About The 84 Lakhs

I asked the following of NotebookLM:

Meher Baba mentions that "The soul goes through 84 lakhs (8.4 million) of shakes (births and deaths) during this process". I'm unclear as to whether these are human births and deaths or whether these are the total through all the stages of evolution: stone, metal, vegetable, worm, fish, bird and animal. Can you seek clarification within the literature?

Here was the response:

Source: Gemini

The number 84 lakhs (8.4 million) is highly significant in Meher Baba's cosmology and actually applies to both the stages of pre-human evolution and the cycles of human reincarnation, which often causes confusion. Meher Baba explicitly noted that "Ninety-nine percent of the pundits have blundered in taking both evolution and reincarnation changes and rounds of births and deaths as 84 lakhs".

Here is how the literature clarifies the exact meaning of this number across the two different stages:

1. Reincarnation (Human Births and Deaths) When Meher Baba speaks of the soul going through 84 lakhs of "shakings" or reincarnations, he is directly referring to the exact number of times a soul takes a human form.

• Once the soul has attained the human form, the process of evolution is complete, and the process of reincarnation begins.
• To wear out the accumulated impressions (sanskaras) from evolution, the soul must experience exactly 8,400,000 human lifetimes (births and deaths), alternating between male and female, rich and poor, and different nationalities to gather a complete balance of opposite experiences.
• Meher Baba refers to these 84 lakhs of human reincarnations as "shakings" because the soul is being shaken loose from its tight grip of sanskaras before it is ready for the process of spiritual realization.

2. Evolution (Pre-Human Forms) Before the soul ever reaches the human form, the number 8.4 million also dictates the exact number of species the soul must traverse during evolution.

• During the evolutionary journey, the soul passes through six primary pre-human stages: stone/metal, vegetable, worm, fish, bird, and animal.
• Meher Baba explained that there are exactly 14 lakhs (1,400,000) of species in each of these six pre-human forms. Multiplying 6 by 14 lakhs equals 84 lakhs (8,400,000) of species or "bindings".
• Thus, the soul experiences 84 lakhs of changes in species during evolution.

The Distinction: "Shakings" vs. "Sleeps of Death" To further clarify this distinction, Meher Baba's close disciple Eruch Jessawala provided an important note in God Speaks. He explained that the "Eighty-four lakhs of shakings or reincarnations are in human form". However, if one were to count the actual number of individual "deaths" or shedding of forms during the entire pre-human evolutionary process (moving from one individual stone to another, one plant to another, etc., rather than just counting the broad species), the soul goes through approximately "fifty crores [500 million] of sleeps of death" before it even reaches the human form.

In summary, the 8.4 million "shakes" or "reincarnations" strictly refer to the number of human lifetimes a soul experiences. However, during the prior evolutionary journey, the soul also traversed exactly 8.4 million species of pre-human forms (from stone to animal). The number is fixed for both processes independently.

The Numbers of Creation

There are numerous references in Lord Meher to the fact that there are 56 God-realised souls on Earth at any one time.

Lord Meher Online Edition Page 683:

While Baba was discoursing on the 29th, someone asked, "Why are there 56 Realized souls in the world in every age?"

The number 56 denotes perfection. This number appears to be perfect to those who manage these spiritual workings, as one Supreme Being alone cannot manage the whole affair single-handedly. He requires assistance, and the number of assistants is fixed at 56.

For instance, a toddyshop-keeper needs several helpers — one to prepare the toddy, another to serve it, another to collect payment, et cetera. But if there is no shop, what is the use of helpers? In the same way, when there is no universe — as is the case for the majzoobs, who are realized but have no consciousness of the world and its affairs — for them, there is no work.

To return to the question: The universe must be maintained, and to carry out the affairs of the universe in an orderly manner 56 God-realized persons are required. The number is fixed at 56 because a number less than that cannot do all the work and the different duties. Suppose a man has lost one of his eyes. Although he can still see with the other eye, he sees with difficulty. Therefore, two eyes are given to each human being to enable him to see perfectly.

In just the same way, two ears, one nose, two hands, and two feet are provided. In short, everything in nature goes on according to rules and regulations and principles laid down by the "Experienced" or Realized Sages, and nothing is haphazard.

All these explanations are beyond comprehension by your intellect. Such understanding is virtually useless, unless one has the real Experience of Realization. However much you may exert your brains, in the end it is all like the caterwauling and barking of cats and dogs, until such time as you experience the wind of Reality.

The Knowledge and Experience of a Sadguru cannot be grasped through the intellect because it is altogether beyond the intellect. As Hafiz says:

This Knowledge is never grasped by the intellect's noose; Untie the noose and you will obtain it.

Lord Meher Online Edition Page 2350

Figure 1 shows a chart with explanation following.

Figure 1 

Now, after the human form reincarnates 84 lakhs of times, how does the soul enter the subtle world?

From the gross to God state, there are seven stages of winding and seven stages of unwinding. Up to the stone form, there is no winding nor twist. Neither are there species up to the stone form. Thereafter, 14 lakhs of species in each of the six forms up to human evolution, equals 84 lakhs of species. These seven twists, where each form changes to another higher one, are for making the seven main species thicker and thicker.

There are always and eternally 84 lakhs of souls who experience subtle experiences. Among them, there are seven who are the chiefs and can experience the mental world in the same subtle body. These seven have duty. The 84 lakhs of subtle experiencers are existing even today. The figure is always constant. There are an equal number who experience the mental world. But in each new unwinding, one of the seven chiefs with duty becomes less, meaning he gets no normal consciousness nor duty. How many out of the seven chiefs get duty in the subtle? Seven. In the mental, six have duty; in the God-state, five.

On the gross plane: 84 lakhs of reincarnations, although there are millions of human beings in the world.

On the subtle plane: 84 lakhs of souls who experience the subtle world.

Out of these 84 lakhs of those experiencing the subtle world there are seven chiefs who have duty. When these seven cross over to the mental plane, only six have duty and one remains dormant. When these seven cross over from the mental to the God-state, five have duty and two remain dormant. In the God-realized state, out of 56 there are five heads and two majzoobs. The majzoob state is attained on the seventh plane.

The first human form that one gets after the last animal form of monkey is not a complete human form. It has no differentiation in sex. The first human form is that of a bahirupi [neuter]. That is to say, the first human form is neither male nor female. Then what happens? The same form develops a different form with a male sex organ. If you reverse this organ, it is transformed into a female sex organ. This is mere phenomena, but it is all the exchanging of sanskaras.

How does this happen? It is just like a slight flicker, a flash or spark of light. When a railroad engine changes tracks, its light flickers. It is the same here. The first human form has both the male and female sexes latent in it. Therefore, the first human form is that of a bahirupi. Only when the bahirupi takes another form, either male or female, are the organs visible. This causes the process of reincarnation to begin.

That is also why among the five Perfect Masters there are four males and one female.

This is most interesting because Baba explains that there are continuously 8.4 millions souls experiencing the subtle plane and the same number experiencing the mental plane. Meanwhile, there are billions of humans on Earth and other planets experiencing the physical plane. I've long entertained the notion that each soul can be conceived of as a prime number, unique and indivisible, with the Avatar as 1 and the Godhead as 0. The next God-realised person, made so by the Avatar, would be 2 and so on. This is just my imagining and has nothing to do with Baba.

Getting back to Baba, here is what he had to say about the number 7:

There are seven worlds [planets in evolution], seven skies, seven suns, seven moons, seven planes and seven heavens [in involution]. Why this figure seven? And sanskaras too are of seven colors. Why? Because in the very beginning, when Energy (Pran) clashed with Matter (Akash), it created seven divisions.

Each individual human being is a universe unto himself. In the head there are seven openings: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and one mouth. In the body there are seven parts: two arms, two legs, two openings (front and back), and one trunk.

But all this explaining of the universe and creation relates to the hair and has nothing to do with the head. So first try to get hold of the head, because out of it comes everything.

Baba drew a figure of a man's head with hair and added:

The barber's work is to shave the head. And who is the barber in this case? Mahapralaya! For when it occurs, all the hairs (universes) on God's head are shaved off.

It is said that the universes pour out of the Godhead; they are like God's hair. Your head may symbolize God and your hair the universes.

Tim Buckley's Morning Glory

There's a few songs that for me at least have a spiritual significance and one of them is Morning Glory by Tim Buckley. Here's a video of his singing the song:

Here are the lyrics (there are some slight differences to what he actually sings):

I lit my purest candle close to my

Window, hoping it would catch the eye

Of any vagabond who passed it by,

And I waited in my fleeting house

Before he came I felt him drawing near;

As he neared I felt the ancient fear

That he had come to wound my door and jeer,

And I waited in my fleeting house

"Tell me stories, " I called to the Hobo;

"Stories of cold, " I smiled at the Hobo;

"Stories of old, " I knelt to the Hobo;

And he stood before my fleeting house

"No, " said the Hobo, "No more tales of time;

Don't ask me now to wash away the grime;

I can't come in 'cause it's too high a climb, "

And he walked away from my fleeting house

"Then you be damned!" I screamed to the Hobo;

"Leave me alone, " I wept to the Hobo;

"Turn into stone, " I knelt to the Hobo;

And he walked away from my fleeting house

At first sight, the lyrics may not seem to have any spiritual significance so let's look more closely. The fleeting house is a symbol of our transient physical form. As the saying goes, the eyes are windows of the soul so putting my purest candle close to my Window, hoping to catch the eye of any vagabond who passed it by means putting oneself in a very still and receptive state in the hope of making eye contact with a vagabond. A vagabond is a person who wanders from place to place without a home or job and is free of worldly ties. It serves here as a metaphor for a perfect master, a God-realised being, who has transcended duality and become one with God.

He waits and feels the vagabond drawing near but feels the ancient fear which is the threat of ego annihilation that is a necessary prelude on the path to becoming a spiritually perfect. The fear that he had come to wound my door and jeer is of course the way in which a perfect master methodically demolishes the disciple's ego. On arrival, the vagabond is referred to seven times as the Hobo and seven of course has deep mystical significance as a number of perfection. However, it is the prospective disciple that unwisely decides to set the agenda: tell me stories ... stories of cold ... stories of old.

The Hobo is not about to do this: no ... no more tales of time. Those who have attained union with God have transcended time and exist in eternity. The world of duality in which we are enmeshed however, is a world of time. Any reference to it is pointless from the spiritual point of view. Don't ask me now to wash away the grime: the grime is a reference to the karma (sanskaras) that we have accumulated over the course of our evolution and which bind us to the physical plane. Perfect masters can erase these sanskaras in an instant if they have the whim and if we are deserving of their grace.

I can't come in 'cause it's too high a climb, says the Hobo because the spiritual aspirant has put himself above the master by attempting to set the agenda. He has not shown proper humility, an essential prerequisite to spiritual progress. The perfect master, being one with God, is above everything and thus there is nowhere to climb. The master walks away from the aspirant much to the latter's annoyance, his anger demonstrating further his egotism and unsuitability for spiritual uplifting.

That's my take on it anyway.

Reincarnation

There are lots of misconceptions surrounding the concept of reincarnation. In this post, I'm just attempting some clarification based on what I've read over the years, not based on any personal revelation. Unless something about a past life reveals itself to you, there's little point in pursuing the matter. There's a reason you don't remember your past lives and it's simply that such an awareness would interfere mightily with the life you are currently living. If you don't remember your past lives or you don't even believe you have any past lives to remember, then that's fine. Just get on with your current life and do the best you can. There are plenty of people who will supposedly help you remember your past lives and many techniques that can be applied to this end but I'm not advocating any of that here. 

To reincarnate literally means to incarnate or take flesh again, in other words you get a new body. But are you really reborn? As Barry Long said, you are not reborn. It is only your ignorance that is reborn. Your body, your memories and your personality, everything that you might consider as constituting you, does not return. It was this identification with these false elements of yourself that precipitated your return, according to Barry Long. You were ignorant of who you really were and so you have to return again in an attempt to dispel this ignorance. So who are you really? Well, you are certainly not your body, memories or personality and it doesn't help to have an intellectual conviction about what you think you are. You have to experience who you really are, as Gautama the Buddha did:

Seeking but not finding the house builder,
I hurried through the round of many births:
Painful is birth ever and again. 

O house builder, you have been seen;
You shall not build the house again.
Your rafters have been broken up,
Your ridgepole is demolished too. 

My mind has now attained the unformed Nirvana
And reached the end of every sort of craving.

So, if you can find "the house builder" then you won't be coming back but of course, you - that is the false you - is the builder and while you might even realise that intellectually, you still identify with the builder because who else can you identify with. You still experience yourself as solid and permanent. Of course you are anything but. Solid? You are largely empty space. Permanent? You are have changed from baby, to youth, to adult and sooner or later you will die. You are hardly permanent. Tricky.

Your false you, and all the other false you's who came before you, are part of a vast chain of life leading up to that moment of enlightenment in which Siddhartha Gautama:

... remembered all his previous lives—infinite number of lives—female and male and every other race and every other being in the vast ocean of life forms. And he remembered all that viscerally so his awareness expanded until all the moments of the past were completely present to him. 

It might help to think of yourself as part of a team, a relay race if you will, and unwittingly you are passing the baton on to the next runner and any missteps on your part will affect the next runner's fortunes. This analogy conveys the operation of karma. Your actions in this life have repercussions in the next, for the next you. As an illustration, if you run a factory farm in this life that exploits and abuses animals, then you may find yourself drawn in the next life to caring for them and easing their suffering.

So what happens when you die? The following explanation about the purpose of life after death will clarify things further (source):

The purpose of this stage is to extract the essence of the life just lived. We do this by re-living our Earth life, with particular focus on the deeper meaning and finer feelings of each experience. During this process, countless psychic impressions are sifted and reviewed in great detail. Whatever material is no longer needed is cast aside, like chaff from the grain. At the same time, the true value of our life experience is gathered together into a concentrated spiritual essence.

When extracting gold from the earth, miners may collect 50 tons of raw ore to produce a single ounce of pure gold. Likewise, the huge volume of psychic impressions from a lifetime yields only a tiny germ of spiritual essence. The exact nature of this essence is a mystery. It could be called the deepest meaning, or the finest expression of a human life. From another perspective, it represents the accumulated truth, love and wisdom of the Earth experience. Once gathered, this essence ascends to the next plane where it becomes a permanent part of our spiritual body, or soul.

As we distill the psychic impressions, we're actually consuming our astral body, for really they are one and the same. By getting rid of what is no longer needed, we're becoming less. And at the same time we're becoming more, in the sense of more real, true, and eternal.

This process culminates in what could be called a "second death", at which point there are two possible outcomes. If the astral body has been sufficiently consumed through the process described above, then individual awareness makes a "quantum leap" to the spiritual plane where it merges with soul. However, if an astral body remains intact, then residual desires can pull awareness back to the Earth plane for another cycle of birth and death. These desires are like psychic seeds, or DNA, which become the template for a new birth, or so called, "reincarnation".

The term "reincarnation" usually refers to a soul incarnating a human form repeatedly, over many lifetimes. This is a misunderstanding. The soul always remains on the spiritual plane and can neither incarnate nor reincarnate a human form. Rather, the soul participates in recurring human births and the degree of participation, as well as the number and frequency of recurring births, can vary widely. Likewise, a recurring birth may take place soon after death or hundreds of years later. There are many variables which influence this process and the range of possibilities is enormous.

The astral body tends to just fade away rather than to die abruptly as the physical body does. For most of us, our "residual desires" draw us back to the Earth plane and the dance of life continues. Here is Meher Baba's comments on reincarnation (source):

IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL 

"The worldly man completely identifies life with the manifestations and activities of the gross body. For him, therefore, the beginning and the end of bodily existence are also the beginning and end of the individualised soul.

"The overwhelming importance of death is derived from man's attachment to particular forms, but death loses much of its sting and importance, even for the worldly man, if he takes a broader view of the course of life. 

"In spite of their transitoriness, there is an unbroken continuity of life through these forms, old ones being discarded and new ones created for habitation and expression. 

“The recurring incident of death is matched by the recurring incident of birth.

“Old generations are replaced by new ones; life is reborn in new forms, incessantly renewing and refreshing itself..." 

THE THREE FORMS OF NATURE 

“Immortality of the individualised soul is rendered possible by the fact that the individualised soul is not the same as the physical body. 

“The individualised soul continues to exist with all its sanskaras [impressions] in the inner worlds through the medium of its mental and subtle bodies, even after it has discarded its gross body at the time of death. 

"So, life through the medium of the gross body is only a section of the continuous life of the individualised soul; the other sections of its life have their expression in other worlds." 

“The whole of nature may therefore be conveniently divided into three parts – (i) the gross world, (ii) the subtle world and (iii) the mental world.

“When the individualised soul has incarnated itself in a physical body, it expresses its life in the gross world. 

"When it drops the outer sheath, the physical body, it continues to have its expression of life either in the subtle world through subtle body, or in the mental world through the mental body.” 

SANSKARAS 

“Ordinarily, life in the physical body is terminated only when the sanskaras released for expression in that incarnation are all worked out. 

"When the soul drops its physical body it is completely severed from all connections with the gross world, though the ego and the mind are retained with all the impressions accumulated in the earthly career. 

“...ordinary spirits try to reconcile themselves to severance from the gross world, and conform to the limitations of changed conditions and sink into a state of subjectivity in which a new process begins of mentally reviewing the experiences of the earthly career by reviving the sanskaras connected with them. 

“Thus death inaugurates a period of comparative rest consisting in a temporary withdrawal from the gross sphere of action. It is the beginning of an interval between the last incarnation and the next.” 

KARMA 

“In the successive incarnations of an individual soul, there is not only a thread of continuity and identity…but here is also an uninterrupted reign of the law of cause and effect through the persistence and operation of Karma. 

“The successive incarnations with all their particulars are closely and unfailingly determined by rational law... ” 

“The actions of past lives determine the conditions and circumstances of the present life, and the actions of the present life have their share in determining the conditions and circumstances of the future lives.”