Religious Blog

Birth, death and rebirth in Hinduism

"You people believe that there is re-birth. If the person does good karma, he will get a better birth and if he commits sin he will get a worse birth – right?"

Hindu philosophy states that all people born on this earth are certain to die and equally certain is the fact that all the dead would be reborn. This concept is enunciated in 27th Sloka (couplet) of the second chapter of Bhagavad Gita, the sacred book of Hindus. They believe that there is a soul (Atman) in every live being and that it goes through the cycle of birth-death-rebirth and ultimately merge with the universe (Brahman). The second chapter of Bhagavad Gita (Slokas 17, 20, 23, 24 and 25) states that the Atman cannot be hurt, burnt or destroyed.

In Christianity, there is no antonym for "sin." You can commit "sin," but can you commit what is opposite of "sin." Hindus believe that a person is capable of committing not only sin but also "punya" ("u" to be pronounced as in "put" – "put it down"). Punya is currently being translated as "good karma" by some astrologers in the western world.

"Karma," by the way, means "duty." There is nothing good or bad about it, just as "duty" has neither bad nor good connotation to it. We will discuss about "Karma" in another article.

Why do souls go through cycles?

Why does the Atman (soul) go through the cycle? It is because of the debts (obligations) it acquires during