Reincarnation: You Only Live Twice?

In Britain, one in four say they believe in reincarnation.

The idea that we live not once, not twice,

but countless lives, has great appeal.

Death itself doesn't exist.

The soul is stepping in, to one body, to the next.

An idea so enticing,

it's embraced by celebrities, like Julia Roberts and Britney Spears.

It's also a belief found in many faiths -

Sikhism, Jainism,

Kabbalah and Scientology.

A third of Christians say they believe in it, even though

it's not a part of Christian doctrine.

But today, the true meaning of this ancient belief

seems to have got lost.

Reincarnation has its roots in the world's oldest organised religion -

Hinduism.

It's like the difference between Heaven and Earth for us.

If you create a good bank balance in the bank of God,

you get a new life, but based on your previous life,

and that is reincarnation.

Far from being a spiritual accessory,

it's a belief that makes real demands.

This earth plane is a school.

We have to learn certain lessons,

and every time we fail, we have to repeat that class again.

Other people might say perhaps you're going through this bad time,

because you were a bad person.

If I was, then in this life, I'm going to put that right.

Reincarnation is a trap. Life, then death, then life then death.

It's mundane.

As Hindus prepare to celebrate Diwali, we ask,

what does reincarnation actually mean to British Hindus?

In a funeral home in North London,

the Patel family mark the passing of 84-year-old Baa Patel,

or at least, the passing of her current life.

For this is no ordinary funeral.

Hindus believe that death isn't the end, it is the beginning of life.

THEY CHANT

These are sacred items,

which signify that we are performing a fire sacrifice.

This first part of the ceremony is led by Hindu priest Nila Madhava Das.

HE CHANTS

Within the Hindu culture, death itself doesn't exist.

Because the true identity of the body is the soul,

which is what we are.

And for the soul there is neither birth, death, old age or disease.

And hence therefore, when the body dies, the soul comes out,

and transmigrates into another existence, another body.

And that's the Hindu belief.

Nila takes inspiration from Hindu scripture - the Bhagavad Gita.

It says that the true identity of the individual is the atma,

the soul.

The Patels believe this ceremony

helps their grandmother's soul leave the body.

Without it, she could become a ghost,

unable to be reborn into another life.

I feel she is probably somewhere,

just very happy, smiling,

and sort of beginning to live a new life.

I don't think she had a bad bone in her body,

-so I hope that in her next life...

-She's rewarded.

She lives the best of the best life.

She looked after everyone, doesn't matter who they were.

She took them under her wing and that was it.

So wherever she may be now, I hope it's just...what she wants.

-Peace.

-Just good, good luck.

I know people have different perception of reincarnation,

but I believe that she's probably born into another human being.

So the next baby that's born, that could be her,

coming back as another human being.

PRIEST PRAYS

We shall conclude the ceremony with the sounding

of the auspicious shankh.

The sound is transcendental sound vibration,

which signifies that we have begun and ended a particular ceremony.

HE BLOWS INTO SHANKH

On the face of it,

reincarnation seems to make few demands on believers.

In fact, it's quite the opposite.

Deepu Murpuri runs his own company,

and lives a comfortable life with his wife Gita in North London.

They are devout Hindus who know they have a good life.

Every week, Deepu meets up with 18 other Hindu families

in central London.

-You got enough volunteers?

-Yeah.

-The bananas?

-Yeah.

That's the drinks side,

and then, we do the food on that side.

So you can come and join us on the food side.

Together, their charity, the Sadhu Vaswani Centre,

gives food to the homeless.

In the Bhagavad Gita, it says you must do your duty.

And this is our duty - to help our fellow man.

But by the grace of God,

one of these men could have been me.

And I would like to think there would be someone coming out

to feed me, so I thank God for all the privileges

he has bestowed on me and my friends and family.

So we do a little part, to pay back.

OK, where are the serving spoons?

Belief in reincarnation also means Deepu has half an eye

on the next life.

Knowing that we have many lives,

it keeps us aware that we must continuously do good actions

and be good, so that our future lives are more comfortable.

The whole idea of reincarnation hinges on another belief.

Reincarnation can only exist with the concept of karma.

And karma is, what goes around, comes around.

It is Newton's third law of motion, for instance -

to every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Hence, it would be advisable to perform positive activity

which is not detrimental to the soul.

Good activities, humanitarian activities, pious activities,

and above that, devotion to God.

'Our karma changes what we go to the next life.

'So bad karma is very bad karma, and then, next life is'

where you go through pain and hassle and trouble.

And you just pay, pay, pay.

You have no say in anything, you cannot control anything.

But if you do good enough deeds in this life,

and create a good bank balance in the bank of God,

which is transferable,

simply speaking, you get into good karma.

Reincarnation asks of Hindus that they lead a virtuous life.

But doing good to others isn't the whole story.

Deepu also feeds the birds in Regent's Park.

There's a thread of life, going through the whole of Creation.

And animals are our younger brothers and sisters.

They have the same feelings as we have for their offspring,

they also form relations, and they feel pain as well.

Maybe in a previous lifetime I was one of these pigeons,

and I was being fed.

So by way of thanking God, I want to return the favour.

Hindu tradition suggests that all life is a pyramid,

with humans at the top.

But the soul, or atma, can move up and down

through different forms of life.

It would be a concern of a Hindu

to better him or herself,

because if one doesn't, then most certainly,

within the Hindu belief,

you don't really want to come back as a lower life form.

If you are, let's say, a human being

and you have performed karma which is somewhat detrimental,

then you would come back as a lower life form,

which may not be necessarily desirable -

a life of a dog, or a life of a cat, for instance.

Of course, dogs and cats in this country are well looked after,

but in the rest of the world, they're not so well looked after.

Reincarnation is not a "feel-good" belief.

It makes serious demands.

But for some Hindus, it can also be a comfort.

It can help come to terms with suffering and sorrow.

SINGING

50-year-old Satish Topiwala has lived in Leicester for 40 years

with his wife and family.

As a child, he was paralysed with polio.

He couldn't walk for most of his early years,

and today he walks using callipers.

Some Hindus believe that his polio could be down to bad karma

in a previous life.

Yet for Satish, his faith in reincarnation

has left him with a positive outlook.

He even sees his condition as an opportunity.

People might say perhaps you are going through this bad time

because you were a bad person before.

So OK, if I was, then in this life I'm going to put that right.

I'm going to do all the good things in this life,

so that I can cover all the bad things I did previously.

So by being a good human being and doing good deeds,

what I'm doing is overcoming all the bad deeds I may have done

in my previous life, and so much so,

that if I come back as a human being,

then I don't go through the same problem,

and do even greater deeds in my next life.

Reincarnation even helps him confront tragedy.

One weekend, five years ago,

Satish's faith was put to the ultimate test.

His 17-year-old son Vishal

was about to start an apprenticeship in construction.

And Satish was looking forward to helping his son prepare for it.

But this weekend would end in tragic loss.

That particular weekend, I was going to take him

to buy some...construction boots and stuff,

and a hard hat and things.

But he wasn't feeling too good the day before, which was a Friday,

and Saturday morning, we felt that, OK, he's having a lie-in,

which was very unusual for him.

So we let him, and I made a cooked breakfast, which he enjoys,

and just as it was ready to be served,

I said, "It's a bit late", because it was almost 11, 11.30,

so I went along to see about getting him up.

And as soon as I opened his bedroom door...

I just felt in my heart that... he's no longer with us.

Vishal had died in the middle of the night.

The coroner gave an open verdict.

The colour of his body - I just felt it.

I touched him and he was cold.

And I think that's one of the other things which I've found very hard,

is since then, it's like a video recording.

Because I saw that, and every time I see, or try to remember him,

that's the first thing that comes. It's like on a loop.

I just keep seeing that image of him lying there.

As a parent, if your kids die before you,

it's very difficult to handle.

It hit me very badly.

HE SINGS

Satish sought help from local priest Hemang Bhatt,

who conducted his son's funeral,

and helped him begin to make sense of this immense loss.

THEY SING

'I know Satish's family very well,

'because I have done a couple of religious ceremonies

'with their family.'

It was a very hard time when I did the funeral,

last time at their house.

Especially his son.

A very, very moving occasion.

Most of the time when we do the funeral of elders,

we say we want to celebrate their life,

whilst we are upset that they have left us.

But when somebody passes away at a younger age,

it's very hard to digest.

It was very hard for both of us to perform the ceremony.

It is only now that Satish has come to terms with the incomprehensible.

My son's life was limited.

From the moment he was born, he was going to go, at age of 17,

but I didn't know about it.

But now, I've come to accept, that was his time with us.

In life, reincarnation asks believers to see a purpose in suffering

and to live a virtuous life.

But it also makes great demands

when dealing with the event that comes to all of us...

..death itself.

In India, a successful rebirth

relies on meticulous attention to ritual.

The key is devotion to Agni, the god of fire.

The majority of the ceremonies conducted within the Hindu culture

would consist of a fire sacrifice.

When one gets married, for instance,

one gets married in front of the fire sacrifice.

The fire is the witness.

And the ultimate and the final fire sacrifice which is performed

is that of death, whereby the body is cremated.

In India, bodies are burned on an open funeral pyre for all to see.

It's a public ceremony

that graphically confronts the mourners with their own mortality.

In the open pyre, we used to see the body parts detach and burn away.

That was called "smashana vairagya",

which means, "Look at that which is happening just now.

"No sooner is it going to happen to you.

"Why waste your time and argue about small things in this world,

"when the bigger picture is, you will only be here for so long?"

And that's a good physical reminder, according to Hindu faith.

The burning of the body is crucial.

We give the body to the fire,

the fire helps us convert it back to where it came from,

the five basic elements -

earth, water, air, fire, and emptiness.

This fire encourages the soul, or atma, to quickly leave the body

to go on its journey to the next life.

In North London, it's the second part of the funeral of Baa Patel.

Today, her body is escorted to the crematorium.

And just like in India, the aim is to release the soul,

so that it can begin its reincarnation.

PRIEST PRAYS

This ceremony looks similar to other cremation services.

There is music, prayers and eulogies.

But it doesn't end when the final curtain is drawn.

The Patels are expected to go to the furnace chamber

to see the actual moment of cremation.

If you left the coffin behind the curtains,

in your mind it will be left behind the curtain,

and you walked away, you think that the person is still there.

Witnessing the cremation brings closure

that the body has been cremated, and they have parted company with it

and it is now disintegrating by fire.

Witnessing the cremation reminds the family of their heritage.

Most Hindu families are happy with cremation British-style.

But some believe they should stick to traditional ways.

39-year-old yoga teacher Ajay Kumar

is spending every hour he can at the local hospital in Slough.

He has just heard that his father, who is dying from liver cirrhosis,

now has only a few days left to live.

As the eldest son, he believes it's his duty

to hold an open pyre cremation for his father.

The problem with the current way of cremation

is that it's a mechanical process.

It's devoid of all spiritual practices.

And the most important spiritual practice

is the actual lighting of the fire, using what we call agni.

There's a difference between agni, which is the divine fire,

and just the ordinary fire.

It's like the difference between Heaven and Earth for us.

The funeral pyre is actually lit, literally, by the son.

Then the holy fire, or agni, is invoked.

And it's important for us to conduct these final rites correctly,

so that the spirit soul, or "jeevatma", as we call it,

can actually leave the body.

If your final rites are not conducted correctly,

then you would become a ghost and a spirit which is lost in other worlds

and would never even reach its destination.

More and more British Hindus want to hold open pyre cremations.

Last year, in a landmark ruling at London's Court of Appeal,

72-year-old Davinder Ghai won his case to be cremated this way.

It's so important because it's to free the soul.

And that helps for the reincarnation.

And if the soul is restless, you can't be born again.

But as yet, no council has given planning permission

for a suitable building to hold an open pyre cremation.

Until that happens, such a ceremony would be illegal.

At this moment I am writing a letter to the council, asking them,

pleading to them really, to, at this late stage,

to consider granting us a plot of land,

temporary access, to perform this open pyre cremation.

Two days after this interview, Ajay's father died.

Ajay wasn't given permission to hold an open-air funeral pyre.

But at the local crematorium,

the council allowed him right into the furnace room.

There, he lit his father's body with agni,

the holy fire.

Belief in reincarnation is not the spiritual accessory

so many in the West believe it is.

Indeed, a virtuous life

and precise rituals are not even what's most demanding about it.

The biggest challenge is the sheer numbers of cycles

of birth and rebirth.

It is mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita

that there are 8.4 million species of life, just within this universe.

So the soul has the opportunity to transmigrate into all these species.

There are lots of life forms,

and you could start with the simplest of bacterium,

and there are lots of varieties in there - millions.

And then you go to viruses - again, millions.

And then you go to small insects, small animals,

then you go to the mammals - dogs, cats...

And then you go finally to human level.

But if 8.4 million cycles does indeed seem like an infinity,

the rewards are also infinitely blissful.

The end goal of reincarnation is to achieve the ultimate salvation,

and that is in the spiritual world,

and to attain a spiritual body, which is eternal.

And when one attains a spiritual body,

reincarnation ceases to exist.

In Hinduism, this state is called moksha,

meaning liberation, mukti, release, and most commonly, nirvana.

Nirvana is a state, and during that state, you don't have a body.

You are bodiless, in energy form with God.

And therefore, the bodiless state of nirvana

alleviates all the problems associated with the body.

It's indescribable, because it's...

the best form of unconditional love you can imagine.

It's contentment, it's joy.

It's when there is no want,

and you are just at peace, for an eternity.

It's undescribable, they say.

You merge with the supreme consciousness,

like we are drops of an ocean,

and then we just merge with this mighty ocean,

where there is just complete tranquillity.

I won't be in a body, I won't be in anything.

I will be a spirit.

I don't think where I am going to go is a physical place.

I won't be a tree, I won't be wearing glasses any more,

I won't be a disabled person.

Whatever gives you that ultimate pleasure,

imagine that, for ever.

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