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RETROGRADE INCARNATION IS EXTREMELY RARE

Meher Baba

 
Once a soul acquires the human form, the general rule is an onward march through human incarnations only. Retrograde incarnation is extremely rare in the advancing self-fulfillment of the life-stream. It sometimes results from flagrant misuse of occult powers.

Retrograde incarnation is not a general rule but an extremely rare exception. Continuation of the human form without reversion to any subhuman form is the normal occurrence.

Even for gross violation of moral laws a corrective is provided by the same soul having to go through the opposite of what he has done or experienced. For example, a person who murders another for lust might himself be murdered for lust, either in the same incarnation or in the next, and thus realize the nefariousness of his heinous crime.

However, retrograde incarnation can take place in those exceptional circumstances where occult powers are used for the perpetration of heinous crimes. A soul which is invested with occult powers (due to his station on a higher plane) is expected to have them under full control.

But if he grossly misuses them due to being a victim of his lower desires or ego-projects, he invites upon himself the drastic penalty of having to revert back to the subhuman form and recommence his evolution from that point. This sort of thing can happen on the fourth plane unless there is a timely intervention by some higher beings. But retrogression of this type is very unusual.

The forward march of the advancing life-stream brings with it an increasing ascent towards the peak of realized Truth, and an increasingly greater unfoldment of inner divinity.

 

BEAMS FROM MEHER BABA, pp. 25-26
1958 © Sufism Reoriented, Inc.

               

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