I must say I am Speaking of a psychic being exclusively
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  occupied with itself, not one consecrated to a work, because
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  in that case it is the work which decides the future lives
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  and their conditions. I am Speaking of a psychic being
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  at work completing its development.
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  Hence it decides that at a certain moment it will take a
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  body. Having already had a number of
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  experiences, it knows that in a certain country a certain part
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  of the consciousness has developed in another, another
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  part and so on. So it chooses the place which
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  offers it easy possibilities of development, the country, the
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  conditions of living, the approximate nature of the
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  parents, and also the condition of the body itself, its physical
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  structure and the qualities it needs for its experiences.
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  It takes rest, then at the required moment wakes up and
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  projects its consciousness upon earth, centralizing it in the
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  chosen domain and the chosen conditions.
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  Or almost so there is a small margin, you know.
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  For in the psychic consciousness 1 is too far away from the
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  material physical consciousness to be able to see with a clear
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  vision. It is an approximation, it does
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  not make a mistake about the country or the environment, and
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  it sees quite clearly the inner vibrations of the people chosen.
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  But there may happen to be a slight indecision.
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  But if just at this moment there is a couple upon earth, or
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  rather a woman who has a psychic aspiration herself, and for some
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  reason or other, without knowing why or how, would like to have
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  an exceptional child answering certain exceptional conditions.
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  If at this moment there is this aspiration upon earth, it
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  creates A vibration, A psychic light, which the psychic being
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  sees immediately and without hesitation it rushes towards it.
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  Then from that moment, which is the moment of conception, it
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  watches over the formation of the child, so that this
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  formation may be as favorable as possible to the plan it has.
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  Consequently, its influence is there over the child even before
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  it appears in the physical world.
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  End Quote. Reference Sri Robindo and the
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  Mother, the psychic being soul, its nature, Mission and
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  evolution. Section 3.
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  Growth and Development of the Psychic, pages 80 to 82.