Hinduism and the belief in rebirth.

[Guest guest]

A beautiful article on the Hindu concept of re-incarnation.

 

Regards.

 

--Sanjay Aggarwal

 

Hinduism and the belief in rebirth

 

According to Hinduism a soul reincarnates again and again on earth

till it becomes perfect and reunites with it Source. During this

process the soul enters into many bodies, assumes many forms and

passes through many births and deaths. This concept is summarily

described in the following verse of the Bhagavad gita:

 

"Just as a man discards worn out clothes and puts on new clothes,

the soul discards worn out bodies and wears new ones." (2.22)

 

According to Hinduism a being has to live many lives and under go

many experiences before it attains perfection and becomes one with

the Divine. The Hindu theory of creation suggests that creation

begins when the individual souls becomes separated from the

undifferentiated One. It continues as the evolution of life and

consciousness in matter progresses. During this process some of

souls journey back to God through the transformation of matter or

prakriti in which they were hidden. The remaining souls continue

their existence and rejoin Him in the end, not through

transformation but through a process of great destruction. Thus the

great cycle of creation, stretching over millions of years, comes to

its logical end.

 

Once the creative process is switched on, the individual soul hides

behind the false personality called jiva, the subtle body and an

outer personality called the mind and the body or the ego. The is

made up of the subtle body, the subtle mind and a little bit of

discretionary intelligence called buddhi. The ego is made up of the

gross physical body, the surface consciousness consisting of

innumerable desires and impulses. Since the Jiva and the ego have no

idea of Truth or reality, they suffers from ignorance and illusion.

They succumbs to illusion and suffer from the delusion of the outer

mind. They behave selfishly as if they are different from the rest

of creation and end up with suffering, indulging in acts of self

perpetuation.

 

At the end of each life, the physical body and the gross mind return

to the elements of the earth. But the Jiva and the soul survive

death. Depending upon the nature of their past deeds, and the number

of subtle bodies it has developed, the Jiva either ascends to the

heaven or descends into the hell. Hiding the indwelling spirit in

its core, the Jiva stays in these worlds till it exhausts the fruits

of its good or bad actions. Having learned some new lessons, it then

returns to the earth again to take another birth.

 

Thus the Jiva undergoes innumerable births and deaths. It becomes

bound to the mortal life and the laws of nature. Death provides

temporary relief, but exposes the individual Jiva to the risk of

falling into greater depths of suffering.

 

Even the Buddha who founded Buddhism did not discard this theory,

though he was silent on the existence of God and did not confirm the

existence of soul. The Buddha preached that not soul but the ever

changing individual character, which moves from one birth to another

birth, till all changing and becoming comes to an end, through the

transformation of character on the lines of the Eightfold path.

 

Hinduism speaks of the existence of heavens above and hells below.

The former are sun filled, inhabited by gods and innumerable divine

souls. The latter are dark worlds (asurya lokas) and populated by

all the dark and demonic forces. The individual souls go into these

worlds according to their deeds. But they do not stay there

permanently till the end of destruction. They go there basically as

a consequence of their actions, either to enjoy or to suffer. In

either case they learn the lesson and come back to earth to start a

new earthly life all over again.

 

Thus according to Hinduism, life in heaven may be longer, but still

it is a mortal life only. There, a Jiva may enjoy extreme pleasures,

but it would not last for ever. Once its karma is exhausted, the

Jiva is thrown back from the heights of heavenly glory into the

turmoil of unstable earthly life .

 

The Hindu concept of reincarnation is alien to western people. It is

mostly misunderstood and misinterpreted, partly because of ignorance

and partly because of some inherent mental blockage natural to the

single minded pursuit of religious faith along rutted paths. It

generated a lot of controversy because it directly challenges the

western notion of one life, one heaven and the final day of

judgement.

 

Today this fundamental concept of Hinduism is finding many new

adherents and believers all over the world. The reasons are many.

Firstly, a great mass of evidence is gathering in favour of

reincarnation through the personal experiences of many who chanced

to remember their past lives and were able to record their

experiences in stunning details for the posterity. Secondly the

modern theories of hypnotic regression are gaining acceptance in

many parts of the world. There are now many institutions, which help

interested individuals to remember their past lives as a part of

their spiritual awakening. Thirdly many enlightened psychic masters

like Edgar Cayce confirmed beyond doubt that reincarnation is not

just a theory or imagination, but a definite reality.

 

The Hindu concept of reincarnation is based upon the logical notion

that life on earth did not emerge suddenly, but evolved gradually,

involving great epoch of time and a vast multitude of beings. During

this process the static and inert consciousness of matter yielded

place to the dynamic movement of life and consciousness. The animal

tendencies gave way to human reason and humane thoughts. Extending

the same logic we may further say that in future, from this part

animal, part human and part divine being, there would emerge a

spiritual man of divine consciousness, the Superman of Sri

Aurobindo, with supra mental consciousness.

 

If you look at the personality of an ordinary human being, you will

realize that there is a lot in him, that is grosser and denser which

cannot be purified and transformed in the shorter time of one life

span. What is a hundred years or less than a hundred of life on a

scale of millions of years of continuous evolution of life on

earth ? Does not it sound illogical to say that we would remain

static from the evolutionary point of view, while change is the

nature of life and every thing else all around us is changing and

evolving constantly?

 

Hinduism does not accept the premise that under normal circumstances

an individual soul can free itself completely from the entanglement

with Samsara and unite with its Creator in just one life time. The

Jiva has to progressively evolve through the cycle of innumerable

births and deaths before the soul can liberate itself. From inert

matter to inert consciousness and then to dynamic consciousness,

from ignorance to semi awareness and then to self awareness, from

attachment to detachment and then to complete freedom, from illusion

to awareness and then to reality, from darkness to dawn and then

into light, from mortality to immortality: this is the forward

movement of life in the whole creation. And all this cannot happen

just in a few hundred years.

 

It is very obvious that God did not create the worlds and the beings

in His likeness, but in exact opposite to it. If He would have

created everything in His true likeness then there would have been

no differentiation and no possibility of any movement. Creation

would have remained static, without an aim and purpose, offering no

scope for movement and change.

 

It is true that God is hidden in every aspect of His creation. But

that which is visible and sensible is not His true self. It is His

negative and false self, which tries to compete with Him and fight

for its own individuality, and finally, having lost the battle,

would move towards Him in total obedience.

 

Thus the whole drama of creation seems to start with the creation of

His individual selves that hide themselves in His negative selves so

that a movement away from Him and then again back to Him can be

initiated and sustained. The Hindu scriptures describe this process

variously with such expressions as: "the true self hides behind the

false self, God enters into Prakriti, self becomes enveloped with

ignorance".

 

The awakening comes after wards. When the soul stirs and makes its

vibrations felt by the ignorant consciousness, the seeds of

spiritualization of the being are sown. The movement that began away

from God now becomes reversed. It then starts moving away from

illusion and ignorance towards God and Truth.

 

The inexorable law of karma operates through out this grand drama.

Karma is the correction mechanism, the chisel with which the

negative self, the inert stone, is chiselled away till the hidden

deity comes out of it and enters the temple of God. In the ordinary

circumstances, awakening of a sleeping self cannot take place

through miracles but through trial and error. Good actions lead to

good future, and bad actions to the opposite. An awareness of this

very law is the first great awakening and the first sure leap

towards the Light.

 

All this cannot take place in one simple life, but over a period of

time involving many lives. It cannot happen on the strength of a

life time's learning but in the light of a great mass of accumulated

wisdom. It cannot happen if the purpose of whole life is to move

towards light and truth.

 

This is where the idea of reincarnation of soul perfectly fits in.

If we accept the whole creation as a grand process stretching over a

vast period of time, we cannot over look the importance and the role

of man in it. Man cannot make a brief appearance on earth, live just

one life and then disappear forever into the cozy corners of some

safe heaven, or the vast dungeons of some burning hell, leaving

creation, God and Nature to themselves.

 

At the individual level, the movement of creation and evolution need

not universally progressive. Since the whole movement is regulated

on the principle of trial and error, of learning and improvement

through such learning, some times, a retrogressive movement may also

take place. Due to some unfortunate error of judgment, instead

moving towards the light, a being may move away from it.

 

Thus depending upon the merits of the previous deeds, a being may

evolve into higher life forms or regress temporarily into a lower

life form. However, due to some peculiar circumstances, if an

individual takes birth as a lower life form, he can still reverse

the process. He can change his present actions and establish a basis

for his forward movement again.

 

The Jiva thus drifts, sailing in the boat of his own karma, in a sea

of worldly illusion (samsara sagaram), towards the shores of

liberation, through trial and error, self effort and assisted by

invisible laws and mysterious forces, with the soul remaining as its

silent, witnessing companion.

 

That the theory of reincarnation is not a mere theory, but an actual

fact is being now established beyond reasonable doubt. Many

instances have now come to light where individuals were able to

recollect their past lives through a process of regression or by

other means. The theory still baffles many, while many others refuse

to acknowledge it because of intense prejudice.