NEW DELHI, INDIA, August 5, 2007: Dr. Satwant K. Pasricha, a NIMHANS Professor of Clinical Psychology and a leading national authority on reincarnations, has been using rigorous scientific methods to investigate reincarnation claims since 1974. Here are excerpts from an interview with Neha Tara Mehta: "It is important to first understand what we mean by reincarnation. For the purpose of our research, we use the term to refer to the concept that human beings consist of two components: a physical body and a non-physical component, some call it psyche, others may refer to it as mind, personality, or soul. At death, the physical body perishes but the non-physical component survives and after an interval, becomes associated with a new physical body. On the basis of meager data that we have, we can't make generalizations about whether or not everyone reincarnates. But what I can tell is that every one does not remember a previous life. I have investigated nearly 500 reincarnation claims in India, Seventy-seven per cent of them were authentic. Children who talk about previous lives usually do so between the ages of 2 and 5 and stop talking about their previous life between 5 and 8; rarely do they continue beyond 10 years of age. They display corresponding behavior that is unusual for their present circumstances but is appropriate for the behavior of the deceased person whose life they claim to remember. Some children have facial features, gait or mannerisms corresponding to their claimed previous personalities; some even have birthmarks or birth defects attributed to the previous lives."
One such reincarnation story is of a young boy named Sachin. Every time Sachin tried to tell the adults in his village that he was in fact Kanti, a domestic servant from the nearby Dhanaura village whose master had murdered him, the villagers would laugh. His family also thought the child's imagination was runnin g wild. "We thought it was a game of make-belief," says his elder sister Poonam. But Sachin, a Class III student at the village primary school, seldom spoke, behaved or conducted himself like the 12-year-old he was. "He was always so grownup, talking about development and other social issues," says Imran, Sachin's playmate. The boy soon earned the title of 'Netaji'. To read Sachi's story, click here.(http://hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=b7153bed-1e25-44cd-b0a7-684a93da3c57&&Headline=Born+again%3f)
courtesy of Hinduism Today http://www.hinduismtoday.com
August 04, 2007
Dr Satwant K Pasricha, a NIMHANS Professor of Clinical Psychology is
a leading national authority on reincarnations, employing rigorous scientific
methods to investigate reincarnation claims since 1974. Here are excerpts
from an interview with Neha Tara Mehta:
It is important to first understand what we mean by ‘reincarnation’. For the purpose of our research, we use the term to refer to the concept that human beings consist of two components: a physical body and a non-physical component, some call it ‘psyche’, others may refer to it as ‘mind’, ‘personality’, or ‘soul’. At death, the physical body perishes but the non-physical component survives and after an interval, becomes associated with a new physical body. On the basis of meager data that we have, we can’t make generalisations about whether or not everyone reincarnates. But what I can tell is that every one does not remember a previous life.
I have investigated nearly 500 reincarnation claims in India. Seventy-seven per cent of them were authentic. Children who talk about previous lives usually do so between the ages of 2 and 5 and stop talking about their previous life between 5 and 8; rarely do they continue beyond 10 years of age. They display corresponding behaviour that is unusual for their present circumstances but is appropriate for the behavior of the deceased person whose life they claim to remember. Some children have facial features, gait or mannerisms corresponding to their claimed previous personalities; some even have birthmarks or birth defects attributed to the previous lives.
Reel-life reincarnation
http://hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=4bc4334f-2b4e-40e3-a445-0ee66b0a6453&&Headline=Reel-life+reincarnation
Sushmita Bose, Hindustan Times
“Mein [gasp…] agle janam mein [five-second harrowing pause]… tumhara intezaar karoonga [shudder],” said a dying Rajesh Khanna to a dying Hema Malini in Mehbooba (1976). The movie then moved from peechle janam to agle janam, the two lovers reunited and broke into a song atop a mountain. And in The Present, they lived happily ever after. The Past was undone.
Love — the unrequited variety — is usually the raison d’être for reincarnation in Bollywood. In Madhumati (1958), Milan (1967) and Hamesha (1997), the lovers (Dilip Kumar-Vyajanthimala, Sunil Dutt-Nutan and Saif Ali Khan-Kajol), who died untimely deaths, found each other again.
At times, reincarnation happens because of the Revenge Factor. So, there was Karan-Arjun, where Salman and Shahrukh are born again — as brothers, not lovers obviously — to take on the baddies, prodded on by their heavy-breathing mother-of-past-life Rakhee who was earlier mumbling menacingly: “Mere betey aayenge... Mere betey aayenge” (well, it turned out to be true).
Then, there was Karz (1980), where Rishi Kapoor is reborn to take revenge on the bewafa woman who killed him in his past life. Karz was a lift of the Hollywood classic The Reincarnation of Peter Proud — the difference being Rishi Kapoor sang ‘Om shanti om’, while Michael Sarrazin (or Peter Proud) taught at school. Now, there’s going to be the Shah Rukh-produced (and acted) Om Shanti Om, in November; the buzz is it could be ‘inspired’ by Karz.
Dead man walking?
http://hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=b7153bed-1e25-44cd-b0a7-684a93da3c57&&Headline=Born+again%3f
S Raju
Every time Sachin tried to tell the adults in his village that he was in fact Kanti, a domestic servant from the nearby Dhanaura village whose master had murdered him, the villagers would laugh. His family also thought the child’s imagination was running wild.
“We thought it was a game of make-belief,” says his elder sister Poonam. But Sachin, a Class III student at the village primary school, seldom spoke, behaved or conducted himself like the 12-year-old he was. “He was always so grownup, talking about development and other social issues,” says Imran, Sachin’s playmate. The boy soon earned the title of ‘Netaji’.
“The child was different from others his age and always had an edge over his classmates,” says his teacher Trilokchand. His classmate Rajeev recalls how they would laugh when he would say he had two sons.
Then one day, a local newspaper picked up his story and overnight, Sachin became popular. Soon, residents of Dhanaura — the village where Sachin said he had been murdered — turned up to verify his claims. “He said he was Kanti, our relative who had died almost 13 years ago,” says Leelu. Recalling his first meeting with the mysterious child, another of Kanti’s relatives, Kunta says Sachin recognised Kanti’s wife Kalawati in the crowd of women and caught her hand. He told them she was blind in one eye and also remembered the names of ‘his’ son and daughter.
Sachin said in his last birth his master hired two people to kill him and dumped his body in a well. He said they did so following a false complaint by the master’s daughter. Several residents of Dhanaura recall Kanti’s body being fished out of the well.
But while they try to explain the location of the well where Kanti’s body was dumped, none is willing to go there for fear of the dominating community. Kanti’s master, they say, belongs to this community. The matter, it seems, has come to a close.
Today, Sachin lives with his mother, two sisters and a brother in a single-room accommodation. His father is no more. His past is also a closed chapter.
China Tells Living Buddhas They Must Obtain Permission Before Reincarnating
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article2194682.ece
BEIJING, CHINA, August 4, 2007: Tibet's living Buddhas have been banned from reincarnation without permission from China's atheist leaders. The ban is included in new rules intended to assert Beijing's authority over Tibet's restive and deeply Buddhist people. "The so-called reincarnated living Buddha without government approval is illegal and invalid," according to the order, which comes into effect on September 1. The 14-part regulation issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs is aimed at limiting the influence of Tibet's exiled god-king, the Dalai Lama, and at preventing the re-incarnation of the 72-year-old monk without approval from Beijing. It is the latest in a series of measures by the Communist authorities to tighten their grip over Tibet. Reincarnate lamas, known as tulkus, often lead religious communities and oversee the training of monks, giving them enormous influence over religious life in the Himalayan region. Anyone outside China is banned from taking part in the process of seeking and recognizing a living Buddha, effectively excluding the Dalai Lama, who traditionally can play an important role in giving recognition to candidate reincarnates.
For the first time China has given the Government the power to ensure that no new living Buddha can be identified, sounding a possible death knell to a mystical system that dates back at least as far as the 12th century. China already insists that only the Government can approve the appointments of Tibet's two most important monks, the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama. The Dalai Lama's announcement in May 1995 that a search inside Tibet -- and with the cooperation of a prominent abbot -- had identified the 11th reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, who died in 1989, enraged Beijing. That prompted the Communist authorities to restart the search and to send a senior Politburo member to Lhasa to oversee the final choice. This resulted in top Communist officials presiding over a ceremony at the main Jokhang temple in Lhasa in which names of three boys inscribed on ivory sticks were placed inside a golden urn and a lot was then drawn to find the true reincarnation. The boy chosen by the Dalai Lama has disappeared. The abbot who worked with the Dalai Lama was jailed and has since vanished. Several sets of rules on seeking out "soul boys" were promulgated in 1995, but were effectively in abeyance and hundreds of living Buddhas are now believed to live inside and outside China.
courtesy of Hinduism Today http://www.hinduismtoday.com