Some people try to save God from this charge of partiality a

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VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY

FIVE LECTURES ON REINCARNATION

BY

SWAMI ABHEDANANDA

_Author of "India and her People", "Self-Knowledge", "How to be a

Yogi", "Divine Heritage of Man", etc._

CONTENTS

I.--REINCARNATION

II.--HEREDITY AND REINCARNATION

III.--EVOLUTION AND REINCARNATION

IV.--WHICH IS SCIENTIFIC, RESURRECTION OR REINCARNATION?

V.--THEORY OF TRANSMIGRATION

I. REINCARNATION

The visible phenomena of the universe are bound by the universal law

of cause and effect. The effect is visible or perceptible, while the

cause is invisible or imperceptible. The falling of an apple from a

tree is the effect of a certain invisible force called gravitation.

Although the force cannot be perceived by the senses, its expression

is visible. All perceptible phenomena are but the various expressions

of different forces which act as invisible agents upon the subtle and

imperceptible forms of matter. These invisible agents or forces

together with the imperceptible particles of matter make up the subtle

states of the phenomenal universe. When a subtle force becomes

objectified, it appears as a gross object. Therefore, we can say,

that every gross form is an expression of some subtle force acting

upon the subtle particles of matter. The minute particles of hydrogen

and oxygen when combined by chemical force, appear in the gross form

of water. Water can never be separated from hydrogen and oxygen, which

are its subtle component parts. Its existence depends upon that of its

component parts, or in other words, upon its subtle form. If the

subtle state changes, the gross manifestation will also change. The

peculiarity in the gross form of a plant depends upon the peculiar

nature of its subtle form, the seed. The peculiar nature of the gross

forms in the animal kingdom depends upon the subtle forms which

manifest variously in each of the intermediate stages between the

microscopic unit of living matter and the highest man. The gross human

body is closely related to its subtle body. Not only this, but every

movement or change in the physical form is caused by the activity and

change of the subtle body. If the subtle body be affected or changed a

little, the gross body will also be affected similarly. The material

body being the expression of the subtle body, its birth, growth, decay

and death depend upon the changes of the subtle body. As long as the

subtle body remains, it will continue to express itself in a

corresponding gross form.

Now let us understand clearly what we mean by a subtle body. It is

nothing but a minute germ of a living substance. It contains the

invisible particles of matter which are held together by vital force,

and it also possesses mind or thought-force in a potential state, just

as the seed of a plant contains in it the life force and the power of

growth. According to Vedanta, the subtle body consists of

_Antahkaranam_, that is, the internal organ or the mind substance

with its various modifications, mind, intellect, egoism, memory, the

five instruments of perception: the powers of seeing, hearing,

smelling, tasting and touching; the five instruments of action, such

as the powers of seizing, moving, speaking, evacuating, and

generating, and the five _Prânas. Prâna_ is a Sanskrit word which

means vital energy or the life-sustaining power in us. Although

_Prâna_ is one, it takes five different names on account of the

five different functions it performs. This word _Prâna_ includes

the five manifestations of the vital force: First, that power which

moves the lungs and draws the atmospheric air from outside into the

system. This is also called _Prâna_. Second, that power which

throws out of the system such things as are not wanted. It is called

in Sanskrit _Apâna_. Third, it takes the name of _Samâna_,

as performing digestive functions and carrying the extract of food to

every part of the body. It is called _Udâna_ when it is the cause

of bringing down food from the mouth through the alimentary canal to

the stomach, and also when it is the cause of the power of speech. The

fifth power of _Prâna_ is that which works in every part of the

nervous system from head to foot, through every canal, which keeps the

shape of the body, preserves it from putrefaction, and gives health

and life to every cell and organ. These are the various manifestations

of the vital force or _Prâna_. These subtle powers together with

the non-composite elements of the gross body, or the ethereal

particles of subtle matter, and also with the potentialities of all

the impressions, ideas and tendencies which each individual gathers in

one life, make up his subtle body. As a resultant of all the

different actions of mind and body which an individual performs in his

present life, will be the tendencies and desires in his future life;

nothing will be lost.

Every action of body or mind which we do, every thought which we

think, becomes fine, and is stored up in the form of a _Samskâra_

or impression in our minds. It remains latent for some time, and then

it rises up in the form of a mental wave and produces new

desires. These desires are called in Vedanta, _Vâsanâs_. Vâsanâs

or strong desires are the manufacturers of new bodies. If Vâsanâ or

longing for worldly pleasures and objects remains in anybody, even

after hundreds of births, that person will be born again. Nothing can

prevent the course of strong desires. Desires must be fulfilled sooner

or later.

Every voluntary or involuntary action of the body, sense or mind must

correspond to the dormant impressions stored up in the subtle

body. Although growth, the process of nourishment and all the changes

of the gross physical body take place according to the necessarily

acting causes, yet the whole series of actions, and consequently every

individual act, the condition of the body which accomplishes it, nay,

the whole process in and through which the body exists, are nothing

but the outward expressions of the latent impressions stored up in the

subtle body. Upon these rests the perfect suitableness of the animal

or human body to the animal or human nature of one's impressions. The

organs of the senses must therefore completely correspond to the

principal desires which are the strongest and most ready to

manifest. They are the visible expressions of these desires. If there

be no hunger or desire to eat, teeth, throat and bowels will be of no

use. If there be no desire for grasping and moving, hands and legs

will be useless. Similarly it can be shown that the desire for seeing,

hearing, etc., has produced the eye, ear, etc. If I have no desire to

use my hand, and if I do not use it at all, within a few months it

will wither away and die. In India there are some religious fanatics

who hold up their arms and do not use them at all; after a few months

their arms wither and become stiff and dead. A person who lies on his

back for six months loses the power of walking. There are many such

instances which prove the injurious effects of the disuse of our limbs

and organs.

As the human form, generally, corresponds to the human will,

generally, so the individual bodily structure corresponds to the

character, desires, will and thought of the individual. Therefore the

outer nature is nothing but the expression of the inner nature. This

inner nature of each individual is what re-incarnates or expresses

itself successively in various forms, one after another. When a man

dies the individual ego or _Jîva_ (as it is called in Sanskrit),

which means the germ of life or the living soul of man, is not

destroyed, but it continues to exist in an invisible form. It remains

like a permanent thread stringing together the separate lives by the

law of cause and effect. The subtle body is like a water-globule which

sprang in the beginningless past from the eternal ocean of Reality;

and it contains the reflection of the unchangeable light of

Intelligence. As a water-globule remains sometimes in an invisible

vapory state in a cloud, then in rain or snow or ice, and again as

steam or in mud, but is never destroyed, so the subtle body sometimes

remains unmanifested and sometimes expresses itself in gross forms of

animal or human beings, according to the desires and tendencies that

are ready to manifest. It may go to heaven, that is, to some other

planet, or it may be born again on this earth. It depends on the

nature and strength of one's life-long tendency and bent of mind. This

idea is clearly expressed in Vedanta. "The thought, will or desire

which is extremely strong during lifetime, will become predominant at

the time of death and will mould the inner nature of the dying

person. The newly moulded inner nature will express in a new form."

(Bhagavad Gîtâ.) The thought, will or desire which moulds the inner

nature has the power of selecting or attracting such conditions or

environments as will help it in its way of manifestation. This process

corresponds in some respects to the law of "natural selection."

We shall be better able to understand that process by studying how the

seeds of different trees select from the common environments different

materials, and absorb and assimilate different quantities of

elements. Suppose two seeds, one of an oak and the other of a

chestnut, are planted in a pot. The power of growth in both the seeds

is of the same nature. The environments, earth, water, heat and light

are the same. But still there is some peculiarity in each of the

seeds, which will absorb from the common environments different

quantities of elements and other properties which are fit to help the

growth of the peculiar nature and form of the fruit, flower, leaves of

each tree. Suppose the chestnut is a horse-chestnut. If, under

different conditions, the peculiar nature of the horse-chestnut

changes into that of a sweet chestnut, then, along with the changes in

the seed, the whole nature of the tree, leaves, fruits will also be

changed. It will no more attract, absorb or assimilate those

substances and qualities of the environments which it did when it was

a horse-chestnut. Similarly, through the law of "natural selection"

the newly moulded thought-body of the dying person will choose and

attract such parts from the common environments as are helpful to its

proper expression or manifestation. Parents are nothing but the

principal parts of the environment of the re-incarnating

individual. The newly moulded inner nature or subtle body of the

individual will by the law of "natural selection" involuntarily

choose, or be unconsciously drawn to, as it were, its suitable parents

and will be born of them. As, for instance, if I have a strong desire

to become an artist, and if after a life-long struggle I do not

succeed in being the greatest, after the death of the body I will be

born of such parents and with such environments as will help me to

become the best artist.

The whole process is expressed in Eastern philosophy by the doctrine

of the Reincarnation of the individual soul. Although this doctrine

is commonly rejected in the West, it is unreservedly accepted by the

vast majority of mankind of the present day, as it was in past

centuries. The scientific explanation of this theory we find nowhere

except in the writings of the Hindus; still we know that from very

ancient times it was believed by the philosophers, sages and prophets

of different countries. The ancient civilization of Egypt was built

upon a crude form of the doctrine of Reincarnation. Herodotus says:

"The Egyptians propounded the theory that the human soul is

imperishable, and that where the body of any one dies it enters into

some other creature that may be ready to receive it." Pythagoras and

his disciples spread it through Greece and Italy. Pythagoras says:

"All has soul; all is soul wandering in the organic world, and obeying

eternal will or law."

In Dryden's Ovid we read:--

"Death has no power the immortal soul to slay,

That, when its present body turns to clay,

Seeks a fresh home, and with unlessened might

Inspires another frame with life and light."

It was the keynote of Plato's philosophy. Plato says: "Soul is older

than body. Souls are continually born over again into this life." The

idea of Reincarnation was spread widely in Greece and Italy by

Pythagoras, Empedocles, Plato, Virgil and Ovid. It was known to the

Neo-Platonists, Plotinus and Proclus. Plotinus says: "The soul leaving

the body becomes that power which it has most developed. Let us fly

then from here below and rise to the intellectual world, that we may

not fall into a purely sensible life by allowing ourselves to follow

sensible images...." It was the fundamental principle of the religion

of the Persian Magi. Alexander the Great accepted this idea after

coming in contact with the Hindu philosophers. Julius Caesar found

that the Gauls had some belief regarding the pre-existence of the

human soul. The Druids of old Gaul believed that the souls of men

transmigrate into those bodies whose habits and characters they most

resemble. Celts and Britons were impressed with this idea. It was a

favorite theme of the Arab philosophers and many Mahomedan Sufis. The

Jews adopted it after the Babylonian captivity. Philo of Alexandria,

who was a contemporary of Christ, preached amongst the Hebrews the

Platonic idea of the pre-existence and rebirth of human souls. Philo

says: "The company of disembodied souls is distributed in various

orders. The law of some of them is to enter mortal bodies, and after

certain prescribed periods be again set free." John the Baptist was

according to the Jews a second Elijah; Jesus was believed by many to

be the re-appearance of some other prophet. (See Matt, xvi, 14, also

xvii, 12.) Solomon says in his Book of Wisdom: "I was a child of good

nature and a good soul came to me, or rather because I was good I came

into an undefiled body."

The Talmud and Cabala teach the same thing. In the Talmud it is said

that Abel's soul passed into the body of Seth, and then into that of

Moses. Along with the spread of the Cabala this doctrine (which was

known as Transmigration and Metempsychosis) "began to take root in

Judaism and then it gained believers even among men who were little

inclined towards Mysticism. Juda ben Asher (Asheri) for instance,

discussing this doctrine in a letter to his father endeavored to place

it upon a philosophical basis." (Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. XII,

p. 232.) We also read, "The Cabalists eagerly adopted the doctrine on

account of the vast field it offered to mystic speculations. Moreover

it was almost a necessary corollary of their psychological system. The

absolute condition of the soul is, according to them, its return,

after developing all those perfections, the germs of which are

eternally implanted in it, to the Infinite Source from which it

emanated. Another term of life must therefore be vouchsafed to those

souls which have not fulfilled their destiny here below, and have not

been sufficiently purified for the state of union with the Primordial

Cause. Hence if the soul, on its first assumption of a human body and

sojourn on earth, fails to acquire that experience for which it

descended from heaven and becomes contaminated by that which is

polluting, it must reinhabit a body till it is able to ascend in a

purified state through repeated trials." This is the theory of the

Zohar, which says: "All souls are subject to transmigration; and men

do not know the ways of the Holy One, blessed be He! They do not know

that they are brought before the tribunal both before they enter into

this world and after they leave it; they are ignorant of the many

transmigrations and secret probations which they have to undergo, and

of the number of souls and spirits which enter into this world and

which do not return to the palace of the Heavenly King. Men do not

know how the souls revolve like a stone which is thrown from a

sling. But the time is at hand when these mysteries will be

disclosed." (Zohar, II, 99 _b_.)

Like many of the Church Fathers the Cabalists used as their main

argument in favor of the doctrine of metempsychosis the justice of

God. But for the belief in metempsychosis, they maintained, the

question why God often permits the wicked to lead a happy life while

many righteous are miserable would be unanswerable. Then too the

infliction of pain upon children would be an act of cruelty unless it

is imposed in punishment of sin committed by the soul in a previous

state. Isaac Abravanel sees in the commandment of the Levirate a proof

of the doctrine of metempsychosis for which he gives the following

reasons: (1) God in His mercy willed that another trial should be

given to the soul, which having yielded to the sanguine temperament of

the body had committed a capital sin, such as murder, adultery, etc.;

(2) it is only just that when a man dies young a chance should be

given to his soul to execute in another body the good deeds which it

had not time to perform in the first body; (3) the soul of the wicked

sometimes passes into another body in order to receive its deserved

punishment here below instead of in the other world where it would be

much more severe. (Commentary on Deuteronomy, XXV, 5.)

Christianity is not exempt from this idea. Origen and other Church

Fathers believed in it. Origen says: "For God, justly disposing of his

creatures according to their desert, united the diversities of minds

in one congruous world, that he might, as it were, adorn his mansion

(in which ought to be not only vases of gold and silver, but of wood

also and clay, and some to honor and some to dishonor) with these

diverse vases, minds or souls. To these causes the world owes its

diversity, while Divine Providence disposes each according to his

tendency, mind and disposition." He also says: "I think this is a

question how it happens that the human mind is influenced now by the

good, now by the evil. The causes of this I suspect to be more ancient

than this corporeal birth." The idea of Reincarnation spread so fast

amongst the early Christians that Justinian was obliged to suppress it

by passing a law in the Council of Constantinople in 538 A.D. The law

was this: "Whoever shall support the mythical presentation of the

pre-existence of the soul, and the consequently wonderful opinion of

its return, let him be Anathema." The Gnostics and Manichaeans

propagated the tenets of Reincarnation amongst the mediaeval sects

such as the Bogomiles and Paulicians. Some of the followers of this

so-called erroneous belief were cruelly persecuted in 385 A.D.

In the seventeenth century some of the Cambridge Platonists, as

Dr. Henry More and others, accepted the idea of rebirth. Most of the

German philosophers of the middle ages and of recent days have

advocated and upheld this doctrine. Many quotations can be given from

the writings of great thinkers, like Kant, Scotus, Schelling, Fichte,

Leibnitz, Schopenhauer, Giardano Bruno, Goethe, Lessing, Herder and a

host of others. The great skeptic Hume says in his posthumous essay on

"The Immortality of the Soul," "The metempsychosis is therefore the

only system of this kind that philosophy can hearken to." Scientists

like Flammarion and Huxley have supported this doctrine of

Reincarnation. Professor Huxley says: "None but hasty thinkers will

reject it on the ground of inherent absurdity. Like the doctrine of

evolution itself, that of transmigration has its roots in the world of

reality." ("Evolution and Ethics," p. 61.)

Some of the theological leaders have preached it. The eminent German

theologian Dr. Julius Müller supports this theory in his work on "The

Christian Doctrine of Sin." Prominent theologians, such as Dr. Dorner,

Ernesti, Rückert, Edward Beecher, Henry Ward Beecher, Phillips Brooks,

preached many a time touching the question of the pre-existence and

rebirth of the individual soul. Swedenborg and Emerson maintained

it. Emerson says in his essay on Experience, "We wake and find

ourselves on a stair. There are stairs below us which we seem to have

ascended; there are stairs above us, many a one, which go upward and

out of sight."

Almost all of the poets, ancient or modern, profess it. William

Wordsworth says in "Intimations of Immortality:"--

"The soul that rises with us, our life's star,

Hath had elsewhere its setting,

And cometh from afar."

Tennyson writes in the "Two Voices;"

"Or, if through lower lives I came--

Tho' all experience past became,

Consolidate in mind and frame--

I might forget my weaker lot;

For is not our first year forgot?

The haunts of memory echo not."

Walt Whitman says in "Leaves of Grass:"

"As to you, Life, I reckon you are the leavings of many deaths,

No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before."

Similar passages can be quoted from almost all the poets of different

countries. Even amongst the aboriginal tribes of Africa, Asia, North

and South America, traces of this belief in the rebirth of souls is to

be found. Nearly three-fourths of the population of Asia believe in

the doctrine of Reincarnation, and through it they find a satisfactory

explanation of the problem of life. There is no religion which denies

the continuity of the individual soul after death.

Those who do not believe in Reincarnation try to explain the world of

inequalities and diversities either by the one-birth theory or by the

theory of hereditary transmission. Neither of these theories, however,

is sufficient to explain the inequalities that we meet with in our

everyday life. Those who believe in the one-birth theory, that we have

come here for the first and last time, do not understand that the

acquirement of wisdom and experience is the purpose of human life; nor

can they explain why children who die young should come into existence

and pass away without getting the opportunity to learn anything or

what purpose is served by their coming thus for a few days, remaining

in utter ignorance and then passing away without gaining anything

whatever. The Christian dogma, based on the one-birth theory, tells us

that the child which dies soon after its birth is sure to be saved and

will enjoy eternal life and everlasting happiness in heaven. The

Christians who really believe in this dogma ought to pray to their

heavenly Father for the death of their children immediately after

their birth and ought to thank the merciful Father when the grave

closes over their little forms. Thus the one-birth theory of Christian

theology does not remove any difficulty.

Two great religions, Judaism with its two offspring--Christianity and

Mahomedanism--and Zoroastrianism, still uphold the one-birth theory.

The followers of these, shutting their eyes to the absurdity and

unreasonableness of such a theory, believe that human souls are

created out of nothing at the time of the birth of their bodies and

that they continue to exist throughout eternity either to suffer or to

enjoy because of the deeds performed during the short period of their

earthly existence. Here the question arises why should a man be held

responsible throughout eternity for the works which he was forced or

predestined to perform by the will of the Lord of the universe? The

theory of predestination and grace, instead of explaining the

difficulty, makes God partial and unjust. If the omnipotent personal

God created human souls out of nothing, could He not make all souls

equally good and happy? Why does He make one to enjoy all the

blessings of life and another to suffer all miseries throughout

eternity? Why is one born with good tendencies and another with evil

ones? Why is one man virtuous throughout his life and another bestial?

Why is one born intelligent and another idiotic? If God out of His own

will made all these inequalities, or, in other words, if God created

one man to suffer and another to enjoy, then how partial and unjust

must He be! He must be worse than a tyrant. How can we worship Him,

how call Him just and merciful?

Some people try to save God from this charge of partiality and

injustice by saying that all good things of this universe are the work

of God, and all evil things are the work of a demon or Satan. God

created everything good, but it was Satan who brought evil into this

world and made everything bad. Now let us see how far such a statement

is logically correct. Good and evil are two relative terms; the

existence of one depends upon that of the other. Good cannot exist

without evil, and evil cannot exist without being related to

good. When God created what we call good, He must have created evil at

the same time, otherwise He could not create good alone. If the

creator of evil, call him by whatever name you like, had brought evil

into this world, he must have created it simultaneously with God;

otherwise it would have been impossible for God to create good, which

can exist only as related to evil. As such they will have to admit

that the Creators of good and evil sat together at the same time to

create this world, which is a mixture of good and evil. Consequently,

both of them are equally powerful, and limited by each other.

Therefore neither of them is infinite in powers or omnipotent. So we

cannot say that the Almighty God of the universe created good alone

and not the evil.

Another argument which the Vedantists advance in support of the theory

of Reincarnation is that "Nothing is destroyed in the universe."

Destruction in the sense of the annihilation of a thing is unknown to

the Vedantic philosophers, just as it is unknown to the modern

scientists. They say "non-existence can never become existence and

existence can never become non-existence;" or, in other words, that

which did not exist can never exist, and conversely that which exists

in any form can never become non-existent. This is the law of

nature. As such, the impressions or ideas which we now have, together

with the powers which we possess, will not be destroyed but will

remain with us in some form or other. Our bodies may change, but the

powers, Karma, Samskaras or impressions and the materials which

manufactured our bodies must remain in us in an unmanifested

form. They will never be destroyed. Again science tells us that that

which remains in an unmanifested or potential state must at some time

or other be manifested in a kinetic or actual form. Therefore we shall

get other bodies, sooner or later. It is for this reason said in the

"Bhagavad Gîtâ": "Birth must be followed by death and death must be

followed by birth." Such a continuously recurring series of births and

deaths each germ of life must go through. Another consideration is

that the beginning, ending and continuing are conceptions of the human

mind; their significance depends entirely upon our conception of

time. But we all know that time has no absolute existence. It is

merely a form of our knowledge of our own existence in relation to

that of nature. The conception of time vanishes at the sleep of

death, just as it does every night when we are in sound sleep. Death

resembles the state of our sound sleep. The soul wakes up from the

sleep of death just in the same manner as the insects awake in spring

after sleeping the long and rigid winter-sleep, as a chrysalis in the

bed of a cocoon spun by itself in autumn. Nature teaches us the great

lesson of rebirth and the similarity between sleep and death by the

rejuvenation of the chrysalis in the spring. After death the soul

wakes up and puts on or manufactures the garment of a new body, just

in the same manner as we put on new clothes after throwing away the

old and worn-out ones. Thus the soul continues to manifest itself over

and over again either on the human or any other plane of existence,

being bound by the Law of Karma or of Cause and Sequence.

"Death, so called, is but older matter dressed

In some new form. And in a varied vest,

From tenement to tenement though tossed,

The soul is still the same, the figure only lost."

_Poem on Pythagoras, Dryden's Ovid._

Here it may be asked, if we existed before our birth why do we not

remember? This is one of the strongest objections often raised against

the belief in pre-existence. Some people deny the existence of the

soul in the past simply because they cannot remember the events of

their past. Others, again, who hold memory as the standard of

existence, say, if our memory of the present ceases to exist at the

time of death, with it we shall also cease to be; we cannot be

immortal; because they hold that memory is the standard of life, and

if we do not remember then we are not the same beings.

Vedanta answers these questions by saying that it is possible for us

to remember our previous existences. Those who have read "Raja Yoga"

will recall that in the 18th aphorism of the third chapter it is said:

"By perceiving the Samskâras one acquires the knowledge of past

lives." Here the Samskâras mean the impressions of the past experience

which lie dormant in our subliminal self, and are never lost. Memory

is nothing but the awakening and rising of latent impressions above

the threshold of consciousness. A Raja Yogi, through powerful

concentration upon these dormant impressions of the subconscious mind,

can remember all the events of his past lives. There have been many

instances in India of Yogis who could know not only their own past

lives but correctly tell those of others. It is said that Buddha

remembered five hundred of his previous births.

Our subliminal self, or the subconscious mind, is the storehouse of

all the impressions that we gather through our experiences during our

lifetime. They are stored up, pigeon-holed there, in the _Chitta_, as

it is called in Vedanta. "Chitta" means the same subconscious mind or

subliminal self which is the storehouse of all impressions and

experiences. And these impressions remain latent until favorable

conditions rouse them and bring them out on the plane of

consciousness. Here let us take an illustration: In a dark room

pictures are thrown on a screen by lantern-slides. The room is

absolutely dark. We are looking at the pictures. Suppose we open a

window and allow the rays of the midday sun to fall upon the

screen. Would we be able to see those pictures? No. Why? Because the

more powerful flood of light will subdue the light of the lantern and

the pictures. But although they are invisible to our eyes we cannot

deny their existence on the screen. Similarly, the pictures of the

events of our previous lives upon the screen of the subliminal self

may be invisible to us at present, but they exist there. Why are they

invisible to us now? Because the more powerful light of

sense-consciousness has subdued them. If we close the windows and

doors of our senses from outside contact and darken the inner chamber

of our self, then by focusing the light of consciousness and

concentrating the mental rays we shall be able to know and remember

our past lives, and all the events and experiences thereof. Those who

wish therefore to develop their memory and remember their past should

practice Raja Yoga and learn the method of acquiring the power of

concentration by shutting the doors and windows of their senses. And

that power of concentration must be helped by the power of

self-control. That is, by controlling the doors and windows of our own

senses.

These dormant impressions, whether we remember them or not, are the

chief factors in moulding our individual characters with which we are

born, and they are the causes of the inequalities and diversities

which we find around us. When we study the characters and powers of

geniuses and prodigies we cannot deny the pre-existence of the

soul. Whatever the soul has mastered in a previous life manifests in

the present. The memory of particular events is not so important. If

we possess the wisdom and knowledge which we gathered in our previous

lives, then it matters very little whether or not we remember the

particular events, or the struggles which we went through in order to

gain that knowledge. Those particular things may not come to us in our

memory, but we have not lost the wisdom. Now, study your own present

life and you will see that in this life you have gained some

experience. The particular events and the struggles which you went

through are passing out of your memory, but the experience, the

knowledge which you have gained through that experience, has moulded

your character, has shaped you in a different manner. You will not

have to go through those different events again to remember; how you

acquired that experience is not necessary; the wisdom gained is quite

enough.

Then, again, we find among ourselves persons who are born with some

wonderful powers. Take, for instance, the power of self-control. One

is born with the power of self-control highly developed, and that

self-control may not be acquired by another after years of hard

struggle. Why is there this difference? Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna was

born with God-consciousness, and he went into the highest state of

Samâdhi when he was four years old; but this state is very difficult

for other Yogis to acquire. There was a Yogi who came to see

Ramakrishna. He was an old man and possessed wonderful powers, and he

said: "I have struggled for forty years to acquire that state which is

natural with you." There are many such instances which show that

pre-existence is a fact, and that these latent or dormant impressions

of previous lives are the chief factors in moulding the individual

character without depending upon the memory of the past. Because we

cannot remember our past, because of the loss of memory of the

particular events, the soul's progress is not arrested. The soul will

continue to progress further and further, even though the memory may

be weak.

Each individual soul possesses this storehouse of previous experiences

in the background, in the subconscious mind. Take the instance of two

lovers. What is love? It is the attraction between two souls. This

love does not die with the death of the body. True love survives death

and continues to grow, to become stronger and stronger. Eventually it

brings the two souls together and makes them one. The theory of

pre-existence alone can explain why two souls at first sight know each

other and become attached to each other by the tie of friendship. This

mutual love will continue to grow and will become stronger, and in the

end will bring these lovers together, no matter where they

go. Therefore, Vedanta does not say that the death of the body will

end the attraction or the attachment of two souls; but as the souls

are immortal so their relation will continue forever.

The Yogis know how to develop memory and how to read past lives. They

say, time and space exist in relation to our present mental condition;

if we can rise above this plane, our higher mind sees the past and

future just as we see things before our eyes. Those who wish to

satisfy the idle curiosity of their minds may spend their energy by

trying to recollect their past lives. But I think it will be much more

helpful to us if we devote our time and energy in moulding our future

and in trying to be better than we are now, because the recollection

of our former condition would only force us to make a bad use of the

present. How unhappy he must be who knows that the wicked deeds of his

past life will surely react on him and will bring distress, misery,

unhappiness or suffering within a few days or a few months. Such a man

would be so restless and unhappy that he would not be able to do any

work properly; he would constantly think in what form misery would

appear to him. He would not be able to eat or even sleep. He would be

most miserable. Therefore we ought to regard it as a great blessing

that we do not recollect our past lives and past deeds. Vedanta says,

do not waste your valuable time in thinking of your past lives, do not

look backward during the tiresome journey through the different stages

of evolution, always look forward and try first to attain to the

highest point of spiritual development; then if you want to know your

past lives you will recollect them all. Nothing will remain unknown to

you, the Knower of the universe. When the all-knowing Divine Self will

manifest through you, time and space will vanish and past and future

will be changed into the eternal present. Then you will say as Sri

Krishna said to Arjuna, in the "Bhagavad Gita:" "Both you and I have

passed through many lives; you do not recollect any, but I know them

all." (Ch. iv., 5.)

II. HEREDITY AND REINCARNATION.

Those who accept the theory of heredity deny the existence of the

human soul as an entity separable from the gross physical

organism. Consequently they do not discuss the question whether the

individual soul existed in the past or will continue to exist after

the death of the body. This kind of question does not disturb their

minds. They generally maintain that the individual soul is inseparable

from the body or the brain or nervous system; consequently what we

call soul or the conscious entity or the thinker is produced along

with the birth of the organism or brain, lasts as long as the body

lasts and dies when the organism is dissolved into its elements. But

those, on the other hand, who accept the theory of Reincarnation admit

the existence of soul as a conscious entity which is independent of

the physical organism, that it continues to live after death and that

it existed before the birth of the body. The theory of heredity has

always been supported by the materialistic scientists, atheists and

agnostics of all ages and also by those who believe in the special

creation of the first man and woman at a certain definite time and

that their qualities, character, life and soul have been transmitted

to all humanity through successive generations. The commonly accepted

meaning of the theory of heredity is that all the well-marked

peculiarities, both physical and mental, in the parents are handed on

to the children; or, in other words, heredity is that property of an

organism by which its peculiar nature is transmitted to its

descendants.

In the whole history of humanity there has never been a time when this

question of heredity has been discussed so minutely and in so many

different ways as it has been in the present century. Although this

theory was known in the East by the ancient Vedanta philosophers, by

the Buddhists of the pre-Christian era and by the Greek philosophers

in the West, still it has received a new impetus and has grown with

new strength since the introduction of the Darwinian theory of the

evolution of species. Along with the latest discoveries in

physiology, biology, embryology and other branches of modern science,

the popular simple meaning of heredity--that the offspring not only

resemble their parents among animals as well as among men, but inherit

all the individual peculiarities, life and character of their

parents--has taken the shape of the most complicated and difficult

problem which it is almost impossible to solve. Our minds are no

longer satisfied with Haeckel's definition that heredity is simply an

overgrowth of the individual, a simple continuity of growth; but we

want to know the particular method by which hereditary transmission

takes place. We ask, how can a single cell reproduce the whole body

of the offspring, its mind, character and all the peculiarities of an

organism? Out of the myriads of cells of which a body is composed,

what kind of cell is that which possesses the power of reproducing the

peculiarities, both mental and physical, which are to be found in the

form of the new-born babe? This is the most puzzling of all the

problems which the scientific mind has ever encountered. The

fundamental question connected with the theory of heredity is: How can

a single cell of the body contain within itself all the hereditary

tendencies of the hypothesis of the continuity of the germ-plasm gives

an identical starting-point to each successive generation, and thus

explains how it is that an identical product arises from all of

them. In other words, the hypothesis explains heredity as part of the

underlying problems of assimilation and of the causes which act

directly during ontogeny. (Vol. I, p. 170.)

According to Weismann, all the peculiarities which we find in an

organism are not inherited by the organism from that of the parents,

but he says: "Nothing can arise in an organism unless the

predisposition to it is pre-existent, for every acquired character is

simply the reaction of the organism upon a certain stimulus." (Vol. I,

p. 172.) Therefore the germ-cells do not inherit all the peculiarities

of the parents, but possess the predisposition or a potentiality of

the tendencies which gradually develop into individual characters.

We will be able to understand his theory better from the following

quotations, which give his own words. He says: "I have called this

substance 'germ-plasm,' and have assumed that it possesses a highly

complex structure, conferring upon it the power of developing into a

complex organism." ("Heredity," Vol. I, p. 170.) Again he says:

"There is, therefore, continuity of the germ-plasm from one generation

to another. One might represent the germ-plasm by the metaphor of a

long, creeping rootstock from which plants arise at intervals, these

latter representing the individuals of successive generations. Hence

it follows that the transmission of acquired characters is an

impossibility, for if the germ-plasm is not formed anew in each

individual, but is derived from that which preceded it, its structure,

and, above all, its molecular constitution, cannot depend upon the

individual in which it happens to occur, but such an individual only

forms, as it were, the nutritive soil at the expense of which the

germ-plasm grows, while the latter possessed its characteristic

structure from the beginning, viz., before the commencement of growth.

But the tendencies of heredity, of which the germ-plasm is the bearer,

depend upon this very molecular structure, and hence only those

characters can be transmitted through successive generations which

have been previously inherited, viz., those characters which were

potentially contained in the structure of the germ-plasm. It also

follows that those other characters which have been acquired by the

influence of special external conditions, during the lifetime of the

parent, cannot be transmitted at all." (Vol. I, p. 273.) In

conclusion, Weismann writes: "But at all events we have gained this

much, that the only facts which appear to directly prove a

transmission of acquired characters have been refuted, and that the

only firm foundation on which this hypothesis has been hitherto based

has been destroyed."(Vol. I, p. 461.)

Thus we see how far the theory of heredity has been pushed by the

great scientific investigators of the present age. We have no longer

any right to believe in the old oft-refuted hypothesis which assumes

that each individual organism produces germ-cells afresh again and

again and transmits all its powers developed and acquired by the

parents; but, on the contrary, we have come to know to-day that

parents are nothing but mere channels through which these germ-plasms

or germ-cells manifest their peculiar tendencies and powers which

existed in them from the very beginning. The main point is that the

germs are not created by the parents, but that they existed in

previous generations.

Now, what are those germs like? Wherefrom do they acquire these

tendencies, these peculiarities? That is another very difficult

problem. Dr. Weismann and his followers say that these peculiarities

are gained or inherited "from the common stock," but what that common

stock is they do not explain. Where is that common stock and why will

certain germs acquire certain tendencies and other germs retain other

peculiarities? What regulates them? These questions are not solved. So

far we have gathered from Dr. Weismann's explanation that the parents

are not the creators of the germs but, on the contrary, that the germs

existed before the birth of the body, before the growth of the body,

in previous generations, or in the common stock of the universe. The

previous generations are dead and gone, so we may say that they

existed in the universe. We cannot now believe the old, crude,

often-refuted idea that God creates the germ at the time of birth and

puts into it all the powers and peculiarities of the parents. This

theory makes God unjust and partial, so it does not appeal to us any

more. We need better and more rational explanations. The one-birth

theory, which has been preached by Christian ministers and other

religionists for so many years, does not remove the difficulties, does

not explain the cause of the inequalities and diversities, does not

answer the question whether we acquire all the tendencies and

peculiarities of the parents or whether acquired characters cannot be

transmitted. We have already seen that these questions are left

unsolved by the one-birth theory of Christianity and of Judaism. But

this theory of "continuity of the germ-plasm" pushes the question of

heredity to the door of Reincarnation. If modern science can explain

what that common stock is and why and how these germs retain those

peculiarities and tendencies, then the answer will be complete and not

until then. The Vedanta philosophy, however, has already explained the

cause of the potentiality in the germ of life or "germ-plasm" or

germ-cell.

Vedanta solves this difficulty by saying that each of these

germ-plasms or germ-cells is nothing but the subtle form of a

reincarnating individual, containing potentially all the experiences,

characters, tendencies, and desires which one had in one's previous

life. It existed before the birth of the body and it will continue

after the death of the body. This germ or subtle body is not the same

as the astral body of the Theosophists, or the double of the

metaphysical thinkers or the disembodied spirit of the Spiritualists;

but it is an ethereal center of activity-physical, mental and

organic. It is a center which possesses the tendency to manifest these

powers on different planes of existence. It contains the minute

particles of matter or ethereal substance and the life principle or

vital energy by which we live and move. It also possesses the mental

powers and sense powers; but all these remain latent, just as in a

seed we see that the powers of growth, of assimilation and of

producing flowers and fruits are latent.

At the time of death the individual soul contracts and remains in the

form of a germ of life. It is for this reason, Vedanta teaches, that

it is neither the will of God nor the fault of the parents that forms

the characters of children, but each child is responsible for its

tendencies, capacities, powers and character. It is its own "Karma" or

past actions that make a child a murderer or a saint, virtuous or

sinful. The stored-up potentialities in a subtle body manifest in the

character of an individual.

The argument advanced by the supporters of the theory of hereditary

transmission does not furnish a satisfactory explanation of the cause

of the inequalities and diversities of the universe. Why is it that

the children of the same parents show a marked dissimilarity to their

parents and to each other?