In response to Kumudiniben’s well thought out question regarding whether there is life after death, I wish we had a clear cut answer to this age old question. If we knew the answer, many mysteries of the world will be solved. We know, however, that deeply rooted in India is the belief in reincarnation. The belief that the essential part of the individual, the soul, passes after death into a new body which is reborn as another living being, perhaps human perhaps something else. Thus we all pass through endless lifetimes from one form to another.
The nature of our rebirth, which may be favourable or not, is being determined by the accumulated effects of our karma, our good or bad actions, our mode of life in the present or previous lifetimes.
The Jains and also the Hindus believe that our physical body is only a container, an attire, to house something more important, for the soul inside it. After death, this soul or the atma, will enter another new container and will be reborn. However some religions emanating from the west do not agree. They say that there is only one life and that there is no other life after death. They will argue that when the death of the physical body occurs, that is the end of the individual.
But is it likely that the all our thoughts and feelings, the ideas and ideals which we hold so dear will suddenly stop when the individual dies?
Dinesh Sheth
Newbury Park, Ilford
