The concept of reincarnation: is it merely wishful

thinking?

Author: Prabhudev. G. Metgud

#1422, Javali koot
Bailhongal-591102
Karnataka, India
Email id: devorgm@gmail.com
(+91) 9743918250
Phone:

Date: February 12, 2016

(Note: The author considers himself NOT to be an expert on various topics written in this
article but only a novice. Therefore, if the readers observe any discrepancy or any mistake in
the article, please feel free to contact the author so that he can correct the error).
Since July 2011 (that is, from past four and a half years), I have been browsing the internet,
occasionally, about the concept of reincarnation. In that month, for the first time in my life,
I came across a few cases (of children claiming memories about their previous lives) studied
by late Dr. Ian Stevenson from University of Virginia and that triggered my interest in this
concept of "reincarnation and I have been exploring about this concept ever since.
In a few websites, I came across a few skeptics whose opinion seem to suggest that the
persons and families involved in such cases, unable to cope emotionally with the deaths of
their loved ones, were fantasizing about reincarnation due to wishful thinking or perhaps
due to fear of death.
(There are a few other reasons why I think we cannot rule out the possibility of
reincarnation, but I do not intend to discuss them in this article. In this article, I intend to
briefly enquire only about the question, Are wishful thinking and fear of death the main
reasons behind the concept of reincarnation?)

When you look at the surface of this matter, the logic of the skeptics seems to be correct.
But, if you dig a bit deep into this matter, the view of these skeptics seems to be NOT
convincing. Indeed, it is true that many people would simply love to be reborn and enjoy life
once again on this planet earth. Such people might fantasize that they or their loved ones
will be reborn simply because they might not like the scenario of only one lifetime and
then a death forever.
But, the situation is NOT that simple.
Let me try to explain.
My parents belong to lingayats, a religous sect considered by the majority to be a part of
Hindu religion but considered by a few to be a distinct religion in itself.

Simply out of curiosity, recently I tried to find out about what are the views about
reincarnation? according to the founders and priests of three different sects/religions, the
lingayats, the Hindus and the Buddhists. It is interesting to note that although these three
sects/religions differ from one another in many ways, they do agree that there is a state of
liberation. Lingayats call it Aikya, Hindus call it Moksha, Buddhists call it Nirvana.

a) A mystic by name Allama prabhu was one of the three founders of Lingayat religion in 12 Th
century A.D. One of his sayings (called as Vachana in Kannada language) is expressed as
sasive ashtu sukhakke sagaradashtu dukkha noda which I have translated in English as
follows. To enjoy pleasure merely as little as a mustard seed, people suffer as large as (or
as much as) an ocean.
In the region in which our family resides, the Belgaum district in Karnataka state , my father
says that he has often heard priests of Lingayat sect recite the words (in Kannada language)
innomme hutti barabeda as a prayer at a few funerals which he attended. The English
translation of these words is Dont come again into this world, dont be reborn.
b) Ramana maharshi was born to Hindu Brahmin parents during the last part of the 19 th
century. Another mystic from India, Acharya Rajneesh, also known as Osho, says that
Ramana Maharshi was a Buddha, a Christ. Once when the Maharshi was suffering from a
disease and one of his devotees expressed worry about the disease, he is reported to have
remarked, The body itself is a disease that has come upon us. If a disease attacks that
original disease, is it not good for us?
c) I remember reading somewhere about a conversation in which a layman asks a Buddhist
bhikku (a monk), what would be better for me?, the monk replies, it was better for you
that you were not born .
While browsing the internet, I came across a Buddhist prayer used in funerals in Srilanka. It
is as follows.
Anicca vata sankhara, uppadavayadhammino
Uppajjitva nirujjahanti tesam vupasamo sukho
The English translation of the prayer above is as follows:
Impermanent alas are formations, subject to rise and fall.
Having arisen, they cease; their subsiding is bliss
In each of the three sections (a, b and c) above, I have quoted instances which seem to indicate
that the priests/monks belonging to these three different sects - Lingayats, Brahmins and
Buddhists - have been praying to escape from the cycle of life and death and attain a permanent
state of liberation rather than praying for reincarnation. For me, it seems that these
priests/monks are viewing repeated reincarnations occurring again and again over many life
times as a suffering, as an unnecessary burden which will eventually come to an end and
then liberation will occur.

If reincarnation was merely wishful thinking, then these people which I have mentioned
above would have most probably prayed as follows.. let you be born again and again
and yet again and again , and in each lifetime (of that rebirth) let you be very happy with all
the wealth, with all the good health and with all the good things in life such as a very nice
spouse and very nice children, a superb health, a disease-free old age, an easy and painless
death , so on and so forth, basically an infinite series of happy lifetimes, where you are
living and then dying, and then again living and then dying, and then again living and then
dying and then again., so on..without any end.
But, as you can see, thats NOT what these people are praying or wishing for.
Skeptics who speculate that the concept of reincarnation is due to fantasizing or wishful
thinking are perhaps right in case of large number of nave public in the modern, developed
countries like America of the twenty first century, who might really wish to be reborn, but it
does NOT seem to be the view of pre-modern mystics, priests and monks belonging to
sects such as Lingayats, Brahmins and Buddhists.
I request anyone who believes that the concept of reincarnation is merely wishful thinking
to clear the doubts which I have raised in this article.