Reincarnation – Reality Rationality Opportunity

[Sunday feast lecture at ISKCON, Washington DC, USA]

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Summarize what I spoke today.
So, I spoke briefly about how the concept of reincarnation, reincarnation, the romanticization, the reality and the rationality of it. So, the romanticized idea is we can conceive of concept of soulmate, but focus on the mate rather than the soul and try to perpetuate the romantic relationship with this life. The reality, however, is that reincarnation is a very serious thing.
It’s not just some movie fantasy. There is serious evidence for it. I discussed four levels of evidence, recollections, recognitions, behaviors, and birth marks and birth defects.
The case of Naseeb, where he recollected life as Naseeb Buddha. He recognized his widow and his children from a previous life. He acted jealously towards his widow’s new husband.
He acted affectionate towards his children, although they were older than him. And his six birth marks, which were astronomically low probability, one by 160 raised to the power of six. And there is neither investigator fraud nor parental fraud can work because often the exhibit behaviors that are embarrassing to their parents.
And the rationality of reincarnation is that although everything around us is temporary, still we have a desire to live forever and to love forever. Where does this desire come from? Like an African child suddenly wants a tribal child wanting a pizza. Nothing from the circumstance brings it.
It comes from our core. So, our core is spiritual. That soul is meant to love the whole who is eternal.
And that eternal all-attractive person is Krishna. So, loving other people in this world is something which we have been doing, which the soul does in every species. In the human form, we have the opportunity to direct our love towards the eternal.
And whatever is attractive in anyone in this world, that attractiveness in its fullness is present in Krishna. So, if we try to make any one relationship of this world, the defining relationship of our life, and we are trying to put that person in the place of Krishna, and however good or bad the person may be, that attempt to substitute Krishna is going to leave us at best disappointed, at worst devastated. So, instead if we put Krishna first, then we will have the maturity through our fulfillment in our relationship with Krishna to balance the ups and downs of our horizontal relationships.
And when we learn to love Krishna by practicing bhakti yoga, when we love him more than the world, then he takes us out of this world for us to be with him happily forever. Thank you very much. Are there any questions?