Understanding Science of reincarnation || Acharya Prashant (2024)

Acharya Prashant

~~~~~ Video Information: 11.05.2022, VBC, Greater Noida  Context: What is reincarnation? What are the beliefs about reincarnation in different cultures and religions? Is there any scientific evidence supporting the concept of reincarnation? How does the process of reincarnation work according to various beliefs? Do people retain memories or traits from past lives in reincarnation? Can someone choose their next life in reincarnation? Are there any documented cases of people remembering past lives? How does karma relate to reincarnation?  Music Credits: Milind Date  ~~~~~  #acharyaprashant

Transcript

00:00 Namaste Acharyaji. So my question is around this re-birth and re-incarnation and around

00:15 this science of re-incarnation. I have heard about this through my colleague and he was

00:24 talking about this University of Virginia and they have been doing research on this

00:36 science of re-incarnation. So they have found a baby who can remember the past life memories.

00:47 So can you throw some light on those?

00:51 Can you throw some light on this University of Virginia first thing? Where is the research

00:57 paper? Where is the proof? I can say no, University of Virginia has never done any such research

01:04 and no such baby ever existed. How will you refute my claim?

01:11 Facts are to be greatly respected. Rumours are not to be treated as facts. Anybody can

01:20 create anything from imagination and float it around. That is not to be quoted as a fact.

01:30 If it's a university, then the research paper would most probably be public. Had it not

01:36 been public, the news won't have reached you.

01:39 Where is the... and do we even understand the implications? Were such a paper to be

01:48 published ever? Please understand what it would do to the entire field of identity.

01:57 It would have great consequences on every sphere of human activity. Everything would

02:05 be upturned. Sir, nothing like this has ever been proven. And it conversely tells about

02:21 the composition and intentions of those who believe in such things. They would very liberally

02:30 appropriate the name of any high-ranking scientific institution just to prove that reincarnation

02:38 in the lowest sense possible does happen. What does that tell about their own composition?

02:45 That these people are liars. Had I had any substance in my claim, would I have proceeded

02:55 to substantiate my claim with lies? University of Virginia. There is nothing in it, sir.

03:13 And also, please remember, basics of probability, probability as in mathematics. If you take

03:30 a billion monkeys, if you take a billion monkeys and just give them keypads, one of them will

03:42 be able to type something meaningful. It has been said that if you take enough monkeys

03:49 and give them pens, one of them would surely be able to write down all the works of Shakespeare.

03:57 That is just probability. You only have to have sufficient number of monkeys and that

04:04 will happen. So if you look at the 800 crore people who are alive and the numbers that

04:14 have been diseased, just randomly, just by way of probability, if you go to all these

04:27 people who were kids once and ask them to utter something about their previous life,

04:36 a few people would end up saying something meaningful. That does not mean that there

04:45 is something in it. That is just the law of randomness. What's there on this table next

04:59 to me? Please tell me. I can't see. Okay, try. No, I cannot. But if I ask you to just

05:12 try, what would you say? A wall maybe. Now if I give you infinite number of tries, will

05:23 you not succeed in giving the correct answer at least once? Yes. That is called probability.

05:34 Even an infinite number of attempts, anything is possible. Anything is possible. So if you

05:45 take all the kids who are born and ask them, "Please tell us something about your previous birth",

05:54 one or two of them will end up saying something meaningful. That proves nothing. In fact,

06:02 that only proves that mathematics is great. No place of any repute has ever conducted

06:14 any conclusive research on this reincarnation thing. In fact, the scientific community,

06:23 the world over takes it as something of a joke. It is not even considered a subject

06:31 fit enough to be taken for a serious study. Yes, studies have been done. But those studies

06:40 have amounted to nothing. Nothing came out of them. Nobody takes this seriously. You

06:50 must also reflect on why a lot of people insist on things like personal reincarnation. You

07:01 must ask, what stake do they have? Why do they so forcefully insist that, "Yes, if I

07:08 die, I will be reborn as somebody else"? What is it in their psyche that impels them

07:16 to believe in, to aggressively believe in the concept of reincarnation? The answer will be

07:24 very interesting. When you are living an unfulfilled life, then the concept of reincarnation

07:36 comes as a saviour. However, it is also the same concept that prevents you from bringing

07:52 richness and meaning and joy to this one life that you have. You are told, "I have so many

08:01 lives and the subsequent lives will probably be better". If you are in turmoil, in bondage

08:10 currently, then you are saved from challenging your fears and your bondages with the greatest

08:20 ferocity. How? You say, "I somehow deserve my sorry state. I must have done something

08:28 in my past lives to deserve the pain that I have now. So, there is no need to fight

08:34 against my suffering and my bondage because I anyway deserve it. It is my Karmphal".

08:44 And what annoys me is that both these concepts, which are interrelated of course, reincarnation

08:54 and karma are attributed to the Gita, whereas the Gita very forcefully destroys both these

09:02 concepts. But fantastic are the ways of Maya. Yes.

09:13 Thank you Asadji.

09:14 Welcome.

09:15 Thank you.

09:22 Thank you.

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