Question: Swamiji, is it necessary to believe in reincarnation?

Swamiji: First, reincarnation is not a belief, it is an assumption of Hinduism. Religion must be supported by a philosophy that logically explains what I see and experience around me and its relationship to the Higher Reality. It is not necessary to accept the theory, but how else would you explain the differences, the injustices, that you see in the world. If the explanation for one man being born as a leper’s leprous son and another as a king’s kingly son be the free will of God, then God becomes a power-mad, lusty, partial Lord who blesses and curses according to his eccentric whims and fancies. This is against the observed rhythm and order that exists in all of nature.

Q: So reincarnation is a theory to explain why one man is born a king and another a beggar.

S: Yes. Man is a rational being who inevitably seeks a cause in every effect, and expects an effect from every cause. When man sees about him types, modes, kinds and classes without number and observes that the experience of life as lived by two individual organisms is never the same, he naturally seeks a reason for the diversity. A Buddha, a Rama, a Ravana [a demon king]—all had their own individual experience of life, even though they were all sons of their respective royal fathers. Thus to every given set of external circumstances, each entity reacts differently and each undergoes his unique experiences.

When the disparities in life do not arise from any visible cause they must be the effect of some invisible past cause or causes. Thus we arrive at the theory of reincarnation. If actions performed in the past bear fruit in the present as experiences, then we can conclude that we must have had embodiments in the past also.

Q: Why don’t we remember any of our past lives?

S: Luckily, through the infinite mercy of God, nature has put a veil on the details of the past. Now, I ask you a question: What did you have for lunch last Saturday at noon?

Q: It must have been some vegetables and rice because that is what I always eat, but I don’t remember precisely.

S: So you didn’t bother to remember? So when we eat, at that time we enjoy the food. Afterwards we forget because we have better things to do in life than to remember what we ate last week. You are the product of all that you have eaten, but, fortunately, the details are not available. In the same way, we don’t remember all our previous births. Thank God that we cannot remember! One wife and the present children are enough of a problem! Can you imagine having the concern of 1,000 wives and 10,000 children?

Although you do not remember all the thoughts and experiences you had in the last birth, the subtle impressions they left are still with you. They have, in fact, provided a motivation or a driving force for another manifestation, another birth as a human. So you are a product of all your past experiences; it cannot be otherwise. It is not by accident that you are what you are, and I am what I am. We are all products of our own past. We Hindus believe in the reincarnation theory to explain these differences. But you do not have to extend the cause and effect pattern back to past lives. You can just look for the pattern in your present life. That’s enough.

Q: I am not happy with my job because I have discovered that my boss is corrupt. He is requiring that I mislead some clients.

S: Walk out!

Q: But I have to think of my family. Jobs are difficult to find these days.

S: If you have to work in this environment for the sake of your family, surrender all to the Lord. You follow the boss’s exact instructions only. Carry out the tasks assigned to you exactly as he instructed, then mentally drop it. Don’t worry about it or talk about it.

If you were really an honest person, you would not have been the one asked to do something dishonest. Corrupt, dishonest people quake in the presence of honesty. If you had been totally honest, the boss would not have had the guts to ask you to do something dishonest. Goodness has a positive beauty about it. Remember, it was your own past impressions that brought you to this situation. Now you have an opportunity to improve your attitude. All is for Him alone, good or bad.