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 a
better birth and if he commits sin he will get a worse birth – right?” so enquired the wife
of a pastor of a church of me. I answered in the affirmative. She shot back “Then tell me
how 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 to
the famed Niagara Falls from Canadian side. I took a conducted tour to Niagara Falls. As
it 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 were
booked. It was on this tour she caught me off guard. Off guard because I was a computer
programmer 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 equally
certain is the fact that all the dead would be reborn. This concept is enunciated in 27th
Sloka (couplet) of the second chapter of Bhagavad Gita, the sacred book of Hindus. They
believe 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 second
chapter of Bhagavad Gita Slokas 17, 20,23, 24 and 25 state that the Atman cannot be
hurt, burnt nor destroyed.

In Christianity there is no antonym for “sin”. You can commit “sin” but can you commit
what is opposite of “sin”. Hindus believe that a person is capable of committing not only
sin but also “punya” (“u” to be pronounced as in “put” – “put it down”). Punya is
currently 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 other
article.

Why does the Atman goes through the cycle? It is because of the debts (obligations) it
acquires during life. Every time we perform a favor for some one (it need not be to
people alone and it could be to animals, society, air, water or to the environment), we
receive an IOU. Whenever we receive a favor from any one, we execute an IOU. We
steal something and may escape getting caught. All the same, we signed the IOU. As we
live from day to day and year to year, we execute so many IOUs some in our favor and
the rest in others’ favor. Now who keeps an account of all IOUs of all persons? Hindus
believe that there is one God in charge of it – namely “Chitra Gupta” the celestial
accountant.

Now you may be laughing. Impossible, you say, how many terabytes is needed to keep
the score?

Now let me state the other incredible belief that is common to Islam, Christianity and
Judaism. 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 last
6000 years, no such day took place. Supposing today total destruction takes place and the
day 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 adherents
would be first in the queue without much evidence to attest to the claim except their holy
books. Now where do the souls of the dead reside till the Day of Judgment? Now don’t
tell me that they do not believe in souls. RIP, the full form of which is “May his/her soul
rest 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 (positive
or negative) as well as the next birth is decided and the Atman is sent back to another
birth to enjoy/suffer the reward. The individual’s account is deleted. This reduces the
workload drastically. The judgment can be automated fully. As it is on a daily basis, the
workload is distributed more or less evenly. Workload is not postponed and stacked to a
single day somewhere in future.

That is why, Bhagavad Gita and advanced concepts of Hinduism state that God is none
other 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 birth
can be at any place. Heaven and hell are part of these fourteen. Heaven is supposed to be
above 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 be
directly proportional to the IOUs we executed. Please note that the positive and negative
IOUs 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 all
the IOUS owed to you and pay all the IOUs you woe and do not execute any fresh IOUs
to become debt-free. Buddhists call this state “Nirvana”. But everyday living, demands
favors from us and to us. That is why, Hindus clamor to become Rishis who dwell in
forests and live as one with the nature. Rishis do not pluck fruits from trees. They eat
only the fallen fruits. Taking what nature gives and giving back to nature what it needs, is
the 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 escape
the cycle? Any non-human form of life is akin to a jail term. Any form of life other than
human form is a punishment for the Atman. The Atman suffers the punishment and
reverts 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 can
inmates still behave badly? Or, where is the opportunity to exhibit good behavior when
they are consigned to a cell most of the time? An animal or an insect is akin to a person in
a jail. The same opportunity is available to the non-human life as is available to a jail
inmate.

I was not sure if I convinced her on that day but she did not ask any further religious
questions of me.