07-11-2004, 12:34 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-Pathmarajah+Jul 10 2004, 11:21 PM-->QUOTE(Pathmarajah @ Jul 10 2004, 11:21 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin--> Folks,
Souls, jeevas or atmas ( consciousness encapsulated by anava and karma) do not take animal birth. Souls Only take human birth. There is nothing in the vedas and agamas that supports souls taking animal births (other than cries of bakti saints of 'even if I were to take an animal birth').
Sorry to butt in. Regards.
Pathma <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Pathmarajah Sar, one of the readily available examples to state the transition of souls from Manushya-yoni to other Janthu yoni would be the Viveka Chudamani.
http://mailerindia.com/hindu/viveka/part1.php
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Human nature is the hardest of creaturely states to obtain,</b> even more so that of manhood. Brahminhood is rarer still, and beyond that dedication to the path of Vedic religion. Beyond even that there is discrimination between self and non-self, but liberation by persistence in the state of the unity of God and self is not to be achieved except by the meritorious deeds of hundreds of thousands of lives. 2
These three things are hard to achieve, and are attained only by the grace of God - human nature, the desire for liberation, and finding refuge with a great sage. 3
He is a suicide who has somehow achieved human birth and even manhood and full knowledge of the scriptures but does not strive for self-liberation, for he destroys himself by clinging to the unreal. 4
Who could be more foolish than the man who has achieved the difficult attainment of a human body and even manhood but still neglects his true good? 5
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad has a mention that Janaka's Elephant was once a Brahmana, that was born as an Elephant.
http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/brdup/...V-14a.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->This is a peculiar anecdote here. <b>It appears, there was a sage called Budila Asvatarasvi. Perhaps, he was a reciter of the Gayatri Mantra. He became an elephant in his next birth by the chant of the Gayatri.</b> Janaka was riding that elephant, and due to Purvavasand the elephant could speak. It said that it was a reciter of the Gayatri Mantra. Janaka says: 'You say you are a meditator on Gayatri. How have you become an elephant upon which I am sitting and riding?' What is the secret? How can a Gayatri Upasaka become an elephant in the next birth? The elephant said: 'King, I did not know the faith of Gayatri. I made a mistake in the chant. I did not know some aspect of it. I knew everything except something. That something has brought me to an elephant's birth'. 'I see', said Janaka. 'This is the case'. 'Fire is her mouth. This you did not understand', says Janaka. Here fire can mean anything; one does not know what actually the Upanishad intends. Perhaps it is to be identified with the Sun himself. He is symbolic of the fire-principle. Also in the ritual of the chant of the Gayatri there are certain Nyasas, as they are called, placements which invoke Agni and other deities as the various limbs of the conceived body of the deity of Gayatri.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Souls, jeevas or atmas ( consciousness encapsulated by anava and karma) do not take animal birth. Souls Only take human birth. There is nothing in the vedas and agamas that supports souls taking animal births (other than cries of bakti saints of 'even if I were to take an animal birth').
Sorry to butt in. Regards.
Pathma <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Pathmarajah Sar, one of the readily available examples to state the transition of souls from Manushya-yoni to other Janthu yoni would be the Viveka Chudamani.
http://mailerindia.com/hindu/viveka/part1.php
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Human nature is the hardest of creaturely states to obtain,</b> even more so that of manhood. Brahminhood is rarer still, and beyond that dedication to the path of Vedic religion. Beyond even that there is discrimination between self and non-self, but liberation by persistence in the state of the unity of God and self is not to be achieved except by the meritorious deeds of hundreds of thousands of lives. 2
These three things are hard to achieve, and are attained only by the grace of God - human nature, the desire for liberation, and finding refuge with a great sage. 3
He is a suicide who has somehow achieved human birth and even manhood and full knowledge of the scriptures but does not strive for self-liberation, for he destroys himself by clinging to the unreal. 4
Who could be more foolish than the man who has achieved the difficult attainment of a human body and even manhood but still neglects his true good? 5
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad has a mention that Janaka's Elephant was once a Brahmana, that was born as an Elephant.
http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/brdup/...V-14a.html
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->This is a peculiar anecdote here. <b>It appears, there was a sage called Budila Asvatarasvi. Perhaps, he was a reciter of the Gayatri Mantra. He became an elephant in his next birth by the chant of the Gayatri.</b> Janaka was riding that elephant, and due to Purvavasand the elephant could speak. It said that it was a reciter of the Gayatri Mantra. Janaka says: 'You say you are a meditator on Gayatri. How have you become an elephant upon which I am sitting and riding?' What is the secret? How can a Gayatri Upasaka become an elephant in the next birth? The elephant said: 'King, I did not know the faith of Gayatri. I made a mistake in the chant. I did not know some aspect of it. I knew everything except something. That something has brought me to an elephant's birth'. 'I see', said Janaka. 'This is the case'. 'Fire is her mouth. This you did not understand', says Janaka. Here fire can mean anything; one does not know what actually the Upanishad intends. Perhaps it is to be identified with the Sun himself. He is symbolic of the fire-principle. Also in the ritual of the chant of the Gayatri there are certain Nyasas, as they are called, placements which invoke Agni and other deities as the various limbs of the conceived body of the deity of Gayatri.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->