After battling cancer for over 4 year, Anita was given only few more hours by Doctors in Feb’06 but then something remarkable happened. Dying to be me! Anita Moorjani at TEDxBayArea. Or have you read the book “Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation” by psychiatrist Ian Stevenson(1966) or heard this podcast from NPR Searching For The Science Behind Reincarnation (an interview with Dr. Jim Tucker, a professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the University of Virginia). Or done your own research to say whether you believe in Reincarnation or Not?
Modern Science is at the cusp of another revolution, post materialist phenomenon, about consciousness. Give it a thought and do some fact finding of your own, esp in the domains of
- Past life memories – spontaneous (mostly in children) or hypnotically induced,
- Near Death Experiences,
- Out of body experiences.
Krishna continues to help Arjuna in the battlefield of Kurukshetra where he must have looked a bit puzzled with all these unbelievable “properties” of property-less Aatma, that it is constant, immutable, unmanifest, incomprehensible. Krishna says that even if it is subject to constant birth and death, then also you should not grieve. Why? For death is certain for one born and rebirth inevitable for one who dies. So, त्वं न शोचितुमर्हसि – then also you should not worry.
Bottom line remains that – पण्डिताः ना अनुशोचन्ति
A lot of us are not comfortable with this concept of reincarnation. Primarily because it has not been fashionable. We will say, “ah there is no evidence, at least I have not seen one”. Who is stopping you though, go and do your research and make up your mind whether it is true or not, on your own, not just hearsay. One can argue that just because it is fashionable to accept the existence of electrons, protons and neutrons – whether you have seen or experienced them yourself or not. Surely, the science books are talking about it and the school teachers have taught us these scientific concepts. It is wise to do the same study about reincarnation as it is related to the most important aspect of our life, our true existence. Have a firm belief about it, one way or another.
Krishna is convinced and he continues to explain what happens between two births. Before birth and after death, beings are not manifest and remain in an unmanifest form. Beings are manifest only between birth and death. So, why worry about something changing from unmanifest to manifest for time being and eventually returning back to unmanifest form.
Krishna further realizes the difficulty of accepting this as such and clearly tells Arjuna that hardly anyone sees, or speaks of, or hears of soul as marvelous, while some do not know it even after hearing about it.
Yet, summarizing this concept, he says that the soul in the bodies cannot be slain so not mourn for anyone. So, You do not worry त्वं न शोचितुमर्हसि .