7 Interesting Facts About Hindu Religion’s Concept Of Reincarnation

Reincarnation is one of the most fascinating philosophical concepts that says that a soul or spirit after meeting a biological death is capable of leading a new life in a new body. This is a major principle adopted in almost all Indian religions. In fact, apart from India, there are various ancient and modern religions along with tribes across the globe that believe in the concept of rebirth.

The word ‘reincarnation’ is derived from Latin language, which actually means ‘entering the flesh again’. As per Hindus, the process of living a new life in a new body is called punarjanma. The concept of rebirth has been discussed in detail in Hindu mythologies. As per the ancient Hindu scriptures, Lord Vishnu incarnated again and again in human form to protect the good people from demons.

As per many Hindu ideologies, the body is just like clothes that we wear. Our main component is our soul, which needs to be kept pure and we must stop focusing more on cleaning our bodies and giving more attention to our appearance while foregoing the essence of our soul. After death, our soul remains immortal and we enter into a new body just like we wear new clothes. We reincarnate as per our Karma (thoughts, words and actions in the past life) and we are reborn as animals, birds, humans or as divinity on basis of our Karma.

To know how the soul gets a rebirth, you need to read these 7 interesting facts about Hindu religion’s concept of reincarnation:

1. Rebirth In Case Of Unfulfilled Wishes

It is said in many Hindu scriptures that if a person has many unfulfilled wishes at the time of death, then the soul of the person will take the form of a ghost. The soul will wander between the material and spiritual world, in the search of the suitable conditions, when it can find a new birth for fulfilling the desires.

2. Hitting The Head Of The Dead

As per Hindu beliefs, the body is mortal and can be destroyed but the soul cannot be. Therefore, while performing the death rites as per Hindu rituals, the head of the dead body is hit hard so that the memories of this life can be forgotten. By doing this, the soul frees itself from the memories that would otherwise haunt the body in which the soul will reincarnate.

3. Every Person Has Seven Lives

It is an interesting fact that every human has seven lives called saath janma. This reincarnation continues till the seven lives and then the person attains moksha (liberation). In these seven lives, the person whether male or female is unknown as to how many lives he/ she has already led and thereby they need to keep their soul free from sins and engage in performing good deeds.

4. Importance Of Karma

As per core beliefs of Hinduism, reincarnation is the natural process of birth, death and rebirth. When we are born, our soul is in its purest state and as we grow, our ‘I’-ness and ‘My’-ness, which means our egotism, makes it impure. Death destroys the physical body and not the soul, which then takes another body according to our Karma or acts in our past lives. All the good and bad things happen to us is said to be a result of our Karma.

5. No One Reincarnates Soon After Death

It is also believed that our soul does not immediately take birth into a new body as soon as the current body dies. It takes years or decades for the soul to reincarnate in a new body as per the suitable conditions which is decided by our Karma.

Related: Surprising Things That Happen After Death

6. Memories Of Previous Lives Are Stored In Our Unconscious Mind

Most prominent Hindu sages have uttered that somewhere in our unconscious mind, we still have the memories since the time of the evolution of the earth. But our soul is not so pure and we in this age, are not able to connect ourselves to Brahma to acknowledge it completely. Only few people can remember it because they are expert in the art of performing sadhana or meditation. We are even able to recall the memories of our past lives with the help of meditation.

7. We All Have A Third Eye

Hindu scriptures also believe that we are not able to have a look at our Karma in the past because we are not trying to open our third eye. Yes we all have a third eye which is the eye of enlightenment. We can open this eye only when we perform sadhana or dhyana and uplift our soul from the samsara or the materialistic world in a spiritual manner to unite with the universe or Brahma. This belief is also cherished in Buddhism and Gautam Buddha is known as the awakened one as he upgraded himself spiritually and left behind the material wealth as he felt it was not his life’s ultimate goal.

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