REINCARNATION

[Guest guest]

REINCARNATION - THE BASIS OF AN INFALLIBLE JUSTICEReincarnation forms an

integral part of the explanation of the Vedic scriptures for the seeming

contradictions in karma. They assert the eternality of our existence; our life

doesn't begin with birth or end with death. Each one of us is an irreducible,

infinitesimal particle of anti-matter - spirit. It is this spark which animates

the material body that we currently reside in. The body is merely an external

covering like a dress. And just as we give up old and worn out clothes and

accept new ones, the soul similarly gives up old and worn out bodies and

accepts new ones at the time of death. This is what we call reincarnation.Ralph

Waldo Emerson, one of the greatest thinkers of USA, states in his journals, "The

soul comes from without into the human body as into a temporary abode, and it

goes out of it anew.. it passes into other habitations, for the soul is

immortal."The soul is the active principle in the

body. He is the doer of all actions - good and bad and thus it is he who has to

reap the fruits of his actions, either in the same life or in a subsequent

life. So we can understand that an apparently pious person who is suffering

greatly is reaping the effects of impious activities performed in this or

previous lives. Conversely an impious person may enjoy temporary prosperity now

due to his past pious credits. Of course, irrespective of their present

condition, the nature of their present activities is certainly going to have

its effect - the pious will reap benefits and the impious will suffer, in due

course of time.An analogy will make the workings of the law of karma clear.In

villages, foodgrains are often stored in huge vertical containers; fresh grains

are poured in from the top and old stored grains are taken out from the top. A

farmer may have produced poor quality grains of say brand Z for the past 4

years and stocked them in his container. This year he

produces high quality grains of say brand A and stores them from the top. Yet he

finds to his exasperation that from the bottom grains of brand Z come out. This

is how "bad things happen to good people".Thus the principles of reincarnation

allow us to view life with a much broader perspective - not from the standpoint

of one brief lifetime which is nothing more than a flash in time, but from the

standpoint of eternity. With this broader vision, we can understand how each

individual soul is alone responsible for his own karma. Understanding of this

universal and infallible system of justice is the basis of lasting peace and

real happiness.The famous author W Somerset Maugham remarks in The Razor's

Edge, "Has it occurred to you that transmigration is at once an explanation and

a justification of the evil of the world? If the evils we suffer are the result

of sins committed in our past lives, we can bear them with resignation and hope

that if in this one we strive

towards virtue our future lives will be less afflicted."IGNORANCE IS NO EXCUSEIn

the court of divine justice, a human being cannot claim innocence on the grounds

of ignorance. The laws of nature are impartial and inescapable. Fire is going to

burn anyone who puts his hand into it, even if he be an ignorant child. Fire

cannot be deemed cruel; the cruelty is on the part of the guardians of the

child who did notenlighten him about the nature of fire and stop him from

putting his hand into it.Similarly when out of ignorance we engage in sinful

activities, nature cannot be blamed as cruel for handing out to us our due

suffering. Rather it is our intelligentsia, our educational system which has

been blatantly cruel to us by keeping us in darkness about the higher

dimensional law of karma. Just see the absurdity, nay the tragedy, of what is

termed to be education. We are forced to remember truckloads of unnecessary

information such as the fifth President of USA

(God knows what he has reincarnated into!) in the name of general knowledge,

while there is not even a mention of the most essential of all knowledge – the

cause of our suffering and the way out of it.And what is the consequence? When

people find adversities striking them (adversities which they have themselves

created by their past karma), they helplessly grope in the dark struggling in

vain to understand why the world is so cruel to them. Out of sheer frustration

they embrace atheistic and agnostic beliefs and engage in further licentious

forms of behavior in order to find some semblance of happiness. But such

behavior in violation of divine laws leads to severe karmic reactions, thus

serving only to increase the suffering in the lives of the masses. And all this

is due to the ignorance which is advertised as knowledge in our educational

system. Kudos to Messrs Suffering Manufacturers, ModernEducational System

Inc.!(to be continued)...

Vidyadhar M. KarmarkarGraduate Research AssistantMolecular Plant Breeding419,

Crop Science BuildingDepartment of Crop and Soil ScienceOregon State

UniversityCorvallis, OR 97331.Phone: 541-737-5844