The concept of Rebirth has existed in various cultures around
the world for thousands of years. The idea finds mention in the Sankhya Sutras
of the Indian Sage Kapil authored in the 7th century B.C.E. and there are
references about it in the Riga Veda which is of unknown antiquity. This
concept was prevalent in other ancient cultures too which is evident from the
fact that the Greek scholars like Pythagoras, Socrates and Plato believed in
the idea of rebirth. Many Shamanic and Tribal societies of Australia, South
America, Canada, Siberia and North America hold this belief even today. New Religious
and Spiritual Movements (NRMs) such as Theosophy, Scientology, Spiritism,
Anthroposophy, and Wicca etc. have their doctrines centered on the concepts of
transmigration or rebirth defined variously but being principally in the same realm
of understanding. The Semitic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
however reject the idea of Rebirth but nevertheless there is mention of this
concept in the Kabbalah which is a part of Judaism and many Christian schools
are in agreement with this concept to the extent that the Unity church and its
founder Charles Fillmore taught reincarnation. Fillmore even believed himself
to be the reincarnation of Saint Paul of Tarsus. In his book ’30 most convincing cases of Reincarnation’
Trutz Hardo claims “Even Jesus and early Christians believed in it.” He further
states “This (Reincarnation) was
rejected by the main religions which continued to spread across Europe. In the
laws of Reincarnation everyone has to become responsible for his or her own
spiritual development and the healing of his or her own soul over many
lifetimes. Seen in this light, highly organized institutions of belief (the Church) become unnecessary, and are
robbed of their power over the people. For this reason it is totally
understandable why, for example, the Christian Church of the 13th
Century destroyed the Cathars in their gruesome crusade. The Cathars believed
in Reincarnation and had separated from the Papacy, and were a threat to the
ruling order.”
Rebirth has many synonyms such as Transmigration,
Re-incarnation, Metempsychosis, Punarjanma etc. however the basic idea remains
the same. It can be defined thus:
Rebirth is the next
birth of an individual soul / mind / consciousness as a new living form, by it
(soul / mind / consciousness) taking up another physical body after the death
of one physical body.
Rebirth as defined here, is not limited to one recurrence
alone and is said to continue to happen after each death and therefore it is
often referred to as ‘the cycle of births
and deaths’ which continues till such time when the soul / mind /
consciousness gets absolved of all its unexhausted
consequences of desire based actions (karmic aggregates) accumulated during
the innumerable births lived in the cycle. Even though the process of rebirth
or re-incarnation is explained differently in different philosophies, the view
held by the majority of the eastern philosophies such as Hinduism, Buddhism,
Jainism, Sikhism as well as by the New Religious Movements (NRMs) is that a
rebirth can take place in any living form, be it as an animal, a plant, a bird
or a human being. The living form of the next rebirth for a living being gets
determined on the basis of the algebraic sum of the unexhausted accumulated
consequences of all desire-motivated actions performed till the last death of
the said living being (updated karmic aggregate- the Sanchit Karma).
The philosophies which propagate the concept of rebirth
emphasize that the purpose assigned to each birth is to provide the living
being an opportunity to reduce / neutralize / exhaust its accumulated karmic
aggregate by the process of righteous living in the current life. If and when
the said living being is able to exhaust the entire baggage of karmic aggregate
by its righteous conduct in successive births, it gets freed from its bondage
to the cycle of births and deaths and gets liberated to finally merge into the
Supreme Consciousness (God / Divinity / Brahman). In this manner these
philosophies are able to provide an explanation for the purpose of life and
also the way to achieve the same i.e. the
path and the goal of living. Without prejudice to the fact of the existence
or non-existence of the phenomena of rebirth in the universe, it can be said
that the philosophies which uphold this concept have successfully provided a
fairly reasonable and convincing answer to the two crucial questions that occur
in the human mind viz. ‘What is the
purpose of life?’ and ‘How to live
and lead a meaningful and fulfilling life?’ The very fact that the concept
of rebirth has existed unchallenged for thousands of years in the societies which
have unflinchingly held on to this belief, is in itself, a testimony to the enormity
of the convincing power of the explanations associated with this doctrine.
A living being has two essential
dimensions to its existence; one being Matter (as the physical body) and the
other being the Spirit (as Consciousness). Death of the living being happens
when the Spirit / Consciousness abandons the Body. While the body disintegrates
into its elementary constituents and merges with the elements in nature; the
spirit / consciousness which is a form of Energy does not get destroyed as per
the universal law of energy conservation. What happens of the spirit after
death is not known and probably cannot be known. However there can be two
possibilities that either the spirit
merges with the total universal energy (the Supreme Consciousness) after death
of a living being or else it moves
into another developing body to enliven another living being to undertake a
fresh journey of life in the new life form.
If the first possibility be the case then the spark of spirit
that enlivened the life of a living being serves no further purpose after its
death and it loses its existence as a separate entity by becoming one with the
total energy or Supreme Consciousness.
However if the second possibility be the case, the spirit gets
reborn as the new living being which becomes the case of rebirth. It is not
denied that there can be many more possibilities of the course; the spirit can
take after death which is beyond human comprehension. What is being attempted
here is to provide a plausible hypothesis
based on limited human comprehension.
Dwelling upon the plausible hypothesis further, it can be
stated that once the spirit leaves the body at the time of death, it should
normally follow the first case i.e. merge with the Supreme Consciousness unless
it is somehow blocked in this process. The advocates of rebirth have a point to
make regarding this blocking of the merger of the individual spiritual spark
with the total spirit i.e. the Supreme Consciousness. They claim that the
spirit is not freed just by leaving the body on death but that it carries bondage
in the form of the unresolved / unexhausted karmic aggregate that prevents its
merger with the Supreme Consciousness. Therefore the individual spirit bound by
karmic compulsions continues to seek another vehicle in the form of another
physical body to be able to neutralize this karmic aggregate in and through a
new life. This process repeats itself until the complete neutralization of the
karmic aggregate happens and the individual spirit becomes free so as to merge
with its source – the Supreme Consciousness. In this way the champions of rebirth
actually uphold the primacy of the first case of the plausible hypothesis but
they qualify it by bringing in the doctrine
of Karma and make the second case as an intermediary stage justifying
rebirth, thereby making rebirth a necessary prequalification for the
fulfillment of the first case till the condition of karmic neutralization is
fulfilled. Even though the explanations given by the rebirth protagonists are
logical; at best their proposition remains within the realm of a possibility
only; therefore it remains merely a hypothesis unless scientifically
established to be undeniably true.
The proponents of rebirth further argue by asking: ‘Why is it that some are born in prosperous
families where they enjoy all the luxuries and comforts of life which have not accrued
to them as a result of their own earning or effort in their present life
whereas some are born in conditions of utter poverty and they suffer all kinds
of hardships for which they cannot be held responsible at the time of their
birth?’ Similarly, they argue – ‘There
are cases of criminals who are a nuisance for their own families and to society
who remain unpunished for their deeds throughout their lives and they leave
this world that way’. If there were a system which regulates the process of
rewards and punishment for living beings then what is the explanation for such
criminals getting away without facing due punishment? These examples, they claim, may
be extreme in nature but there are various shades & possibilities with
regard to the beginning and the end of a life which raise similar questions.
The advocates of rebirth contend that the laws of nature which govern the
process of life cannot support such a chaotic scenario. It is therefore certain,
(in their view) that there must be a
method of accountability in nature which though not directly perceivable to the
human mind, can certainly be inferred and derived. This law, they claim exists
in the form of the doctrine of Karma
which provides for the rationalization of the unexhausted consequences of past
actions through the process of rebirth. No doubt this doctrine is inferential
in nature but it prudently explains the apparent anomalies observed in ‘lives on Earth’.
It is not that the scientific community did not delve into
the investigation of the doctrine of rebirth. In this context the observations
made on the basis of the research carried out by the Russian physicist Prof.
George Lakhovsky is noteworthy. Prof. Lakhovsky derived in his Doctrine of materialization &
dematerialization and I quote:
“It thus follows that
all beings who lose their lives are not dead in reality, in the absolute sense
of the word, but continue to live with their full consciousness in other
regions of the Universe. They could perfectly well be reborn, on earth through
a previous rematerialization and relive with the fullness of their personality
in flesh & bones.---This reincarnation of human beings ---- can explain
certain facts otherwise difficult to account for----how can we understand the
extraordinary aptitudes of a man of genius born of mediocre parents? The laws
of heredity seem superseded and are powerless to account for the exceptional
qualities of this man. On the contrary everything is explained by the effect of
the transmission of a complex human range through space at the time of
conception”.
The Science of Biochemistry has
established that the individual cells in our body have a limited life span -
from days to weeks, and even a few years. Using sophisticated Carbon-14 dating
methods, Dr. Frisen and his team of stem cells researchers in the Karolinska
Institute, Stockholm, Sweden, have been able to determine that the average age
of cells in an adult body would be between 7 and 10 years. This scientific evidence,
unambiguously establishes the fact that as we age, our body cells are replaced
regularly and that we have a constantly changing body even though our
consciousness, as to who we are, remains unchanged. Our identification of
ourselves, ‘the I Consciousness’ remains constant throughout. We may develop
changes in our likes and dislikes and thinking over the years but we always
know who we are in the sense of personal continuity or personal ‘beingness’. Extending
this argument further it can perhaps be visualized that “I”, our consciousness
is immortal, and travels through many different bodies in time. This is the
rational explanation of reincarnation.
The Science of Genetics also supports the continuity of the
living being after its death. As per the principles of Genetics, it is known
that the genes of the parents are passed on to the progeny. The genes of each
parent represent the basic design or the characteristics of the parent, in a
way, the parent itself. The genes of the progeny born from the parent(s) are
developed from the parental genes. Thus the parent(s) continue to live in a new
life in the form of the progeny even after their own death. How the genes of
the parents will get integrated to generate the new set of genes is yet to be
established conclusively by Science. However it is known that even if the whole
set of genes of the parents do not get actively manifested in the progeny, they
lie dormant within the progeny and can manifest in the next or later
generations emerging from their progeny. Thus the parents live through their
progeny all the time. Is it not a form of
rebirth?
The unique combination of manifested genetic design in the
progeny achieved through the mutation of parental genes cannot be arbitrary or
random in nature but it must be according to some formula or law hitherto
unknown to scientist. This missing link is the control in the hands of Creation
by which it can design the next generation to suit its larger purpose- it’s
Grand Design. This missing link too shall get revealed in future as the
frontiers of Science keep expanding in search of the Ultimate Truth. In this context Prof. Lakhovsky’s following
observations are most relevant:-
“We all know, besides,
that fertilization often does not occur until the end of several months and
even after several years. This delay of impregnation may be due to specific
radiation of the male or female which are not always in resonance with the
radiation of materialization. The organism from the first cell, in its
development is the materialization of rays-----continues its development to
evolve under the domination of the same specific complex of radiations coming
from the being that originally gave its life.---All this explains how every
living being microbe, infusoria, plant, animal, man reproduces itself to
infinity----where its complex of radiations finds favorable conditions of
resonance and so materialize themselves in various parts of the Universe to
eternity. These materializations by the propagation of the radiations------can
repeat itself indefinitely in the infinity of time & space.”
From the foregoing observations of Prof. Lakhovsky some hints
of the missing link in the understanding of the process of Genetics for the
mutation of genes in a new birth can be visualized. The above stated ‘favorable
conditions of resonance’ for the materialization of life, are in the form of
Creation’s intervention for the birth of a living being, the basis for which is
provided by the doctrine of karma and which cannot be overlooked as Lakhovsky says
:
“We should not put
aside without profound examination the theories that place special importance
to the marked influence on human destiny------at the moment of conception and
birth of a human being.”
Studies carried out in the field of Psychiatry and
Parapsychology support the theory of rebirth. The renowned Psychoanalyst Carl
Jung talks about the collective unconscious, the energy that surrounds us and
contains the memories of the evolution of the entire human race. These memories
are a part of us and are continuously updated in the light of our experiences
as they are carried forward in our journey of life through different births in
different bodies. The pioneering work of Dr. Brian Weiss in this field is
particularly noteworthy. Using the process of Past Life Regression, Dr. Brian
Weiss was able to tap these memories to reveal the past birth experiences of
the subject individuals successfully. He could establish linkages of the current
behavioral patterns of individuals to their previous birth events and
experiences. These researches do strengthen the case that there is continuance
of life after the physical death of a living being and that there is rebirth.
Scientists are still skeptical but are coming to terms with the limitless
ramifications of the process of rebirth particularly in the fields of Medicine
and Psychiatry.
Another psychiatrist Dr. Raymond Moody, M.D. observed that
many people who suffered severe heart attacks saw their astral body getting
detached from the physical body and that they watched the doctors and nurses
carrying out the treatment on their physical body. Dr. Raymond gives an
interesting instance of a person who was involved in a serious car accident and
he saw his astral body getting out of the physical body. After he was restored
back to life he recounted his out-of-the-physical-body experience.
Dr. Raymond Moody interviewed hundreds of men and women who
had gone through “clinical death” and had been revived. He published in 1975 a
report on his findings in his book Life
after Life. He found striking similarity among the accounts. In fact, there
were fifteen recurring points of likeness. A
composite experience based on the common elements of one-hundred individual
death experiences, has been summed up as given below:
“A man is dying and, as he reaches the point of
greatest physical distress, he hears himself pronounced dead by his doctor. He
begins to hear an uncomfortable noise, a loud ringing or buzzing, and at the
same time feels himself moving very rapidly through a long dark tunnel. After this,
he suddenly finds himself outside
of his own physical body, but still in the immediate physical environment,
and he sees his own body from a distance, as though he is a spectator. He
watches the resuscitation attempt from this unusual vantage point and is in a
state of emotional upheaval.
After a while, he collects himself and becomes more
accustomed to his odd condition. He notices that he still has a body; but one
with a different nature and different powers from the physical body he’s left
behind. Others come to meet and to help him – the ‘spirits’ of relatives and
friends who have already died. A loving, warm spirit – A being of Light –
appears before him. The being asks a question, nonverbally, to make him
evaluate his life. The being helps him along by showing him a panoramic,
instantaneous playback of the major events of his life. At some point, he
approaches a barrier which, apparently, represents the [threshold] between
earthly life and the next life. But, he finds that he must go back to the
earthly life because the time for his death has not yet come.
He resists because, by now, he is taken up with his
experiences in the afterlife and does not want to return. He is overwhelmed by
intense feelings of joy, love…and peace. Still, he reunites with his physical body and lives.
Later…he tries to tell others, but he has trouble doing so for two reasons:
First, there are no human words adequate to describe the unearthly episode.
And, second, he finds that people don’t believe him. So, he stops telling other
people, even though the experience affects his life profoundly, especially his
views about death and its relationship to life.”
In 1977, Kenneth Ring, a brilliant young professor of
psychology at the University of Connecticut also read Raymond Moody’s book
‘Life after Life’ and he got so inspired that he decided to carry out a more
scientifically structured study to strengthen Moody’s findings. He sought out
102 near-death survivors from amongst blind persons and from among those who
attempted suicide. He published a scientific paper in the Journal of Near-Death
Studies about people who had near-death experiences (NDE) of a type providing
verified evidence supporting Afterlife
Hypothesis wherein they found themselves outside of their bodies, observing
detailed events happening far away. This phenomenon called “veridical
perception” is currently inexplicable by modern Science. Such verified
veridical perceptions are highly suggestive of a reality where consciousness
can survive apart from the physical body and perhaps survive even death. As and
when conclusive evidence of veridical perception under strict laboratory
conditions shall be found, it would be the greatest scientific discoveries of
all times.
Many from the scientific community have criticized
the findings of Moody and Ring on the grounds that the research method
employed for the NDE studies violate the principles of valid research. Barry
Beverstein, a professor in psychology has alleged that the evidences used for
such studies are logically and empirically flawed. James Alcock another
psychologist has accused Moody of ‘cherry picking’. The philosopher Robert
Todd Carroll suggests that a typical NDE may be due to brain states triggered by cardiac arrest and
anesthesia or the result of a dying, demented or drugged brain. The
scientific community stands divided but Moody and Ring have triggered
research studies such as the AWARE study where hospitals have attempted to
monitor cardiac patients for possible NDEs. There already exists a
substantial amount of data on veridical perceptions and it is only a matter
of time before out-of-body veridical perception is proven under strict
research controls which will satisfy the skeptics.
The findings of Raymond Moody and Kenneth Ring after
getting greater scientific concurrence and acceptance as an epistemologically
justified true belief; shall be able to determine but one part of the rebirth
process which is the confirmation of the continuation of the existence of Individual Consciousness after the death of the physical body. What happens
of the surviving consciousness shall still remain to be traced to its actually
‘taking-up’ another physical body for the confirmation of the rebirth
process. There however is another way of confirming rebirth by the process of
scientific investigation and determination of reported rebirth cases particularly in
children who recall their past birth details. Dr. Ian Stevenson M.D., University of Virginia has done exactly that. He investigated many reports of
young children who claimed to remember a past life. He methodically conducted
more than 2500 case studies over a period of 40 years and documented each
subject’s statements and then identified the deceased person, with whom the
subject identified himself / herself and verified the facts of the deceased
person’s life that matched the child’s memory. He also matched birth marks
and birth defects to wounds and scars on the deceased person’s body, verified
by medical records such as autopsy photographs. He also searched for
disconfirming evidence and alternative explanations for the reports to rule
out all possible ‘normal’ explanations for the child’s memories. He was
criticized for basing his research in eastern societies where rebirth is a matter
of strong belief. To counter this criticism he published a book on European Cases of the Reincarnation Type.
He published twelve books on the subject.
One of Stevenson’s associates Professor Satwant Pasricha
has worked on similar lines as Stevenson, in India. She has investigated
cases of Xenoglossy which is the
ability of a person to speak a different language without having ever learnt
it in the person’s current life. This research particularly becomes a
clinching evidence for a past life of the person in a culture or region where
the language in vogue is entirely different from the one of the person’s
present birth and which the person is able to speak without any exposure to
it in the current life.
There have been many more researchers who have worked for
proving and establishing rebirth on the basis of empirical data collected
from a large number of case studies but at the same time there have been many
skeptics. Stephen Blake who
emphatically refutes Reincarnation argues that “no amount of data can
demonstrate anything without an underlying theory to support it or give it
meaning----reckoned as empirical
evidence”. In his book Reincarnation
Refuted he states “reincarnation research
---is notable for the absence of any coherent or testable theories (and) –is
itself the product of armchair theorizing and as such should be subjected to
the normal tests of logical consistency”. He has provided two kinds of
refutations of reincarnation in his book. Firstly he refutes reincarnation by
mathematically establishing the unviability of karma and secondly by
establishing the unreality of Time. He states that if one accepts the
scientific concept of the unreality of time then reincarnation stands refuted
as reincarnation happens in the dimension of time however if one believes
that time is real then reincarnation gets refuted mathematically by the Impossibility Theorem. Either way
reincarnation gets refuted.
Another skeptic Paul
Edwards after analyzing many of the accounts of recorded cases of ‘claimed
rebirths’ called them anecdotal. In his book The Demon Haunted World, Carl
Sagan while referring to the empirical data and the explanations thereof
as presented by Ian Stevenson has labeled them as mere parsimonious
explanations for the stories. Other objections by skeptics are based on the
fact that the vast majority of the people do not remember their previous
lives and there is no failsafe mechanism known to modern Science that would
enable someone to transcend death and travel to another body. Even
researchers like Stevenson have acknowledged these limitations.
|
It is not that the doctrine of rebirth has not been
challenged from within the lot of eastern philosophers. One of the oldest and
respected spiritual researchers of the yore from ancient India Maharishi
Gautam did question the premise of the doctrine of karma as well as the idea
of rebirth in his Nyaya Sutras more than 2500 years back. His Nyaya Sutras
became a popular area of pursuit for the scholarly class however the priestly
class who had their belief systems rooted in the doctrines of karma and rebirth
were quite offended and they banned the study of the Nyaya Sutras and
disowned sage Gautam. Those were feudal times and the royalty ruled supreme
hence the scholars of the Nyaya Sutras were persecuted at the behest of the
priestly class. Only when the followers of Gautam compromised and accepted
the supremacy of the Vedas were the Nyaya Sutras and sage Gautam given their
due respect and place.
From the foregoing it is evident that there have been
diametrically opposing views regarding Rebirth / Reincarnation since the
ancient times be it within religious believers, philosophers, thinkers or the
scientific community. The issue may finally get resolved either way, if and when,
one of the two opposing views is nailed scientifically. Meanwhile there are
certain missing links in the understanding about rebirth on which more light
needs to be shed to complete the understanding of the process from death to
rebirth to make it an epistemologically acceptable theory. Some of these
points are being stated below for further contemplation and research on the
subject:
1. Even
though Raymond Moody and Kenneth Ring have been able to demonstrate the
existence of an astral body separate from the physical body through their
study of NDEs, it does not establish the fact that the astral body after
leaving the physical body on death travels to another body to pursue another
life through rebirth. The astral body or consciousness might as well travel
to another realm hitherto unknown. It may also happen that under some special
conditions a percentage of the astral bodies may move into another physical
body for rebirth while the rest follow another path, in which case those
special conditions which influence the further journey of the astral body
also need to be established.
2. Through
his experiments of Past Life Regression, Dr. Brien Weiss has demonstrated the
existence of a person through many lives but most of such case studies have
not met the epistemological requirements and have failed in accuracies with
respect to historical evidence. Even if these case studies are taken to be
true on face value, they do not determine the basis for the type of the
following life or lives lived by the subject. It is also surprising that all
reported past lives are in human form alone. If that be the case then how
does the growth in human population get explained? Past Life Regression does
not help in establishing a credible explanation for rebirth / reincarnation;
at best it can merely support the occurrence of rebirth in some cases.
3. The doctrine of materialization and
dematerialization proposed by Professor George Lakhovsky based on his
extensive experimentation is an extrapolation of his findings and therefore
it is hypothetical in nature. His hypothesis that ‘all beings who lose their lives are not dead in reality, in the
absolute sense of the word, but continue to live with their full
consciousness in other regions of the Universe. They could perfectly well be
reborn, on earth through a previous rematerialization and relive with the
fullness of their personality in flesh & bones’ has yet to be established in reality since no life
form has been found as yet in any part of the universe. Moreover even if life
is found on any other planet in another region of the universe, it shall need
to be determined whether there is a sequential connection of such life ‘to or
from’ life on Earth. The doctrine of materialization of Lakhovsky may be a
strong scientific possibility but in the absence of any empirical evidence,
it does not prove rebirth.
4. The
research studies carried out by Ian Stevenson, Kenneth Ring and Satwant
Pasricha based on the memoirs narrated by subjects about their past life
particularly given by children and which have in many cases been found to
have proven fairly accurate do give some credence to the hypothesis of
rebirth. There are many missing links to these findings such as it is not
known whether rebirth is a universal phenomenon or whether there is a basic
premise on which the determination of the next life for the living being gets
decided and if there be such a premise then what are the factors on which the
premise is founded. It also needs to be determined whether all afterlife of
human beings is lived in human form alone or there can be transmigration to
other life forms?
From the
foregoing four points it can be claimed that the determination of rebirth as
a scientific reality still has a long way to go and more research on all
aspects of the rebirth phenomenon needs to be carried out in accordance to
the tenets of strictest scientific methodology to establish a foolproof
theory of rebirth / reincarnation.
The
doctrine of Karma which is strongly believed by the eastern religions and
cultures is rooted in the occurrence of rebirth. If rebirth is proven to be
nonexistent, the doctrine of Karma too, shall lose its significance. The
doctrine of karma is based on the premise that the living being must experience
all the residual (un-experienced or partially experienced) consequences of
all its actions performed in ‘pursuit of’ or ‘motivated by’ ego-centric
desires. Such residual consequences of ego-centric-desire motivated actions
are carried forward to a hypothetical Repository
titled Sanchit Karma. This lot
of Sanchit karma needs to be
exhausted during the future lives to be lived by the Jeeva in various living forms in different regions of the
universe. The Jeeva is the equivalent of the astral body that transcends the
death of the physical body. In the process of living through various lives in
‘the cycle of births and deaths’ (called the Samsara), the Jeeva may accumulate further residual consequences
while exhausting some from the past which then gets algebraically integrated
to the existing Sanchit karma. The karma doctrine defines the existence of
fourteen Lokas (realms of
experiencing) out of which there are seven upper Lokas starting from earth
and there are seven lower Lokas. The form and span of life on each Loka is
dictated by the extent and type of karma to be exhausted by the Jeeva i.e.
the good karmas are exhausted by a life on a higher Loka and similarly bad
karmas get exhausted by a stint on an appropriate lower Loka. Another important point to be noted here is
that the opportunity for the Jeeva to exhaust all its Sanchit karmas to
finally attain freedom from the cycle of births and deaths is available only
on earth or Bhuloka and hence every
time its Sanchit karmas are close to such a possibility it is sent back to
the Bhuloka. In other words the visits to other Lokas (whether a higher or a
lower Loka) only absolves the Jeeva of a certain degree of a type of good or
bad karmas. A general classification of the higher Lokas is in the form of
Heaven i.e. the upper Lokas are together called the heavenly abodes and the
lower Lokas are together termed as the Hell. Lives lived in the heavenly
abodes or in the realms of hell are transitory and not eternal in nature. Even
on earth the Jeeva can take up any one of the various life forms which
inhabit the earth. All life forms on earth whether within the animal kingdom
or the plant kingdom except the human being are called the Bhoga-Yonis. Bhoga-Yonis are the life
forms in which the Jeeva only exhausts the Karmas and does not create or
accumulate any residual consequences since the actions performed in
Bhoga-Yonis are instinctive and not ego-centric-desire motivated actions. The
human being is the ‘crown jewel’ of Creation as it is only the human being
that is endowed with the unique opportunity of transcending the cycle of
birth and deaths- the Samsara. The
whole process of generation of karmic aggregate and its exhaustion through
the cycle of births and deaths leading to the final emancipation of the Jeeva
and its final integration with the Supreme Consciousness is described by the
doctrine of karma.
The
doctrine of karma as described here cannot be ascertained by any of the
epistemological processes except probably in bits and pieces such as by
establishing the existence of an astral body that transcends death; by
establishing rebirth atleast in some definable proportion of all births; by
finding some forms of life on other planets in other regions of the universe
and by establishing some definable connectivity of such other life to life on
earth. Even if and when these portions of the rebirth cycle get established,
the entire doctrine of karma shall continue to have many missing links which
shall defy any form of epistemological substantiation. Thus the existence of
the doctrine of karma shall always remain in the domain of Faith. The doctrine of karma is
probably even more challenging to prove or accept for modern Science than
finding the hitherto elusive God Particle
to ascertain the building block for Life
itself. Therefore the existence of this doctrine shall always remain a topic
for debate with skeptics and believers taking extreme positions on either
side. This is one case where Faith and Logic can apparently never have a
meeting point.
There are
a few counter points to the traditionally enunciated doctrine of karma which
need to be pondered upon. These points are:
A. The unique identity of the living being assigned
to ‘a life’ does not transmigrate to the next birth. The consciousness or the
astral body gets a completely new identity through rebirth. Moreover there is
no connection whatsoever between the past life’s identity and the new
identity obtained at rebirth. The experiencer
in each case is the living being with the present identity. In such a
scenario how the good or bad experiences of a uniquely identified living being in the current time frame, can
be said to be an experience of reward or punishment for deeds performed by
another uniquely identified living
being in some past time frame. The following simple analogy shall clarify
this further:
Mr. X committed a crime and died
before he could be caught and punished for his crime. Mr. X takes birth as
Mr. Y in his next birth and suffers throughout his life in his new form as a
consequence for the crime he committed as Mr. X in his earlier life. It is
alright as per the doctrine of karma but Mr. X and Mr. Y are two uniquely
different living beings so far as the experiencing is concerned. There is no
way in which Mr. Y can connect his present experiences to his past deeds as
Mr. X and therefore he fails to get the message of leading a righteous
present life to absolve himself of the crime committed earlier.
If the
purpose of the doctrine of karma is to educate a living being towards
righteous living and absolve itself of the past karmic aggregate, then that
purpose is not really fulfilled as is clearly brought out by the afore
narrated analogy.
B. The doctrine of karma states that the process of
the neutralization of karmic aggregate ends only through the last journey in
Bhuloka (earth) as a human birth. It is difficult to imagine a human birth
lived without performing any desire-motivated-ego-centric action(s). In which
case it is really difficult to imagine-of any possibility of release from the
cycle of births and deaths. Even in the Hindu mythological stories there has
been only one case of a human birth wherein the new born has walked away to
the forest at birth itself to do penance and lead the life of an ascetic.
This is the story of Shuk Deva son of sage Veda-Vyasa. Thus there is a record
of only one case in thousands of years of mythological history wherein the
individual lived a life of absolute desirelessness. As it stands the doctrine
of karma gives scant hope for liberation and may even be dubbed as
impractical by some.
C. The doctrine of karma explains the process of
accumulation of karmic aggregate and its neutralization however each cycle of
births and deaths must have a beginning. Where was the Jeeva placed at the
beginning of the cycle and in which form and why did the Jeeva take birth at
all without any karmic aggregate to begin with. And if the Jeeva was granted
birth to fulfill some requirement of Creation then how is it responsible for
whatever happened thereafter.
The points
A, B and C remain unanswered by the doctrine of karma till date.
Astrology
as it developed in India surely made the doctrine
of karma its mainstay and the go-to doctrine for explaining the questions
related to destiny; birth in a particular environment; the purpose of a
current life and for deciding upon astral remedies for minimizing adverse
effects in ‘a life’ etc.. The connectivity of Indian astrology to the
philosophy of karma is based on the premise that living beings exist in three
concurrent layers as three distinctly identifiable bodies namely the Sthoola
Sharira or the gross physical body, the Sookshma Sharira or the
Astral body and the Karana Sharira or the Causal body.
The three bodies exist concurrently for the living being and are interlinked
having a common identity and single underlying consciousness. The Karana
Sharira or the Causal body is consonant with the updated karmic orientation or
the updated current status of the being’s karmic aggregate. This Causal body
creates the Sookshma Sharira or the Astral body which is actually a unique radiation
package reflecting the Causal body. The unique radiation package emanates
from the cosmic radiation and remains connected to the Cosmos. The solar
system consisting of the Sun, the Moon and the rest of the planets is the
major contributor of the unique orientation of the Astral body. Thus the karmic
aggregate represented in the Causal body get condensed in the form of the
cosmic radiations creating the Astral body.
The Astral
body takes birth in the form of the Sthoola Sharira or the gross physical
body at the time & place when the configuration of the solar system
matches with the design of the Astral body. The design of the gross physical
form of the living being is therefore guided by the Astral body which in turn
reflects the Causal body that is tuned by the karmic aggregate of the living
being in question. The gross physical body including the faculties of the
mind, intellect and the ego reflect the Astral body of the living being at
the time of birth. The same consciousness of the living being permeates all
the three bodies in a new birth. The death of the gross body does not mean
the death of the living being as the being lives on through the Causal &
the Astral bodies albeit with the updated orientation of the karmic
aggregate.
This
aspect of existence of the Astral body is also called the ethereal state of a
living being by the scientists. This arrangement of the astral body taking
birth as a new living being is the foundation for the astrological mapping of
the current updated karmic orientation of that living being in the form of
the Astrological Horoscope drawn for the time & place of the birth. The
horoscope of the individual thus reflects and connects to the Astral body of
the individual thereby indicating that individual’s Destiny for the present
birth. The astral connection of the destiny of a living being in the present
life is thus visible in the horoscope and can be read and interpreted by
learned astrologers. This connection of the astral body to present destiny of
a living being can be influenced or maneuvered-with under certain conditions
which forms the basis for the remedies used by astrologers for mitigating
difficulties or for promoting good. Destiny needs to be understood as an
integral part of human existence and not as merely an element reflecting Fate,
Chance or Probability. Thus the doctrine of karma and Indian astrology are in
complete sync.
Western
astrologers, since the early twentieth century, have integrated the doctrine
of karma and the concepts of rebirth / reincarnation into their practice of
astrology. The developments were inspired by the major works of Helena
Blavatsky such as Isis Unveiled and
the Secret Doctrine. Renowned
western astrologers such as Alan Leo Charles, Marc Edmund Jones and Dane
Rudhyar have been the pioneers who integrated the Hindu and Buddhist concepts
of rebirth into Hermeticism and Neoplatonism that formed the bedrock
of the principles of Western astrology. This dynamic integration has
continued into the modern era with the works of Western astrologers like
Steven Forrest and Jeffery Wolf Green. The new school of evolutionary
astrology is based on the principle that human beings are reborn in a
succession of lifetimes in the cycle of births and deaths as propounded by
the doctrine of karma.
Astrology
and the doctrine of karma, as is
evident from the preceding narration are inextricably inter-twined giving the
impression that if the doctrine of karma gets negated completely the very
foundation of Astrology shall get destroyed and Indian astrology in
particular shall lose its significance. This understanding is as far away
from truth as any that can be. There can be an alternative narrative for the
birth of living beings on earth which can easily and suitably replace the
foregoing narrative of the doctrine of karma without disturbing in any way
the concepts, principles, processes and procedures that make up the practice
of Indian astrology in particular and astrology in general.
One of the
plausible counter narratives of the doctrine of karma could be based on the
principle that each life lived by a being on earth is complete in itself
without any connection to a past or a future existence indicating thereby that
nothing is brought forward-to or
carried forward-from the present
journey of life of a living being. In this way each being, inhabiting the planet
earth or any other part of the universe is only playing a unique and specific
role assigned to it by Creation to
fulfill the requirements of the divine agenda. The individual destiny
assigned to each being therefore is but a small subset of the overall Universal Destiny that guides the
happenings within the Grand Design
of this universal phenomenon. As a corollary to this concept, it can be
stated that the sum total of all the individual destinies of all entities of
this universe at any given time shall reflect the Universal Destiny at that
moment in time. Thus Creation or
the Divine Power creates beings of
specific forms as per the requirement of the Grand Design of the universe
from time to time to play their ordained roles through their individual
journeys of existence. These individual destinies are determinable through
the principles and procedures of the Science of astrology. A question that
arises at this juncture is ‘What is the
relevance of astrology in the scenario described here?’ The answer to
this question lies in the fact that even the knowledge and practice of
astrology exists as a part and parcel of the Grand Design and hence it must
fulfill some role in the unfolding of the universal agenda. The universal
phenomenon is dynamic in nature which necessitates the reorientation of
programs of all entities from time to time. A river changes its course when
it encounters a hill on its path or a new scientific discovery brings about a
change in the way human beings live their future lives thereafter. Any
intervention in the way things / beings exist whether such an intervention is
through medical, psychological, philosophical, legal or any other advice or
through the influence of nature, politics or social dynamics does reorient
the sentient and insentient entities to meet the requirements of the
universal agenda. Astrological intervention for those, who are ordained to
receive it, also serves a similar requirement for the human being(s) by
enabling a reoriented future role-play for the fulfillment of the universal
agenda. Who or which entity shall get reoriented by which kind of
intervention for following a modified future course on its journey is also
ordained by Creation or the Divine Power that guides the course of
universal functioning. The following analogy may serve as a simple
illustration of the counter narrative to the doctrine of karma:
A village
clay modeler in India makes dolls, idols, human and animal models. He decides
upon which models to make based on the coming future occasion in his
vicinity. If a fare for children is to be organized in the near future in and
around his village, he would probably create dolls and animal models keeping
the children’s fare in mind but if a religious festival is in the offing then
he would probably create idols of gods and angels to suit the occasion. What
he shall create is dictated by the requirement of an occasion. The clay he uses
is inert and devoid of any past or futuristic prejudice. The clay does not in
any way influence his creations or the selection of the type of his creation.
Neither do the models created by the clay modeler on earlier occasions come
back to him to be remodeled into new models. Much in the same way Creation creates the type and form of
beings as per the requirements of the Grand Design of the universe from time
to time. There need not be any role for the karmic orientation of beings of
the past to influence the future creations of Creation. Similarly there is no case for any rebirth or
reincarnation in such a scenario.
Another
question that is likely to come up at this juncture is: ‘How does the counter narrative to the doctrine of karma explain the
various inequalities and anomalies at birth and death atleast in human lives?
This question arises from the observation that some humans take birth in
affluent and comfortable surroundings while some are born in abject poverty
and extremely difficult circumstances and also from the fact that some people
do not suffer due punishment for their criminal actions while on the contrary
some suffer throughout their lives having done no wrong. These questions
emerge from the fallacious and shallow understanding of the universal
phenomenon based on the limited and ego-centrist definitions of equality and
justice. First of all it needs to be emphasized here that any journey of life
in any form is not a consequence of the choice of any being but is purely to
fulfill the requirement of the universal agenda. For example if a peon is to
be recruited in an organization only a peon shall be recruited by the
organization and the duties of a peon shall be assigned to such a recruited
person. Similarly when a senior officer is required only a senior officer
shall be recruited in the organization and assigned appropriate duties. The
salaries and perquisites also shall be disbursed according to the
organizational rules appropriate to each role. The contradiction arises from an
obsession with the myopic view of ‘the
person’ taking precedence that blocks the larger vision of the Grand
Design. Similarly all actions of human beings when merely seen as some
individual’s actions are judged from that individual’s perspective alone, thereby
crediting / discrediting that individual for the quality of the action
without an appreciation of the fact that there can be no action outside the
domain of the universal agenda which certainly is not as per the choice of
the said individual hence such action is not that individual’s
responsibility.
The two
questions raised here-in have been answered purely from the perspective of
the counter narrative to the doctrine of karma and rebirth. The same
questions shall undoubtedly get answered quite differently using the doctrine
of karma. It is therefore difficult to say which of the answers is the
correct answer unless and until either the doctrine of karma gets finally
established or it gets ultimately rejected. It may also be stated here that
the counter-narrative to the doctrine of karma explained in the foregoing
paragraphs is not the only plausible counter-narrative; there can be many
more such counter-narratives which can effectively substitute the doctrine of
karma.
Whichever is the case, whether the doctrine of karma holds
true or does not hold true, there is an existence of destiny in every human
life which can be determined through the tenets of astrology. Moreover there
can also be effective modifications to the future course of a life which can
be brought about by astrological intervention. In other words the concepts, principles
and procedures of astrology are not dependent on the doctrine of karma and
rebirth. In conclusion therefore it can be emphatically stated that there is
little or no relevance of the doctrine of karma and the philosophy of rebirth
for the concepts, principles, processes and practice of astrology.
|
