Hinduism For Beginners
Here is a series of articles that I once wrote for children in the age group 5 - 10 years.
(C) Are human beings born into the world many times?
Let me ask you a question: when was the last time you watched a cowboy western in which the baddies won the final battle? Hold on, let me guess what you would say: 'Never!' It seems Hollywood does not make movies where in the final scene the good guys lie dead and defeated and the bad fellows ride into the sun with a victorious smile on their faces. Do you think this is because if Hollywood indeed made such movies, people won't like them? And if your answer to the last question is 'yes', let me ask you just one more question for now: why do you think viewers won't in fact like such movies?
Today we shall look at the answer that Hindu thinkers have given to this question, and the answer, briefly put, is this. They believe that ultimately some day in the future good will win over evil --- the good people will obtain good rewards and the bad people will suffer some misfortune. All your actions, whether good or bad, have certain consequences, and you will have to face these consequences some day. Now if you are a good person and do good things, say you help your friends when they are in trouble, some day in the future you will gain happiness.
This response is based on the belief that the world is a moral order. Let us spend some time unpacking that big-sounding phrase 'moral order'. Suppose you release a ball which you are holding in your hand, and instead of falling to the ground it simply shoots up into the air. You would be astonished, because that is not how balls are expected to behave. Balls fall to the ground because there is a law, a rule, or an order, which tells you that objects which are not supported ultimately move downwards. Hindu thinkers argue that there is likewise another law, or order, which tells you that people who are truthful, who do good to others, who do not harm other people, and so on, are happy. Or at least that is what we would like to see around us, right? Would you really like to see a person who loves his friends and is helpful to them suffer from one misfortune after another?
Unfortunately, quite often this is precisely what we see happening in the world around us: the bad people seem to prosper while the good fellows seem to be continually getting into all kinds of trouble. Think of an honest farmer, John, who spends his whole life trying to earn just enough to keep his family from starving to death, and also a rich banker in the city, David, who defrauds millions of people to live in a luxurious palace with a fleet of ten cars. We feel that this cannot be the way the world is really supposed to be, that there must be something very unjust about all this. In response, Hindu thinkers state that there is a hidden rule which will ensure that good people will receive good things in life, and that the bad will some day come to grief. Now let us pick on two words that we have mentioned just now: first 'hidden' and then 'some day'.
Why do we say that this rule is 'hidden'? Think once again of the case of the ball. There is a force that drags the ball to the earth. You see the ball falling, but you do not see the force, right? That's because although the force is very real, it is not visible, it is hidden from your sight. In the same way, the rule which says that good people will receive good rewards and the bad guys will be punished is not something that you can actually see. But suppose you are still not ready to accept that everything is OK with a world where bad things continually happen to good people. Then Hinduism tells you that you have to believe that there is a hidden rule which will ensure that the good people will somehow receive good things. This rule is, of course, our moral law or order.
You might want to protest at this stage that this is easier said than done. After all, have we forgotten our own examples of poor honest John and rich swindling David? Hindu thinkers reply that the crooked guys will receive their punishment, if not right now in this life, then 'some day' in another life. That is, human beings will be re-born (or born again) into the world to receive the rewards of their actions in previous lives. So let's say when John is born into the world the next time, he is born into a richer family, where he enjoys the kind of happiness that he did not have in his previous (that is, this) life. And let's say David is re-born into the world in a very poor family where he is almost always on the verge of starvation every morning. But note that this is not the end of our story! For if in the next life, John becomes a cruel, wicked person, he will suffer some misfortune in some subsequent life. Similarly, if in the midst of his poverty, David becomes a better person, in a later life, he will be re-born with some degree of happiness that he did not enjoy earlier.
To explain this idea of 'being re-born', one image that Hindu thinkers repeatedly use is that of a seed and its plant. When you sow a seed on a field, after some time a plant grows from it. This seed is like the actions you perform, whether these are good or bad, and the plant is like the rewards that you will receive. If the seed is good, the plant will thrive, but if the seed is diseased, the plant will shrivel up. In both cases, however, you have to accept the consequences of your actions, or, as they say, you will have to reap what you have sown. Hinduism refers to these actions as karma, and so the moral law or order we have discussing is also called the 'law of karma'.
Now you might be asking yourself: but if I, the person who is listening to this broadcast right now, was someone else in another life, why is it that I have no memory of being that someone else? The answer that is usually given goes like this: when we are born, our memories of our previous lives get erased, so that we cannot recollect anymore who we had been before we were re-born into the world. I suppose you have no memories of your being a baby of two weeks, but that does not mean that you were not once upon a time a two-week old baby. Similarly, we cannot remember what our previous lives were like, but this does not mean, according to our Hindu thinkers, that we do not go through many lives in this world.
So what have we learnt today in this lesson on the law of karma and rebirth? We have learnt that human beings are born into the world several times, to reap what they have sown. In your previous life, you were someone else back then, when you sowed some seeds. You have to reap the plants that are growing or will grow from them, either in this life or some other future life.
As you try to understand Hinduism's views about re-birth, I will leave you with something to do. Suppose you are a late riser but you want to wake up at six in the morning everyday. What happens if you try to do so tomorrow? Even when the alarm rings, you may feel like switching it off and going back to sleep. Suppose, however, you somehow resist, with a lot of difficulty, the temptation to sleep for an extra hour, and do manage to drag yourself out of bed. Suppose further that you do this not just tomorrow but over a period of one or two weeks. What do you think will happen at the end of that period? You will easily be able to get up from bed at six, because you have by now formed a habit of early rising. The law of karma says that our actions are habit-forming. If you do good actions, you will form good habits, which is a kind of positive karma. Because of these good habits, you will do good actions more naturally and more easily, because of which you will be a happier person. Likewise if you form a bad habit, you will develop a kind of negative karma and unless you are able to act against it, you will find it difficult to do good actions. So you have to be careful not to develop any negative karma but to increase your positive karma for a happier life!
Today we shall look at the answer that Hindu thinkers have given to this question, and the answer, briefly put, is this. They believe that ultimately some day in the future good will win over evil --- the good people will obtain good rewards and the bad people will suffer some misfortune. All your actions, whether good or bad, have certain consequences, and you will have to face these consequences some day. Now if you are a good person and do good things, say you help your friends when they are in trouble, some day in the future you will gain happiness.
This response is based on the belief that the world is a moral order. Let us spend some time unpacking that big-sounding phrase 'moral order'. Suppose you release a ball which you are holding in your hand, and instead of falling to the ground it simply shoots up into the air. You would be astonished, because that is not how balls are expected to behave. Balls fall to the ground because there is a law, a rule, or an order, which tells you that objects which are not supported ultimately move downwards. Hindu thinkers argue that there is likewise another law, or order, which tells you that people who are truthful, who do good to others, who do not harm other people, and so on, are happy. Or at least that is what we would like to see around us, right? Would you really like to see a person who loves his friends and is helpful to them suffer from one misfortune after another?
Unfortunately, quite often this is precisely what we see happening in the world around us: the bad people seem to prosper while the good fellows seem to be continually getting into all kinds of trouble. Think of an honest farmer, John, who spends his whole life trying to earn just enough to keep his family from starving to death, and also a rich banker in the city, David, who defrauds millions of people to live in a luxurious palace with a fleet of ten cars. We feel that this cannot be the way the world is really supposed to be, that there must be something very unjust about all this. In response, Hindu thinkers state that there is a hidden rule which will ensure that good people will receive good things in life, and that the bad will some day come to grief. Now let us pick on two words that we have mentioned just now: first 'hidden' and then 'some day'.
Why do we say that this rule is 'hidden'? Think once again of the case of the ball. There is a force that drags the ball to the earth. You see the ball falling, but you do not see the force, right? That's because although the force is very real, it is not visible, it is hidden from your sight. In the same way, the rule which says that good people will receive good rewards and the bad guys will be punished is not something that you can actually see. But suppose you are still not ready to accept that everything is OK with a world where bad things continually happen to good people. Then Hinduism tells you that you have to believe that there is a hidden rule which will ensure that the good people will somehow receive good things. This rule is, of course, our moral law or order.
You might want to protest at this stage that this is easier said than done. After all, have we forgotten our own examples of poor honest John and rich swindling David? Hindu thinkers reply that the crooked guys will receive their punishment, if not right now in this life, then 'some day' in another life. That is, human beings will be re-born (or born again) into the world to receive the rewards of their actions in previous lives. So let's say when John is born into the world the next time, he is born into a richer family, where he enjoys the kind of happiness that he did not have in his previous (that is, this) life. And let's say David is re-born into the world in a very poor family where he is almost always on the verge of starvation every morning. But note that this is not the end of our story! For if in the next life, John becomes a cruel, wicked person, he will suffer some misfortune in some subsequent life. Similarly, if in the midst of his poverty, David becomes a better person, in a later life, he will be re-born with some degree of happiness that he did not enjoy earlier.
To explain this idea of 'being re-born', one image that Hindu thinkers repeatedly use is that of a seed and its plant. When you sow a seed on a field, after some time a plant grows from it. This seed is like the actions you perform, whether these are good or bad, and the plant is like the rewards that you will receive. If the seed is good, the plant will thrive, but if the seed is diseased, the plant will shrivel up. In both cases, however, you have to accept the consequences of your actions, or, as they say, you will have to reap what you have sown. Hinduism refers to these actions as karma, and so the moral law or order we have discussing is also called the 'law of karma'.
Now you might be asking yourself: but if I, the person who is listening to this broadcast right now, was someone else in another life, why is it that I have no memory of being that someone else? The answer that is usually given goes like this: when we are born, our memories of our previous lives get erased, so that we cannot recollect anymore who we had been before we were re-born into the world. I suppose you have no memories of your being a baby of two weeks, but that does not mean that you were not once upon a time a two-week old baby. Similarly, we cannot remember what our previous lives were like, but this does not mean, according to our Hindu thinkers, that we do not go through many lives in this world.
So what have we learnt today in this lesson on the law of karma and rebirth? We have learnt that human beings are born into the world several times, to reap what they have sown. In your previous life, you were someone else back then, when you sowed some seeds. You have to reap the plants that are growing or will grow from them, either in this life or some other future life.
As you try to understand Hinduism's views about re-birth, I will leave you with something to do. Suppose you are a late riser but you want to wake up at six in the morning everyday. What happens if you try to do so tomorrow? Even when the alarm rings, you may feel like switching it off and going back to sleep. Suppose, however, you somehow resist, with a lot of difficulty, the temptation to sleep for an extra hour, and do manage to drag yourself out of bed. Suppose further that you do this not just tomorrow but over a period of one or two weeks. What do you think will happen at the end of that period? You will easily be able to get up from bed at six, because you have by now formed a habit of early rising. The law of karma says that our actions are habit-forming. If you do good actions, you will form good habits, which is a kind of positive karma. Because of these good habits, you will do good actions more naturally and more easily, because of which you will be a happier person. Likewise if you form a bad habit, you will develop a kind of negative karma and unless you are able to act against it, you will find it difficult to do good actions. So you have to be careful not to develop any negative karma but to increase your positive karma for a happier life!
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