THE HINDU IDEA OF REINCARNATION
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Strt.,—I read with close attention and interest the opinions of various writers which were recorded in your journal recently, on the theory of the immortality or the reincarnation of human soul. May I, as a Hindu, offer certain suggestions which might go to prove why an average Hindu mind persists with dogged insistence in its faith in the reincarnation of human soul ?
Far be it from me to take your readers into an unintelligent and mystifying labyrinth of subtle Hindu philosophy to explain the logical and psychological basis of the belief in the immortality of soul. I would content myself with some com- monplace facts on which the Hindu belief subsists.
Firstly, if there be no previous existence, it is difficult, if not impossible, to explain why one child is born blind, the other in perfect state of health ; one in a poor family, the other in a prosperous house ; the one with high gifts of God, the other, dull and stupid and dissolute. Heredity and environment may be pleaded as good excuses to answer these differences in, the nature and development of various children, good, bad, or indifferent. But pray, what can account for the fact that one child should be born in healthy environment and claim good heredity, while the same are denied to another child ? Secondly, various instances are on record in India when a child, the moment he or she assumed the power to speak, began to recount the incidents of his or her previous life with marvellous accuracy and detail. I know the case of a cousin of mine own. He was about three years my senior. He died of a snake-bite, A few months later, another male offspring was born to the mother of the deceased. When this young child attained the age of three years, he started telling his seemingly weird experiences, how he sat by a wide river in the rainy season, how a dark cobra bit him in the right foot, and how he suc- cumbed to the snake-bite, nay, even how he felt for the dear wife of his, &c. When asked to point out the place where the snake bit him, he pointed out exactly the place in his right foot where my cousin was actually bitten.
Lastly, the Hindu scripture, Bhagavad Gita, which has been characterized by that late brilliant historian, Mr. Vincent Smith, as a book of subtle and profound philosophy, and which is held as a divine revelation, even by the most cultured and advanced Hindu thinkers of the day, like Gandhi and Tagore, contains the following : "Whenever there is the decay of righteousness, .0 Bharata, and there is exaltation of un- righteousness, then I Myself come forth ; for the protection of the good, for the destruction of evil-doers, for the sake of firmly establishing righteousness. I am born from age to age " (chap. iv., verses 7 and 8). These verses are household words in Hindu homes throughout India. The theory of reincarna- tion or the immortality of human soul or the Divine soul thus holds its indisputable sway over the mystical fatalistic Hindu mind. For good or ill, I know not.—I am, Sir, &c.,
96 Belle Foe Road, Leeds. H. S. D. CHATURVEDP.
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