Swami Vivekananda on Reincarnation:The problem with heredity

‘The simple hereditary theory takes for granted the most astonishing proposition without any proof, that mental experience can be recorded in matter, that mental experience can be involved in matter. When I look at you, in the lake of my mind there is a wave. That wave subsides, but it remains in fine form, as an impression. We understand a physical impression remaining in the body. But what proof is there for assuming that the mental impression can remain in the body since the body goes to pieces? (2.222)

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Swami Vivekananda on Reincarnation:The fallacy of not thinking an idea through to its logical conclusion

‘If we are going to exist in eternity hereafter, it must be that we have existed through eternity in the past.’ (2.218) Speaking about avatars or perfect human beings like Buddha or Christ, Swami Vivekananda considers them to be men who have gone through the entire history of the human race in a single life span and achieved perfection. (2.209) He considers Sri Ramakrishna to be a supreme example of such perfection.

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Swami vivekananda on reincarnation:‘Preservation of Learning’ is inherent in the process of reincarnation

Swami Vivekananda ridicules the idea that human beings have come out of zero, starting life with a tabula rasa, and then attain to great knowledge or eternal life. ‘Neither you, nor I nor anyone present, has come out of zero, nor will go back to zero.’ (2.217) The idea of cumulative knowledge supports child prodigies and genius. It explains why we have an aptitude for certain tasks or professions.

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Swami Vivekananda on Reincarnation:Knowledge comes from direct experience…

…If not in this life, then in some previous birth: ‘Without a fund of already existing experience, any new experience would be impossible, for there would be nothing to which to refer the new impression…Knowledge can only be got in one way, the way of experience; there is no other way to know. If we have not experienced it in this life, we must have experienced it in other lives…What we call instinct in men or animals must…be involved, degenerated, voluntary actions, and voluntary actions are impossible without experience. (2.220-1)

Artist: Swmi Tadatmananda, vedanta.zenfolio.com

Swami Vivekananda on Reincarnation:Everything in this universe is indestructible

Swami Vivekananda has given a rational basis to the idea of reincarnation: Everything in this universe is indestructible… ‘You cannot take away one atom of matter or one foot pound of force. You cannot add to the universe one atom of matter or one foot pound of force.’ (2.229)

If everything in the universe is indestructible, it follows that man is immortal. How can that be? Everyone dies! Death and disintegration are the fate of the body, not the soul. How do we live and transform ourselves after the body has died? We take on multiple bodies until we attain freedom or moksha. Does the Law of Conservation of Energy apply to consciousness? Open question.

Artist: Swami Tadatmananda, vedanta.zenfolio.com

Science and Reincarnation:The purpose of (our) existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being

 Carl Jung once said that at the ripe old age of eleven, he ‘stepped out of a mist (consciousness) and saw the difference between ‘himself’ and the things around him.   The psyche, unlike our bodies, is not confined to time and space. Jung says none of us really think that death is going to be the end for us! Life behaves as if it’s going to carry on for centuries – and this is true! When we look back, we’re petrified with fear, when we look forward, a great adventure awaits us. Says Jung: ‘Man doesn’t accept nullification…man cannot stand nothingness, meaninglessness….We are not of today, but we are of yesterday, we are of an immense age… (there is)                                                                                                           a psychical existence beyond                                                                                                                   death.’

Artist: Nadia Taghavi

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Science and Reincarnation: The curious case of Robert Mayer

 The idea of conservation of energy was first enunciated by Robert Mayer.   He was a physician with a degree in medicine, not a physicist. Strangely enough, he formulated the first version of the 1^st law of thermodynamics, 1842:  Energy can be neither created nor destroyed.  Carl Jung found it odd that Mayer came up with an idea that caused a paradigm shift in Physics. Was the discovery sheer intuition or inspiration? Jung explains it as Mayer tapping into the resources of the collective unconscious.

There must be millions of ‘dormant images’ in the collective unconscious. Why did Mayer pick on the law of conservation of energy for which he had very limited scientific training? Besides, why did such an important idea come to Mayer and not to scientists who were working in that field? Could we say that Mayer’s previous life experiences prepared him for the discovery?

Carl Jung; ‘Essays on Analytical Psychology’

Artist:  Tang Chiew Ling, pic re shared courtesy: Art  & Painting, www.facebook.com