Buddhists believe in the power of past and future lives through karma and reincarnation. Here’s a witty recount of self-discovery by Soumya, exclusively for Different Truths.

In the eastern parts of the world, where Buddhism reigns, karma and reincarnation are taken quite seriously. 

The karma for various transgressions, especially, is quite imaginative and blood-curdling, if extremely apt, in a very dark logic. 

Old temples and pagodas have wall carvings, frescoes, and images giving vivid and nightmare-inducing images of these outcomes. Ankor Vat has an excellent collection of these images. 

Outside every temple or monastery in Vietnam, there is a board with graphic illustrations, giving specific karma for specific vices. 

For example, one that remains vivid in my memory, probably because it was one that I appreciated, having been a victim often, was that gossip mongers would have live coal placed on their tongues till it was time to be reborn. 

One that made me nervous was that gluttons get force-fed till they burst. 

The net karma you accumulate in the present life determines whether you will be promoted or demoted in the next life.

Everyone agrees that humans are near the top, with Nirvana as the top prize, but some put gods a tad above. Animals come next, but there’s no agreement about their precedence. Cows are tops among Hindus, but dogs are the top dog in Bhutan. 

In Vajrayana Buddhism, individuals actively remember their past lives and anticipate future births. At the same time, selecting esteemed positions such as heads of monasteries, state lamas, and kings relies on reincarnation rather than inheritance or any alternative means of selection. And everyone, government servants, academics, technocrats, lawyers, and ordinary citizens, accepts this, as we discovered in Bhutan. 

Our guide, and some fellow guests at our resort, who were attending a conference on setting up a bureau of standards for Bhutan, were discussing this belief with us and telling us quite matter-of-factly about their past and future lives. 

I was inquisitive; I wanted to know about our reincarnations as well. 

One of them took out a laptop, entered the date, time, and place of birth in an app, and the results stunned and convinced me.

The LOH had in her past life been a cannibal, promoted to human for having rid her island of missionaries by devouring them until an indigestible Baptist led her to be reborn again. 

For her excellent karma in this life, for tolerating me without reverting to her past life practices. 

On the other hand, I had risen to be a monk, but having too many lapses into the pleasures of the flesh was enough to demote me to the king. An excessively hedonistic lifestyle further downgraded me to the status of an Indian middle-class family man. But for my continued refusal to take life seriously, I would be born a monkey in my next life. 

Nothing could be fairer! 

I came away converted.  

Picture design by Anumita Roy

Soumya Mukherjee

Soumya Mukherjee is an alumnus of St Stephens College and Delhi School of Economics. He earns his daily bread by working for a PSU Insurance company, and lectures for peanuts. His other passions, family, friends, films, travel, food, trekking, wildlife, music, theater, and occasionally, writing. He has been published in many national newspapers of repute. He has published his first novel, Memories, a novella, hopefully, the first of his many books. He blogs as well.

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