52 Mantra, Sloka And Prayer Poems
This rotation of all creatures is what we call rebirth.
Man gets a new birth because of his harvests in the previous birth.
He gets a new body. The soul of his previous birth also resides in his
new body. Then it reaps the harvests of the previous birth. Rebirth
and harvests for deeds are linked to each other. We shall realize it
well from some story of rebirth. Below is given such a story.
The battle of Kurukshetra. The Kauravs are on one side, and the
Pandavas are on the other. In this battle, Gandhari, the mother of the
Kauravas, lost her hundred sons. She was much grief-stricken for
her dead sons.
She asked Bhagaban Shrikrishna, 'O Krishna, I can remember my
fifty births. I made no sin during all these births. Then why should I
endure this grief for the death of my hundred sons?'
Bhagaban Shrikrishna replied, 'Though you know your fifty
previous births, you cannot remember births before that. In that birth
you had killed hundred insects as an act of play. Harvests of the sins
of that birth are piled together. You have got rid of all your sins in
the previous births mourning for the death of your hundred sons.'
So we can see that men's harvests of deeds remain heaped up. In
some birth or other man has to reap his harvests. This is why man
should do good works for a better birth. Good works shall ensure
him a better life in the next birth. He would not be born again, if he
does desireless works.