On Spirituality - 4: About rebirth, reincarnation, and, Not remembering past lives...

[Guest guest]

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Is there such a thing as rebirth

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Yes, undoubtedly there is rebirth.

First of all, you have several miraculous instances of young boys and girls

suddenly exhibiting great knowledge.

A young girl, who has never studied any book, recites the Bhagavad-Gita. How do

you account for it except that she had mastered the Gita in her previous birth,

and that by the grace of the Lord, that knowledge has come to the conscious part

of her mind in this birth too ?

Further, rebirth is a necessity for the soul's evolution. Perfection cannot be

achieved in one birth. Even to develop some cardinal virtues it might take

several births. If you wish to attain Self-realization, you have to achieve

perfection in all the virtues. You have to achieve perfect self-purification.

So, rebirth is a necessity for the Jiva's (individual soul's) evolution.

Have you seen the caterpillar moving from one leaf to another ? It will reach

the edge of one leaf; then project itself; it will catch hold of another leaf,

and then only will it entirely leave the first leaf.

The Jiva, too, goes about like this. Even before it leaves one body, it has made

another (gross or subtle) body according to its Karmas and desires; and it

enters this new body with all the Samskaras (impressions) and Vasanas

(desires).

 

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It has been said against reincarnation that there are more people now in

comparison with the past world

population.------------------

It is not necessary that the same persons are reborn into this earth and none

else. In the process of evolution into human life, many from lower births also

come up to the human level. All these are controlled by superhuman powers or by

the Divinity, God or Isvara Himself. Further, rebirth need not necessarily be on

this earth plane alone. It can take place anywhere in the universe.

 

 

 

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Why do we not remember our past lives

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Such remembrance under our existing limitations would considerably complicate

our present life. Therefore, the wise and beneficent Lord has so ordered our

mental evolution that we cannot recall our past lives until such time as it is

good and helpful for us to remember. Such instances may well form a cycle which

is all clear to us when we come to the end of it, when we see a whole rosary of

lives threaded upon the one personality.

 

 

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....ContinuedOn Spirituality - 1: What's God, Why should we believe HIM, What's

the harm, in not believing HIM?On Spirituality - 2: About Religions, Prophets

and their teachings, Politics and ReligionOn Spirituality - 3: Soul, and, its

existence, Is GOD a metaphysical abstraction?On Spirituality - 4: About

rebirth, reincarnation, and, Not remembering past lives...

Continued...------------------

(From Swami Sivananda's Book, "May I Answer

That?")------------------