But, is it not through, eyes, that the soul departs from the body?
There is a beautiful scene in 'Kumarasambava' of Mahakavi Kalidas on Brahmarandram.
Ordered by Indra, Manmatha, will come around the ashrama, where Great Lord Shiva does his penance. Manmatha will wait wait for a suitable time, when Godess Parvathi, to be near Great Lord, so that he has accomplish his intentions. Mahakavi Kalidasa, will give a wonderful description, of Great Lord, the tejas will come out for the Brahmarandram, thorugh the skull tied to his matted lock.
The mental picture of Lord Shiva, on Padmasana with Mahamudhra, will be really very enchanting. Atleast for me..
to my limited knowledge, the sould departs through Brahmarandhram present in the skull...
it is also called as kabaala moksham... some told me that the thengai odaikking on the skull of sanyasi's is to ensure that the soul passess through the skull via brahmarandhram.....
this ensures that there is no rebirth for the soul....
brahmarandhram does not open for all... gnanam adainjavanukke brahma randhram open aagum...
for all mortals like us uyir will go out through any of the vaayils and that determines what will be the soul in its next birth .. say human, dog or other creatures
for only the enlightened brahmarandhram woud open and the uyir will leave through the brahmarandhram and this ensures that the gnani will not attain rebirth...
I do not think the 'dog in next birth' theory is correct. When we take many births to realise God, how can a birth as an animal help in the growth of the soul? Animals do not have mind, they have instincts only. Where there is no mind, there is no experience. Where there is no experience there is no growth. I feel the reverse is correct. an animal can have a quantum jump and become a human being in the next birth.
I remember a story wherein a person after getting the saabham goes through the birth of pig and the same soul is enjoying the nuances of pig's life and even when reminded of his duties pertaining to the previous birth, the pig replies that it (he) wants to enjoy the pleasures of pig's life.
I feel these stories were designed to scare people from messing around, something like the pooochchaandi stories we heard as kids. Manu apaprently has mentioned the type of birth a person will have for a specific offense. Siva
what u r talking is evolution.. iam talking about karma vinai...
my grandma used to say, when one drops the "abhisheka theertham (sandhana theertham used for doing abhishekam to salagramam's)" on earth, the next janmama the person wud be born as puli(tiger)..
anyawy i strongly feel that one's present janma karmam will decide one's next birth....idhukku per dhaan "praarabhdham".
I was talking about the evolution of every soul. Not Darwin's theory. There are only two instances mentioned in the purana where a human being took birth as a lower form. I remember one to be a bird and other a deer. In both the cases, the person was a rishi.
Every human being is believed to be an individual soul but a group of animals/lower forms have a single group soul. Every human being is considered to have come from mineral to microscopic organisms to insects to wild animals/birds to domesticated animals/birds to humans. They say domesticated animals, by virtue of living with the humans, understand things better to be born as human beings. The jump from dom. animals to a human being is considered a quantum jump. This is a continuous process - as the progress happens, the number of entities involved reduced so that finally a group of, say, tigers become ONE human being. This human being too starts as an adivasi who live more on instincts and then develops his intellect over a few hundred births to reach a state where he starts thinking/exploring about after life etc. A few births in that cycle and he achieves a state where he does not have to be born again. But, he does not merge with the force that is behind everything. It is believed that the journey is infinite as God is infinite. The journey will continue in search of higher planes of evolution.
Looking at our avataaras in this angle, I feel that they are great souls but not the ultimate goal. We can consider them the ultimate goal for now because we know only upto them.
If our question is will the minerals we see today become a human being one day, the answer is yes. What Darwin mentioned is the physical, external thing. This is regarding the force that takes a body for its purpose.
What I have given about is a gist of my understanding. It is just my theory.
I am viewing Dasavatharam as some sort of representation of Evolution theory.
Matsayavadharam (living organism in water only) Koormavadharam (living organism in water / land) varaahavadharam (living organism in land) narasimhavadharam (combination of lion/man) vaamanavadharam (3 ft man) parasuramavadharam (angry/ferocious man) ramavadharam (full fledged man) balaramavadharam (some sort of rude king) krishnavadharam (most cunning personality to meet the modern demands) Kalkiavadharam ???
I totally agree with you Muruganandam in your view on Dasavatharam...Too add more, you can identify from the "Karuvi or Ayudham" of each Avathar:
Matsayavadharam - Living in Water Koormavadharam - Adaptability to move to land - Arm development varaahavadharam - Live in Land - can move with developed limbs - Omnivorous narasimhavadharam - Dominating the land - Carnivorous, Powerful Using Nail for attack/defense as prime weapon vaamanavadharam - A young Human - With Umberalla - Human evolution starting to live in Shelters
parasuramavadharam - Human start using tools - Axe -prime weapon to find their food/defend themselves
ramavadharam - More sophisticated weapon - Bow and arrow - Can attack/defend from certain safer distance - the great findings of Human(no other animal does this)
balaramavadharam - More cultured Human - with Plough - Settling with agriculture - Human turning softer
krishnavadharam - Human Mind more cultured to enjoy Music - Flute - more of present day Human activites -with goods and bads
Kalkiavadharam ??? - with Horse - Probably Human who can reach the speed of celestical objects..?? Or travel to Celestical objects..??