For billions of years the
universe lay enveloped in darkness till God the Eternal Spirit brought time and
infinity to a standstill. The dark void then ceased to exist and the
resplendence of divine glow submerged the dark universe. God then infused His
own image and spirit in to the physique of Man and Woman. This was how the
Spirit of God descended in to a finite realm of matter and decay and kindled
the one only flame of hope in to human beings and Earth became the cradle of
life and death. That opened up the dawn of a new era heralding a spirit of
intimacy between Supreme Spirit and the one only intelligent being created to
rule over the universe and creation.
Life, a conglomeration of
matter, intelligence and spirit embodying image, energy, instinct and reason
renders activity, liveliness and endurance on a hitherto shadow-less world
enveloped in still darkness. The term life covers a wide spectrum of elements
comprising of animate or inanimate objects, abstract or concrete, intelligent
or dull, all of which constitute life and life sustaining components. Literally
speaking, life is all energy with a spirited driving force within, allowing the
body to tick on for a fixed span of time.
This endless universe
with infinite number of celestial bodies locked in a race towards infinity has
been abode of billions of human beings surviving in succession for last
millions of years, on the one only known blue planet, namely the Earth.
Survival and longevity of life within a human body depends largely on the
quantum of nourishment received or the life span determined by Creator Himself.
But once this life providing spell abates, life within the body terminates
abruptly evoking an end to organic functioning called metabolism, thereby
staving off any and all scope of revival of life thereafter. In such a state
the body becomes numb much like a burnt out substance devoid of any
originality, shine or endurance. Literally speaking, such a disposition is
known as death or end to life.
According to Scientists
life has existed on earth since last many million years although human life in
the present form appeared on earth approximately four million years ago. With the ultimate end in the form of death
hovering over man’s destiny, he is left to piece out his own survival on earth
with the basics that the earth and its surroundings offer for his sustenance.
In a nutshell, life for man constitutes a precarious journey in the company of
hostile elements within or without, visible or invisible and productive or
unproductive elements.
Man played a crucial and
pivotal role in establishing his identity as the one and only intelligent being
ever to have been created. In the same
manner, man identified himself with whatever was available for his progress and
development. By collective use of intelligence and faculties endowed on him by
God Himself, man made giant strides towards establishing a progressive leap at
achieving his destiny. By dint of hard work coupled with dedication and
perseverance, man has successfully narrowed down the inherent problems
besetting his own existence. However, to all intents and purposes, man must bow
before the imminent end namely ‘death’ ordained by God Himself.
As already stated, human
beings have taken life and death in their stride, and generation after
generation chalked out a distinct and progressive path through mutual trust and
cooperation, thus giving a humanly perfect direction to the universe. Right
from the moment the human beings first trod on the face of the Earth, despite
changing circumstances, temperaments and disasters overtaking man to the extent
of human and natural disasters extinguishing the flame of life time and again,
yet man has kept his mark as a being capable of carrying the numbers to the
desired destiny. Births and Deaths have intermittently registered their toll on
human beings but they have not deterred man from giving life the desired
thrust. He never stopped to fathom what lies in the aftermath. Mysteries too
abound on the question of life after death.
Believers are at a loss to explain the aftermath of life, fate after
death and destiny of the spirit or soul of man after it gets terminated from
the body. Generation after generation, man has vainly attempted to figure out
the ambiguities surrounding God and eternity.
Does death forebode the end for man? What awaits the soul after man’s
death? Is death a symbolic break for man from his creator? These have all
remained mysteries unsolved by man to this day.
The last question is
being repeated here for emphasis: Is death a symbolic break for man from his
creator? Partly yes but definitely not! Here is a universal question that must
be provided with a human answer to set at naught all such notions regarding the
fate of soul after it leaves the dead body of every human being?
God the Omnipotent,
Omniscient and Superhuman Being holds man with love and predilection. This very
love of God for man rendered the devil helpless in the sight of God and
catapulted him to the glory of a celestial honour akin to none, not even to the
angels who are spirits themselves but without the sublime experience of being
human beings capable of conceiving and rearing life. His act of creating man in
his own image and likeness and thereafter breathing in to him His Own Spirit or
Soul that guides his body and brain survive the odds of life and thus lead a
perilous journey up to the point of death is rightly intended to reunite man
with the creator after the end of time and universe. In such circumstances, man
may be at liberty to live the way he chooses only as long as his outer senses
function but after death the soul would have to reunite itself with God while
his body decays and become dust. As such, the soul after man’s death cannot in
any manner be isolated from Divine Providence
Although belief in God
received widespread acceptance among all segments of society right from the
beginning of time, however, the basic concept regarding soul gained ground
gradually with the advancement of time. However, the perception regarding soul
has been inordinately distorted by diverse faiths in manner expedient to each
section of society and their respective beliefs. Even so, save for the atheists
who fail to accept the existence of God Almighty Himself, the world is
unanimous in their belief that the soul departs from the lifeless body of man immediately
upon death.
Diverse views have been
advanced by people of different faiths to explain the fate of soul after it
departs from the body at death. Of these two versions have received wide
acceptance but which tend to out rightly reject the other. One being that the soul after a person’s
death departs the body and wanders around till it enters another body in a
sequence of process till the soul is cleansed and become fit to enter ‘nirvana’
or heaven. The other view, which is accepted by a larger section of the world
constituting mainly Christians, who believe that the soul immediately on death
leaves the body and returns to be reunited with God till the second coming of
God for the final judgment of humanity on the last day.
Incidentally, man is left
with his own wild guesses without a solid answer to the mysteries regarding
God, universe and life. Christian belief relies mostly on the written down
testaments and inspirations through the power and intercession of the Holy
Spirit, which to a large extent clarifies issues shrouded in mysteries.
Naturally, only God has
power to terminate life of man and call back his soul. But, by no stretch of
imagination can it ever be assumed that the soul would be allowed by the
Almighty to stray away from the path laid out by the Creator Himself. That is
to say, just as there is but one death destined by God for man, so too there
can only be one only path for the soul whereby after his journey through life,
man must return to the wholesome creator - God.
Christianity alone which
holds the key to eternal happiness, with firm and rational belief embellished
by inspired scriptures of holy and chosen people of God, adheres to a belief
that God Almighty has destined man for a single life on Earth on the basis of
which he would be judged in the second coming of Jesus Christ or to put it
literally, the Judgment Day. Likewise,
after death the soul immediately departs from the body to be reunited with the
omnipotence of the Almighty and Everlasting God.
ISLAM
Islam which stands numerically second only to
Christianity propagates a unique and reasonably logical doctrine on the
question of life, death and rebirth. Islam was founded on the moral precepts
provided in the Qur’an and accepted by the Muslim world as the inspired
revelation, which was handed down to man by Allah Himself. Incidentally, Islam professes a faith
instituted by the Divine Allah Himself, who in line with His act of creation of
man, also deputed a lineage of prophets right from Abraham onwards down to the
last prophet namely Muhammad (Abu al-Qasim Muhammad Ibn Abd Allah
Ibn Abd al-Muttalib Ibn Hashim). These
prophets have been enlightened by Allah Himself to proclaim His name and preach
the doctrine set up by Allah throughout the world.
The Holy Book or the inspired
revelation of Allah, namely Qur’an is divided in to 114 suras or chapters
containing in all 6,236 ayat or verses, which more or less confine to moral
guidance than legal assertions. Allah, the creator of the universe sent a
number prophets in to the world out of the descendants of Abraham and Imran to
convey the will of God to people and non-believers.
Allah,
ta^ala, said in the Qur’an: إِنَّا كُلَّ شَيْءٍ خَلَقْنَاهُ بِقَدَرٍ - Allah creates everything according to his
Will. Ayah 49 of suratul-Qamar.
The Prophet, sallallahu ^alayhi wa sallam, said: اْلإِيمَانُ أَنْ تُؤْمِنَ بِاللهِ وَمَلاَئِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الاخِرِ وَتُؤْمِنَ بِالْقَدَرِ خَيْرِهِ وَشَرِّهِ - “Belief is to believe in Allah, His angels, His Books, His messengers or Prophets, the Day of Judgment and to believe in the Qadar (Destiny), both the good and the evil”.
On the issue of life after death, Islam
disbelieves in the argument involving any cyclic effect on the soul alleged to
be migrating from one body to the other till it is purified fit to join God. On
the contrary Islamic doctrine (as also all divinely inspired religions)
propagates the belief that “after a person dies, his soul remains in a suspended
state (i.e. “Barzakh” or partition) till the day he is brought alive by Allah
on the “Day of Resurrection” or Yawm al-Qiyāmah (Arabic: يوم القيامة)”. Islam is emphatic about the Day of
Resurrection which would bring about the destruction of the world where after
the entire humanity would be brought back to life by Allah and made to stand in
the presence of Allah, the only God worthy of worship and the Greatest of
Judges. Islam thus lays special emphasis on the “Day of Resurrection” when man
would be brought back to his original image and rewarded or punished by Allah
in accordance with his life i.e. “those who believe (in the Qur’an) and those
who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians…. And (all) who believe
in God and the last day through righteousness, shall have their reward
with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.” [The Qur’an
2:62]
The Prophets (SAW) have
thus admonished their followers that a person’s death will mean the beginning
of his resurrection.
Allah, the
Greatest of Judges has not divulged to man the day, time and circumstances when
the preordained Yawm al-Qiyāmah (Arabic: يوم القيامة) is to come about. However, the prophets have emphatically preached about
life after death i.e. about the “Day of Resurrection” when the whole world will
be destroyed and the dead would be resurrected to stand infront of Allah to be
judged, rewarded or punished.
Islamic doctrine is
therefore, forthright in its admonishment that the concept of transmigration of
soul is totally humbug, on the other hand what needs to be adhered to or looked
forward to is the issue of “Day of Resurrection” or the “Day of Judgement”. In
other words, Allah would physically resurrect the dead to a state of bodily
physique as man was, restoring the rights and faculties he was created with.
It may also be added that
time exists for earthly beings only but once man dies, he leaves the time zone
whereby a thousand years would tantamount to mere blinking of an eye, just as
it occurs to people who awaken from long comas who would have no inkling about
the interim time lag.
Allah, ta^ala, said in
the Qur’an: وَمَن لَّمْ يُؤْمِن
بِاللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ فَإِنَّا أَعْتَدْنَا لِلْكَافِرِينَ سَعِيرًا viz. “Those who do not believe in Allah and
his messenger are blasphemers, for whom allah has prepared hellfire”.
HINDUISM
Alleged to be world’s
oldest religion, Hinduism evolved to become the third largest,
with a billion followers concentrated mostly in the Indian sub-continent and
thereabouts. This so called religion evolved through common belief in
supernatural and related practice of rituals to appease the absolute being or
divine power referred to as “Brahma”, which faith came in to being through diverse beliefs and traditions, the prominent
among them being Dharma (ethics and duties), Samsara (rebirth), Karma (right
action) and Moksha (liberation from the cycle of Samsara). Essentially,
Hinduism is a conglomeration of religious, philosophical and cultural views set
in to motion through belief and practice all of which merged in to the day to
day lives of people and devotees to finally form a belief in order to live a
life of righteousness. Hinduism professes a belief in reincarnation and
transmigration of soul in a cyclic process of births and deaths, required for
its purification and final destruction before attaining the ultimate that is
‘nirvana’.
Hinduism
propagates a different school of thought and in essence has varying features
which form a collection of spiritual laws or “shastras” which have been imposed
on the general public to ensure a righteous living .
According to Hindu
doctrine rebirth is an unending cycle of extended creation, whereby a soul
leaves the body of a person immediately at death and migrates to another body
and this sequence goes on till the soul is purified, fit to rejoin God through
a process of destruction. Incidentally, Hindu belief accepts human body to be a
mere costume which adorns the soul and the soul makes its transition from one
stage to the other within the garb of soul.
The very term rebirth
was coined by Hindu religion whereby human beings sought to explain off the
mysteries regarding universe, evolution and man’s destiny vis-à-vis the Brahma.
During the enactment of
actual living process the soul hides behind a false personality by name ‘jiva’
which is a subtle body or an outer personality called mind and body or the ego
which constitute the gross physical body. The ‘jiva’ undergoes several births
and deaths. According to Hindu doctrine,
life in heaven will only be a mortal life. Once the karma gets exhausted the
‘jiva’ is returned to turmoil of an unstable earthly life. The process is
unending. Hindu doctrine also teaches that life on earth emerged gradually
during which process the static and inert consciousness of matter yielded place
to dynamic movement of life and consciousness. The animal tendencies within
‘jiva’ were shed gradually so that the outer elements of human body acquired
chaste human reasoning or thoughts out of which process emerged a spiritual man
of divine consciousness with supra mental faculties, the like of Sri Aurobindo.
The doctrine propagated by Hinduism
suggests that every human being has to live many lives, undergo vast
experiences before attaining perfection to become one with the Divine Spirit.
Creation according to Hindu school of thought becomes effective the moment the
matter and soul, through extensive process of evolution and transformation in
to a conscientious being, assumes the role of a differentiated or live human
being. This cycle of creation stretches
over millions of years. And the endless process goes on under the nomenclature
‘Rebirth’.
The concept of ‘rebirth’ is gradually gaining wide spread curiosity among
religious and scientists in India
BUDDHISM
Buddhism with over 376
million following is listed fourth amongst world religions. Founded by
Siddhartha Gautama (563-460 B.C.), the Buddhist belief is based on three truths
namely, first that nothing is lost in this world, rather a cyclic rotation
effect exists in everything, second that everything keeps changing and thirdly
the ‘karma’ effect viz. the law of cause and effect applies to human beings of
all categories.
On the issue of rebirth,
the view commonly held by the Buddhists
is that death
is not the end of life; rather the spirit would exist on in a suspended state
to be reunited later with another body at a place and disposition that would
match the positive or negative action or better put as cause and effect of
one’s actual life. The rebirth would occur in any one of the six realms namely
heaven (with 37 different levels of happiness), human being (life in different
dispositions), asura (a spiritual state below that of heavenly bliss), hungry
ghost (a state of penance due to excess indulgences), animal (a state visible
to humans for excess ill treatment to animals) or hell (a state for existence
on account of excess negative karma).
Buddhism teaches denial
of worldly happiness for achieving the end of cycle whereby the person succeeds in
reaching nirvana.
Buddhist belief implies a
merger of divinity (spirit) with humanness (matter) and is more or less a
concept which defies human logic where the explanation allows the transition of
spirit from matter to spirit or vice versa. Buddhist belief allows life a
prolonged period as a result of accumulated karma without life actually coming
to an end. The final destination of
spirit and body is nirvana or enlightenment.
BUDDHISM AND ITS BELIEF
The view commonly held by
Buddhists death is not the end of life; rather
the spirit would exist on in a suspended state to be reunited later with
another body at a place and disposition that would match the positive or
negative action or better put as cause and effect of one’s actual life. The
rebirth would occur in any one of the six realms namely heaven (with 37
different levels of happiness), human being (life in different dispositions),
asura (a spiritual state below that of heavenly bliss), hungry ghost (a state
of penance due to excess indulgences), animal (a state visible to humans for
excess ill-treatment to animals) or hell (a state for existence on account of
excess negative karma).
Buddhism teaches denial
of worldly happiness for achieving whereby the cycle ends and the person
reaches nirvana.
Buddhist belief implies a
merger of divinity (spirit) with humanness (matter) and is more or less a
concept which defies human logic where the explanation allows the transition of
spirit from matter to spirit or vice versa. Buddhist belief allows life a
prolonged period as a result of accumulated karma without it coming to an
end. The final destination of spirit and
the body is nirvana or enlightenment.
REBIRTH – A MYTH AND
OUTCOME OF HALLUCINATION
Despite numerous people
claiming to have knowledge of their past lives, or claiming to have stimulating
knowledge of their previous birth, none of them have till this day come up with
hard truth as to what transpired after death and where their soul was for the
interim period immediately after leaving the body at death and prior to
germinating in another medium of a body. Even the view of Dr. Kulin Kothari, that "Reincarnation
cannot be proven scientifically," is feigning ignorance of the very topic
that fails reason and logic but attempting to pull all stops to baffle the
unsuspecting public.
Whatever the human reasoning or explanations
provided on the issue of rebirth, we need to accept that the Almighty alone
commands the universe and His creation. As such, even by reason or logic one
must assert that God alone has the power to terminate life or call back the soul.
And, by no stretch of imagination can it ever be assumed that the soul would be
allowed by the Almighty to stray away from the path laid out by the Creator
Himself. That is to say, just as there is but one death destined by God for
man, so too there can only be one only path for the soul whereby after his
journey through life, man must return to the wholesome creator – God. Reasoning
on the lines of this simple logic, we may leave all our inferences and
hallucinations to the supreme faith that the soul, immediately after the death
must report back to God or rest in Limbo awaiting God’s final call to a reward
or punishment as the case may be.
Christianity alone which holds the key to
eternal happiness, with firm and rational belief embellished by inspired
scriptures of holy and chosen people of God, adheres to a belief that God
Almighty has destined man for a single life on Earth on the basis of which he
would be judged in the second coming of Jesus Christ or to put it literally,
the Judgment Day. Likewise, after death the soul immediately departs the
body to be reunited with the omnipotence of the Almighty and Everlasting God.
CHURCH
& CHRISTIANITY
Hard-work, devotion, dedication, patience,
spirit of denial, sacrifice and to top them all, perseverance, virtues in
abundance, you name them. He has them all – the Devil!
If there is any single trait that we ought to
learn from the devil, it is perseverance, an attribute the devil is so
possessive about and would not be prepared to even grudgingly part with for a
no return. And what could at all be a return but the loss of a soul. The world,
the religious institutions, men of spirituality, all earnestly look forward to
living a truthful, honest and dedicated life acceptable to God. Unfortunately
the devil puts the unwanted spoke in the wheel of man’s thinking process,
living style and his day to day activities, and resultantly man glides down in
to sin marring a life of precarious make. To guide these finite human beings
from going astray has been established a cluster of religions, with dogmas and
supporting scriptures. Catholic Church is one such religion which has surpassed
all other religions throughout the world, not merely on being the real
God-ordained faith, but which has, in fact, a human touch adhering to spiritual
needs of people from all walks of life.
Roman Catholic Church is the only one of its
kind and a religious institution of immense magnitude, which has after
centuries of sacred and dedicated efforts established and streamlined a dogma
and procedure for the welfare of its faithful and devoted souls. The Church has
minutely and very scrupulously monitored all aspects of spiritual and
congregational requirements of the Catholics and Christians across the world
for setting in to motion a spiritual institution under the able guidance of
Holy Father the Pope, assisted by Cardinals, Bishops, Priests and laity in a
move intended to thwart any untoward occurrence that might upset the belief and
conviction of the faithful due to incessant efforts by the evil Satan. Catholic
Church streamlined a supreme dogma after compiling the views or suggestions by various
people. These included the Holy See,
Cardinals, Bishops and Priests as also laity. Incidentally, Christians constitute
the largest religious group from all over the world.
Due to different
ideologies nursed by various sections of people, Christianity got divided in to
splinter groups with different beliefs and varying perceptions which eventually
gave them unique identities professing diverse beliefs. However, the core concept regarding fate of
soul after death has remained uniquely same.
All Catholics or Christians in general believe that immediately at death
the soul departs from the body and returns to God. Here an emphasis needs to be
laid on the attempt by Christianity in to bringing the concept of ‘soul’ in to
focus, which got translated in to a general belief and adopted by other
religions as well for belief purposes.
Holy Bible held in reverence by the Catholic
world describes death and its aftermath in the following verses viz. Hebrews
9:27 – “it is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment”.
Catholic Church confers seven holy sacraments
to its faithful. They are Baptism,
Eucharist, Confirmation, Reconciliation, Annointing of sick, Holy order and
Matrimony. By these sacraments, the Church ensures that the faithful stay
in the grace of God and practice their faith in their day to day lives.
Observance of these sacraments enables Catholics to be well prepared always so
that death does not find them in an unprepared state. Naturally, the Church is
aware of the lives the faithful have to spend amongst sinful and wayward
elements which takes a lot of spirituality within in order to stay prepared
always in the grace of God so that at death the soul be adequately prepared to
face the Almighty with confidence and conviction.
It is the belief of Catholic Church and the
faithful that immediately on death the soul is judged by the Almighty, whereby
the good souls go to heaven in the company of Almighty and His angels and
saints, whereas the bad are cast in to hell. However, those souls that may be
found wanting in the sight of God, would be made to undergo a process of
purification in a separate place called purgatory, after which they too enter
in to heaven.
As human beings we may only connote religious
beliefs to the extent we understand life and as taught to us by religious
heads. However, the concept of heaven or hell and for that matter purgatory as
well, cannot be ignored as hearsay because we all run the race and there is
definitely a winner and the winner (or winners) takes heaven as the prize. For
John Oxenham briefly puts it as “To every man there openeth, a high way and a
low. The high soul climbs the high way while the low soul gropes the low.
And the rest on the misty flats go to and fro. But to every man there openeth a
high way and a low and every soul decideth the way his soul shall go”.
People with insight in to the core
aspects concerning creation of man and its aftermath were privileged to
perceive the hand of Almighty and the super human power of divinity at work.
That was an era which witnessed an air of enthusiasm all around whereby people
sensed the hand of God overshadowing their lives and related activities.
Incidentally, as age progressed and the number of earthly inhabitants rose to
unaffordable limits, people spread far and wide to settle down in other parts
of the world. Their living habits changed, thought process varied and they in
turn adopted customs that suited their own human ways and views. But God
Almighty had already sown the seed of righteousness and truth, which only a few
managed to savour. These select few were the chosen ones of God to partake of
the everlasting truth, which a few religions like Christianity or Islam etc etc
managed to nurture to this day for living an upright life acceptable to God.
Others who strayed in to areas of
mistrust and barbarism multiplied in large numbers with utter disregard of
faith, trust and spirituality. Astonishingly enough, this group of people
failed miserably to bridle their culpabilities and started sowing the seed of enmity
all around. In course of time, they started resorting to extremely violent and
aggressive methods to vent their frustration, which brought about rivalry,
strife, battles and wars. There was discontentment all around; they sensed
their own nothingness without the help of God. Life became substantially
difficult to live without adding to their existing woes. Some searched for
solace and looked around for God, but none came to their aid. Being illiterate
and ill-bred, these barbarous elements started diverting their minds to
whatever appeared powerful or beneficial to them, thereby paying obeisance to
mortals and other objects of God’s creation. They professed their
own faith the way it suited their mindset and brought about what the present
day world acknowledges as Hinduism and like minded religions.
Illiterate and ill-bred men of
prehistoric days in their eagerness to imitate other religions like
Christianity (the offshoot of Judaism of old) and Islam who were the elite of
God gifted with the supreme gift of wisdom regarding divinity and God. The barbaric elements who for ages followed their
own diktat or unscrupulous culture earned out of ill-gotten wisdom started
projecting their own role model for asserting their spiritual aspirations. Such
a concept of worship woven out of myth and mysteries managed to survive till
this day under the style of ‘Hinduism’ and their like offshoots.
In their eagerness to evade truth and
belief propagated by other brethren within Christianity and Islam, they
credited matter and material of God’s creation to conclusively acknowledge man
as a product of evolution. Likewise, with a view to surpassing other faiths and
doctrines, the newly formed religion namely Hinduism and its offshoots dwelt on
a concept of Rebirth, which belief spiraled in to extremes of myth and
hallucination. With a view to differing from other beliefs, Hinduism gave
unnecessary boost to disbelief in creation and in its stead came up with mythological
belief in rebirth and migration of soul as a continuing process to attain ‘self
realization’, ‘God realization’ or ‘Nirvana’. However, in their eagerness to
boost their belief and evading real truth, they wound and rewound the concept
to extremes out of which chances of a return to reality has become bleak or
impossible, to say the least.
Buddhist belief too implies a merger of
divinity (spirit) with humanness (matter) and is more or less a concept which defies
human logic where the explanation dwells on the transition of spirit from
matter to spirit and vice versa. The final destination of spirit and body
according to them is nirvana or enlightenment. This belief, as a matter of fact,
allows life a prolonged span as a result of accumulated karma without life
actually coming to an end.
In the meantime, the other group of
righteous ones progressed within the true path laid out by God Almighty Himself
whom the world today identifies as Christianity, Islam, Judaism etc and a
number of other religions.
Judaism upholds a belief that emerged out
of the covenant of God and Jewish people, disbelieving in the concept of
incarnation of God as believed by Christians. As a matter of fact, Christianity
evolved out of this particular sect of people who clung on to the New Covenant
based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ as the only path to salvation.
Basics regarding rebirth
from the Hindu standpoint of view vis-a-vis Christian belief have differed in
entirety, leaving Hindu belief with gaping holes on issues of magnitude, which
as a matter of fact do not in any manner conform to logic and conviction. On a study of Hindu belief, the following
issues need a re-look so that people do not get carried away by illusions and
hallucinations.
EVEN IF ONE ACCEPTS THE
THEORY OF MIGRATION OF SOUL FOR A HYPOTHESIS, THE FOLLOWING ISSUES PROP UP WHICH
DISCOUNT THE POSSIBILITY OF REBIRTH.
Why does a soul wait for
man to die before hopping in to another body?
Why do not two souls
cohabit in one single body?
Why the lack of
coordination between body and soul in regard to knowledge about past life?
Why the soul’s inability
to throw light on the Almighty or universe despite surviving for centuries?
Why has soul failed to provide clues about human beings in the
outer universe?
Why has soul failed to
make human body mystic, eternal and self-sustaining like it as well?
Why has soul failed to
link up with other souls who have accomplished their span of existence and
attained eternal life?
How did the soul assume
upon itself the scourge of reincarnation in a process of purification which was
not called for prior to its first entry in to the chaste body of human being?
And last and major of the
arguments against rebirth as suggested by Hinduism is, if man is destined to be
born again in this world itself as believed by Hindus, then why the yearning
within every individual to live rather than leaving the world? If such conviction as held by Hindus that the
soul is to be reborn in another form, then why should a person panic at the
point of death if he knows that he definitely is going to be reborn? In effect,
rebirth is a myth and a point of hallucination held by Hindus in order to
explain away their vague theories which do not hold water, what to speak of
divine attribute!
Religious beliefs abound, controversies
multiply and mysteries soar above human reasoning, yet Hinduism, Budhism and a
cluster of such believers manage to baffle the general public with mythological
beliefs and solutions to all life related puzzles with ease. In a way, these
religions connote with all movements and related effects of stars and heavenly
bodies to successfully confuse people on how such phenomena affect human lives
by twisting mysteries in ways unfathomable by finite beings. It is
another matter that most galaxies are yet to be explored and data on existence
of aliens and extraterrestrials are yet to be accomplished by man, which if he
did, would project these religions as having covered larger ground than even
what Almighty God has hitherto done. In short, divinity and humanity are seen
being within reach of these religions and its doctrines. A puzzle of extremely
unfathomable gravity indeed!
Naturally, only God has the power to terminate
life of man and call back his soul. But, by no stretch of imagination can it
ever be assumed that the soul would be allowed by the Almighty to stray away
from the path laid out by the Creator Himself. That is to say, just as there is
but one death destined by God for man, so too there can only be one only path
for the soul whereby after his journey through life, man must return to his
wholesome creator – God.
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