| by Dr.Sripali Vaiamon
( February 6, 2013, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian) Rebirth or Reincarnation according to the South Asian religious and philosophical concepts is beginning of a new life after the biological death of a living being.
In Hinduism it says after the death soul goes into another body and lives another life. Sikhism and Jainism are ditto but Buddhism, Theravada and Mahayana, which have no belief on soul or self, interprets the modus operandi in a complicated and propound complexity.
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In the Buddhist tradition, testimony is there where Buddha on the night of His enlightenment, acquired three varieties of knowledge and the first of these was the detailed knowledge of his past lives. But this evidence along is not sufficient to convince the theory on rebirth. There have been huge amount of investigations pursued by psychologists and parapsychologists with which they have built up very convincive cases for the reality of rebirth.
Those who adhere strongly to the concept of rebirth and believe one’s mother, father, son or daughter or close relatives and friends reanimate as animal, bird or fish in this life and happened to consume their flesh will get a painful and unpleasant feeling. Jains have totaly abandoned meat eating, Most of Hindus and Mahayana Buddhists abstained and few others who adhered to Theravada Buddhism refrain from consumption of certain animal flesh believing it is a sin and not strictly that they have born from past lives of their relatives.
Those who have abstained from eating animal flesh in Hinduism, Jainism and Mahayana Buddhism have earned a name as vegetarians.
Those who are in the West never dream of reincarnation according to their religious beliefs, never beguiled with this conception of eating flesh of their dead relatives born again as animal or fish or birds. As a matter of fact, for them the consumption of animal flesh is just like eating vegetable or cereal. Absolutely no difference other than the taste.
Abrahamic religions viz. Christianity, Islam and Judaism believe on the doctrine of Resurrection which is different from reincarnation. Zoroastrianism too conforms to a similar concept.
Following is an extract from the Christian Scripture, the Bible.
Death of Lazarus, in the John 10:38..........Jesus went to the tomb, (of Lazarus) which was a cave with a stone placed at the entrance. “Take the stone away.” Jesus ordered.
Martha the dead man’s sister answered. “There will be a foul smell Lord the body has been buried four days.”
Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believed?”
They took the stone away. Jesus looked up and said, I thanked you Father that you listen to me. I know that you always listen to me.......After he had said this, he called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” He came out, his hands and feet wrapped in grave clothes, and with a cloth round his face. “Untie him.” Jesus told them, “and let him go.”
This could be interpreted as resurrection and not reincarnation. Because the concept of rebirth or reincarnation absent here. It was just like waking up after a slumber.
Corinthians 15:3 ....Christ died for our sins, as written in the Scripture, that he was buried and that he was raised to life three days later..... Thessalonians 4:14 ...We believe that Jesus died and rose again.... and so that God will take back with Jesus those who have died believing in him. ....Revelation. 20:11..Then I saw a great white throne and the one who sits on it. Earth and heaven fled from his presence and were seen no more. And I saw the dead, great and small alike, standing before the throne....The dead were judge according to what they had done, as recorded in the books...Then death and world of the dead were thrown into the lake of fire. Whoever did not have his name written in the book of the living was thrown into the lake of fire... 21.Then I saw a new heaven and new Earth. The first heaven and the first earth disappeared. And the sea vanished.
And I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem.....now God’s home is with mankind....there will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. 21-6, and he (God) said I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end. THE COMING OF JESUS .22-12, “Listen,” says Jesus. “I am coming soon!...22-20- So be it. Come Lord Jesus! 22-21 May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with everyone.
Samuele Bacchiocchi, PhD, a Seventh Day Adventist, former Professor at Andrews University, comments throughout human history people have refused to the finality that death brings to life. Death brings an unacceptable, sudden interruption to one’s work, plans and relationship. Therefore inscription on many tomb stones often reads’ Rest in Peace’, the truth of the matter is that most people do not welcome the peaceful rest in the grave. Today we are living in a death denying culture. People live as if death did not exist regardless of how miserable people live, they usually respond to –How are you? with an artificial smile- Just fine! When we can no longer maintain the facade, we begin to wonder, what is going to happen to us now.
Even at the end of life, we tend to deny the reality of death by embalming the dead and using cosmetics to restore the corpse to a natural healthy look. We dress the dead in suits and gowns as if they were going to a party, instead of returning to dust. A special mourning colour that has been prevalent in most countries, such as white or black, is gradually disappearing, because people do not want to believe that death is an intuition terminates their life.
In the publication of Darwin’s ORIGIN OF SPECIES inflicted supernaturalism and human immortality of the soul. If human life is the product of spontaneous generation, that human beings have no divine spirit or immortal soul in them, Darwin’s theories challenged people to seek scientific evidence for supernatural phenomena, such as the survival of the soul.
Lazarus was brought back to life after being clinically dead for four days did not report any exciting out of the body experience. The reason is simple. Death according to the Bible is the cessation of the life of the whole person, body and soul. There is no form of conscious existence between death and resurrection. The dead rest unconsciously in their tombs until Christ will call them forth on the Glorious day of his coming. Communicating with the spirits of the dead is based on the belief that death is not the end of life.
Here, I would like to quote something from the Old Testament ( 3:2) at the Garden of Eden “ We may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden,” the woman answered, “Except the tree in the middle of it. God told us not to eat the fruit of that tree or even touch it, if we do we will die.” Could there be something relevant to incarnation in the exact connotation of the word-die?
Reincarnation accepts today’s syncretism states the Author of ‘Reincarnation Its meaning and Consequences’. Earnest Vale, as one of the basic doctrine and tries to prove that it can be found in the Bible and it was accepted by the early church. Let us try to analyze the basic text in the Bible which is likely to imply belief in reincarnation.
Matthew-11,14 and 17,12-13 connecting the identity of John the Prophet,
John – 9, 2 who sinned, the man or his parents, that he was born blind.
John -3, 3 no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.
James – 3, 6 the wheel of nature
Galatians – 6, 7 A man reaps what he sows.
Matthew – 26, 52 All who draw the sword will die by the sword.
Revelation – 13, 10 If anyone is to go into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed.
I came across in the Net following titles in Christianity dealing on the reincarnation.
Reincarnation for the Christians by Quincy Howe jr.
Reincarnation the Missing Link in Christianity by Elizabeth Clare Prophet
Reincarnation in Christianity by Geddes McGregor.
In the teaching of the Buddha sentient beings incarnate due to the psychological factors of ignorance, craving and clinging which results in the phenomenon of becoming and rebirth. To be born human is considered a great privilege, because unlike other mammals even a person of average intelligence with sufficient effort and proper guidance can walk the path of Dharma and become liberated from the cycle of birth.
This in connection of Christ is a central Christian doctrine that God became flesh, when he was miraculously conceived in the womb of Virgin Mary.
Majority of sects within the Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam do not believe that individuals reincarnate. What they believe first the resurrection of their Prophet.....Christ died for our sins. He was buried and that He was raised to life three days later.
In recent decades Europeans and Americans have developed an interest in incarnation. The origins of the notion of reincarnation are not quite clear. Discussions of the subject appear in the philosophical traditions of Indus valley regions and Asia Minor from about the 6th century BCE. The Greek pre-Socratic discussed reincarnations and Celtic Druids who built the Stonehenge in Britain are also reported to have taught a doctrine of Reincarnation according to Julius Caesar. In Hinduism the oldest extant, Indo Aryan text, The Rig Veda, have made several references to reincarnation. Each death repeats the death of the primordial man which was also the first sacrifice. (RV.10)
AKHIRATH
Akhirath is the day of judgement. According to Cur’an, Allah the God of Islam will appear and play the role of the Qadi, (judge who makes decisions which are based on law of Islam) judging the deeds of each individual it is believed that good deeds can be increased by reciting the holy Cur’an and Allah’s name. (Subhan Allha)There will be no judgement for those who have sacrificed their lives for Islam. It is also said God may forgive a sin against himself but not against another human.
Man is an eternal creature. However God has divided his lifespan into two parts. A very tiny part of it has been placed in this world, while all of the remainder has been placed in the Hereafter. The present world is the world of action, while the world of Hereafter is the good world where could reap the harvest of action. The present world is imperfect, but the world of the Hereafter is perfect in every respect. God has placed His heaven-full of all kinds of blessings-in that world of Hereafter. Those who proved to be God fearing and pious in this world will enter into that world to find the gates of heaven eternally open for them.
Death is not the end of a person’s life. It is only the beginning of of the next stage of life. Death is that interim stage when man leaves this temporary world of today for the eternal world of tomorrow. We have all the people entering the grave never to return, but few of us realize that we are also going to meet the selfsame fate. The door of the grave will open for us and then close on us forever.
God has created death and life to test which one of you is best in conduct-(67:1)
So this is the concept of Islam.
REINCARNATION IN JUDAISM
The World of resurrection, by contrast “no eye has seen,” the Talmud remarks. (Talmud is a central text of Rabbinic Judaism considered second to the Torah. Torah is the central concept in the Jewish tradition.)It is a world according to most authorities, where the body and soul are reunited to live eternally in a truly perfected state. That world will only first come into being after the Messiah and will be initiated by an event known as the “Great Day of Judgement.”
Resurrection is thus the ultimate reward, a place where the body becomes eternal and spiritual, while the soul becomes even more so.
The fact reincarnation is part of Jewish tradition comes as a surprise to many people. Nevertheless, it is mentioned in numerous places throughout the classical texts of Jewish mysticism, starting with the preeminent source book of Kabbalah, the Zohar, which refers to the fundamental work in the literature of Jewish tradition.
In Judaism, Rabbi Issac Luina was said to know past lives of each person through his semi-prophetic abilities. This was also true of the Baal Sham Tov, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, the seer of Lublin and other Hasidic masters and Sefardic Kabbalsts.
INCARNATION CONCEPT IN ZOROASTRIANISM
The concept of reincarnation is foreign to Zoroastrians. The Parsees or the Zoroastrians of India are the most anglicised community outside the British Isles. Due to their anglicized and western standards a great number of Zoroastrians believe in a typical western fashion toward incarnation but the very orthodox or the esoteric Zoroastrians openly advocate reincarnation.
In the 1st century BC Alexander Cornelius Polyhistor wrote the Pythagorean doctrine prevails among the Gauls teaching that the consciousness souls of men are immortal, and that after fixed number of years they will enter into another body.
REBIRTH CONCEPT ACCORDING TO SIKHISM
Sikhs are very strong in their belief of incarnation, all animals including human have soul and soul goes through different life forms until they purify it to be in one with God according to (Guru Grantha Sahib Ji 126.) When the body is filled with ego and selfishness, the cycle of birth and death does not end through death and rebirth.
No one can say which form one will take after death and how many species one has to go through after death. God decide it and it is based on how well one has lived one’s life. (Guru Gratha Sahib ji 19 )
REBIRTH CONCEPT IN JAINISM
The chain of cause and effect is known as Karma bondage in Jainism. Jainism also subscribes to the doctrine of transmigration and rebirth, it follows that the state of the soul, at any given time is due to the karma accumulated over countless ages.
Hindus view karma purely as a law of nature. Jains believe karma to consist of fine and subtle particles of matter which adhere to the soul, as clay to a pot. Because of the infinite number of souls in the universe and the length of the cycle of rebirth, it happens
Only rarely that a soul obtain human birth Therefore man should use every opportunity to pursue the way of salvation by acquiring the Right knowledge comes through the Jain creed, right faith through believing in it and right conduct. Jains diet and livelihood are severely restricted. Even the Jain layman must be a strict vegetarian. He may not be a farmer, for when ploughing the soil he might injure animals and plants. He may not ply certain crafts, for the metal on the blacksmiths anvil and the wood on the carpenter’s bench suffer excruciating pain as they are worked. Hence he will follow the safe professions of trading and money lending and most likely become a wealthy merchant.
ANOTHER INCARNATION CONCEPT IN ISLAM
The Pharaohs of ancient Egypt were sometimes said to be incarnations of the sun gods, Horus and Ra.
But in main stream of Islam completely rejects the doctrine of reincarnation of God in any form, as the concept is defined as Shirk in mainstream. Islam God is one and neither begets nor is begotten. Islam specifically rejects the Christian idea of Jesus as a divine incarnation, but rather Jesus is seen as a prophet and messenger of God. The Qur’anic text itself seems to fully reject this interpretation. Sunnism is the most prominent sect to hold this belief.
Judaism rejects any doctrine of reincarnation of God in any form. Jews specially reject
vehemently the Christian idea of Jesus as a divine incarnation of God, and neither see Jesus as a Prophet no Messiah.
So according to these theories of Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Zoroastrianism human beings after death will not be born again as human or animal. So consumption of meat does not reflect any unpleasant, odious or intolerable level of mental agony, if the flesh that they consume is of their relatives or friends of previous births.
WHAT IS A SOUL
Net -defines, the spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal.
Wikipedia defines as an immortal essence of a person, living thing or object.
Catholic Theologian Thomas Aquinas attributed soul to all organisms but taught that only human souls are immortal. Other religions (most notably Jainism) teach that all biological organisms have souls.
Buddhism teaches that all things are in a constant state of flux. All is changing and no permanent state exists by itself. This applies to human beings as much as to anything else in the cosmos.
According to the doctrine of Anaththa, no soul or no self. His words – I- or –me- do not refer to any fixed thing. They are simply convenient terms that allow us to refer to an ever-changing entity.
“The soul is the self. The “I” that inhabits the body and acts through it. Without the soul, the body is like a light bulb without electricity, a computer without the software, a space suit without astronaut inside. With the introduction of the soul, the body acquires life, sight and hearing, thought and speech, intelligence and emotions, will and desire, personality and identity. In truth, not just the human being, but also every created entity possesses a `soul. Animals have a soul, as do plants and even inanimate objects. But it is the human soul that is both the most complex and the lofty of souls. Commented.” Yanki Tauber. The founder of the Chabad school of mysticism.( This was extracted from Hassidic Divine omnipresence and Jewish soulfulness in the Rabbinic literature embodied in Talmud.)
Tyagi Jayadeva defined, “The soul is the individualized consciousness of God, like a wave of the sea. It is nothing but pure consciousness- SAT-CHIT-ANANDA.” It is according to Hinduism.
According to Theravada Buddhism-
In the Buddhist philosophy, there is no soul, (Aathma) If there is no soul, you cannot have a reincarnation. There is no soul because nothing can be eternal in the universe. (nothing is permanent) It is one of the fundamental principles of the Buddhism, based on the fact that nothing can be eternal because all conditioned thing is called to change, disappear. Reincarnation of a soul, a being, a mind spirit etc. does not exist.
The Buddha teaches that what we call ego, self soul personality, are merely conventional terms that do not refer to any real, independent entity.
In –‘The Theravada Buddhist doctrine of survival after death’, the author, Mr. P.D.Premasiri states that the belief in survival after death, in its different formulations, has variously been called transmigration of souls, metempsychosis, rebirth, re-becoming and reincarnation. Most Indian religions have a concept of individual life lived in a series of births and deaths involving the belief that all human beings not only survive their deaths but also have lived in some form superior or inferior to the state in which they find themselves in the present, before the beginning of their present state of existence.
According to the Theravada view of the nature of the cosmos, the world known to most of us inhabited by humans and other lower species of life is not the only one in which living beings exist. There are other planes of existences in which a variety if other forms exist. This view of the nature of the cosmos and the variety of life forms inhabiting the different planes of existence is closely linked to the Theravada doctrines of Karma
and rebirth.
There are 5 types of destiny where a living could be reborn. 1 Niraya,2 tiracchanayoni,3pittivisaya,4 manussa,5deva. There is a bearing on the Buddhist concept of rebirth as well, since it lends support to claim of the Buddhist believer that rebirth is not an unintelligible hypothesis.
Rebirth, reincarnation, Punabbava, are the conceptions that evolving consciousness or stream of consciousness in the new life of a person is neither identical nor entirely different from the person died but the two form a casual stream of consciousness.
In the traditional Buddhism this stream of consciousness of a new life may be that of human, animal, bird, fish or supernatural beings within the six realms. (see below) Rebirth is conditioned by Karma of previous life.
In strict Buddhism it is re-becoming rather than rebirth. In Hinduism the soul or Athman survives death and reincarnation of another living being. The Buddha’s theory is quite distinct and inconsistent with the common notion of a sequence of lives over a long period constrained by two core concepts, that is there is no irreducible self or soul tying these lives together and that all compounded things are subject to dissolution including all the components of a living being and his personality. Buddha’s detailed conception between Karma, rebirth and causality is set out in the twelve links of dependent origination.(Patichcha Samuppada) This is one of the most important teachings of the Buddha. These 12 factors account for the continuity of existence birth after birth.
1. Ignorance conditioned volitional actions.
2. Volitional actions conditioned consciousness.
3. Consciousness conditioned mental and physical phenomena.
4. Mental and physical phenomena conditioned 6 faculties.
5. The six faculties conditioned sensorial and mental contact.
6. These contact conditioned sensation.
7. Sensation conditioned desire.
8. Desire or craving conditioned clinging.
9. Clinging conditioned the process of becoming.
10. The process of becoming conditioned birth.
11. Birth conditioned decay, death, sorrow, pain, grief and despair.
12. Old age and death.
Buddhist traditions seem to accept the concept of rebirth but there is no unified views precisely how events unfold after the moment of death. Theravada Buddhism asserts that rebirth is immediate after death. Some scholars say it stays in a state called Gandhabba until a suitable time arises to settle in a womb along or with partners in the case of animal, bird or fish. (The Therapy- by Dr.Sripali Vaiamon) Tibetian School held a notion BARDO, that can last up to 49 days. It is given in the ‘Tibetan book of the Dead.’
Gandabba detailed in the Dhamma Encyclophedia as the sexual union of the parents, their fertility and the presence of the Gandabba, i.e. the consciousness of the being who is to be born. This consciousness absorbs itself in the fertilized egg and begins to animate it. So that it grows into a fully formed body.
The late Dr,K. Sri Dhammananda, who was the incumbent monk at the Buddhist temple, Malaysia, outlined the Theravada concept of rebirth not as a mere theory but as a verified fact. The belief in rebirth forms a fundamental tenet of Buddhism. It is also found in other countries, in other religions, and even among free thinkers. Pythagoras could remember his previous birth. Plato could remember a number of his previous lives. According to Plato, a man can be reborn only up to ten times. Plato also believed n the possibility of rebirth in animal kingdom. Among the ancient people in Egypt and China common belief was that only well known personalities like emperors and kings have rebirths......In 1788, a well known philosopher, Kant also believed in the possibility of rebirth in other celestial bodies. Schopenhauer, another great philosopher said that where the will to live existed there must be of necessity life. The will to live manifests itself successively in ever new forms. The Buddha explained this will to exist as the craving for existence.
..........The Buddhist doctrine of rebirth should be differentiated from the teaching of transmigration and reincarnation of other religions. ( Hinduism and Jainism )
Buddha denied the existence of a personal god created soul or an unchanging entity that transmigrates from one life to another.
Through hypnotism, some people have managed to reveal information about previous lives. Certain hypnotic states that penetrate into the subconscious mind make the recalling of past lives possible.
Sometimes back in Sri Lanka, TNL video channel televised a series of programme depicting immediate past lives of people through trance. It was very comprehensive.
Another difficult thing to understand about rebirth is whether the occurrences of rebirth simultaneous or not. This is a controversial issue even among prominent Buddhist scholars. According to Abhidharma, rebirth take place immediately after the death of a being without any intermediate state. So others believe that a person after the death, would evolve into spirit form for a certain number of days before rebirth take place. Another interpretation is that it is not the spirit but the deceased person’s consciousness or mental energy remaining in the space. However sooner or later rebirth must take place.
Rebirth or reincarnation according to Hinduism is that the soul or spirit at the death begins a new life in a new body that may be human, animal or spiritual depending on the moral quality of the previous life’s actions, Karma,
.
REINCARNATION, ITS MEANING AND CONSEQUENCES by Ernest Valea.
Buddhism denies the existence of a permanent self that incarnate from one life to the next. The illusion of existing self is generated by a mere heap of five aggregates (skanda) Human usually think that there is a self because of consciousness. But being in a constant process of becoming and change, consciousness cannot be identified with a self that is supposed to be permanent....Eastern religions express their differences are a result of previous lives, good or bad, which bear their fruits in the present one through the action of Karma. Therefore reincarnation seems to be a perfect way of punishing or rewarding one’s deeds without the need of accepting a personal God as ultimate reality.
In the Buddhist tradition, testimony is there where Buddha on the night of His enlightenment, acquired three varieties of knowledge and the first of these was the detailed knowledge of his past lives. But this evidence along is not sufficient to convince the theory on rebirth. There have been huge amount of investigations pursued by psychologists and parapsychologists with which they have built up very convincive cases for the reality of rebirth. There have been many books published in which the details of these investigations have been described and discussed. Scholars have talked about the persistent belief in rebirth in many cultures throughout the history, the Buddha’s own testimony, the evidence presented by scientific investigations we could admit there is at least a good possibility that rebirth is a reality. Buddha spoke about the rarity and the precious nature of opportune birth amongst human beings but we have to distinguish rebirth from transmigration. Because in Buddhism there is no abiding entity, in a substance that transmigrate. In Buddhism there is no belief of self that is reborn. When you light one candle from another candle, no substance travels from one to the other.
Professor James says that the term –soul-is a mere figure of speech no reality corresponds.
It is the same Anaththa doctrine of the Buddha that was introduced in the Mahayana school of Buddhism as Sunyata or voidness. However meat eating is concerned Theravada theory is more liberal. In the Jeewaka Sutta, the renown physician asked Buddha what are the types of meat that monks are allowed to consume. Buddha says, If it is not seen, heard or suspected to have been killed on purpose for the monk, rests are no harm.
Same applied to lay people. If you didn’t kill, if you didn’t ask anyone to kill for you, or it is killed for you, you must not eat. Buddha was very generous and reasonable unlike Jaina preceptors. I personally feel if you order to kill, if you kill or the creature is killed for you, as an ardent Buddhist I don’t like to consume. But rests are allowed. But our dreary quandary still remained. Mind you Buddhism is a middle path. Let us investigate that in the Mahayana concept.
MAHAYANA ASPECT
The Mahayana tradition is the largest tradition of Buddhism. Mahayana exists in the world 56%, and Theravada has 38%. Vajrayana only 6%.
MAHAYANA VIEW
Dharma Master, Lok To, Sutra translation Committee of the United States and Canada, who is a Mahayana adherent, described comprehensively; all that exists is and has always been, the outcome of causes and conditions...The doctrine of Rebirth as understood by Buddhists does not automatically imply that one will be reborn as a human being. There are according to Buddha Dharma six kinds of beings and their respective realms in the wheel of existence. Retribution takes the form of rebirth in any one of these realms, and is determined by one’s karmic causes.
1. Heavenly one.
2. Human
3. Asuras
4. Animal
5. Denizens with craving and miserliness
6. Hell
Since our subsequent rebirths depend on present causes, we can safely assume that our parents are still in the Sansara or cycle of existences. But where and in what form, we have no way of knowing, same is true regarding friends and relatives from previous existences. When we participate in taking lives in the present, eating the flesh of living beings, it may be that we are consuming someone who was very close to us in one of our previous existences. ( e.g. one’s own mother, father, sister, brother, son or daughter or friends)When reconsider this point carefully, can we still go on participating mercilessly in the continuous taking of lives? The Buddha advised us to establish this mind and this contemplation when eating meat.
In the western world who follows Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Zoroastrianism who do not adhere to a principle of rebirth will not get any obnoxious or odious feeling while consuming animal flesh as they never suspect their relatives have born as animal, birds or fishes but they are embedded with the firm faith that their dead relatives will appear on the Day of the Judgement.
It is an aggravated puzzle, particularly for those who consume animal flesh to comprehend the transgression of the life after death. Those who believe an eternal life after the day of the judgement have absolutely no problem or suspicion but others who embedded with religious theories of death relatives to be reborn as beastly creatures are in a quandary and eating their flesh generate a cannibalistic feeling. To solve this problem it is only erudite scientists who could involve in extensive research with DNA or advanced technique on reincarnation and provide with tangible proof as to whether human beings after the death: will be born only as human beings, and will be the same gender. Or will be born as animal, bird, fish or any other creatures whose flesh is consumable.
What is consumable to some may not be agreeable to others.
Are there any tangible evidence of rebirth. Or such evidences are rare?
Or there is no rebirth at all. Will there be eternal life. Established religious theories are
inconsistent with the Nature. What is the natural pattern exists after the death.
Irrespective of religious theories could there be an approvable strategy relevant to life and death according to the Nature.
However erudite scientists are the only experts we could think about. If they arrive at a decision to say via researches firmly it is only human beings will be reborn as human beings the quandary could be solved relevant to consumption of animal flesh.
( The writer can be reached at sripaliv@gmail.com )
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