r e i n c a r n a t i o n
FIVE LECTURES ON REINCARNATION ---- Swami Abhedananda.
V.
THE THEORY OF TRANSMIGRATION IS ONE OF THE OLDEST THEORIES ACCEPTED BY PEOPLE OF THE ORIENT TO SOLVE THE PROBLEMS CONCERNING LIFE AND DEATH AS WELL AS TO EXPLAIN THE CONTINUITY OF EXISTENCE AFTER DEATH.
This theory presupposes the existence of the soul as an entity which
can live even when the gross material body is dead or dissolved into
its elements. Those who deny the existence of the soul, of the
self-conscious thinker and actor, as an entity distinct from the gross
material body, necessarily deny this theory of transmigration. The
materialistic thinkers of all ages have refused to accept this theory,
because they do not admit the existence of a soul or a self-conscious
thinker and actor as an entity, separate from the gross material
body. Consequently they do not ask or discuss whether the soul will
exist after death or not, whether it will continue to live or not.
Such materialists are not the creatures of the twentieth century, but
they have lived in all ages, in all countries. In India and in other
civilized countries of ancient times you will find that materialistic
thinkers prevailed and they gave the same arguments which we hear now
from the agnostics and scientists of to-day. Their arguments are
generally one-sided and unsatisfactory. They try to deduce the soul or
self-conscious entity from the combination of matter or material
forces, but they have not succeeded in giving a scientific proof of
it. No arguments in favor of the existence of a soul as an entity will
convince them, because they deny the existence of anything that cannot
be perceived by sense powers. If we could bring the soul down on the
sense plane and make it visible to these materialistic thinkers, and
if they could make experiments upon it, then perhaps they would be
convinced to a certain extent, but not until then. But how can we
bring the soul down on the sense plane when it is ethereal and finer
than anything that we can perceive with our senses?
Those who try to explain the cause of our earthly life by the theory
of heredity do not believe in the truth of transmigration. The modern
scientists, agnostics and materialists generally accept the theory of
heredity and endeavor to explain everything by it; but if we examine
their arguments for the theory of heredity, we shall find that the
theory of transmigration is much more satisfactory, much more rational
than that of heredity.
Among the followers of the great religions of the world, the majority
of Christians, Jews, Mohammedans and Parsees deny the truth of
transmigration. Of course, there was a time when the Christians
believed in this transmigration theory. Origen and other Church
Fathers accepted it until the time of Justinian, who anathematized all
those who believed in Reincarnation or the pre-existence of the soul.
Among the Jews we find that in the Cabala this idea of transmigration
plays the most important part. In fact the Cabalists accepted this
theory to explain all the difficulties that could not be explained by
any other theory. But those Jews, Christians, Mohammedans and Parsees
who do not believe in the theory of transmigration accept the
one-birth theory; that is, that God creates the souls at the time of
birth out of nothing, and these souls, having come into existence out
of nothing, continue to live forever; that this is our first and last
birth that we receive; we did not exist before, we are suddenly
created by God, and after death each one of us will continue to live
either in heaven or hell to enjoy or to suffer throughout
eternity. Among the modern Spiritualists we find that those who are
born and brought up with this idea of one birth do not accept the
theory of transmigration. Still there are millions and millions of
people all over the world who do believe in transmigration and who
have found comfort and consolation in their lives as well as a
satisfactory solution of the problems of life and death.
The theory of Transmigration, or Metempsychosis, as it has been called
by many philosophers, originally meant the passing of a soul from one
body after death into another; or, in other words, it meant that the
soul after dwelling in one particular body for a certain length of
time leaves it at the time of death, and in order to gain experience
enters into some other body, either human, animal or angelic, which is
ready to receive it. It may migrate from the human body to an angelic
body and then come down on the human plane, or to the animal plane and
be born again as an animal. So the original meaning of transmigration
or metempsychosis was the revolution of the soul from body to body
whether animal, human, angelic or of the gods. The migrating substance
being a fixed quantity, with fixed qualities, chooses its form
according to its taste, desire and bent of character. This idea
prevailed among the ancient Egyptians, according to whom the soul,
after leaving the dead body, would travel from one body to another for
thousands and thousands of years in order to gain experiences in each
of the different stages of life.
PLATO'S THEORY OF TRANSMIGRATION.
AMONG THE GREEK PHILOSOPHERS WE FIND THAT PHYTHAGORAS, PLATO AND THEIR FOLLOWERS BELIEVED IN THIS THEORY OF METEMPSYCHOSIS OR TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS. Pythagoras says: "After death the rational mind, having
been freed from the chains of the body, assumes an ethereal vehicle
and passes into the region of the dead where it remains till it is
sent back to this world to inhabit some other body human or
animal. After undergoing successive purgations, when it is
sufficiently purified, it is received among the gods and returns to
the eternal source from which it first proceeded." Plato also believed
in this theory. Of course we cannot tell exactly from whence
Pythagoras and Plato got these ideas. Some say that they learned
these doctrines from Egypt; others believed that, either directly or
indirectly, they learned the theory of transmigration from
India. Plato describes in "Phaedrus," in mythological language, why
and how the souls take their birth upon this plane, either as human or
animal. He says: "In the heaven Zeus, the Father and Lord of all
creatures, drives his winged car, ordering all things and
superintending them. A host of deities and spirits follow him, each
fulfilling his own function. Whoever will and can follows them. After
taking this round, they advance by a steep course along the inner
circumference of the heavenly vault and proceed to a banquet. The
chariots of the gods, being well balanced and well driven, advance
easily; others with difficulty; for the vicious horse, unless the
charioteer has thoroughly broken him, weighs down the car by his
proclivity towards the earth, whereupon the soul is put to the
extremity of toil and effort. The souls of gods reach the summit, go
outside and stand upon the surface of heaven, and enjoy celestial
bliss. Such is the life of the gods; other souls which follow God best
and are likest to Him succeed in seeing the vision of truth and in
entering into the outer world with great difficulty. The rest of the
souls longing after the upper world all follow; but not being strong
enough, they are carried round in the deep below, plunging, treading
on one another, striving to be first, and there, in confusion and
extremity of effort, many of them are lamed and have their wings
broken. Thus when the soul is unable to follow and fails to behold the
vision of Truth, sinks beneath the double load of forgetfulness and
vice, her feathers fall from her and she drops to earth and is born
again and again as human beings or as animals." Plato says: "Ten
thousand years must elapse before the soul can return to the place
from whence she came, for she cannot grow her wings in less." "At the
end of the first thousand years, the souls of the good and of the evil
kind come together to draw lots, and choose their bodies according to
their tendencies and the bent of their characters. They may take any
they like. Instead of receiving the natural consequences of their
deeds and misdeeds of their previous lives they are allowed to choose
their own lot, according to their experience and bent of
character. Some, being disgusted with mankind, prefer to be born as
animals, such as lions and eagles or some other animals. Others
delight in trying their luck as human beings." From this mythological
description we gather what Plato meant by transmigration.
This Platonic idea of transmigration or of successive lives of those
who inhabit this earth has been criticized by various thinkers of
modern times; and referring to this idea the late Doctor Myers, of the
Psychical Research Society of London, writes in his second volume of
"Human Personality": "The simple fact that such was probably the
opinion of both Plato and Virgil shows that there is nothing here
which is alien to the best reason or to the highest instincts of
men. Nor, indeed, is it easy to realize any theory of the direct
creation of spirits at such different stages of advancement as
those which enter upon the earth in the guise of mortal man. There
must, one feels, be some kind of continuity—some form of
spiritual past." (P. 134.) Why does He not create all souls equal?
Why will one soul be highly advanced spiritually while another is
entirely ignorant and idiotic? This question cannot be answered, this
problem cannot be solved by the special creation theory, and therefore
Doctor Myers says that there is no doubt that there was some previous
continuity or spiritual past of each individual soul, and therefore he
tacitly admits the theory of Transmigration. Although from a
scientific viewpoint he could not give any direct proof regarding this
idea of a pre-existence of the soul, still he could not deny it
entirely when he said: "The shaping forces which have made our bodies
and our minds what they are may always have been psychical
forces—from the first living slime-speck to the complex intelligences
of to-day." "The old transmigrationist's view would thus possess a
share of truth and the actual man would be the resultant not only of
intermingling heredities on father's and mother's sides, but of
intermingling heredities, one of planetary and one of cosmic scope."
("Human Personality," Vol. II, p. 267.)
PLATONIC TRANSMIGRATION COMPARED WITH ANCIENT INDIAN PERSPECTIVES.
BUT THIS THEORY OF TRANSMIGRATION, AS DESCRIBED BY PLATO, IS A LITTLE DIFFERENT FROM A SIMILAR THEORY WHICH EXISTED IN INDIA BEFORE HIS TIME.
In the Platonic idea of transmigration, as we have already seen,
the souls were allowed to choose their own lot according to their
experience or bent of character, but not to receive the natural
consequence of their deeds and misdeeds. Plato did not say anything
about the law which governs souls; but in ancient India the great
thinkers and philosophers explained that each individual soul is bound
by the inexorable law of nature to receive its body as a natural
consequence of its former deeds and misdeeds, and not to have free
choice of its lot according to its bent of character. The great
thinkers and philosophers of ancient India discovered the universal
law of cause and effect, of action and reaction, and called it by the
Sanskrit term "Karma," which means the law of cause and sequence; that
every cause must be followed by an effect of a similar nature, that
every action must produce similar reaction, and conversely every
reaction or effect is the result of an action or cause of a similar
character. Thus there is always a balance and harmony between cause
and effect, between action and reaction. This law of Karma has now
become a fundamental verity of modern science. It is called by
different names: the scientists call it the law of causation, the law
of compensation, the law of retribution, the law of action and
reaction, but they all refer to the same idea,—that every cause must
produce a similar result and every action must produce a similar
reaction.
Now these ancient thinkers of India applied this law of Karma to
explain the destiny of human souls, and it was upon this law they
based the theory of Transmigration. They maintained that human souls
are bound by this irresistible law and cannot get out of it; their
thoughts and deeds are the causes which produce results of similar
nature. So their future birth does not depend upon their whimsical,
free choice, but it is limited by the thoughts and deeds or misdeeds
of their previous lives. In the Platonic idea we find that the souls
go according to their choice. They may not take a human form if they
prefer an animal form, but in the Hindu idea of transmigration we find
that it is not a result of free choice, but, if our thoughts and deeds
force us to take a particular form, then we are subject to the law of
Karma, which governs our future birth and the evolution of our
souls. Consequently the Hindu theory of Transmigration differs
fundamentally from the Platonic as well as from the Egyptian idea of
Transmigration. In the Platonic and Egyptian theories we see that the
souls, after leaving the body, enter into another body which is
waiting to receive the migrating soul, but in the Hindu theory of
Transmigration the body is not waiting to receive the migrating soul,
but on the contrary the soul, being subject to the laws of evolution,
manufactures the gross material body according to its desires and
tendencies. Just as a germ of life will develop a grosser form by
cellular subdivision, by growth, and by assimilation of the
environmental conditions, so the germ of the human soul will
manufacture the body by obeying the laws which govern the physical
plane. Parents are nothing but the channels through which the
migrating souls receive their material forms. Parents do not create
the souls; they have no power to create. They can only give the
suitable environments necessary for manufacturing a gross physical
body. The souls come with their tendencies, with their desires, and
they remain as germs of life.
Now these germs of life contain vital forces, sense powers, psychic
powers, and ethereal particles of matter. At the time of death the
soul contracts and withdraws all its powers from the sense organs to
its innermost center, and in that contracted state it leaves the
body. But these powers do not leave the soul. By the law of
persistence of force and conservation of energy they remain latent in
that center until environmental conditions become favorable for their
remanifestation. Rebirth means the manifestation of the latent powers
which exist in the germ of life or in the individual soul. These germs
of life are called by different names. Leibnitz called them monads and
modern scientists call them bioplasms or some such name, but the
Vedanta philosophers describe them as subtle bodies. These germs or
subtle bodies are subject to evolution and growth; they arise from
lower to higher stages of development, from the mineral through the
vegetable to the animal kingdom and eventually they become human
beings and then they go on progressing.
In the Platonic theory the idea of progress, growth or gradual
evolution of the soul from the lower to higher stages of existence is
entirely excluded, because, as I have already said, the migrating
substance is of a fixed quantity with fixed qualities, that is, these
qualities do not change and are not affected by either growth or
evolution. They are constant quantities. In order to differentiate
these two ideas we should call the Hindu theory of Transmigration by
the term "Reincarnation." The Hindu or Vedantic theory of
Reincarnation, however, is not the same as the Buddhistic theory of
Rebirth, for the Buddhists do not believe in the permanence of the
soul entity. There is another point where the Reincarnation theory
differs from Platonic transmigration. According to this theory of
Reincarnation there is growth and evolution of each individual soul
from the lower to higher stages of development. The soul or germ of
life, after passing through the lower stages, comes to the human plane
and gains experience and knowledge; and after coming to the human
plane, it does not retrograde to animal bodies. The Platonic theory
teaches that human souls migrate into animal bodies or angelic bodies
and return from the angelic to the human or the animal, and that some
of them prefer to become animals; while the theory of Reincarnation,
taking its stand upon the scientific truth of gradual evolution,
teaches that the human souls have already passed through different
grades of the animal, nay, of the vegetable kingdom, by the natural
process of evolution. After having once received the human organism,
why should a soul choose to go back to the lesser and more imperfect
organism of an animal? How is it possible for a lesser manifestation
to hold a greater one? Why should a greater manifestation choose more
limited forms in preference to those of others? This question arises
in the Platonic theory of Transmigration. Therefore, the Reincarnation
theory, or the theory of Transmigration according to the Hindus,
rejects this idea of the going back of human souls to animal forms.
We have already passed in the evolutionary process through the lower
grade of animal organisms. Now that we have outgrown them why should
we go back to them?
It is true, however, that in India there are many uneducated people
among the Hindus who believe that human souls do migrate into animal
bodies after death to gain experience and reap the results of their
wicked deeds, being bound by the law of Karma; but in the Platonic
theory the law of Karma plays no part in the transmigration of
souls. The educated and thoughtful minds of India, however, accept the
more rational and scientific theory of Reincarnation. Although there
are passages in the scriptural writings of the Hindus which apparently
refer to the retrogression of the human soul into animal nature, still
such passages do not necessarily mean that the souls will be obliged
to take animal bodies. They may live like animals even when they have
human bodies, as we may find among us many people like cats and dogs
and snakes in human form and they are often more vicious than natural
cats, dogs or snakes. They are reaping their own Karma and manifesting
their animal nature, though physically they look like human
beings. This kind of retrogression is possible for one who after
reaching the human plane goes backward on account of wicked thoughts
and deeds on the animal plane. Such a temporary retrogression brings
knowledge and helps it in its onward progress toward the manifestation
of higher powers on the higher plane of consciousness. All the wicked
thoughts and wicked deeds are nothing but the results of our own
mistakes. What is sin? Sin is nothing but a mistake and it proceeds
from ignorance. For instance, if I do not know that fire burns, I may
put my finger into it and get burned. The result of this mistake is
the burning of the finger and this has taught me once for all that
fire burns; I shall never again put my finger into fire. So every
mistake is a great teacher in the long run. No one is born so high
and perfect as not to commit any mistake or any sin. Every mistake
like this opens our eyes to the laws of the universe by bringing to us
such results as we do not desire. As one life is not enough to gain
experience in all the stages of evolution, we must have to admit the
doctrine of the Reincarnation of the soul for the fulfillment of the
ultimate purpose of earthly life. Professor Huxley says: "None but
hasty thinkers will reject it on the ground of inherent absurdity.
Like the doctrine of evolution itself that of transmigration has its
roots in the world of reality."
This text was borrowed from Project Gutenberg. Contact the webmaster Rob Sullivan at bunyarra@hotmail.com. Anticopyright February 2007.
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