Saturday, May 8, 2010

reincarnataion In the Bhagavat Gita

Posted by Manju-Ganesh | Saturday, May 8, 2010 | Category: |




According to the teachings of the Gita the atman is spiritual, imperishable and eternal as god himself is eternal; it is neither born nor can it die. Regarding atman, the Gita aff~rms: "Of the nonexistent there is no coming to be; of the existent, there is not coming not to be" (2.11-25). It cannot be affected even to the slightest degree by the vicissitudes of finite existence. It is rather the body (sarira) or the embodied form (jiva) of the self that is subject to the changing conditions of life, viz., creation and destruction, good and evil, victory and defeat.32 Karma affects only the jiva, and the soul (atma'') passes from body to body in the successive reincarnations. "Just as man takes off his old clothes in order to put on new ones, so does the one (soul) who lives in the body, by abandoning the old form, enters into other forms prepared for it" (2.22).
Krishna, the god-incarnate, declares, however, that one should not be sad over the necessity of being born again, because it is the inviolable law, from which even the gods are not exempt. "Just as death is certain for all that is born, so is certain birth for all that dies" (2.26-27).
The Gita aff~rms that one who does good works will be born in a good family of saints and spiritual men, and after having reached perfection through various rebirths, he will reach his final goal