The understanding of reincarnation leads to perspectives on many hidden issues of life so that our vision expands. As a result, the outlook on one’s life also expands helping us treat everyone and everything on earth with respect and dignity.
It is good to live one’s life on this earth without fear. Such dissolution of fear has to take place as a result of deeper understanding of life’s process and its meaning. Conforming to a belief system or philosophic system can provide us with a shield against fear but it would result in a kind of perpetual resistance against it. That would prevent us from understanding fear. If there is to be freedom from fear, it is necessary to be clear about the background from which fear arises. People talk of conquering fear. Such an approach can only give life to fear because of the enmity we create with regard to fear. In fact, that is the case with trying to conquer any psychological problem, such as jealousy, anger etc. As J. Krishnamurti says [Ref.1], what is conquered will necessitate conquering it again and again because of the life given to it by that approach. Again, mere intellectual analysis cannot augment the ending of fear, as it will only swish around within the verbal garbage in the mind. Only an affectionate insight through self-awareness can bring about the dissolution in due course.
From the foregoing, it is clear that harmony with life cannot happen until there is that kind of drive to understand rather than develop defense shields against life. Unfortunately, the religious and philosophic systems that offer solutions tend to use the defense tactics. Under those circumstances, how can there be an affectionate disposition towards life or the afterlife? The fear will always be waiting to show up from the other side of the shield.
Much of the fear about life and the afterlife disappears by the willingness to understand what lies beyond the apparent. One would then go into an investigative approach to discover the hidden issues of life such as reincarnation and karma. Then one would be neither a believer nor a non-believer. That would fill us with enough wonderment and the necessary perseverance to look into the various issues so that our intuition begins to make its impact on our understanding – it is a kind of non-verbal, direct contact with the essence of what we are investigating. With that mental disposition, reincarnation becomes a very interesting field to examine. In the process, our vision expands and we strike harmony with life. That cannot happen through any promises put forward by belief systems.
Trutz Hardo has summarized the many salutary outcome that result from appreciating the truth of reincarnation. It is indeed a scholarly presentation. People who are working hard to elevate their life to higher planes of awareness would be surely benefitted by his book [Ref. 2].
Now we look at some avenues along which transformation takes place consequent to understanding reincarnation.
When a near and dear one passes on, it is natural to be sad. However, one’s sadness is much reduced knowing that the person has not died but continues his journey on another level of consciousness. There is also the possibility of meeting that person again as vouchsafed by hundreds of studies on past life regression. We accept the passing on of the person because we realize it is part of that person’s growth towards Divinity. We may also play a role in it again in his or her future incarnation. (Frederick Lenz [Ref. 3] writes about the interesting case of soul-mate proclivity due to past life associations.) On account of our expansive perspectives on life’s journey, our calm presence while someone is passing on can ease that person’s transition to the afterlife and his continuing journey.
The next item we look at is the matter of universal compassion. Since reincarnation is universal and has nothing to do with sectarian beliefs, it is possible to bring in a cosmopolitan outlook towards all, irrespective of to what religion or nationality the person belongs. This is particularly relevant to ushering in global unity and harmony. There will be no division of the people as the ‘blessed’ and the ‘condemned’.
Outlook towards one’s child undergoes a change to the point of recognizing that the child is a human being in its own right, one on a long journey of life and afterlife. That immediately brings in a quality of tenderness in the relationship. There would be no possessive feeling and we wouldn’t consider the child as someone here to satisfy our ego needs. We will not force our will on the child since one knows that this child’s past lives have played a major role in forming its present one. We would rather play a supportive role in its evolutional development.
The mental disposition towards one’s spouse also undergoes beneficial change towards looking upon each other as a gift that life has provided for each to grow and live life to the fullest. The process of understanding each other may not be easy but that very issue is what makes us grow. With that outlook, we will not merely tolerate the spouse but treat him or her with respect and dignity. This is especially so because we note that we have most probably met each other in past lives and have been working to bring about that in-depth harmony over several lives. It would surely usher in healthy family atmosphere encouraging our children to love life and become wonderful citizens. The present scenario is a far cry from it where the parents force the children into narrow minded sectarian practices, thus dividing humanity.
With the expansive vision on life arising out of understanding reincarnation, we do not allow prejudices to interfere in dealing with people of other faiths or culture. We sense the soul’s need for being born in different cultures and backgrounds to broaden its evolutional understanding and growth towards the ultimate purpose of life’s journey. That is what helps us steer clear of putting down other’s faiths while lifting up one’s own on to a pedestal. It augments loving relationship with everyone, no matter what that person’s affiliation is. For the same reason, we won’t push our convictions on others or try to convert them to our religious or spiritual views. We would support the view that each person’s situation is good for him or her in the cosmological context.
There are many more such beneficial issues as a result of taking our perception into the zone of reincarnation. Related matters are covered in the website http://spirituality.yolasite.com
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Reference 1. J. Krishnamurti. Commentaries on Living – Second Series. Ed. by D. Rajagopal, Krishnamurti Foundation of India, Chennai, 1991.
Reference 2. Trutz Hardo. Reincarnation. New Delhi: Jaico Publications, 2003.
Reference 3. Frederick Lenz. Lifetimes. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1979.
Gopalakrishnan T. Chandrasekaran was born in Madras (now Chennai), India. He received his doctoral degree in Coastal Engineering from the North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA in 1978; served on the research and teaching faculty of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India, the North Carolina State University and the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait.
Aside from his professional involvements, he was interested in the philosophic issues of life for the last forty years or so. This led him to the messages of Ramana Maharishi, Lao Tzu, J Krishnamurthy, UG Krishnamurthy, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Eckhart Tolle, Marcus Aurelius and similar Masters. His book entitled “In Quest of the Deeper Self” is the outcome of his reflections on those and his wish to share the outcome with others.
Gopalakrishnan is a member of the International Association for Near Death Studies, Durham, NC, USA. He lives in Kodaikanal, a hill town in the southern part of India, with his wife Banumathy who also received her doctoral degree from the North Carolina State University, in Organic Chemistry. Now they are both retired and currently involved in developing a fruit farm at a village 20 km from their residence. They have a daughter and son who are both married and settled.
Blog: http://nde-thedeeperself.blogspot.com