The Soul’s Journey to Birth
“The soul takes birth each time, and each time a mind, life and body are formed out of the materials of universal Nature, according to the soul’s past evolution and its need for the future.”
— Sri Aurobindo
We usually think of birth as the beginning of a new life. The body has its beginning, and the outer personality will slowly develop. But Sri Aurobindo points to a soul that has already been on a journey. The soul comes into birth carrying what it has gathered through its experiences and its growth.
Sri
Aurobindo writes:
“The soul gathers the essential elements of its experiences
in life and makes that its basis of growth in the evolution; when it returns to
birth it takes up with its mental, vital, physical sheaths so much of its Karma
as is useful to it in the new life for further experience.”
“The soul comes into birth for experience, for growth, for
evolution till it can bring the Divine into matter. It is the central being
that incarnates, not the outer personality — the personality is simply a mould
that it creates for its figures of experience in that one life. In another
birth it will create for itself a different personality, different capacities,
a different life and career.”
The soul
carries with it what it has experienced and learned. There may still be things
left to learn and experience.
If a child’s soul is already on a journey, what then should
parents think about the birth of a child?
We
naturally have dreams for our children. We want them to be happy, successful
and secure. We may already imagine what they will become and what kind of life
they should have. But if the soul has its own journey, how much of our own
dreams and wishes should we place upon the child?
Sri
Aurobindo reminds us that a child is a soul with a being, a nature and
capacities of his own, and that the child must be helped to find them, to find
himself.
“…the
child as a soul with a being, a nature and capacities of his own who must be
helped to find them, to find himself, to grow into their maturity, into a
fullness of physical and vital energy and the utmost breadth, depth, and height
of his emotional, his intellectual and his spiritual being”
The
child may not have come simply to fulfil the dreams of the parents. The soul
has its own experiences, its own growth and its own journey.
Could this also help us understand why two children from the
same parents can be so completely different?
They may
grow up in the same home, receive the same love and go through many of the same
experiences, yet each child may have a very different nature, temperament,
interests and way of looking at life.
Could it
be that they have come into the same family, but not for the same purpose?
Could they be sharing the same home while each soul is continuing a different
journey?
We Cannot Know the Whole Journey
We may
know the date on which the child is expected. We may prepare the room, choose
the clothes and think about the child who is coming. But we cannot know the
whole journey of the soul who is coming. And perhaps we are not meant to.
“As regards the stage at which the soul returning for rebirth
enters the new body no rule can be laid down, for the circumstances vary with
the individual.”
— Sri Aurobindo
Sri
Aurobindo explains that the relation of the psychic being to the new body is
not the same in every case. Some psychic beings come into relation with the
birth-environment and the parents from conception; in some cases the relation
comes later, even at the time of birth or afterwards. So, we cannot say that
every soul enters the psychic being at exactly the same moment.
Sri
Aurobindo also points out that the conditions of the next birth are determined
fundamentally at the time of death. The psychic being chooses what it should
work out in the next earthly life, and the circumstances arrange themselves
accordingly.
The
Mother herself is careful about such questions. When asked whether souls choose
their parents, the Mother explained that this depends upon the state of
consciousness and the development of the psychic being. A completely formed
psychic being, free to reincarnate or not, has the capacity of choosing. But
even then, many things cannot be foreseen. This is something we need to
remember when we think about Conscious Conception.
“Each time that the soul
takes birth in a new body it comes with the intention of having a new
experience which will help it to develop and to perfect its personality. This
is how the psychic being is formed from life to life and becomes a completely
conscious and independent personality which, once it has arrived at the summit
of its development, is free to choose not only the time of its incarnation, but
the place, the purpose and the work to be accomplished.”
— The Mother
Sri
Aurobindo takes this understanding further in The Life Divine, Book Two,
Chapter XXII, “Rebirth and Other Worlds; Karma, the Soul and Immortality.” He
explains that a new birth is not simply a repetition of the previous life.
“For each birth is a new start; it develops indeed from the
past, but is not its mechanical continuation: rebirth is not a constant
reiteration but a progression.”
So a new
birth is not simply a repetition of what came before. The soul may carry
forward what is essential from its past, but something new is also beginning. The
child is not simply a continuation of the parents’ dreams, nor simply a
repetition of another life. There is something new unfolding.
Sri
Aurobindo does not present rebirth as a system of reward and punishment. Life
here is an evolution, and the soul grows through experience. Suffering too is
not simply a punishment imposed by the Divine. It can be part of the soul's
working out and growth. So, our responsibility is not to judge or explain
another person's journey. It is to meet it with love.
Then what is the place of Conscious Conception?
If a
child’s soul is already on a journey, what then is the use of Conscious
Conception? If the deeper movement of the soul belongs to the soul and to the
Divine, what can parents really do?
Perhaps
Conscious Conception is not about deciding which soul will come, or about
arranging the destiny of the child. It is about preparing ourselves for the
child who may come.
We
cannot decide the journey of the soul. But we can work upon ourselves. We can
become more conscious of our thoughts, our emotions, our relationships, our
aspirations and the atmosphere in which we are preparing to receive a child.
“Education should begin even before birth; in this case it is
the mother herself who proceeds with this education by means of a twofold
action: first, upon herself for her own improvement, and secondly, upon the
child whom she is forming physically.”
— The Mother
We are
not preparing to control the child’s destiny. We are preparing ourselves to
receive the soul with greater consciousness. Maybe this is where Conscious
Conception begins — not with the question, “What kind of child do I want?” but
with a quieter question:
“What kind of parents are we becoming for the soul that
may come to us?”
This is another meaning of Conscious Conception.
The child is not the only one who is growing. We too are changing.
As we prepare for a child, we are also being asked
to look at ourselves — our thoughts, our emotions, our desires, our
relationships and the way we live. The coming of a child can become part of our
own journey of becoming more conscious.
The soul comes with its own journey, and the Divine
remains the master of that journey. But as the child prepares for a new life,
perhaps the parents too are being prepared for something new in themselves.
So perhaps our prayer is not, “Mother, let this
child become what we want.”
It is: “Mother, make us ready for the soul You
are bringing to us. Change us, widen us and make us more conscious, so that we
may receive and accompany this child in the right spirit.”
A Quiet Reflection
The child who comes to us is not simply here to fulfil our dreams. The soul has its own journey, its own growth and its own purpose. Our part is to receive the child with love, and to help the child grow into what is within.
And this
brings us to the next question:
If the
soul has its own journey, then what can a mother prepare within herself before
conception?
Next Reflection
A Mother’s First Education (Preparing a mother
before conception)
