Karma and Rebirth

Author(s): T G Kalghatgi
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 64

Rebirth- A Philosophical Study
the objection on the basis of the loss of memory cannot be seriously maintained. 28
It is possible to say that the loss of memory at the end of every life may imply to some extent a loss and breach of continuity. In losing memory, it is said, we lose that in which we have found great balance.
But we only lose comparatively worthless forms which the lapse of years would change to a positive evil. And as we come to understand life better we shall shrink from such a loss less and less. The value of immortality would not be lessened much, if at all, by pre-existence.
(iv) And then it is not always possible to say that the memory is fully destroyed at death and a person will not remember anything of his past life in the next birth. There is an ancient tradition in Indian thought which states that one can remember one's past lives by means of (a) constant study of scriptures, (b) by purification by austerity and (c) by the love of all creation.29 In the Meno Socrates is reported to have elicited a geometrical theorem from a Negro boy although he had not studied geometry at all. Modern Psychical Research has been working on this problem. The investigations have shown that the phenomenon of mediumship leads us to suppose that everything is not destroyed after death. The spirit that has lost bodily existence can present itself and its experiences through a medium.
C.D. Broad's apalysis of mediumsbip shows the stream of inter-connected events which constitute tbe mental history of a certain person is continued after the death of his body and communicates through a medium. "There is no doubt at all that the best phenomena of trance mediumship involve paranormal cognition of high order. The only question is whether this, combined with alternations of personality and extra-ordinary but not paranormal powers of dramatization will not suffice to account for the phenomena which prima facie suggests so strongly that some persons survive the deaths ... "30 C.D. Broad has developed a compound theory of mind. The mind emerges into existence when the body and the psychic factor suitably combine, just as water is formed by the combination of hydrogen and oxygen. He maintains that on the death of the body the psychic factor continues to exist and seems capable of being united with other suitably developed organisms. It carries modifications due to experiences that happened to the person who is dead. In mediumship phenomena the psychic factor of a dead person is temporarily united with the body of the entran.
28. Radhakrishnan (S.): An Idealist View of Life (Unwin, 1961), p. 238 29. Manusmrti iv. 148 30. Broad (C. D.): Religion, Philosophy and Psychical Research (Routledge & Kegan
Paul, 1953), p. 25