We have a question from Hari,
Puranas talk a lot about re-births and karma. But is there any way for us to understand it with real life evidence ? Have you or anybody seen anything that proves this fact ? How does a beginner verify this fact?
I am not a scientist or researcher, I am not the right person to give you evidences that proves re-birth or re-incarnation. If you google around a bit, you will find many research material, articles, videos on evidences of re-incarnation.
Just to cite an example, there is a book written on how an English boy living in another continent completely narrated his past life before he was even admitted to school. He claimed himself to be a Tibetian monk and based on his descriptions, scholars where able to locate the monastery in Tibet where he lived and studied. Then there is this infamous case of Shanti Devi which has gone through multiple trials and investigations, her example is cited by many international scholars since decades.
To me, there is no need to find evidence because I can see and feel it happening everyday. It’s very simple if you take it both logically and spiritually.
You are a mixture of three bodies – matter, mind and soul.
- Matter – your physical body – “Sthula Sarira” – The gross body is the material physical mortal body that eats, breathes and moves (acts).
- Mind – Your mental body – “Sukshma Sarira” – The subtle body is the body of the mind and the vital energies, which keeps the physical body alive.
- Soul – Your causal body – “Karana Sarira” – The causal body. It is the soul, the seed of the subtle body and the gross body. It is that little seed which when planted in a field, becomes a tree with a trunk, branches, fruits and creates a whole host of ecosystem around it.
Coming to matter, your body is made up of Cells. These cells are dying every second. So physically, you die every other week. By the time you finish reading this article, most of the cells in your body will be dead and will be replaced with new ones.
So in a week or so, you are a completely different person by physical standards. You may not notice the differences but Science tells you that you have changed and no longer the same as you were 1 week ago.
Coming to mind, we all know how that works. It is ever changing and the composition of your thoughts is no longer the same in any given moment, neither it will be same as it was before. Thoughts and structure of your mind is changing every millisecond. Right know as I hit the keyboard of my computer, I have a different mindset and by the time I finish writing this, I will have a different mindset and orientation in the brain.
Coming to the soul, this is the difficult part but you can still relate to it if you look carefully.
- Remember that guy who used to steal cookies from the kitchen? You did that, but you no longer do it anymore.
- Remember that guy who used to write love letters for his beloved college sweetheart but could never gather the courage to deliver it.
- Remember that guy who used to fear exams, job interviews and school competitions, so much so that he used to form plans on how to escape that situation?
- This same guy will become a father some day and will teach his son or daughter why they should take studies seriously (he never did it in his tenure though)
See how this guy is dying and is being born again?
Forget past or future lives, you have the evidence right in front of your eyes that in one life, you are born thousands of millions of times.
Lifecycle: Action – Transformation – Reaction – Transformation – Action
Of course you won’t believe until some “Expert” shows you something which convinces you that okay Re-birth exists. Unless you understand this whole cycle of Karma, you will not be convinced.
There is only one Force in this whole universe – the force of “Action”. Karma originates from the Sanskrit word “Kri” which means, to act.
Unless you understand what “Action” is, you will not know what “Reaction” is. Everything you see is an action and a reaction to something that has happened before. So every single damn thing in this world is basically the reflection of a Karma, and a “reaction” to some previous Karma.
Birth, re-birth, death, reincarnation is again a part of the “Action -reaction” lifecycle. I highly recommend you to read this book on Karma Yoga. There is no evidence of re-incarnation mentioned in that book but I would still urge you to read it. This will help you understand the “Cycle of Karma”, why the universe is in motion, what is movement, why something happens – you will get these answers.
Again, if everything you see is Action, then where is the reaction? The reaction is also present, it is just that the reaction will unveil itself when the action completes its journey.
If everything is “Action”, you are also a part of everything. Which means you are also some sort of “Action”. If that is true, there must be a reaction as well. And on top of it, the present action is a reaction of a past action. So if you exist, your reaction had existed and a future reaction is in the making. So if you are the action in your present birth, the reaction is stored in your future birth. Similarly, your present birth is the “reaction” of a past birth. And so on and so forth.
To end the article, I will cite a Phrase from Bhagvata Gita where Krishna tells Arjuna that there is no such thing as Death or decay. That there is no finish line, its all a circle and we are merely moving through a concentric spiral which has no end and no beginning.
तुम किसकी मृत्यु का शोक कर रहे हो पार्थ? मृत्यु तो सरीर की होती है, आत्मा तो अमर है, अजेय है! जो जनम ही नही लेता, उसकी मृत्यु कैसे हो सकती है?
Of whose death are you concerned about? The body dies, the soul continues to live until eternity.