The lessons of reincarnation: Introduction

I introduced the timeless principle of reincarnation in last week’s blog “Where did I come from and why am I here: Introduction” (please click on the link for more information) http://spirituallyminespirituallyyours.blogspot.com/2011/06/where-did-i-come-from-and-why-am-i-here.html

As this topic is one that attracts great attention, I would like to explore it a little this week. Let's kick off with two age-old questions and their insightful answers, as given and explained by Sri Sri Paramhansa Yogananda. 

Why is a baby born crippled?

Paramhansa Yogananda said: “Why is a baby born crippled? Only reincarnation can explain this fact satisfactorily. People behold it as a ‘sweet, innocent baby’ but in some past life that personality must have transgressed against God’s law. This transgression deprived him of the consciousness of having good legs. Thus- and because the mind controls the body – when that person came back again into a physical body, he wasn’t able to create a perfect pair of legs, and was born crippled.

“Why is one person born a moron and another intelligent? God would be very unjust, wouldn’t He, if He allowed such things to happen without a cause. But there is a cause. For what we are now, is the result of our own actions at various times in the past.

“In our souls, we are immortal, but in our personalities we cannot reclaim the consciousness of that immortality until our human imperfections have been rubbed away. Working on ourselves is like chipping and polishing away the extraneous stone on a statue, until the image that was hidden is revealed in all its perfection!”

Why can’t I remember my past incarnations?

A disciple: “Master, why can’t I remember my past incarnations?”

“It is better so, usually” replied the Master with a humorous smile. People would soon grow discouraged if they knew all the things they’d done wrong in the past! God gives them an opportunity to try again, without the false hypnosis that they are  their mistakes.

“The less attached you are to the body,” he continued, “especially during deep meditation, the more clearly you will remember your past lives and everything you ever did in each one of them”

 “It wouldn’t help most people to remember their past. Even in this lifetime, see how habit-bound many of them become. I call them psychological antiques! Everything they do is predictable. Even the melodies they whistle or sing are the same – year in and year out. And the older they grow, the more settled they become in all their ways of thinking, feeling and behaving.

“Such people have the opportunity to forget what they’ve done and what they have been and to start afresh. Only in new beginnings is there any hope of their making something better of themselves.”