Death Essay

Death, to many who believe in reincarnation is passing into another life. The quality of this life could be well dependent on the, â€Å"karma† or the deeds that one has carried out in previous birth. Death thus need not be the end of life but just a new beginning. Reincarnation is generally thought to be an Eastern belief predominantly prevalent in Buddhism. Karma, some believe is an ancient Hindu cliche increasingly picked up by Buddhist scriptures which provide a cause – effect link to our actions. Reincarnation takes these links further and seeks to provide a relation between our actions and its outcomes in this birth to our karma in the previous birth. Karma is generally said to be unseen to the common man but ancient Hindu mythology believes that it is evident to the wise and knowledgeable sage. There are many such believers of this phenomenon in the West as well. Stevenson (1980) has even supported it with extensive scientific reasoning and examples. The instances quoted are of children who are said to have taken to speaking about their earlier life immediately after they had started talking. There are some studies which link birth marks or defects with past lives. These defects are seen as the wounds on a person of previous birth, who is remembered in the embryo, wounds which could possibly have been fatal. (Stevenson, 1997). Rationalists and particularly rational biologists would not believe that the biological deformities which are found at birth such as defective speech, hearing or blindness could have been a cause of an accident in previous life rather than defective growth of the embryo in its formative stage. There has thus been extensive skepticism about reincarnation particularly amongst the rationalist of the West. However there are numerous believers of incarnation who quote a number of examples which are there in the Bible including the teachings of Jesus where John the Baptist is considered as a reincarnate of Elijah the prophet. What then is the reality?