Are disabled people closer to Moksha?

[TatTvamAsi]

Namaste,

I was thinking about this the other day.

If a person is disabled, and unfortunately, many are, are they closer to mokSA?

The reason I ask this is because we know that the IndriyAs (senses) are our way of experiencing the world, so to speak. So, in other words, the senses are the instruments through which our consciousness constantly flows outward.

If one of the senses is missing or damaged, like sight, for example, this would impede the external flow of consciousness would it not? And, so, one can be said to be closer to home or "aham"(?).

We are aware of the 10 senses plus the mind:

5- karmendriyas--senses of action
5 - jnanendriyas--senses of cognition/knowledge
1 - manas--mind

I was also told that for example, if you look at Stephen Hawking, a world-renowned physicist, he is severely disabled with Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS), but his mind is of (apparently) keen intellect. Could it be that because his life energy, prana, was not flowing outwards due to his disability, it was focused more on one, the mind?

It is interesting to note that dogs are colorblind but have an incredible sense of smell/hearing and I always used to wonder if it was like a money-market account where say you have $100k and you can invest it in 10 different financial instruments. Suddenly, one instrument is expired or unavailable, so you invest the funds into another instrument making it much "stronger" so to speak.

Please keep in mind, pun intended (LOL), these are just speculations and so I wanted to discuss it.

Namaskar.

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam TTA: Interesting thoughts.

I feel that most disabled people are suffering some karmic debt. Where they are on the path in the sense of lifetimes is just speculation, so they could or could not be closer to moksha. I think Hawking is an extreme example. But there were also blind (Stevie Wonder) and even deaf (Beethoven) musical geniuses. But the number of unseen (institutionalised) quadrapalegics or severely handicapped I think outweighs the geniuses by quite a lot. There is a whole spectrum of intelligence there.

Back when I taught I was always struck by how easy it is to recognise and adapt to physical disability, but not to mental or emotional ones. With a mental disability such as dyslexia or the emotional crippling of ODD for example you have to interrelate for awhile before 'seeing' it.

I've also heard that dogs can read auras, and that is why they can sense fear or aggression in humans.

But it's always food for thought.

Aum Namasivaya

[TatTvamAsi]

Vannakkam TTA: Interesting thoughts.

I feel that most disabled people are suffering some karmic debt. Where they are on the path in the sense of lifetimes is just speculation, so they could or could not be closer to moksha. I think Hawking is an extreme example. But there were also blind (Stevie Wonder) and even deaf (Beethoven) musical geniuses. But the number of unseen (institutionalised) quadrapalegics or severely handicapped I think outweighs the geniuses by quite a lot. There is a whole spectrum of intelligence there.

Back when I taught I was always struck by how easy it is to recognise and adapt to physical disability, but not to mental or emotional ones. With a mental disability such as dyslexia or the emotional crippling of ODD for example you have to interrelate for awhile before 'seeing' it.

I've also heard that dogs can read auras, and that is why they can sense fear or aggression in humans.

But it's always food for thought.

Aum Namasivaya

Namaste EM,

Yes, that's a good point.

Yet, we can look at it from a different perspective. For instance, children, especially before the age of 4, are said to be an embodiment of IswarA.

This is because the ego is apparently absent in them and they are not conditioned yet.

Children, for all intents are purposes, are stupid in the sense that they don't have 'book-knowledge', beautifully termed as vinjnana in Sanskrit. This book-knowledge can be said to be an impediment to the ultimate goal.

Likewise, if someone is mentally disabled, their minds are not as active (?) as someone who is 'normal'.

The interesting thing is, when it comes to disabled people, even the most aggressive, violent people tend to be compassionate towards them; well, except muslims and nazis.

Namaskar.

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam TTA:

My own mother had Alzheimer's, and although it was tough emotionally for me, the detached side of me observed it with piqued curiousity. In certain ways, because she lost the ability to think, she couldn't emote and seemed quite detached in her own little world. (Almost as if the soul body had already departed) From the outside, it was almost like a deep state of meditation, etc. Also quite reminding of children, especially babies, before they learn the first emotional (giggles, etc. from facial recognition) stuff. So the whole study is quite interesting. Some advanced mystic with clairaudience would know, but its probably only trivial information in the grand scheme of things.

Aum Namasivaya

[amra]

Yes if you poke out your eyes, cut out your tongue stop your ears, block up your nose and chop off your hands and maybe even castrate yourself you will definetly have moksha. Get someone to do it for you and then you will even be free of the karma.

What a strange idea of mukti you have.

But seriously disabled people have impediments to the correct flow of prana, which collects unharmoniously giving rise to disabilities. The external reflects the internal, the internal is the cause. So a disabled person would have to do more extreme austerities than a normally functioning person to get rid of his blocks, which is not impossible but highly unlikely. Disabled people are deserving of compassion but it should not be ignored that they are inauspicious and represent unharmonious imperfect development.

[rainycity]

Yes if you poke out your eyes, cut out your tongue stop your ears, block up your nose and chop off your hands and maybe even castrate yourself you will definetly have moksha. Get someone to do it for you and then you will even be free of the karma.

What a strange idea of mukti you have.

But seriously disabled people have impediments to the correct flow of prana, which collects unharmoniously giving rise to disabilities. The external reflects the internal, the internal is the cause. So a disabled person would have to do more extreme austerities than a normally functioning person to get rid of his blocks, which is not impossible but highly unlikely. Disabled people are deserving of compassion but it should not be ignored that they are inauspicious and represent unharmonious imperfect development.

amra, could you tell me where you got these ideas? I find them to be quite offensive and repugnant. If disabled people are 'inauspicious', when was the last time you heard of disabled people starting wars, committing murders or being malignant in general? the able people of the world are causing all of the problems. Disabled is a very broad term, it covers intellectually disabled people who are happier and more kind and caring then most intellectually abled people, to unfortunate people who are physically disabled from birth or a terrible accident.

[PARAM]

Disability cause of Karma, but it brings out challange.
Maharshi Ashtavakra was disabled bend from 8 parts, but he was very intelligent, he defeated all Vedic scholars at the age of 12.

He clearly says that check ability in soul, and not in body.

[c.smith]

Perhaps off the moksha subject a tad, but can't the disabled be seen as given a gift of the disability? I know some who have taken that attitude and actually work with it to their advantage. Isn't that using karma to their and probably everyone around them advantage? So perhaps it's no closer or further away from moksha than anyone else, but it is using a "negative" as a "positive" if you think in those terms. Just my two cents worth.

[PatrickMB]

This topic caught my interest because I have a son with a rather mild form of cerebral palsy. My first thought was that his C.P. is a way of working off bad karma. But now I have another question. Is it possible that in his last incarnation, he was completely incapacitated and his current state is him rising higher over his last earthly life? I do not know that answer and would invite comments from those more knowledgeable than myself.

Many thanks

[NayaSurya]

For the billions of people upon this rock, you could multiply that to the infinity for the reasons why one would be born with a disability.

Snipped from a post I made many moons ago about this topic-
http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/sho...light=disabled


"I have met thousands of beings on this planet and I can say for a fact that I have yet to meet a perfectly, wholy functioning individual. So if God broke anything, he broke us all. Perhaps broke isn't even the word for it, as we all have these flaws in varying degrees.

Every single person, even the most beautiful, perfect athelete has some sort of "disability".

Some disabilities, such as cold hearted indifference or ignorance are easier to hide than the crippled child's deficiency. If given the choice I would choose such an obvious disability over blind minded ignorance a thousand times over.

As one who has cared for such obviously disabled beings I would say sometimes...the karma isn't perhaps their's to work off at all...but the people around them. Who knows specifically how the wheels of Karma will turn?

A person who is cruel to a disabled person may then find themselves the recipient of such deformity in another life? A person cruel to a disabled person may come back and find the most cherish and loved person in their universe suddenly incapacitated in such a way? Wouldn't the lesson be learned either way?

God breaks himself to know such things first hand, and I am the harbinger, the mother, the lover, the care giver, and always compassionate when treading beside such beloved beings. For every piece is Beloved Shiva...and every piece just as beloved as the next."


You may never know what brought this disability into being...and then again...you may someday find yourself in the "ahah" moment where the karma blooms so fully before your eyes that you become aware of the reason. Sometimes the disabilty could be the lesson for the loved ones more than it is for them.

My littlest daughter, now 7 has mild CP, hemiplegic. But she is doing wonderfully thanks to years of therapy. I can say for her...it has not posed any bump that she did not overcome. It's been more of a lesson to me about patience...if anything. I need a whole lot of patience since her wheelchair was replaced with shoes!