An Intriguing Cycle of Rebirth

Pramod Mathur writes

Broadly speaking, reincarnation has been central to Hindu, tribal and Buddhist religions. Hundreds of stories about young children surface in the media intermittently. Children, who have identified their kin and led them to places of their last birth. Sometimes, far away from where they are born in this life.

In most cases, the result is simple awe. For most of us, it is amusing and entertaining. We talk about the story for a few days and then get on with our lives as usual.

The Buddhist concept of reincarnation is that there’s no eternal “soul”, “spirit” or “self” but only a “stream of consciousness” that links life with life—the ultimate goal being moksha, mukti or nirvana. The literal meaning would then be the extinction of the fires of attachment. In the Buddhist view, suffering comes to an end with nirvana, and one is freed from the cycle of rebirth.

In the Bhagawad Gita, Krishna says, “Just as death is certain for all that is born, so is certain birth for all that dies.” The Gita affirms that one who does good work will be born in a family of saints and spiritual men. After reaching perfection through various rebirths, he will reach his final goal, “moksha”. One should not be sad over the necessity of being born again, because it is the inviolable law, from which even the gods are not exempt. Moksha, then, is the final liberation of the soul from the chains of transmigration.

According to Hindu religion and philosophy, man is composed of two fundamental principles, the soul and the body. The soul is eternal, immutable, not born, not created, indestructible. The body is temporary, mutable and destructible. Renowned psychiatrist Dr. Brian Weiss has treated and interviewed hundreds of patients, who have experienced vignettes of their previous births. He has cured them of chronic illnesses after his regression therapy.

While discussing the concept of same souls being reborn in different bodies in one of his books, an interesting question came up: how can we explain the increasing number of souls ready to be reborn and match it to the burgeoning human population over the past centuries?

On the surface, this question seems intriguing. However, if we closely examine the Indian scriptures, the answer is not so difficult to find. The Puranas mention 84 lakh (8.4 million) forms that a soul is obliged to take in order to reach a human form. This is remarkably close to the 8.7 million species that scientists believe exist today. The concept of dashavtar (10 forms) of Lord Vishnu, even in animal form, explains the concept of evolution propounded by Darwin.

It seems a plausible explanation that souls are transmigrating from one living form to another until they are born as humans. Depending upon their “good deeds” as humans, they’re reborn as human again and again to refine their characters. Until they reach a point where they’ve no attachment in worldly things and are ready to attain moksha. So, what are the attributes that may guide us to attain moksha? It would be so wonderful if one could decipher the meaning of “good deeds”. Is it righteousness?