Re-Birth, Re-Defined!

Do you believe in Re-Birth?

If yes, is it possible for you to tell what would be your next birth? As per Indian mythology, there are 84 lacs species in which one can revolve in the cycle of birth, death and re-birth . Even if one thinks that re-birth depends on good or bad actions performed during the lifetime, one can not be sure about the exact kind of your next life.

Even if one does not believe in re-birth, there would be a constant doubt about what happens after death. Only those few are not concerned who are striving to achieve salvation in this lifetime through different means. Such questions related to fundamentals of life and deaths have always been argumentative but nothing much has been discussed on possibilities or options available in your present lifetime.

Take a moment to think that this human birth is a rare and fortunate gift and so should be fully utilized and experienced. Now one may ask what could be done to reduce the ambiguity involved in the type of next birth which no one can forecast. Most of us relates ourselves either to our religion or to our profession. On being asked “who are you?” normally one will reply, ‘I am a Hindu” or “I am a doctor” etc. You can also ask this question to yourself and try to find the answer. This is a limitation! I believe in a different approach to to live multiple kinds of lives in a single lifetime. Let me call it re-births before death.

Given a thought, most of us are already living multiple lives in terms of different roles and responsibilities. One should be able to identify and distinguish between these different lives to enjoy life in a more complete and meaningful manner. Take the example of a man who is a working executive, a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a social worker and so on. This is a very normal scenario but not everyone is so blessed, give a minute to think of a beggar sleeping lonely at the roadside.

Now if you are fortunate enough to have more than one role, can you think of further expanding it? One might feel that only film stars have the opportunity to play different kinds of roles. In any successful film career, an actor performs many roles but actually, this will be “acting” experiences and will be different from real experiences. For example when acting as a singer, an actor doesn’t have to actually sing. So we need to understand this difference between reel and real roles.

We all have an opportunity to do different roles and so have different births in the real world. Have you ever thought of being a Hindu, Muslim and a Christian in the same life? But you will definitely believe that this is possible in different births, right? They all are human beings but somehow we feel that the person of the other religion is not ‘you’; Why? In this life you have a flexibility to choose a limited timeframe to be in a particular role like if you are a Hindu, you can become a Muslim for a week or two. During this time you can start visiting Mosque and reading Quran and have an all-together different lifetime experience. This also increases mutual acceptance and develops a peaceful environment in the world. You may also like to explore and understand different values and beliefs and then try to find a union among them.

In a similar way you have a choice to become whatever you want to become or fulfill your dreams right now, irrespective of your current age. You can become a student, a teacher, a social activist, a dancer, a politician, sportsmen, a painter, a lover, a musician, a priest or just a kind of person you have always admired. You can decide the life you have always wanted and not a life created out of circumstances. Again you have a choice to choose to be in a particular role for a week, a month or years. This can make your life colorful and will also give various learning opportunities and unique experiences. Keeping a draft of your own obituary in mind, you can also design your portfolio of different lives. If done with a free mind, this exercise can also help you to find the real and ultimate purpose of your life.

In case you are already satisfied with your current life or you don’t want to take risk with any type of change for any reason or difficulties involved, still you have an option to experience different lives. This can be achieved through empathy i.e. by thinking in a way of a person performing a different role and understanding his point of view. I believe such attitude can help you to broaden your outlook towards the society at large.

To develop such attitude, three mind tools can be applied. First, interacting with different classes of people can be really helpful to understand their life and individual perspectives. Interviewing them about what they like and dislike about their role can itself give you a feel of different experiences. The other effective tool is reading which has no boundaries and can take you into an entirely new world. You can read about anything under the sun like about history and cultures of different nations. May be now you are an Indian, you can have different experiences by knowing more about other places even if you are not born or traveled there. You can also read biographies of different people because every biography is a life in itself. The third way can be just “thinking”. It looks easy but needs much more efforts because of lack of two-way communication.

Life is an experience, so we cannot limit it to different roles and should include different feelings and personal traits. Being a leader, helping others, taking initiatives, assertiveness etc not only gives one a new birth but will definitely help in personal as well as professional growth. There are many people who regret in their later years of age because they spent their entire life in a monotonous way either running after money or having narrow goals. One can avoid such regrets by taking this new and changed outlook right from now. Each one of us has a potential to do something different and to contribute for the benefit of others. Living for yourself can give you only one type of experience with limited happiness but when you start living for others, you have unlimited choices and unlimited happiness!