3. Rebirth and Immortality of the Soul

Besides the Law of Karma, the Gita seems to have two other fundamental axioms upon which its bases its ethical fabric. It is the theory of rebirth which again is based on immortality of soul. The Gita believes in rebirth of the soul until the ultimate state is reached. Birth following upon imperfection is bound to death, and vice-versa.

In practical life we often find a man of virtue suffering while a vicious man is enjoying the goods of life. Such a situation is hard to explain under the Law of karma which says that good actions bear good results. The Gita believes that the present situation of a man is not just the product of his present life’s previous actions but it is also the effect of his previous lives’ actions. Man enjoys or suffers accordingly as he acted in his past lives. Earth is called a karmabhumi and here does man makes his own future by performing good or bad activities. Even the man who does good karma may not be seen as enjoying good results as evil karma of his past lives are bearing their fruits now. In the Gita, rebirth is found to be necessarily associated with Law of Karma.

Krishna is found to be saying in the beginning of the Gita,

“As the embodied soul continuously passes in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death” (ii,13).

The human soul, so long it does not attain its final emancipation, is born again and again on earth; and each birth, high or low, is determined by fruits of one’s actions in the previous life.

jatasya hi dhruvo mrtyur dhruvam janma mrtasya ca
tasmad apariharye'rthe na tvam socitum arhasi (ii,27)

“For to the one that is born death is certain and certain is birth for the one that has died. Therefore for what is unavoidable, thou shouldest not grieve”.

dhumo ratris tatha krsnah sanmasa daksinayam
tatha chandra masam jyotir yogi prapya nivartate (viii,25 )

“Our dead ancestors (pitris) are said to live in the world of the moon and remain there till the time of their return to earth”.

The doctrine of rebirth implies that the fruits (the consequences) of our actions pursue us even after death, and our future birth and future lives are determined by them. This doctrine again rests upon the theological belief in karma which is the cause of bondage and of repeated births and deaths, and that consequences prevent us from our union with God. We are happy or miserable due to our actions, their merits and demerits. Therefore Rebirth is necessarily associated with the Law of Karma. Past karmas are not destroyed. Actions are accumulated in some form or other. Rebirth is a law of nature which implies connection between the forms of life.

The Gita believes in rebirth until the ultimate state is reached. Birth following upon imperfection is bound to death, and vice versa. Death only changes the scene. The instrument through which the player can express himself must be intact. When the body dies he is supplied with a new instrument. The kind of birth depends on the character we have developed. We are born in celestial regions, or as men on earth, or in the animal world, according as we develop character in sattva, rajas or tamas predominates. Every step we gain is conserved for us.

When Arjuna asks Krishna about the fate of those who are not able to attain perfection, whether they go to ruin, Krishna says that a man who does good never goes to ruin, but he obtains another birth.

“When he recovers the mental characteristics of his former life, and with them he again struggles onward for perfection” (vi, 44-45).

There is a conservation of values. None can lose the way of the Supreme if his heart is set on it. Rebirth continues till the goal is reached (vii, 19) Therefore rebirth is a discipline by which we can perfect ourselves.^[1]

In the Gita Krishna says that-

dehino’smin yatha dehe kaumaram yauvanam jara
tatha dehantarapraptir dhiras tatra na muhyati (ii,13)

“As the soul passes in this body through childhood, youth and age, even so is its taking on of another body. The sage is not perplexed by this”.

The embodied self passes in the present body through three stages (avasthas) of childhood, youth or the middle age, and old age or the age of decay, all distinct from one another.^[2]

yam-yam va'pi smaran bhavam tyajaty ante kelevaram
tam-tam evai ‘ti kaunteya sada tadbhavabhavitah (viii,6)

“Thinking of whatever state (of being) he at the end gives up his body to that being does he attain, o son kunti (Arjuna), being ever absorbed in the thought thereof”.

The soul goes to that on which its mind is set during the last moments. What we think we become. Our past thoughts determine our present birth and our present birth ones will determine the future.^[3]

The doctrine of rebirth is actually a corollary to the belief in the immortality of soul.

The Gita’s talk of rebirth is based on the belief that the soul continues after the death of the body.

nasato vidyate bhavo nabhavo vidyate satah (ii,16)

“Of the non-existent there is no coming to be; of the existent there is no ceasing to be. The conclusion about these two has been perceived by seers of truth”.

The Gita here expounds the essence of the sankhya doctrine called Satkaryavada according to which every effect must pre-exist in the cause. The two realities the Sankhya system: prakrti and purusa are both begginingless; the activities of the body and the organs are caused by prakrti, and purusa is responsible for the experience of pain or pleasure, are found in the Gita (xiii, 19). But prakrti and purusa are not said to be independent nor self created. Krishna refers to matter as His part. From the statement, ‘that which is not, will never come into existence’ (ii, 16). Tilak states that Gita accepts sat-karyavada. But he points out that it does not accept the duality of prakrti and purusa. The Sankhya holds that the birth of the body in the next form of life (yoni) is an effect of the cause. Cause is the karmas done in the previous birth. As regards the question how the karmas done in one birth pass into the next and affect the doer soul the Sankhya maintains that every soul possesses a subtle body which accompanied the soul through all its transmigration.

According to the Gita the whole universe is pervaded by the soul and this soul is indestructible; no one is capable of bringing about the destruction of this immutable entity. But these bodies of the eternal embodied soul, which is imperishable and comprehensible, have all been declared to be finite. When death is referred to, it is to be understood that it is with reference to the body and not the soul. The soul does not change, what changes is the body which is nothing but form taken by the soul to continue in its journey towards perfection. Every form with a name has a beginning and an end. The end of one form gives rise to a new form, which again after its allotted time disappears. So death is certain to occur in relation to whatever form is born, and the birth of a new form is certain to occur in relation to whatever has died.

Jiva or individual self is the enjoyer of pleasure and pain and experiencer of all psychical phenomena. It is the enjoyer of sattva, rajas and tamas through psycho-physical organism.

Its attachment binds it to the samsara and makes the self to transmigrate from one body to another.

purusah prakritistho hi bhunkte prakrtijan gunami
karanam gunasango'sya sadasadyonijanmasu (xiii,21)

“Spirit seated in Matter taste the qualities born of Matter; attachment to the qualities is the cause of his births in good and evil wombs”.

The soul in nature enjoys the modes born of nature. Attachment to the modes is the cause of its births in good and evil wombs. The jiva or the individual self or the psychic person changes and grows from life to life. But the soul is the inner light which is imperishable, endures from birth to birth. It is untouched by death, decay and erosion. According to theory of rebirth a man’s inborn nature is determined by his own past lives. One can however improve oneself. This must be the case if freedom is to be attained. One can change his destiny by karma. It is possible to shake off demoniac nature. It is not impossible at any stage. The indwelling spirit is in each soul and that means the hope of immortality is always there. Even the greatest sinner, if turns to God, can achieve freedom. Each one is to aim at something beyond himself, at self-transcendence (xviii, 48, 60).

The second chapter of the Gita gives an elaborate description regarding immortality of soul. The body is limited in space and time. It born and it dies.

But the soul is eternal and infinite, In agreement with Kathopanisad, Gita quotes,

na'jayate mriyate va kadacin na'yam bhutvabhavita van a bhuyah
ajo nityah sasvato’yam purano na hanyate kanyamane sarire (ii,20)

“He is never born, nor does he die at any time, nor having (once) come to be does he again cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, permanent and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain”.

It is indescribable, unchanging, all pervading, immovable, and actionless.

nai'nam chindonti sastrani nai'nam dahati pavakah
na cai'nam kledayanty apo na sosayati marutah. (ii,23)

“Weapons do not cleave this self, fire does not burn him, waters do not make him wet; nor does the wind make him dry”.

It is beyond the mind, intellect and senses. It was before the body and shall remain after it.When the body become useless the soul leaves it and enters into a new body.

vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya navani grhnati noro'parani
tatha sarirani vahaya jirnany anyani samyati navani dehi (ii,22)

“Just as a person casts off worn-out garments and puts on others that are new, even so does the embodied soul cast off worn out bodies and take on others that are new. The eternal does not move from place to place but the embodied soul moves from one abode to another”.

It is beyond sattva, rajas, and tamas. The pleasure and pain, errors, illusion, emotions, passions, mind, intellect and senses are born through them. The self is beyond the gunas and their modifications.

accehedyo'yam adahyo'yam akledyo sosya eva ca
nityah sarvagatah sthanur acalo'yam sanatanah (ii,24)

“He is uncleavable, He cannot be burnt. He can be neither wetted nor dried. He is eternal, all-pervading, unchanging and immovable. He is the same forever”.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Radhakrishnan.S: Theism of Gita, p-48-49

[2]:

Sankaracarya,S: The Bhagavadgita tr by Alladi Mahadeva Satry, p-31

[3]:

Radhakrishnan, S: The Bhagavadgita, p-229