Reincarnation – A Reality, Science or Myth ???
Have you ever wondered why we come across only a few specific people in our life out of the millions across the world? Why do some people repel us at the first introduction itself while some make us feel as though we have known each other for years? Despite being related to each other by birth why is there a distance and difficulty maintaining that relationship while at times a stranger would mean much more to you and stand by you through all the upheavals in your life. Haven’t we all at some point of our life wondered as to why good things happen to bad people and vice versa?
This plethora of thoughts have been crossing my mind for years together following the experiences, circumstances, situations and challenges life has thrown at me. However, the confusion has now been put to rest with all the pieces of this giant jigsaw puzzle having found its pieces in the right place and order from the most trustworthy and valid source of information, the ‘Bhagvad Gita’ as told by Shri Krishna himself. It was a blessing indeed with the opportunity given by my closest friend, philosopher and guide who incidentally turned out to be the ‘medium’ Krishna chose, to enlighten me and provide the answers to all my queries.
Some might call Reincarnation a superstition; some might find it a subject worth discussing to the extent of it being just a supernatural entertainment or a paranormal activity. Some might even just ignore it thinking this to be a crazy thought unworthy of being considered. There is a deep fear down within them of the ‘unknown’ and as long as the unknown is not known to them, ‘Ignorance is bliss’. Most of us would prefer to stay away from discussing this subject ‘coz we are certain that there is certain revelation that life has to offer which we are not prepared to accept. We are worried that these revelations would make us feel responsible for every action that we take and every word that we speak. Life would be restricted, and it is a normal human tendency that we do not like to be curbed or told what to do and what not to do. Hence, we prefer not to delve too much into the unknown and stay away from it by terming the truth to be ‘superstition’.
Who am I? Who is God? What is our relationship with the power we call God? What is Life? Once we know the answers to these questions, we know exactly how we are expected to live our life and all the mysteries of the term ‘life’ are resolved instantly. Every single human being we meet in our day-to-day life is associated with us transcendentally and our association with these human beings, whether you would like to believe it or not is actually a result of our past ‘karmas’. Why else do we have to face good reactions and bad reactions from the people surrounding us? We might not be doing any harm to others however we become victims to their feeling of wrath, jealousy, contempt etc. towards us. If this thought has worried us for years, all that we need to realize is that this is the result of our past ‘karmas’ and the scores are merely being settled now and shall continue to do so in our future lives as well.
Have you ever wondered what happens after death? Where do we go? Our body which is a mixture of earth, water, fire, air and ether mergers with the nature however what happens to our mind, intelligence and ego which adds to make the human being that we are. The force that makes our mind to act in a particular fashion and think in a particular manner leaves this body which perishes in this life, but it eventually attaches itself to another form of life. However, we do not remember what has transpired in our previous lives and hence most of us refuse to believe in reincarnation. If we were to remember all that has taken place in our previous births', life would be so confusing. We have not been able to resolve the mysteries of this life, how are we supposed to deal with the complexities of the earlier life if we were to know what had transpired then?
It is so difficult to maintain our present relations with the people around us what would happen if we were to remember all our relations from the previous births as well? Life would be chaotic. God has therefore been kind enough to let us forget the past and live in the present however whatever we have sown in our previous births shall be borne by us in our future births as well. Although we give up the body, the soul transmigrates to another living entity which is given to us by the virtue of our karmas. The kind of body our soul gets in the next life depends on what the soul is entitled for. For all the good that we do our good karmas are accounted for and vice versa. However our life is not a balance sheet where the bad can be balanced against our good actions. We will have to bear the fruits for our bad actions and we shall also bear the fruits of our good actions as our every word spoken and our every action taken has been accounted for and ultimately every birth that we shall take in future is the result of the good and bad actions that we have done in our past life.
When people scowl at the mention of the word ‘reincarnation’ associating it to ‘superstition’ and scorn any kind of discussion on this subject alleging it to be in support of ‘Superstition’, I wonder if they have any valid answer to the queries like ‘What happens to us after death?’ Do they even realize that we are not the body, we are the soul? What explanation would they give if they were to answer whether they believe that they have a soul is what I would like to know. Do they feel that we are the body and not the soul? If we are just the body then after we die why do we say that the person is no more when the body is very much before our eyes? So is reincarnation a reality or a myth???
When people show disbelief in reincarnation or rebirth it means that there is no soul, and the body is driven automatically. Has one ever thought what makes the heart tick or what makes the mind think? Even a pacemaker gives up working after a point of time. The fact is that our body is not immortal, but our soul is, until it is reunited with the super soul. When we say we are the soul then the soul must be going somewhere. It needs to occupy a body which could be in any form. There are numerous species of living entities in the form of plants, insects, birds, animals and human beings. Being born as a human being itself brings us closer to the realization of Life and the supreme power of God since we are the only race to have the ‘power to think’ by the grace of God. A soul transmigrates from these body forms with respect to the ‘karmas’ performed by that particular soul. Our next birth depends upon the ‘karmas’ performed by us in our present birth and our interaction with other living entities also is in proportionate to our ‘karmas’. However, how our good and bad deeds are calculated is the most complex calculation which can never be understood by mortals like us.
What we get out of life and whom we meet in our life is a master plan conceptualized and designed by the Almighty we call ‘GOD’ or the Superpower to some who would not like to term the power as God. No matter how atheist a person is, he would surely believe deep in his heart that there are some powers which rules over us and would probably believe in scientific explanations provided through research done by renowned scientist Dr. Ian Stevenson, a medical doctor who is the former head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia, and now is Director of the Division of Personality Studies at the University of Virginia. Dr. Stevenson has done rigorous scientific study to explain the existence of reincarnation. Through various cases that he has studied throughout the world, Dr. Stevenson has explained to the world the validity of this extensive study of reincarnation. There are things which happen beyond our control, certain situations suddenly arise without any explanation. What one needs to understand is that there is a difference between philosophical views and superstition. Now reincarnation has been finally realized by the scientific community and the world has accepted it to be the world’s greatest scientific discoveries of all time.
When we talk about reincarnation, the study also involves studies related to our past life experiences. It has been proved time and again that past life regressions are evidence of reincarnation. There have been cases where the story of a past life told through the eyes of a person regressed could be and were actually verified that the people whom these people under hypnosis claimed to be or had been. Those people had really existed in the past. This study is conducted on children who are able to recall in great detail the events, location, relations, and also speak the language in their past birth fluently when in their present life they are not remotely connected to what they have regressed.
The soul occupies a body at birth, lives its life by the virtue of its ‘karma’ and when the ‘karma’ of that life is over, goes to occupy another body which in turn will be a result of the past ‘karma’ of the previous body. Thus, we living entities have entangled ourselves in the continuous process of life and death till we are able to attain ‘moksha’ which is a near to impossible task in this era of ‘kaliyug’. Although one might go onto the path of goodness to attain liberalization by being good to others, we will still be bound by our good karmas if not bad which will cause impediments on our path to ‘moksha’. This is the most difficult aspect however we can atleast improve our life by being conscious of what we speak and what we do since our acts in our present birth shall be reflecting in our future births for sure.
We commit wrongs since we are unaware of our future. We do not think of the consequences we would be facing when we commit a wrong. This happens because we are presently reveling in the fruits of our good karma which has empowered us to such a position where we can do whatever we can and not fear the consequences. Although we can escape punishment in this birth are we sure that our actions are not accounted for? Even scientifically it has been proven that every action has a reaction. We shall all be bearing the fruits of every action that we take, if not in this birth, maybe in the next. So although most of us would believe Reincarnation to be a myth, maybe you would want to look at it as a science if not a reality and change your perception of life and upgrade yourself to a better position to enable your soul to get freed from this cycle of birth and death.
