Prashanti'sOpinion

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Religion and Reincarnation
Recently there was much discussion on a book called "Born Again" by Walter Semkiw . In it the author claimed that he knew all about the past lives of certain famous people like Shah Rukh Khan , Amitabh Bacchan , Jawaharlal Nehru etc .
In Hindu religion , in practically every religion in the world , reincarnation is mentioned , if not treated as an established fact .
Now what do we mean by reincarnation?
In Bhagvad Gita Lord Krishna says that the human body is transient , that the only thing that remains constant is the aatma or the soul ,which "cannot be burned by fire , soaked with water , in short , cannot be destroyed or killed ". The soul can take different forms and these are called reincarnations of that soul . Just as a person changes new clothes for old , so too the aatma changes one body for another .
In Buddhism and Sikhism ,too, being offshoots of Hinduism , the concept of reincarnation is very much an accepted fact .
In all these religions reincarnation revolves around karma , i.e , the simple concept of action and reaction . In simple words , good deeds beget good times and bad deeds beget misfortunes .
In Christianity , too , the concept of reincarnation exists . Christ himself was resurrected after his physical body "died" on the cross .
This particular book was different (at least to me it was ) in that , it said that it was possible for one soul to take on multiple bodies at the same time .
I found this a novel concept and thought about it for quite some time afterwards . In Hindu religion one soul taking on one body is accepted , but not this concept of one soul and multiple bodies . The reason I pondered over this matter for so long , however , was that I kept remembering a few dialogs from the Ramayana which run as follows :
Lakshmana(on spotting the golden deer ):Brother , I do not trust this phenomenon . It is against Nature . There cannot be a Golden Deer . It is a trick , for never has such a creature been heard of or seen or even imagined .
Rama : Brother , just because one hasn't heard or seen or imagined a particular phenomenon does not mean that it is impossible . For , there are many things of which humans are not aware but which do exist nonetheless . Nothing is ever against Nature . For , the Almighty has thought of all things even before they were imagined by humans .
If the Lord has already thought of all things even before they are imagined by humans , then why is this concept of multiple reincarnations at the same time unacceptable ?? For it to have occurred to Walter Semkiw ( the author of this book ) , it should have occurred to God first isn't it ??
I am still no nearer to finding the answer to this question than I was before . Hence this blog .
I hope someone out there will know the answer !!

2 Comments:

At 10:54 PM, Blogger Prashanti's Thoughts said...

Please send your thoughts on this subject . You need not be a pundit to send a response . Just send any htoughts that occur to you .
They will be appreciated .

 
At 7:11 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Hi Prasanti, yes, I have heard of this phenomenon. The mother (of Sri Aurobindo Aashram)explains this concept with much complexity.
And just like you, I balked at the then unheard off concept, but I do feel that my understanding of this has increased by one grain now. In my uneducated and unenlightened mind, here's how I can see it... After a soul has reached jeevan mukthi (means not helplessly taking rebirth becuase of karma pasa) they are actually all pervading and one with the universal spirit at all times. As and when needed they have the ability to take an iccha janma, i.e. manifest in any form at any time and for any length of time... a crow, a fellow passenger or a guru or an avataram. This can also be multiple forms at the same time. A comment is kind of limited and so is my unrealised understanding, but we can discuss this further in person.
Read The mother's writings on this subject.
Finally, I am HIGHLY impressed by your quote of the Ramayana.
Well done!

 

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