HINDUS ACKNOWLEDGE REINCARNATION

By Stephen Knapp

Hindus, along with almost every other religion, believe in life after death. According to the Vedic philosophy, the body alone dies, the soul within is eternal and thus never dies. The process of reincarnation means that the soul takes another birth in a material body to continue with material experiences or the pursuit of material desires. Thoughts and desires create a level of consciousness for the individual. This consciousness at the time of death is what determines a person’s next life. Then, after death, a person is drawn toward a new body and set of circumstances that are most suitable for that person’s level of desires and thinking.

There has also been an increasing number of books written by professionals that document the stories of those who have remembered their past lives, especially children who have no ulterior reason to mention their memories of previous lives. Yet, the evidence these researchers have provided has shown that reincarnation and living multiple lifetimes is a fact and has been going on indefinitely.

The path the soul takes into another birth is decided upon by past actions, which is known as karma. So the actions of our former body do not die with the body. Past actions and the karma from them are attached to the subtle body and carry over from one physical life to the next. This is what determines the kind of body the soul takes in the next life and what situations of happiness or suffering will affect it. When an individual soul exhausts all its material desires and karmas, it is free to enter into the spiritual domain, in which case Hindus say that the soul has attained moksha or liberation.

How many lifetimes we spend in this universe is up to us. The Vedic literature, especially the Bhagavad-gita, very clearly says that one can attain liberation in one life, provided one surrenders his will to the will of God 100%. This is done by understanding and following the Lord’s instructions. This sort of surrender allows one to spiritualize his or her consciousness, in which case all material desires become eliminated. And without any material desires to fulfill, there is no further need to take birth in another material body. The point is, you cannot fulfill material desires without a material body. But when one purifies himself through spiritual practice, one can become free from such desires and become eligible for liberation into the spiritual domain. Lord Krishna says: “Those who surrender all actions to Me and regard Me as the supreme goal and worship Me with whole hearted devotion, I will deliver them from repeated births and deaths.” In another verse, Lord Krishna says: “Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.” (Bg.18.66) Thus, our eagerness to surrender to God will certainly diminish the need for further rounds of birth and death in a material body in this cosmic manifestation. In fact, we can become liberated in this one life if we are serious and sincere.

According to Vedic knowledge, it is not necessarily so that a human will always reincarnate as a human being. If a man exhibits a beastly character throughout his life, the low consciousness that he develops will see to it that he reincarnates as a beast. A glutton may take birth as a pig or another lower form of life. The Vedas talk about 8.4 million species of life, right from an amoeba up to human beings and demigods. A person can take any of these life forms. Sometimes the soul will also remain in a standstill state for long periods of time without taking anybody at all. However, the soul can work out its karma through spiritual practice, called sadhana, only if it takes a body. So for attaining liberation, or salvation, the soul is bound to reincarnate.

Lord Krishna has explained in the Bhagavad-gita that whatever one thinks of during the time of death, one will attain that in the next life. So the whole process of religion or spiritual practice is to raise one’s consciousness and spiritually purify it so that we can enter the spiritual dimension after death. But a man who has beastly ideas and desires throughout his life is unlikely to think of God at the time of death. He will likely take his beastly thoughts and desires into the next life, which will propel him to his next form of existence. Only God-fearing people can think of God at the time of death; others will think of a multitude of things but not about God. And that is what propels one toward the next appropriate body which will accommodate that consciousness.