Reincarnation, Shiva & The Higher Planes

My brief sojourn to the Himalayas brought me face to face with a Shivite monk, perhaps the tallest monk I’d ever seen.

It was 1990 and I was traveling on pilgrimage with a group of like-minded souls, eager to see what India had to offer.  We were in the steep foothills near Darjeeling, where views of the Kanchenjunga peaks, known as sleeping Buddha, took precedent in the sky.  

Being much younger and far more curious than most, I ventured away from our group just enough to find myself in a tiny little shop that seemed to hang on the edge of a cliff.

The shop was filled with oddities that were badly worn and appeared second-hand.  One item drew me to it and I stared at it for several minutes before asking the diminutive shopkeeper about its origins.  It was a metal Shiva with a removable trident that could be used for pujas or ceremonies. 

I paid for my treasure, and clutching the Shiva in my arms walked out of the shop.  No sooner had I exited when standing to my left was a Shivite monk.  He was tall, his dark skin bare from the waist up, the three white stripes of Shiva spread across his forehead.  Draped around his neck was a large bead mala.  He wore a faded orange dhoti and in his right hand he held a large brass trident.

He looked down at me, his burning black eyes distant.  He must have seen the Shiva I was carrying, and for a moment I looked down at my statue. Then, my eyes blinking, I gazed up at the monk, speechless. 

For a moment I thought perhaps the Shiva I had just purchased once belonged to this monk. Why is he staring at me? I thought.  After a few minutes of speechlessness, he turned and walked away, carrying his trident like a royal scepter.  The trident Shiva holds signifies being above all three states-waking, dreaming and sleeping, while at the same time upholding these three states.  

My Shiva sat blissfully in a yogic samadhi state—a state where there is nothing but the inner sky of consciousness.  The serpent that winds around Shiva’s neck signifies alertness with no action.  He represents the ultimate yogi, calm, even-minded, not letting the ups and downs of life impede his peace. 

When we understand this world and the Yuga Cycles of Time from the big picture of what has ascended and descended over millions, perhaps billions of years, our little lifetime right now feels more like an ant crossing the Sahara.

The home of Shiva is Varanasi, considered by the Pranic texts to be the first city after the cosmic dissolution (destruction of the universe at the end of a kalpha).  A kalpha is a vast period of time, a Day of Brahma, which is roughly 4.32 billion years. 

Varanasi is home to many temples dedicated to Shiva.  The Maha Shivaratri (Great Night of Shiva) is held here each February or March.  Varanasi is also where Shiva first manifested as a column of light, known as Jyotirlinga.

Varanasi is also said to have been manifested by Shiva’s meditation.  

In this ascending Dwapara Yuga we’re now experiencing, the various states that Shiva represents will gradually become second nature.  We’ll be able to know and absorb more about our inner spiritual reality than we ever have before in the past 3,000 years.

So on a cosmic level the things that are happening on this planet today in politics, government, education and religion are just tiny wavelets.  In four more years, another reality will take shape, and in the next twenty years we’ll see a fast forward movement towards the Ascending Dwapara Yuga that will bring increasing awareness of higher consciousness.

How do we transcend the seemingly chaotic times we’re in right now?

Like the Hindu god Shiva, by going inside, accepting what is happening, keeping calm, and once we’re in the quiet inner realms, understanding that this dance has been going on for millennia. 

Kriyananda once exclaimed quite loudly that the silent yogis living high in the Himalayas are doing more for our planet than we realize.  Many of them are meditating all the time, their humble existence sending out waves of peace and light into the ether.  

We can do our part by meditating more, keeping calm, sending out vibrations of love and peace.

And what happens when these great souls die and move up to a higher plane?

Soon after death, once the soul is freed from the encasement of the body and all its demands, the soul is able to expand its consciousness outward as never before.  Those who have led a good life, are unselfish, have spent their lives helping others, and have great love for the Divine in their heart, will continue to expand these feelings.  If they’ve had great happiness and peace, these positive feelings will be hugely magnified once they leave the body behind.

Just like Shiva, at our core, we are beings of light, and that is what we become, soaring to that higher plane that is in alignment with our individual karma.  Yes, the astral planes are beautiful and offer us a chance to meet old friends, saints we’ve worshipped, family members and loved ones, even treasured pets, all in their astral forms.  

Depending on our karma, after a stay in the astral world, we might go to that plane or planet that our consciousness is in tune with.  However, if we’ve fostered meanness, hatred, anger, pettiness, jealousy, unforgiveness or severe judgment of others, we may have to incarnate back here on earth, or to a planet that will offer us the opportunity to continue to work out our karma. 

Long after my first trip to India, while leading a tour to India with some of our college students, we stayed at a Kriya Yoga Ashram in Rishikesh.  The ashram was very simple, had no hot water (only an hour each day) and there were only a few other guests.  One guest was a bespectacled elderly yogi with long gray hair and beard.  He meditated for long hours each day and never said a word to us.  I thought about introducing ourselves, but did not want to disturb him.

On the day we were leaving, we all assembled on the steps of the ashram, backpacks flung everywhere.  He came rather quietly, sat next to Nakula and I, then asked us about our college.  We told him that Ananda College studied the yuga cycles of time, one of the reasons we wanted to stay at this ashram.

He gazed out in front of himself and said in a broken voice that probably wasn’t used to talking, “I suspect there are thousands of yuga cycles occurring right now in many other planets throughout our universe.”  And that was it.  That was all he said, and presumably all he was meant to communicate to us before we continued our journey.

I sometimes wonder if he wasn’t thinking about his own life, or future existence in some far-off planet. 

Reincarnation has the potential to stretch our minds and consciousness in an uplifted way. 

Recently, a friend sent me a trailer for a new film on the life of Adi Shankarcharya, an early 8^th century philosopher, scholar, and theologian who created and was head of four different Hindu monasteries in India.

I am intrigued by this new film, produced by the Art of Living ashram in India, because of what Kriyananda has said about Shankarcharya. 

A great avatar and God-realized master like Yogananda has abilities beyond our human comprehension, something Yogananda gave us a glimpse of in Autobiography of a Yogi.  When a soul, after many incarnations of spiritual striving, reaches the highest state of nirbikalpa samadhi, it irrevocably realizes its oneness with God. These rare souls can have many incarnations across time that I suppose they often don’t talk about, with good reason.

Swami Kriyananda, a direct disciple of Yogananda confessed that his guru, Yogananda, had instilled in him the gift of intuition, something that was a great blessing.  Kriyananda later used his intuition and his own conversations with Yogananda to discern that Yogananda had been Adi Shankarcharya in a past life.   

When I visited Kerala in 2013, shortly after Kriyananda’s passing, I visited a shrine near the birthplace of Shankarcharya.  I was surprised that the statue of Adi Shankarcharya bore a resemblance to Yogananda—the large, soulful eyes, round face, and peaceful eyes were similar.

(Below, Shankarcharya on the left and Yogananda on the right.) 

In India, Adi Shankaracharya was said to be born a worshipper of Shakti, the consort of Shiva. 

Even to this day, some consider him to be an incarnation of Shiva.  Shankaracharya’s teachings centered on the idea that the identity of the self is the key to liberating knowledge. 

 As Shiva was considered the “Lord of the Yogis” and patron of meditation, it would make sense that Adi Shankaracharya, Yogananda and Shiva all share a deep connection.

Yogananda was also the first great yogi from India to live and teach in the west, and many in America consider him the father of yoga.  

To take this connection with Shiva even further, in the latter part of his life, Kriyananda had a Nadi Leaf reading in India.  These readings were written thousands of years ago by saintly people who were able to transcend the limitations of time.  He shared with a group of us that the reading said he had been a follower of Shiva.

Today, as our world seems on the verge of something bigger than we may understand, I’ve been thinking about Shiva, reincarnation, the higher realms, and all that we have to learn as this new accelerated consciousness comes into manifestation.

I’m reminded of a quote by Yogananda, dispensed to questioning devotees.  “The minutes are more important than the years.  If you fill the minutes of your life with thoughts of God, you will find the years of your life automatically saturated with the consciousness of God.”