One day I was examining all paper submission, when, I finally strucked to one paper with this interesting topic, “Reincarnation”. In my humble opinion, the writing worth better audience than my cold-silent email inbox. So, here is a brief story about reincarnation, written by the talented Ni Luh Larasathy Pinkan, a pretty Balinesse girl, law student in Law School President University Cikarang, who’s now in pursue of her legal career through internship in one of leading technology company.
Reincarnation is the philosophical or religious concept that an aspect of a living being, starts a new life in a different physical body or form after each biological death. The theory of reincarnation or “life after death” is believed by certain community such as Buddhism and Hinduism. Although, there are also several philosophers who also believe in such theory, such as Curt John Ducasse, Pythagoras, Socrates, etc.
Ducasse, a French philosopher, stated that reincarnation is a form of life after bodily death in which the soul becomes incarnate again through reentry in a new human or possibly animal body. From the aforementioned definition, it can be noted that the individual soul lives in a body on earth not once but several times. While Pythagoras, a Greek philosopher, apparently was famous as an expert on the fate of the soul after death, in which he thought that the soul was immortal and underwent a series of reincarnations. Such statement was disclosed by Cuffman, a leading scholar on Pythagoras theories. As for Socrates explanation on reincarnation, he said that if the soul existed before birth then the soul exists after death.
Reincarnation, as what has been stated before, is also believed by several religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism, and usually being attributed to the idea of Karma. In Christianity, they do believe in Karma in a different term. In Galatians 6:8, it says “Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life”. Or in Bahasa Indonesia, it is commonly known as rule of “tabur tuai”. Karma itself shall mean a result of what we have done in our whole life. If we did something good, then our Karma will be good, and vice versa.
According to Hinduism, reincarnation is one of 5 beliefs in which all Hindus shall have faith in them, as the main destination of a living being is not heaven, but rather Moksha. Moksha is a term which refers to freedom of the soul to become one with the God. When our soul reaches Moksha, there will not be life anymore. We will be released from all the good and bad. There will only be silence and peace. In order to reach that, Hinduism believes that human needs to go through several lives in this world in order to purify, and release their soul from all the bad karma they have done in life. That is why in Hinduism we are required to stay in line with Dharma, and do all the good thing to all the living beings in this whole entire world. Whether it is our fellow human, or, animals and even plants.
The idea of reincarnation also related to the existence of heaven and hell. We will be reborn after the death, and whether or not we will be reborn as a human in a good and perfect condition, it depends on our past lives. If we conducted more good things instead of the bad ones, we will go to hell before our soul stay in heaven while waiting for our turn to be returned to the world as the most perfect living being, possessed with integrity and common sense, called human. And if otherwise, we will go to heaven first to get a reward for the good things we have done in life, and after that our soul will go straight to hell, while waiting our turn to be returned back to the world whether as a disabled human, or even worse animals or viruses or plants
An American scientist, Dr. Ian Stevenson has conducted several scientific research about reincarnation and he was convinced that it is real. His research began in 1960 when he learned of a case in Sri Lanka where a child reported to remember a past life. And he continued his research and wrote 14 books and around 300 papers related to reincarnation. During his original research into various cases involving children’s memories of past lives, Dr. Stevenson did note the fact that the lasting birthmarks on someone’s body could possibly be related to their murder or the death they suffered in a previous life.
As a case that happened in Brazil where a man, in his deathbed, told his niece that he would reborn as her son because he knew that she would look after him and would be a great mom for him, considering that he claimed her current daughter to be his deceased sister. And before he passed away, he told her that her future son will have an exact same scar as he had on his back and nose. 18 months later, she gave birth to her son and when she looked at his back, he had the exact same scar as Victor, her uncle, told her before he passed away
Another thing that he found during his investigation was that 35% of cases he investigated, children who died an unnatural death, developed phobias. For example, if they had drowned in a past life then they frequently developed a phobia about going out of their depth in water. If they had been shot they were often afraid of guns and sometimes loud bangs in general. If they died in a road accident they would sometimes develop a phobia of traveling in cars, buses, or lorries.
As a case that happened in England, on 5 May 1957. There was an incident of a car hitting an eleven-year-old Joanna, and her six-year-old sister Jacqueline Pollock, while they were playing on the pavement. They were found dead on the street right after the incident happened. A year later, Mrs. Pollock was pregnant and her husband got a vision that she would give birth to twin girls and these two girls would be their lost daughters reborn. Mrs. Pollock, as a strict Catholic of course refused to believe in reincarnation and denied his husband’s statement. And finally Mr. Pollock was found to be right. She gave birth to identical girl twins. And as they grew older, the twins started to amaze their parents by pointing out places that they had never been before. One of the girls said “the school is just around the corner”. The other one pointed to a hill and said “our playground was behind there. It had a slide and a swing.” Further, their recognized their old toys they had in their previous life. They even knew the exact name of their dolls. Jennifer said, “Oh! That’s Mary.” And she went for the second doll and said “that’s my Suzanne! I haven’t seen them for ages.” She used the same names which the deceased Jacqueline had previously given her two dolls. Jennifer turned to Gillian (her twin), pointing to another toy and said “that’s your washing machine.” Both of them also developed over-cautious responses when crossing roads and feared speeding cars (considering that they were run down by a car which caused their death).
However, this reincarnation concept is not widely accepted within the society. There are a lot of communities that stand against this concept of reincarnation. Because, according to them, there is no such life after death. They believe that hell and heaven last forever and that our soul will be placed in either hell or heaven. It will be determined based on what we have done when we are still alive. There are several other religions that do not believe in reincarnation, inter alia, Islamic, Christianity, and Catholic.
According to the Moslems, they believe that God created Adam and Eve and that was the beginning of the creation of human in this world; they regenerate. In Islamic, human does not possess control over their soul after death. The soul/spirit will stay in the “other side” until the end of the world, after Allah awaken all the deceases. As in Hinduism, they believe in Karma from the elders, Moslems believe otherwise. In Al-Muddatsir 74:38 it stated that every being will be liable to what they have done. Islamic does not recognize reincarnation, but they believe in resurrection instead. In the essence, there is no such a past life in Islam. Further, a Ma’mun once said to Imam Reza: “what’s your opinion about those who believe in reincarnation?” The Imam replied: “one who believes in reincarnation has denied God Almighty and has claimed heaven and hell to be unreal”. Similarly, Imam Sadiq also says: “they suppose that both heaven and hell do not exist, nor will resurrectiob happen and in their view resurrection is nothing but transferring from one body and structure to another. If the soul was a righteous one while in the former body it will return a better and superior structure at the highest level imaginable in this worls, but if it was corrupt and ignorant, it will return in the form of four legged animals that are used for hauling things which live in pain and hardship or in the form of a small ugly looking bird that flies at night and likes the graveyard and finds peace there.”
The famous philosopher, Sadrul Mutaahhilin (Mullah Sadra) says: “…the nafs, in its first level of being brought to existence, stands at the level of nature. Then in proportion to its materialistic motion towards perfection, the nafs evolves all the way through being a plant and an animal to being a human. And if the nafs, at any level fulfills its potential (quwwah), even in the most subtle amount, it is impossible for this actuality (fi’liyyah) to regress back into pure potentiality once more. In addition to this, as was said before, the matter (maddah) and form(surah) are a united entity that bears the two aspects of actuality and potential, that take on the path of evolution together, advancing and developing at any point and chance possible, therefore, it is impossible for a soul that has passed the vegetative or animate level to attach to a form of sperm or fetus (be reincarnated in these forms).”
As deprived from another source, which is Catechism of the Catholic Church, it stated that “when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we shall not return to other earthly lives”. They also believe that immortality of an individual soul is a truth and is the faith of Christian. As also stated in the bible, that Hebrews 9:27 confirms that we only die once, our individual immortal souls cannot reincarnate. They also believe that by maintaining an indefinite series of chances for human souls, reincarnation reduces the seriousness of God’s grace. The whole thrust of the bible opposes reincarnation. The bible teaches that at death, while man’s body is mortal, decays, and returns to dust, their soul and spirit continue on either place of torments, or in paradise. Both categories of people will be resurrected, one to eternal judgment and the other to eternal life with a glorified body. Such statement is stated in a bible verse, particularly John 5:25–29. One exact bible verse that blatantly stating that Christianity does not believe in reincarnation exists in Hebrew 9:27, which stated that and just as people are appointed to die once, and then to face judgment.
Further, according to Christian authors, Henry M. Morris and Martin E. Clark, in their book, they stated that “classical ideas of reincarnation know nothing of a personal God who enters holy relationships with His creatures. In fact, ultimate reality is usually conceived as a cognitive process within man himself, rather than as a personal God. Further, reincarnation schemes make men’s spiritual advancement contingent upon his mortal efforts, attempting to make merit outweigh demerit. Christianity shows, however, that salvation cannot be earned by sinful man, but rather, it is merited by Jesus Christ’s substitutionary death and resurrection for all who believe. Also, many theories of reincarnation hold that man’s spiritual, physical, and moral conditions are determined by a former life and therefore not under his control. Physically, this has led to a passive, pessimistic acceptance of untold misery that was actually unnecessary. Spiritually, it is even more devastating. The Bible reveals that no one is bound in his sins against his will, and though born under Adam’s curse, “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Through God’s forgiving grace, “though your sins be as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool” (Isaiah 1:18). Consequently, the Christian does not worry about his merit outweighing his demerit, for his sins have been forgiven, God having promised, “I will remember their sins no more” (Hebrews 8:12).”
In conclusion, there are still pros and cons regarding the reincarnation concept. Ones believe that reincarnation is real according to their scientific research, and the others denied because it does not comply with the teaching of God, that there will only be a resurrection day. There is no such certain decision in this matter. People will believe in what they believe and will continue to do that until they prove themselves wrong. There is no such wrong or right concept, considering the deceases cannot talk to us and tell us what happen in the “other side”. It is all about belief, about what we have been taught since we were kids. I personally believe in reincarnation because that is what my parents taught me. If you think otherwise, that is probably you learned something different. The only thing I know for sure is that we have to do the good and avoid the bad in order to get a proper and glorious life, whether it is in heaven, or when we reborn as a human in this world (before we reach Moksha, for me).
