I mentioned rebirth in a comment to someone. That got me thinking about how we Indians think of rebirth as a part of life. I am not sure others accept rebirth as such. But for us, death is only an end of a chapter. Rebirth follows inevitably until your soul gets a release from all your karma. both good and bad.
We take rebirth for granted for every one and that reflects in our conversations, customs, traditions, festivals. We have a lot of stories in our epics and mythology based on rebirth. Our life continues from the last life to this one even though we do not remember it.
Whenever a particularly tiresome person annoys us, we say ' That person was my enemy in the last birth. That is why he/she is born as my son/daughter/boss/brother etc. to take revenge in this birth.'
A loving relation is appreciated with ' I hope I will be born as your son/daughter/ mother (as the case may be) again in the next birth too.'
In some of our festivals, women are supposed to pray that they get the same husband in the many births to come. Men do not seem to have that choice.
Our film makers exploit this idea of rebirth to the full. There are films where the hero and the heroine keep meeting in every birth after a lots of twists and turns in the story. There are stories where the murder/crime committed in the previous birth is brought to light in the next birth and the culprit brought to book.
Even in my life, I was feeling bad that I haven't done much in this life. There are so many thing that I want to do with my life. But I realise my time is getting short. I am getting older. But then I started to think about rebirth. Why be in a hurry and try to do many things without taking the time to savour them. It is better to go slow and enjoy them. There is no hurry to finish things somehow. I will do what ever I can without feeling overwhelmed about how much I want to do as I know I will get one more chance to do things if I really want to do them . That thought is such a comfort.
