Certain developments in last few years have forced me to rethink over some of the principles I loved to stand for. One of them is the “system of reincarnation.” I want to believe but have not been able to believe that reincarnation is indeed there, and sooner one believes it, the better.
If such a possibility is there, I would be the happiest person. And I am writing this after reading Coming Back — the Science of Reincarnation for the third time. The book is based on the teachings of Swami Prabhupada on the basis of Lord Krishna’s teachings.
The Swami says those who do not believe in life hereafter are cursed by ignorance. Only those who can go beyond the instruments of measurement and the faculty of mental speculation have the power to believe that one’s consciousness goes on from one life to another.
Thomas Huxley makes it clear: “It seems to me pretty plain that there is a third thing in the universe, to wit, consciousness, which I can’t see to be matter or force or any conceivable modification of either.”
Therefore, one is told, reincarnation, based on the principle of conscious self, independent of its physical body, is part of a higher order system, governing the living beings’ transmigration from one material form to another.
{{/usCountry}}Therefore, one is told, reincarnation, based on the principle of conscious self, independent of its physical body, is part of a higher order system, governing the living beings’ transmigration from one material form to another.
{{/usCountry}}The problem with some of us is that we don’t want to believe in happenings that is not “seeing is believing.” As Schumacher, author of Small is Beautiful, says, “we consider it fashionable to ridicule and prefer to believe only in what is there before us, what we can touch and measure.”
Should I believe there are some things in life where one has to suspend reasoning faculty and do a complete surrender? Whatever the case, I don’t want to remain a disbeliever forever. Oh God, give me the wisdom to believe in you and in reincarnation!