Thread: Terrible Past-lives and lessons

I was born a Christian, and then converted to Hinduism at a young age due to my parents, so I have very conflicted religious views.

More or less, one of the ideas behind hinduism was that you live a finite number of lives. You are to serve a purpose and then your soul can be free or whatnot. However, your deeds (good or evil) will affect your next life.
This theory works with the Balance theory....
You be a criminal now, kill rape and in your next life you are born in extreme pain or are put through suffering of some sort...

Excuse me, no one and I mean no one can really convert to Hinduism. Islam or Christianity maybe but HInduism NEVER. YOu have to be born into it or married into it.
As for pastlives, I do tend to notice that bigotted elements are rightly put into a shell of a person of who they tend to hate, for example a KKK man could be a African in the next life. This is a learning karma but I have heard controversially that disabled people (who are born with their disabilities) were actually suicides.

I could be very wrong and I'm open to the possibility that I am but, what about the diksha? Isn't that a ceremony of conversion more or less in which one dedicates themselves to a God or Goddess and takes on a new name, symbolically shedding their old name and old life for a Hindu life and a Hindu name? I think the confusion comes into play with the caste system but, historically India has been absorbing people into its culture and belief for years. For example the Kushan emperor, Kadphasis II, became a devotee of Siva going so far as to have Siva put on his coins and , in historical records, had himself mentioned as a devotee of Siva. Currently there are Bactrian Greeks, Huns, Kushan and the Sakas all mixed into the Indian genetic lineage but, they are indistinguishable as separate groups because they assimilated right down to the religion. Even the Mahabharata says that it is not a mans birth or learning that makes him a member of a caste but, his conduct. I think it is very possible to actually convert and even if caste bound Hindus would not recognize you the test of a religion is not in whether you are accepted into a community but, whether or not it fulfills you as a person and whether the tenets and beliefs of that religion are a part of your daily life.

On the topic of past lives I have nothing to say since I never believed in them. It always seemed to me that past lives and the concept of reincarnation is more or less torture. After one life time here who would want to come back? I'd rather move on. I think most past lives can be attributed to genetic memory or the collective unconscious/Akashic Record however one wants to paint it.

Vir Sapiens is actually right angeress. It was a Diksha Initiation/Ceremony. While what you said is true about being born into the religion, there are levels/sects that can be passed onto an individual so long as the individual agrees to follow the practices that was instructed by the initiating guru...
Vir Sapiens said it best though...

I've often wondered if it's not possible to drag some sort of burden with you from one life to the next (because I've noticed some disturbing parallels myself), but I'm still unsure about how karma plays in. I don't think either karma or astrology has all that big of a control over life, certainly not as much as choice.

I agree.
You can drag things from your past lives, that can end up being a burden. However, the choises you make in this, is what matters.

I've often wondered if it's not possible to drag some sort of burden with you from one life to the next (because I've noticed some disturbing parallels myself), but I'm still unsure about how karma plays in. I don't think either karma or astrology has all that big of a control over life, certainly not as much as choice.

I view Karma as something literal and observable in one's own life time. The many choices I made as a kid determined who I became today. This in turn has had an effect on those around me. What determined what choices I made as a kid depended on what choices my parents made before I was born.

Believe it or not and like it or not, humanity is a closed circuit and we are all interconnected. It is sorta like what goes around, comes around, but not exactly. So even if there is no after life, what you were will be dragged upon the others who are born after you die.

This is talking about what one CAN directly observe. The weirder thing is I often get the feeling I'm living in some sort of Ground Hog's day but starring ISON and not Bill Murray.

I don't take these concepts as the word of the universe. I take a look at them and decide for myself what I believe.sometimes my beliefs are shaped by the things I remember. Parts of them seem to apply while I find others to be total rubbish. Its up to each of us to decide how important these concepts are on an individual scale.