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Hindus Welcome World's Growing Interest in Reincarnation

Hindus have welcomed reportedly growing interest of the world into the concept of reincarnation.

Lisa Miller, religion editor for Newsweek magazine, writes in the August 27 edition of The New York Times on "Remembrances of Lives Past". According to a report by Washington DC based prestigious Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life few months back, "24 percent Americans believe in Reincarnation, that people will be reborn in this world again and again".

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that it was kind of endorsement of an age old Hinduism concept by the non-Hindus which we had been stressing all along. Zed invited the world to look deeper into the rich philosophical thought which Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, offered.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, says that ancient Prashna Upanishad and Amritabindu Upanishad talk about rebirth. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad explains it beautifully: As a caterpillar, reaching the tip of a blade of grass, draws itself together and reaches out for a new foothold, so the Self, having come to the end of one life and letting go of ignorance, gathers in his faculties and reaches out from the old body to a new.

Rajan Zed points out that Lord Krishna tells in Bhagavad-Gita (Song of the Lord): As a man casts off worn-out clothes and takes new ones, so when the body is worn out a new one is acquired by the Self, who lives within...Death is inevitable for those who are born, birth is certain for the dead...You and me have passed through many births, Arjuna. You have forgotten, but I know them all...Striving with great effort over many lifetimes, a person becomes purified of all selfish desires and attains the highest goal of life...

Zed further says that even Rig-Veda, oldest existing scripture of the mankind, talks about dead man getting a new body. Law Code of Manu references the process of rebirth, recalling former birth, previous life, effect of sins on rebirth, etc.