Reincarnation: Religious Belief in Hinduism

      Reincarnation: Hinduism believes in "punarjanam", reincarnation. This is our basic theme and is as old as Hinduism itself. We believe that every soul has a final destination of reuniting with its original and eternal source, the Supreme soul of the universe. However, until such time that perfection is acquired by experiencing pains and pleasures of accumulated karmas or by obtaining proper knowledge, a soul will continue reincarnating again and again on the earth. During the process, the soul enters many bodies, assumes many forms and passes through continuous process of births and death. The selection of which body it enters in the next life depends on cumulative karma of all previous births.

Reincarnation

      Important Hindu scriptures like Bhagwad Gita are full of references for rebirths. In Gita, Lord Krishna can be heard telling Arjuna that:

"Arjuna, both you and I were born many times in the past also. You don't remember those births but I do remember all of those as well."

      And it is not that this concept is just a belief. Many of us may have come across examples where a child is said to remember where abouts from his previous birth. But in most of these cases, the child forgets those memories with advancing of his childhood. Thus, there are evidences that a new birth is in continuation of a previous journey.

      The doctrine of reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration of the soul, concerns the rebirth of the soul in a series of physical bodies. It is in India and Greece that the doctrine of rebirth has been most elaborately developed. This doctrine is a central doctrine of the Indian religions and is shared by all the other major religions originating out of India: Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism alike. All the diverse religious groups and philosophical schools of Hinduism, except that of Charvaka, (explained later in detail), believe in reincarnation.

      Karma Samsara: The nature of birth, that is, the condition of the body to which the atman gets associated, depends on Karma. Karma signifies action, every sort of action, whether good or bad, meritorious or non-meritorious, religious or worldly. Here, however, karma signifies the moral debit or credit of one's actions. Every action inevitably produces its own fruit, and the subject (actor) has necessarily to experience all the consequences of his own actions. A person's behaviour leads irrevocably to an appropriate reward or punishment commensurate with that behaviour. It is the inevitable law of retribution called 'the law of karma'. It is the 'law of cause and effect' applied to the life of every individual, law according to which every one gathers the fruit of what one has planted.

      Under normal human life, the effects of Karmas of a person do not get settled during a single life. Because while he experiences the fruit (which may be delicious, neutral or sour, depending on the quality of accumulated karmas) of previous karma, there are new additions that also need to be experienced. While one settles old fruits, new actions result in new fruits to be experienced/settled later. As a result, the atman has to seek association with Sarira repeatedly. So it is believed that the soul from all eternity is undergoing birth and rebirth due to this inviolable law of karma. This is how the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul gets established.

      The entire process of repeated birth and death of the bodies associated by soul is called Samsara. Samsara implies "to wander or pass through a series of states or conditions". Life, therefore, is not determined or limited to one birth and one death, but is instead a samsara; a current, a course, a migration in circle, which is always determined by the law of karma. In short, human life is a karma-samsara, a transmigration of the soul according to the inevitable law of retribution. But is there no end? Is there no escape clause? Yes, there is the way out. It is by purifying and refining of one's karma so that there is no further 'debits' and by acquiring right vidya (knowledge) which results in elevating the thoughts, using mind, to a state of consciousness where it becomes aware of its own immortal nature independent of the material body's existence.

And this, precisely, is summary of the teachings of Hinduism: follow Dharma, acquire positive fruits of your karma, recognize the true nature of Atman and get rid of the Samsara and achieve Moksha.

      We, sometimes, come across people who don't find this concept acceptable citing the reason that if few souls eventually seek Vidya and are able to upgrade to next level by achieving Moksha, the total number of human being on the planet earth must eventually come down and not go up as is the case in reality. But we cannot talk of only reduction of souls. After all, as per Hinduism, there are many sub-human beings in the process of their evolution getting eligible to get the life of a human being. Consequently, the number of human beings is on the increase. Hinduism also asserts that divinity is equally present in every soul, whether that is in a human or a subhuman body. Otherwise it goes against the idea of God's omnipresence.

      Accumulated Karma as the Cause of Reincarnation: According to our ancient concepts, man is composed of two opposing fundamental principles; the soul (atman) and the material body (sarira). This can also be explained as 'subtle body' and 'gross or physical body'. The atman is eternal, immutable, and indestructible while the body is temporal, created, mutable as well as destructible. The union between atman and body is just accidental. Actually; it is a type of imprisonment to atman due to ignorance (avidya) and karma to which it is associated from all eternity. Avidya and karma are two basic presuppositions of Hinduism. They have no end because they did not have a beginning. It is therefore a truth that transcends every intellectual explanation.

      When a person dies, his physical body gets merged in the five elements that it is made of while the subtle body which includes mind, intellect, prana (vital energy) is said to proceed to other plane. It is said that unfulfilled desires remaining live in the mind result in rebirth as it is only in this physical world that desires have chance to get fulfilled. Further, every birth offers another opportunity for the soul to accumulate good karmas and attain desired Vidya by shedding attachment and seeing through the prism of Ahankara. Eventually; one is expected to reach to the level of spirituality by crossing over all desires.