(Conclusion)

How do we find our true reason for coming back to earth in this lifetime?

It seems like an impossible search, for there is no tangible or concrete clue where to start. But there is such a clue.

The clue lies in yourself, your inner self. The soul always remembers. If you listen to its inner voice through deep meditation, you will find the answer, if you are ready for it.

You do not have to undergo hypnotic regression, which can be dangerous, especially if done by an amateur hypnotist. All you have to do is learn to meditate.

Future lifetimes

The trouble is, we never bother to listen to our inner selves. We are too busy earning a living, and seeking purely earthly pleasures that we often forget to ask why we are even alive.

We are always responsible for all the things that we have done or not done in the past, and we are always responsible for all the things we will do or not do in the future. Let us not for a moment think that our obligation to repay a karmic debt or learn a lesson ceases at the time of death.

That is not so, for life is continuous and the karmic debts we have incurred will have to be paid in future lifetimes, in future incarnations. The soul never forgets, and no earthly circumstances or artificial barriers can prevent the fulfillment of a karmic assignment or relationship.

Let me illustrate this. While writing this article, an interesting news item appeared in a newspaper about an Australian woman who gave up her son for adoption, only to be reunited with him again 10 years later, as the adopted son of the man whom she plans to marry.

Here’s the full story as told by the United Press International:

“A woman who gave up her baby for adoption 10 years ago has been reunited with him in a million-to-one chance meeting. He is the adopted son of the man she plans to marry.

“The woman, Shirley Rider, has been married and divorced since giving birth to her son, Shane, at an Adelaide unmarried mothers’ home 10 years ago.

Laws of karma

“Rider met her fiance 11 months ago and as they discussed their life stories, she began to realize Shane was her son. ‘This has been such an incredible miracle, I can’t explain the joy I feel,’ Rider said.

“She said Shane’s resemblance to her and his birth date tallied with information given to Shane’s adoptive parents about the natural mother and her circumstances at the time of his birth.”The newspaper described the incident as a “million-to-one chance.” But this is not chance.

It is a good example of the workings of the laws of karma. Shane and his mother had to meet to work out their own karma that binds them to each other. No mortal force, no social convention or norms of morality, as conventionally understood, can break a karmic bond.

And this explains why we sometimes meet for the first time certain people whom we strongly feel we have met before. Karma and reincarnation also explain why there is such a thing as “love at first sight,” or its negative, “hate at first sight.”

We must remember that both love and hate bind a person karmically to another. If you do not want to meet your enemy again in a future lifetime, you must banish all traces of hatred or malice toward him, otherwise, you will surely meet him again in your next incarnation.

Selfish love also binds a person to another until he learns to love in a universal, transcendental, nonpossessive and unselfish manner.

Choice is ours

The Zen masters have said that this world is largely our own mental creation. Nothing happens to us except what we ourselves have chosen to experience in a given lifetime. The fact that we are not now aware of such a choice we have made does not mean it is not so.

Our higher self, our subconscious, our soul always remembers. Only by finding out for ourselves why we have incarnated here can we truly find lasting and true happiness.

The choice is always ours. Seek the answer within. There is no other way. Soon you will realize the awesome truth that you are always what you have chosen to be. And you alone are responsible for what you are.