Why we are born? There are three possible
answers. The answer of Hinduism to the question is explained in detail.
There is no ‘why’ to it, taking for granted that everything
in nature is meaningless and may be called a mere chance. This is the purely
materialistic view and its ethics consists in making hay while the sun shines.
We are here because of the will of God. But why God should
will so, when He is a perfect being having no needs, cannot be answered. Man
finds himself in a predicament, which is described as one of sin, the sure
wages of which is subjection to death and destruction. God who created man has,
however, provided him with a way of escape, which true religion has chalked out
for him. This is the view which a religion like Christianity takes.
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| Navlakha Temple Ghumli Gujarat |
There is a third view which Indian religions like Hinduism,
Buddhism, Jainism, etc hold. They say that we are here because of our Karma,
the good and evil effects and tendencies of past actions which must necessarily
bring enjoyments and sufferings for the individual responsible for them.
So even while accepting God, Hindu sages have found it
necessary to maintain that our present life is a continuation of a previous
life and that the quantum of the good and bad activities we have done in the
past i.e., our Karma, has necessitated our present embodiment, so that the
enjoyments and sufferings pertaining to those activities may accrue to us.
While the law of Karma thus explains particular embodiments,
which are only links in the chain of spiritual evolution, the ultimate source
of that evolutionary process is God Himself. But unlike as in Christian
thought, this evolutionary process as a whole has no beginning and no total
cessation, according to Hindu scriptures. It is cyclic and is part and parcel
of God’s nature, being as eternal as He Himself. It is a projection of His
power of manifestation. The process cannot be said to be due to any external
compulsion because it is an expression of His nature and He is not bound or
affected by it.
The Jiva, an aspect of God’s power of manifestation, is
involved in this cyclic process. From the dullness and inertness of materiality
he evolves into greater and greater states of perfection through all the travails
of repeated births and deaths until he manifests perfect wisdom which consists
in an understanding of his intimate relation with the Supreme Being. He may
then seek complete mergence in Him, or he may retain his individuality while
being established in oneness with Him in His consciousness and bliss. Such a
liberated one becomes the participant of the Supreme Being in His sport of
creative and redemptive expression, and a sharer of the supreme bliss that
forms its source. It is said that life offers us these attainments, and they
are what make life meaningful.
We are here in a particular predicament because of our
Karma.
Excerpt from an article written by Srimat Swami Tapasyananda Ji Maharaj (1904 to 1991), Vice President of the Ramakrishna Order,
in the April 2018 edition of Vedanta Kesari Magazine.