Rebirth

Published on 28th June, 2019, in Economic Times One of the key principles in Hindu mythology is the idea of rebirth. It means that no child is born on earth with a clean slate. He comes to the world with debt (rinn). This debt is of various kinds. We owe debt to our ancestors. Because they gave birth to us, we owe our ancestors the production of the next generation. We are indebted to our ancestors for our legacy and the lineage that we come from and we inherit the obligations that come with them. We owe debts to the gods and so, we must ..

Published on 15th July, 2017, on www.dailyo.in . Hindus do prefer birth anniversaries (jayanti) over death anniversaries (punya tithi). However, we can qualify this by saying most Hindu festivals are about the birth of a God (Ram’s birth, Krishna’s birth, Hanuman’s birth, Garuda’s birth) or about the death of a demon (killing of Mahisha by Durga, killing of Ravana by Ram, killing of Naraka by Krishna). Both these events, birth of a god and death of a demon, are seen as evoking positivity. This is very different from the Christian practice of mourning the death of Jesus Christ (Good Friday), and commemorating the martyrdom of ..

Published on 4th May, 2017, on www.dailyo.in . The simple answer is, we can either be reborn (punar-janma) and experience life once again, or be liberated (moksha) from the cycle of rebirth (samsara). However, the answer is a bit more complex if we see it geographically and historically. Around the world, what happens after death can be divided into two schools. Those who believe you live only once and those who believe you live multiple lives. Those who believe you live only once have broadly three schools – those who believe death is the end, nothing else after that; those who believe after death you ..

Published on 5th April, 2015, in Mid-Day. It has begun. The rituals by which Jagannatha, the presiding deity of Puri, Odisha, will die and be reborn along with his sister Subhadra and his elder brother Balabhadra and his weapon, the Sudarshana. The process, which lasts over three months, is called Naba-kalebara and has been taking place for the past 400 years at least, according to recorded history, every 14 to 19 years, when there is an extra month (adhik maas) in Ashada as per the traditional calendars. This year is one such year. The last one was in 1996. It involves finding neem trees, the ..