Friday, October 2, 2015

Rebirth

Hinduism and Buddhism have strong beliefs in the concepts of rebirth. According to the ancient religious texts of Hinduism, the body is not the real man, but it is the soul, the body is just like a cloth that the soul changes and that the soul moves from one birth to another.

The concept of rebirth is closely related to the concept of Karma and Soul. Now Karma is any action that is done which produces a result. Every Karma has good and bad results, but basically there is good Karma and there is bad Karma. The examples of good karma are speaking truth, donating food and clothes to the poor, helping others etc. The examples of bad karma are lying, treachery, cheating, killing others etc.

However one must understand that no Karma is 100% good or 100% bad. For example, while donating food and clothes to the needy is an excellent act of kindness, when done too much may make people lazy or donating money to people who would misuse them becomes bad Karma.

Similarly some bad actions can have good results. For example, speaking a lie for a good purpose is better than a thousand truths. A real life example is I know about a kid who once stole money from his mother's wallet, to give it to his friend who actually used the money to pay his exam fees and was only then able to give the exam and pass it.

The boy who stole the money was badly beaten up and punished by his mother. After passing the exam the other boy got a job and he came to this boy's home with a box of sweets and returned the money that he borrowed.

The boy who stole the money actually had lied to his mother that he spent all the money. Had he not lied to his mother and stole the money, his friend won't have been able to give the exam and he would have never got the job. The lie that the boy told his mother changed his friend's life. Such a lie that is told for good purpose is worth more than a thousand truths.

So basically in Hindu and Buddhist philosophies it was believed that every man/woman had a rebirth depending on the Karma that he has done. The cycle of birth, death and rebirth continued till the person attained moksha or nirvana by the effect of his/her virtuous Karma.

We do observe in nature that each and every action produces a reaction. There are thousands of examples of people recalling their past lives like this news report News Of Rebirth
. There are many great spiritual giants like Swami Vivekananda, Sri Ramakrishna who have confirmed the theory of rebirth.

In our lives we see examples of kids 3 or 4 years old born with exceptional talents. Some are excellent painters, some can sing and play musical instruments wonderfully well. In fact so well that even adults cannot match their levels of excellence.

Here is example of six year old Niharika Nath, just listen to the song,  very few adults can match her (Niharika song ). 

So the question is from where do this kids get this talents? Talent really is a mere word or excuse to run away from an explanation of the phenomenon. Definitely it is their past life work or actions that they have done, that has resulted in their present talents.

All the monks and spiritual masters of India worked with one target in mind, liberation of the soul from the cycle of birth and death. They believed that their meditations, prayers etc. would ultimately result in them attaining the state of moksha(or nirvana), if not in this birth then in the next birth. Till today there are millions who follow this theory and carry out their spiritual practices.

According to Swami Vivekananda the memory of our previous birth is stored in our subconscious mind which the Yogi(a high end Rajyoga practitioner) can realize by constant practice and celibacy. Although knowledge of past birth may not always be that good.

One day surely science will discover the phenomenon and mechanism of rebirth. I just hope that day comes soon and it happens in my lifetime. 

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