Is Reincarnation Real or Imaginary?
Posted: Friday, March 17, 2006
by Drunken Mystic
http://drunkenmystic.wordpress.com
This is one subject many people have pondered into and have come up with their own ideas and theories. Well, I have come up with my own ideas after reading various scriptures pointed down by different saints and seers of India. India or Bharat as we call the ancient land has been a land of seers and saints for many milleniums and even to this day this great land continues to attract scholars, spiritual seekers and philosophers and many others from various parts of the world. Even today this land has continued to produce a great number of saints and seers. Reincarnation has been an essential part of the sanatana dharma which in English means ancient religion.The people of this land believe that they do reincarnate, and to be blessed with another birth in a better surrounding with a good life with lesser strifes one must continue to carry on good deeds.
As we all know that everything was only energy and now the earth is a condensed form of that energy, and then slowly water was formed, then bacteria and other creatures. It is God who started breathing through them as individual souls. So these souls first incarnate in the lower sphere of life which is the plant and animal kingdom and slowly they start to evolve. Every soul has it's own journey, a "path". When a soul incarnates in a particular species, be it plant or animal or human being, it forgets that it is the soul after it enters the body and starts identifying itself with the dream creation of mother nature. And when it comes in contact with this earthly life, it starts to imagine everything as real and starts reacting to life. For eg, feeling pain, sorrow, hatred etc. Now the the species belonging to the lower sphere don't have the reasoning ability and they behave according to instinct. So for them karma doesn't come into the picture. But then the soul after having dreamed this life in the plant form finishes its sojourn and starts evolving towards the animal kingdom, and once it finishes its sojourn over there, it comes to the highest form of living which is the human being. Now the human being has all his faculties evolved. The power of reasoning, power of speech, smell, taste, sound and sensation. Now God has designed this so beautifully, that He tells us that it is only after passing through various spheres of learning in this creation that we finally end up in the highest sphere that's the sphere of human life.
He has given us all the faculties so that we could use them sensibly and cultivate good karma. Karma is an Indian word which means action. Now the philosophy of vedanta says that it is very necessary for man to cultivate pure thoughts. It is only thought that leads to action. Before we love somebody, we first look at the person. The faculty involved here is our eyes. Then our sensation of feeling works and starts thinking,"this person is beautiful", or he or she is good natured etc....etc. With this our mind with the help of the power of reasoning decides that we should like that person. Now this thought leads to another chain of thoughts that we should help him/her, should gift him or her etc...etc. And finally, we end up acting according to our thoughts. In an obvious sense, these thoughts have lead to some kind of action. Right? The next thing is, this action goes into our account as karma. God has made this law, that every action will be judged whether good or bad and is it in the interest of the society or does it lead to bondage and attachment or did man's action produce any counter effects. Now if I do a favour of helping somebody pay his debts off when he or she is in a precarious situation, it does add on to his account of karma as a debt. Even though he pays me the money back still there is a karmic debt on his head. He may maybe very thankful to me. But God will test him by giving him a chance to pay back this help. Do you see that its deeper than just paying the money? Its the situation of life. Now lets assume that he doesn't get a chance to pay back the favour. What does he do? He dies. I who did a favour also die. What happens then? If there is no reincarnation, then where do we go? Our physical bodies will perish in no time. Then what is our identity? It is the soul. We are all individual souls created by God.
To explain the theory of paying back our karmic debts we would have to explore this into a much deeper level. We are always advised to act wisely only for one reason and the reason is the law of karma. Whenever we do something good, the consequence of that action affects ten people around us. The gulf war is a good example. When somebody plans a catastrophe like war, it is something really big. This person is taking a lot of people's lives into account. And if the actions of this person benefit the people's lives then he takes good karma multiple fold. And if it is really going to affect the lives of millions then surely he's accountable for it and it will affect him or her in a very bad way. So consequences of his/her actions faced by these people will have a karmic effect on this person accordingly and that will determine his or her next birth. Actually there are three worlds. The physical world that we are living in now, the astral world and then the causal world. The similar way we have a physical body, astral body and causal body. The earth has a physical, astral and causal earth and its the same for every entity and living being. And even the universe has the same. Like how there are different physical planes in our universe, the same way there are different astral and causal planes too. Now our good and bad deeds get added up into our account and our soul carries them as soon as it finishes its earthly sojourn and moves on to the astral world. There are different astral planes, altogether seven. The three lower planes are for the souls which have committed bad deeds on earth like rape, murder, thefts and many other things. The fourth plane is where a relatively good soul moves into. So when a soul moves to the astral world, the higher power reminds it of its actions and then according to the ratio of good v/s bad actions, its told what kind of choice it has. Like if the good actions are more than bad actions, then accordingly it's given a choice that "your actions have been so and so...and for the time being you either spend let's say 150 to 500 astral years in this particular plane, or go down to earth and take another birth which may help you work out your karmas equal to the number of astral years. This is just one example. There are more deeper and accurate examples given in our Hindu scriptures.
I have one more thing to prove that reincarnation is real. There were two sages of India who lived milleniums ago. We can't even date their existence. Their names where sages Bhrigu and Agastya. They were god-realised masters and were masters of just about everything in the universe. There was hardly any science in the world left for them to conquer. So astrology was one among the few sciences they had mastered and they had cast horoscopes of thousands of souls who would be incarnating on this earth time and again. Mark my words. They casted horoscopes of souls who would be incarnating in the future not once, but many times after that. These palm leaves are available even to this day in various temples around India. You need to give your right thumb impression in case of a man and left in case of a woman, and they would search for the particular leaf which would suit only your family history and then cast your horoscope within minutes and, they would not only tell your name, but they would go on to tell your father's and mother's name too. And they would also give you a detailed account of your past births and give you the reason of your present problems related to your actions in your past lives.
Lord Buddha, after he had attained enlightenment recalled 23 to 24 of his past lives. His current life was around the 24 or 25 mark. He also gave a detailed account of every life he lived either in bird or animal or human form.. The stories of all his 24 incarnations are available to this day. Even Lord Jesus has said that he was Elisha. That was his past life. I remember this statement made in the movie the "Passion of the Christ". The heirophant argues,"He says that he is Elisha, but Elisha went up to heaven in a chariot." Going up to heaven in a chariot over here means his physical body had vaporised into atoms. He had become thin as air. Not only his soul, but even his body had become one with the cosmic energy which is possible through rigorous meditation and techniques of breath control, which comes under Yoga.
Even the famous ancient Hindu scripture "The Bhagavad Gita" says, that the only way to attain liberation is by rebirth. There cannot be only one life. But for sure we get only one chance.... the chance that we have now because we won't know what is going to happen to us in the afterlife. So we have to make the best choice. But reincarnation is one universal truth. It is applicable not only to this universe, but to all the universes that exist apart from this universe. Reincarnation for the soul is like changing different bodies to work out its karmas and finally attain the infinite divine. Its just like how we change our clothes everyday. It's like going through a series of dreams and waking up in the astral world to be reminded of our identity and once again coming down to earth to dream this creation again to attain perfection.
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total). . . . . . Real! But the Buddha insisted on anatta.I agree... But my main intention was to focus on the part of reincarnation which has been a long debate. I would have loved to write on the anatta part or as Upanishads and Yoga Vashishta say "Brahman", or speak on the advaita philosophy, "neti neti"(not this, not that". :-) But that would have been too long... Maybe I will write on that some other time. Thanks.
You have obviously given this topic a lot of thought and your theory is very thought provoking.Thank you for your valuable comments. I have thought very much on it and also had some personal experiences regarding past life regression. :-) Best regards...
Never have I read this written with as much clarity, perception and insight- It validates my own understanding and conclusions- Great work!- Always- EllaThank you Ella! You will find more proof after you read my sequels on Nadi Astrology too. It's my personal experience.
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