Page 44 - NAMAH-Jan-2025

Namah Vol. 32, Issue 4, 15th January 2025

an absolute end but a transition point in Agni, to the Fathers send him who, offered in
an individual’s quest to attune to universal thee, goes with our oblations. Wearing new life
harmony. Living a virtuous life, honouring let him increase his offspring: Let him rejoin a
the gods and ancestors and respecting the body, Jatavedas (4).”
land and all beings, enriches our souls and
enhances the harmony of the cosmos. These
practices prepare us for our journey into
the Summerland and our eventual return to
the mortal realm. In this sense, a ‘positive
outcome’ in death is not an end goal but an
ongoing process of growth and evolution,
part of the endless dance of existence.

In The Secret of the Veda, Sri Aurobindo explicates
R
s
that the central idea of the Vedic Rsis was the,
".... transition of the human soul from a state
of death to a state of immortality by the
exchange of the Falsehood for the Truth, of
divided and limited being for integrality
and infinity’ (5)."

a
In Hinduism, as expressed in the Isha Upanisad, The Bhagavad Gīta also speaks about rebirth
s
rebirth is seen as an opportunity for progress to provide solace to the struggling mind of
(2). By following the laws of nature and time, Arjuna, who is an exemplar of disillusioned
individuals can strive towards enlightenment. beings straying from their path of Dharma
In the Chandogyopanisad, there is an elaborate due to his attachment to loved ones. To awaken
a
s
conversation between Svetaketu and his Arjuna’s discerning spirit, Krrssna explains the
grandson, Aruni, which describes the journey cyclical journey of human souls, where the
that souls undertake after death (3). soul changes various bodies:

The Rigveda, the oldest extant Indo-Aryan “As the embodied soul continuously passes, in
text, contains numerous references to rebirth. this body, from boyhood to youth to old age,
One verse states: the soul similarly passes into another body at
death (6).”
“Burn him not up, nor quite consume him, Agni:
Let not his body or his skin be scattered. O Buddhism also believes in reincarnation but
Jatavedas, when thou hast matured him, then does not conceive of the soul as an embodied
send him on his way unto the Fathers… let thy entity. Instead, it introduces an innovative
fierce flame, thy glowing splendour, burn him phenomenological principle of continuation
with thine auspicious forms, O Jatavedas, bear in the concept of rebirth. Buddhism views
this man to the region of the pious. Again, O an individual as comprising five skandhas

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