RE: Karma and transmigration - Part 2
From the Bhakti List Archives
• September 13, 1999
Dear friends, I forgot to answer another point raised by Sri Chris in his email: ******************* He wrote : one thing which i have always wondered is, if we are reincarnated again and again in order to become perfect (to work through bad karma and eventually break free of the cycle of rebirths), wouldn't it make more sense just to extend our lifespans to the length necessary to achieve this? [Krishna Kalale] What if the life spans cannot be extended enough to deal with the amount of karmas one does? For example, one of the shastras state, in half a kshana or moment, one can do so many sins that even 100s of births will not be sufficient to repent and neutralize those sins. At the same time there are some holy acts, if one does, sins done in 100s of births will be destroyed in a second. This is just for example; It is however possible to extend a particular lifespan to a certain extent to allow that person to work out certain karmas. There is another issue in the semitic view which is not acceptable to the vedantic view. Once a person dies, that person has only two places, heaven or hell. This digital choice makes it impossible for a obsessed sinner to ever turn back, once he dies for some reason. Vedantic systems allow even such sinners to have an exit from their sinful paths. I guess that is why the concept called "purgatory" exists. I am not sure that this purgatory is a correction center where the soul can work to rectify its bad orientation. If purgatory is such a place, then the semitic view needs to only answer the problem of discrimination or difference at birth and how that does not taint or affect the impartial nature of God. ,peace, chris bauch [Krishna Kalale] adiyen krishna ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com