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The cycle of birth, death and rebirth – Hindu standpoint
Murali Chemuturi“You people believe that there is re-birth. If the person does good karma, he will get abetter birth and if he commits sin he will get a worse birth – right?” so enquired the wifeof a pastor of a church of me. I answered in the affirmative. She shot back “Then tell mehow a small ant can do any good or bad karma and get a better or worse birth next time?”In 2002, I visited Toronto in Canada on work. Toronto happens to be the nearest city tothe famed Niagara Falls from Canadian side. I took a conducted tour to Niagara Falls. Asit happened there was a world-wide convention of churches (not all but of one branch)and I went on the conducted tour on which the delegates from that convention werebooked. It was on this tour she caught me off guard. Off guard because I was a computerprogrammer and not an evangelist of Hinduism even though I was of 51 years of age.Hindu philosophy states that all people born on this earth are certain to die and equallycertain is the fact that all the dead would be reborn. This concept is enunciated in 27
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 Sloka (couplet) of the second chapter of Bhagavad Gita, the sacred book of Hindus. Theybelieve that there is a soul (Atman) in every live being and it goes through the cycle of birth-death-rebirth and ultimately merges with the universe (Brahman). The secondchapter of Bhagavad Gita Slokas 17, 20,23, 24 and 25 state that the Atman cannot behurt, burnt nor destroyed.In Christianity there is no antonym for “sin”. You can commit “sin” but can you commitwhat is opposite of “sin”. Hindus believe that a person is capable of committing not onlysin but also “punya” (“u” to be pronounced as in “put” – “put it down”). Punya iscurrently being translated as “good karma” by some astrologers in the western world.“Karma” by the way, means “duty”. There is nothing good or bad about it, just as “duty”has neither bad nor good connotation to it. We will discuss about “Karma” in some otherarticle.Why does the Atman goes through the cycle? It is because of the debts (obligations) itacquires during life. Every time we perform a favor for some one (it need not be topeople alone and it could be to animals, society, air, water or to the environment), wereceive an IOU. Whenever we receive a favor from any one, we execute an IOU. Westeal something and may escape getting caught. All the same, we signed the IOU. As welive from day to day and year to year, we execute so many IOUs some in our favor andthe rest in others’ favor. Now who keeps an account of all IOUs of all persons? Hindusbelieve that there is one God in charge of it – namely “Chitra Gupta” the celestialaccountant.Now you may be laughing. Impossible, you say, how many terabytes is needed to keepthe score?Now let me state the other incredible belief that is common to Islam, Christianity andJudaism. They believe that there is going to be total destruction and a day of reckoning
 
on which every person has to answer the God for their actions on earth. Now for the last6000 years, no such day took place. Supposing today total destruction takes place and theday of reckoning is scheduled for tomorrow. How many people would be in queue?Billions if not trillions – right? OK All three religions claim that that their adherentswould be first in the queue without much evidence to attest to the claim except their holybooks. Now where do the souls of the dead reside till the Day of Judgment? Now don’ttell me that they do not believe in souls. RIP, the full form of which is “May his/her soulrest in peace till the day of judgment” attests that they do believe in souls.In Hinduism, the actions are accounted for immediately on the death, his reward (positiveor negative) as well as the next birth is decided and the Atman is sent back to anotherbirth to enjoy/suffer the reward. The individual’s account is deleted. This reduces theworkload drastically. The judgment can be automated fully. As it is on a daily basis, theworkload is distributed more or less evenly. Workload is not postponed and stacked to asingle day somewhere in future.That is why, Bhagavad Gita and advanced concepts of Hinduism state that God is noneother than Brahman (the universe) itself!Where does the next birth take place? Hindu scriptures state that there are 14 Bhuvanas(earth-like worlds) in this universe with seven above us and the rest below us. The birthcan be at any place. Heaven and hell are part of these fourteen. Heaven is supposed to beabove us and hell below us. The next birth can be either in heaven (the best place) or hell(the worst place) or in any of the remaining 12 Bhuvanas. The form of birth would bedirectly proportional to the IOUs we executed. Please note that the positive and negativeIOUs do not cancel out each other. All the IOUs have to be either repaid or collected.You can’t even write-off! If you have more positive IOUs, you will get human form. If negative IOUs are more than positive IOUs, the form would not be human.Now, how can the soul get out of this cycle? Easy – become debt-free in a life. Collect allthe IOUS owed to you and pay all the IOUs you woe and do not execute any fresh IOUsto become debt-free. Buddhists call this state “Nirvana”. But everyday living, demandsfavors from us and to us. That is why, Hindus clamor to become Rishis who dwell inforests and live as one with the nature. Rishis do not pluck fruits from trees. They eatonly the fallen fruits. Taking what nature gives and giving back to nature what it needs, isthe only way to get out of the cycle of birth and death.Now what about animals, birds, insects and other non-human life? How will they escapethe cycle? Any non-human form of life is akin to a jail term. Any form of life other thanhuman form is a punishment for the Atman. The Atman suffers the punishment andreverts to the human form similar in circumstance in which it was before taking on non-human form. This is the answer I gave to the pastor’s wife in 2002. I told her that even in jail, the term is extended or reduced based on the good / bad behavior of the inmate.When the environment is tightly controlled by people of absolute authority, how caninmates still behave badly? Or, where is the opportunity to exhibit good behavior whenthey are consigned to a cell most of the time? An animal or an insect is akin to a person in
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