Hindu philosophy says a soul is reborn several times in a cycle of reincarnation until in a specific lifetime a person attains enlightenment or spiritual wisdom. The soul is then liberated from rebirth and rejoins the universal soul or becomes one with the divine.
Hindu vedanta thinking is non-dualistic. There is no "God" who distinct from humans who judges/punishes/bails-out-in-response-to-prayer. The divine / God is a supreme everlasting soul manifested as a soul in each and every one. God is a person's inner voice and inner goodness and the same God is manifested in everyone. When a person "sees" this and recognizes it, the person attains enlightenment and nirvana or becomes upon death free from rebirth and one with the divine.
I dont tend to believe in things I havent experienced for myself. But I cannot say for sure that reincarnation does not exist. I guess that makes me agnostic when it comes to rebirth theories.
I dont like the idea of rebirth - of having to redo life and learning over and over. If reincarnation it true, it is such a waste that the wisdom of a lifetime will die with a person, and have to be re-acquired in the next birth when the memory of the past lifetimes is wiped clean (with rare exceptions like this little boy). In my mind's eye I see an endless game of snakes and ladders for souls, with a great big snake that takes the poor souls way back to the start line just at the entrance to nirvana with a smallest fraction breaking through every once in a way. I also hate the idea that my father, whom I lost is walking this earth in another body and I have no idea who that could be.
But this is why Vedanta says hurting another makes no sense. Someone you hurt could have been a dear one in a past life. Above all, because each soul is just on its journey through a cycle of rebirth to become one with the universal soul, so in the truly everlasting sense all of us are one.
No offense intended by bringing in a specific religious belief. I dont consider myself belonging to any religious denomination and will seek equally from any holy scriptures.
