Problem of Rebirth

About Notes on ‘Problem of Rebirth’ of Sri Aurobindo

This work of Sri Aurobindo is a detailed and insightful discussion of the topics of rebirth & karma and relates the two. He presents the various views of rebirth and analyses them deeply. This includes the views of different philosophies as well as modern science, including his critical evaluation of the theory of evolution. He clearly brings out the meaninglessness of many of the theories of rebirth and proposes what can be the only meaningful reason or purpose for rebirth based on Vedantha. His discussions under the section ‘Significance of Rebirth’ is so insightful & delightful to read. His own views culminate in the sections on ‘The Ascending Unity’ and the most beautiful section called ‘Involution & Evolution’ where he expounds the concept of Involution & Double evolution.

Then he takes up discussion of Karma and whole understanding & insight of Sri Aurobindo flows so delightfully in sections after sections such as ‘Four step theory of karma’, ‘True meaning of fate’, ‘Rebirth & Karma’, ‘Power & role of Individuality’ etc. Then taking up the topic of Law of Karma, he discusses the ‘Ordinary conception of the Law of karma’ & shows how hollow or inadequate this is. His discussion on ‘Karma & Justice’ will make everyone sit & up take note of the inadequacy of our normal understanding of Karma. Then he develops the Law of Karma through the beautiful chapter called ‘Lines of Karma’ culminating in the chapter ‘Higher Lines of Karma’ which will leave the reader with full conviction of the true purpose of Rebirth & the Law of Karma.

As in my other works where I have added my notes for my own better understanding and repeated readability, in this case also I have done the usual value add in terms of: inline meanings of difficult words & phrases, have divided the paras & have given topic titles to each to convey what is discussed in it, have reformatted long sentences or paragraphs so that the points are highlighted clearly, in some places have added the questions that arose in my mind at that stage of the book and have provided ‘Contents’ pages which help navigate to any section easily, particularly during re-read or referencing. No part of the book is omitted.

G H Visweswara,
Bangalore.
gh.visweswara@gmail.com

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