The gita on the matter of reincarnation

The gita on the matter of reincarnation

Interestingly, major religions that originated outside India – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – as well as those that originated in India, like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, talk of the soul that survives the body after death. The former speak of only one life on earth but the latter speak of many. The shoonya-vada, the nihilism of Buddhism, may, in the ultimate analysis, deny any reality to the soul, which is a different matter. Buddhists do accept many lives of the soul of the Buddha himself before he attained nirvana, enlightenment.

The soul, on a certain plane of consideration, is indestructible according to all great religions of the world. The difference between Western and Eastern thought is with regard to whether the soul shows up just once on earth or it does so many times.

Krishna does not mince words when he says, “O Arjuna, both you and I have had many lives!” That implies that the soul does not die when the body does. Krishna uses this insight to help Arjuna overcome his anxiety over the possibility of his kith and kin ceasing to be. In an appealing illustration, Krishna says a soul takes a new body just as we pick up new clothes after discarding old ones. In the context of spiritual practices, the scenario that the Bhagwad Gita presents to us is that of a soul ‘learning and growing’ and, at the end of many lives, attaining perfection.

A rare few breathe their last with loving remembrance of God. They reach the abode of God, and do not come back to earth. The overwhelming majority of us, as per our karma – good or bad actions – have a next life. Future life following the present one can be in environments better than the present one or in settings that are worse. The good news is that it is in our hands. If we live this life well, performing more of virtuous deeds, we will receive a body in the next life that facilitates further upward growth. If, instead, we mess up our present life with sinful acts, we will find ourselves in bodies – families and surroundings – that make it more difficult for us to rise on the spiritual path.

Those of us with a lot of merit to our credit will go to celestial regions; those with very bad records will go to netherworlds marked by suffering; and those with a blend of good and bad karma to their credit are brought to the human sphere without any delay.

The Gita is perfectly in line with the Upanishads, which lay down the law of karma. In spirit, the law of karma is no different from the Western saying, “As you sow, so shall you reap!” A mantra in the Kathopanishad declares that a soul is reborn in accordance with “what it did” and “what it learnt”. This highlights the place for spiritual education.

Beginning with enhanced sense of right and wrong, we are urged to study the science of soul and rise above mere body-consciousness. We are the spirit, of the nature of pure consciousness, and our attachment to the physical body lies at the root of countless mistakes we commit. Moksha, liberation, is the happy end of this long story.