Our wellbeing results from expansive perception of the palpable and the hidden truths of life. The field of reincarnation is one such area that can help us evolve into the region of higher intelligence that unifies humanity and brings about their vibrant living.

Reincarnation is more than a belief or a philosophy that allows expansive investigation into it for those who show keen interest in knowing the truth rather than in reinforcing their ego-satisfying conclusions. For the Hindus, Buddhists and Jains, it is a foregone conclusion. However, they too cannot let its content bring in profound transformation if they stop with the peripheral knowledge of it. During the last century, many perspicacious people in the West have delved deeply into this esoteric field and produced wonderful research outcome on reincarnation – Edgar Cayce, Ian Stevenson, Edith Fiore and the like. Trutz Hardo published in 2003 a book entitled “REINCARNATION – True Cases of Children Who Have Lived Before”. The following paragraphs indicate how the subject of reincarnation can function as a catalyst for humanity to see world matters through a different perspective and hence help people live with mutual respect and harmony. Some lines in this presentation reflect Trutz Hardo’s personal insight into the matter.

At the outset, it can be said that understanding the truth of reincarnation takes away the claustrophobia in time, hemmed in by the ‘one life only’ idea. This idea inevitably rushes people into some belief system to ‘save’ themselves from damnation. How can this kind of panic-driven life ever lead to unqualified love towards fellow human beings? When one knows that the journey is indeed long, across many incarnate and discarnate periods, there can be some breathing space and calmness to take stock of the situation and act with wisdom. This is especially so when people see, through the twin concepts of karma and reincarnation, the intelligent order in which our lives are set. Further, very soon people sense the meaning of psychological evolution through many lives that takes them back home to Divinity. Humble cooperation with the life’s flow becomes a natural consequence to this perspective.

Understanding reincarnation softens the fear of death because the end is seen only as an intermediate stage in the long journey. This same perspective helps us see the possibility of being with our near and dear ones again in another life and possibly even during the discarnate period. It helps us respect other cultures because they too are evolving in their own way towards Divinity. The ‘Mine is the only way’ fanaticism is out. We are able to accept people being more fortunate or less fortunate than us because they too will go through ups and downs and in the end everything will be consummate. The long journey we are on makes us see our children as human beings here in their own right and so help them evolve rather than use them to our ego-satisfaction. Life on this planet is seen as a process of schooling towards the higher consciousness and so we learn to be more understanding and loving of others. Thus, each life is seen as a grand gift from which much is gained towards higher levels of happiness - far beyond the ego-satisfaction which is being encouraged by the ‘one-life-only’ idea even in the practice of religion.
Thus, we see that understanding reincarnation can bring in unity amongst people rather than divide people on the basis of different religious beliefs, nationality etc. A lofty purpose of our existence here is seen with the help of reincarnation. Recent studies on Near Death Experiences also corroborate the above perspectives. The website http://spirituality.yolasite.com will be of interest to the readers.

Author's Bio: 

The Author: Gopalakrishnan TC was born in Madras (now Chennai), India, in 1941. He received his doctoral degree in Coastal Engineering from the North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA in 1978. He served on the research and teaching faculty of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India, the North Carolina State University and the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait. Aside from his professional involvements, he was interested in the philosophic issues of life for the last forty years or so. This led him to the messages of Ramana Maharishi, Lao Tzu, J Krishnamurthy, UG Krishnamurthy, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Eckhart Tolle, Marcus Aurelius and similar Masters. His book entitled “In Quest of the Deeper Self” is the outcome of his reflections on those and his wish to share the outcome with others.
Gopalakrishnan is a member of the International Association for Near Death Studies, Durham, NC, USA. He presented a paper at the 2011 conference of the Association on the theme "The Spiritual Content of Near Death Experiences". Functions as a freelance counselor for mental relaxation. Lives in Kodaikanal, a hill town in south India, with his family. Now he and his wife are both retired and currently involved in developing a fruit farm at a village 20 km from their residence.
Blog: http://nde-thedeeperself.blogspot.com