The Concept of Reincarnation

The concept of Reincarnation has, for long, been an intriguing topic as even the best of scholars of different religions debate on whether there is life after death or not. According to Swami Agehananda Bharati, a Professor of Anthropology at Syracuse University, the origins of Reincarnation lie deep within the Hindu-Buddha era before the birth of Jesus Christ. Although many believe that Reincarnation is a general concept similar for both religions, there are slight differences in beliefs that are prominent among Hinduism and Buddhism.

The main idea of Buddhism is that life is suffering, and the best way to eliminate suffering is to achieve separation from the world and material possessions. However, most people continually fail to become detached, commit evil, and are thus are bound to successive rebirths. This cycle goes on and on until the state of Nirvana is achieved i.e. a state of tranquillity and peace (Harvey). Similarly, in Hinduism it is believed that life on earth is undesirable and an individual may engage in religious practices in each life until earning release from the cycle of rebirth and achieve union with the Infinite Spirit. His ultimate purpose in life is to get free from this process of birth-death-rebirth and achieve final peace (Ma'sumian).

Buddhism emphasises on the doctrine of Anatta i.e. there is no enduring soul that persists from one life to another; rather it includes the concept of Karma which passes from one life to another (Ma'sumian, Valea). Karma is actually the total effect of a person's actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person's existence regarded as determining the person's destiny (‘Karma'). In Garland Sutra (10), it is mentioned that:

According to what deeds are done

Do their resulting consequences come to be

Yet the Doer has no existence

This is the Buddha Teaching.

On the other hand, Hinduism teaches that an enduring soul survives after death, spends a significant amount of time in another realm, and then becomes associated with a new body. Hindus strongly believe in Atman the undying self that remains for further lives, unlike Buddhists who remain in denial of this belief and instead say that when an individual dies, a new personality is born. For this very reason the Buddhists prefer to use the term Rebirth instead of Reincarnation (Tucker).

Another important element in Buddhism is the extreme rarity of being born a human again (Samyutta Nikaya 35, 63). Buddha in this chapter talks on the subject of Chiggala Sutta or ‘The Hole' in which he describes clearly the fact that being born as a human has a very low probability and it can occur by ‘sheer coincidence'.

However the Hindus believe that as long as imperfections and misdeeds form a basis of human life,