Arguments Against Reincarnation

[Malwai]

I came across this video, a Muslim discourse about the concept of Reincarnation, I found it interesting as it is a respectful refute against Reincarnation without mocking or belittling the Dharmic religions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nhkquy9KAA

The salient points from the Imam are:

1. Not being able to remember our past lives and the mistakes accumulated, hence how can we learn from our mistakes and ensure we don't repeat them. Surely this is unjust and that if Reincarnation was real then we should be able to remember our previous deeds.
2. An evil doer who is given a life of a worm or bacteria in the next birth cycle, these are not biological entities that have free-will hence how can they perform good deeds to move back up the Reincarnation cycle.
3. He acknowledges what we call the age of Kalyug, and the very many terrible evils that are occurring across the globe, with so much evil in the world surely the number of humans should be going down in population and the number of animals up, when in fact the reverse is the reality

He does however agree with the concept of constant spiritual rebirth in one human lifetime, whereby a person overcomes the challenges of I guess what we call Maya and the 5 Chor in the same lifetime.

What are the Sangat's views on these points the Imam has made? I believe I have sound counter-arguments of my own however I would like some of the more enlightened members of the forum to put across more eloquent answers to a complex topic.

Rab Rakha

[Guest dasguruka]

Enlightened by no means but:

1. If we remember our previous deeds then itll make it that much harder for us to concentrate while doing Naam Simran. Give it a try...hurt someone feelings and try to japp Naam (Don't do it but I hope we get the idea). It wont happen because the place of Truth is in our hearts and the Truth and evil (haumai) do not exist at the same place at the same time.

2. Other incarnations are there to suffer. Gurbani considers human form to be the peak because it can Japp. Rest of the species do their own part but the light of Vaheguru is only revealed in humans and Gurbani emphasizes how precious this life is many times.

3. Not to ridicule the Imam in any way but I think he is looking at the Universe as a closed system. There are other galaxies that sustain life according to Gurbani and we end up at places based on our Karma. Who knows how many insects are there under a single rock.

And if there is only this life then what about all the people who were there in the past. Where would they be? Heaven or hell? Both are subject to parlo or mahaparlo. Where would they go then?

Good topic

[jpsingh2]

we including all beings are one.

[sikhiseeker]

WJKK WJKF

I would like to ask the imam if he remembers his infant years from o months upto 3. Or how much he remembers from his life from the age of 4 upto 6, also if he remembers how it felt the first time he crawled, walked and spoke?

Our progression in this life is not remembered fully yet for some reason the imam assumes we should remember our previous millions of lives lol!

WJKK WJKF

[sat]

1, we can remember our past lives but we just dont know how to, so how does he explain past life regression therapy. also why would we wish to know about past faults would this not weigh us down further and cause more grief, we should focus on our deeds in this life as i am sure we have done many bad ones, admitting it to ourselves is the first step.

2. after going through various life forms we are granted human life, if these entities have no free will and can not do good then they can do not wrong either so he has answered his own question, how many animals do evil or wrong deeds ?

3. the fact that humans are going up in numbers is due to more lust and our inability to control our desires and channel our kaam / desires towards wanting to be with waheguru as opposed to the opposite gender, Kaam is not evil or wrong but it has to be controlled and channelled correctly through marriage etc, as for animals going down in numbers the reasons are numerous, hunting, destroying their natural habitats, etc etc.

[AmanSingh1867]

I thought he made good points. I don't believe in reincarnation and karma (as a supernatural law) myself, and I've come across more than a few other Sikhs who echo the same sentiments.

[S1ngh]

Karm holds very importance in our dharma. There are countless mention of karma and reincarnation in gurbani.

Good topic and I hope someone replies from gurbani perspective.

[BarinderSingh]

I would like to suggest one thing. Can we gather up all the missionary preachers and ship them off to this imam house. They are his long lost brothers and this family reunion must take place.