Why does Hinduism need a Theory of Reincarnation

Friedrich Nietzsche may have had something similar in mind that he called "Eternal Recurrence."

Why does Hinduism need a theory of reincarnation?

All religions, Pagan, Abrahamic or otherwise, have a concept of Hell and Heaven.  If you lead a virtuous life, as your religion defines it, you go to Heaven, and live happily thereafter; else you go to Hell, and pay for your misdeeds.  No religion has much to say on life after you go to Heaven for you have already arrived.  But what happens to those who go to hell?  Do they get a second chance at redemption?  Surprisingly, except for Hinduism, no other religion has much of an answer to that interesting philosophic question.

But then, why is it that Hinduism alone that so needs an elaborate theory of reincarnation, while other religions can manage with Paradise and Perdition, as sufficient incentive/deterrence, to keep their followers on the right path between good and evil?

Why have a theory of reincarnation at all, that is as difficult to refute, or justify, as the notion of an all powerful God itself?  In fact, once you do have the notion of an all powerful God, a theory of reincarnation is, philosophically speaking, rather redundant, for God can do, what it can do, just as well.

To dig a bit deeper into the need for a theory of reincarnation, you need to understand caste in the Indian context.  I will try to tell the story, as told to us by Dr S Radhakrishnan, President from 1962 to 1967, and also one of our well known philosophers.  His narrative is corroborated by many other researchers in the field, and I have referred to some of them as well. But it his account that is most sympathetic to Hinduism, while still remaining honest to the truth, and therefore, I shall use his narrative for the story.

Indo-European tribes in antiquity [circa 2500 BCE or earlier] had three castes - the warriors, priests, and peasants/artisans - in that order.  Among the Aryans, also a very large Indo-European tribe, that would correspond to - Khastriyas, Brahmins, and Vaishyas - in that order.  However, as we know, there are actually four castes in the Purusha Sukta verses of the Rig Veda, they being the Brahmins, Khastriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras, in that order.

To his credit, Dr S Radhakrishnan, doesn’t fight shy of telling us how this rearrangement of castes came about, after the Aryan tribes entered the Indian subcontinent, and had had some experience in trying to settle down with the local inhabitants, who already populated the sub-continent in very large numbers.

We must remember though that [a] Aryans were not the only tribes who came to India in antiquity; there were many others - Greeks, Scythians, Dasyus, - and [b] all the autochthons were not Indus Valley Civilization.  There were many - Dravids, Gonds, Bhils, Santhal, Kassi, Garo, Munda etc., and very heterogeneous in culture.  So the story is a lot more complex than Arya meet IVC people to become Bharat.

As Dr S Radhakrishnan tells the story, the Aryans faced an existential dilemma when they entered India, and found themselves vastly outnumbered by local people. While the locals were no match for Aryan weapons of war, such as horse drawn chariots and iron swords, their sheer numbers made a strategy of conquest impossible. So a more priestly strategy of persuasion became necessary.

“The pre-vedic peoples with whom the Aryans had to mingle were of a lower grade of civilization and culture. They were constituted into the fourth estate of the unregenerate, the once-born, the ekajati, in whom no quality of intellect, emotion, or will is particularly developed. The twice-born or the regenerated are divided into three classes according as their intellect, emotion or will is more dominant than the others. Those who are strongly endowed with the powers of thought and reflection are the Brahmins; those gifted with heroism and love are the Kshatriyas or the warriors; those strongly inclined towards the practical business of life are the Vaisyas or the traders.”

Radhakrishnan; Dr. Sarvepalli. The Philosophy of Hinduism . Niyogi Books. Kindle Edition.

Jyotirao Phule and Dr B R Ambedkar have long told us that Shudras are the autochthons.  That is not new.  What is new here is the strategy of subjugation.  On the positive side, relying on persuasion, and evangelism, if you will, reduces the level of violence required to subjugate the natives.  But in reality, gaslighting and enslaving them is no less evil.  The sheer disparity in numbers dictated the Aryan choice.  Which is not to say no violence was used.  The autochthons continue to fight for their lands even to this day, say as in Chhattisgarh, and the State uses violence to dispossess them.  Only we don’t tell the truth to ourselves now, anymore than we did in the past.

The disparity in culture that Dr Radhakrishnan talks of is also problematic.  On one hand we have the IVC, with a written script, urban life style, sanitation, and a highly developed trading system.  In contrast, although the Aryans had Rig Veda, [oral] they still had no script, were pastoral people, were familiar with iron, [while the IVC was in late bronze age,] and counted their wealth in cows, implying an unfamiliarity with money & trading.  But there is no denying that there would have been tribal people who were more primitive in culture.  However, what appears to have happened is that all those with dark skins, unlike the Aryans, were put in one basket - that of Shudras.

The strategy of persuasion - or gaslighting if you prefer - was both ingenious and inspired.  Co-option played a large part in the enterprise.

“The Aryans took to the non-Aryan gods very kindly, improved them where possible, subordinated them where necessary. The worshippers of Mahisha (buffalo-demon) were told that the Cosmic Spirit was greater than the Mahisha. The worshippers of serpents were instructed that there was a greater than the serpents, the Lord of serpents, Nageswara or Krishna, who danced over the head of Kaliya. The marks of the gradual civilising of the lower classes are visible throughout the cultural history of India.”

Radhakrishnan; Dr. Sarvepalli. The Philosophy of Hinduism . Niyogi Books. Kindle Edition.

Lord Krishna, as also Lord Shiva, were possibly autochthon deities, co-opted into the Aryan pantheon.  The beauty of the scheme lies in getting the Aryans also to worship the new Gods.  So over time, Agni, Rudra, Indira, … the whole cohort of Vedic Gods  - were quietly retired, and replaced by the trinity of new ones like Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.  The victors and the vanquished worshipped the same Gods.  What could be more egalitarian?!

If you have the same Gods, and the same rules of conduct across the victors and the vanquished, then you need something very strong and binding as a social contract to preserve the privilege of the privileged.  And here we have a reinvigorated caste system being pressed into service.

My conjecture is that the reinvigorated caste system came into place towards the second millennium of the coming of Aryans, when the whole schema of Hinduism was revised through the Upanishads and Dharmshatras.  This is also the time when genetic evidence shows that caste became endogamous.  That would also gel with the time Manusmriti was thought of and codified. The central message of Gita is also caste dharma. All of these things come together in the service of caste.

The caste system was designed for two purposes in mind: [1] to keep the vast majority of the autochthons in their place as providers of cheap labor. And [2] to preserve the privilege of the privileged, mainly the Brahmins, because this strategy of persuasion made them more valuable than the warriors; in gaslighting and keeping the natives in check.  The Arthashastra, which predates the Manusmriti, makes a great point of settling virgin lands with the help of the Shudras.  The Brahmins and the Kshatriyas were to follow for administration only after they had got the place in going.

How did this reordering of caste take place?  By a suitable unanimous amendment to the Rig Veda, passed by all those present and voting of course. [Now you know who invented Democracy.]  Most scholars agree that the Purusha Sukta versus in the Rig Veda are a latter day addition, written in stylized and grammatical Sanskrit, that didn’t become available until after Panini.   The Rig Veda as such is written in Prakrit. It is through the legend of the Purusha Sukta sacrifice, that the caste system comes into being formally.  It is another matter that the three original castes probably predate the Rig Veda itself.

Why put it in the Rig Veda at all?  Well, most Hindu Philosophers, except the best of them like my favorite, Brihaspati, have long held Vedas are eternal, just like our thrice born Hindu Nationalist, so the insertion in the Rig Veda itself was to give them added legitimacy and permanence.  Now you may ask the RSS Chief how he proposes to abolish caste from Hindu Society, given that the Vedas are eternal?  But then the thrice-born should be expected to go around in circles I suppose.

The Indian caste system for all its strategy of humane persuasion towards the Shudra, offers no redemption in this life.  Slaves elsewhere could earn their freedom. But even though caste is by merit, in the Pre-Purusha-Sukta Aryan society, with the coming of the Shudras, it becomes strictly by birth, and you may not transcend it in this life ever. It is this unique rigidity of the Indian caste system that necessitates the theory of reincarnation.

You cannot enslave people with no chance of redemption.  That is the most dangerous thing to do because then you have “dead men walking”, who have no hope, and hence, no fear.  So redemption is offered, not in this life, but in life here-in-after.  It is no coincidence that the theory of reincarnation is tailor made to instill and stamp caste into the psyche of the gaslighted.  Consider.

What is Dharma?  Dharma is what is good for all people.  What is dharma for an individual?  It is how well you perform your duty to society as prescribed for your caste.  So if you are a laborer, your dharma is to work as hard as possible.  Can you, instead of hard labour, read the Vedas to become a good teacher?  Perish the thought. The Gods will slay you like Shambuka was slain.  So dharma in practice, is not the absolute good you do, but how well you perform your caste duties.  The better you are at carrying out your caste dharma, the more good karma you accumulate.  There is no other way to earn good karma; not even by learning the Vedas.  That’s why the Gita stands at the core of Hindu philosophy according to Nationalists of every hue.

Now you may well ask if we all have our Brahman, before the universal Brahman, and are therefore equal, why am I a Shudra?

The answer lies in your past karma.  Clearly, if you are a Shudra, you have been very naughty in your past lives, mixing it up with the liberals, lax at sacrificing cows, and beefing too much about sacrificial ritual fees owed to Brahmins, accumulating a lot of bad karma.  So you better get down to hard labor, and no more questions; unless you wish to add to your bad karma.  God is omniscient.  He tracks every bit of good and bad karma you accumulate, and enters the total in your soul, or the Brahman.  When your good karma is sufficiently large and positive, you will attain moksha, and be merged with God or Brahman himself.  The one and only way to make sure that happens, is to do your caste duty diligently.

The aim of all living of course is to accumulate good karma until your Brahman merits merger with the universal Brahman. That applies to all. [Except the Mleecha, who are beyond redemption, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam or not]. The only way to achieve this is to stick to your caste dharma.  This too applies to all - the Aryans and the Shudras.  Since privilege is already preserved, the schema ensures that the gulf between the two can never be transcended.  As Nietzsche would say - there is no escape.

It locks in the Shudras into semi-slavery, reinforced by all the strategies of marginalization that we see being used against the Muslims today - be it shrinking of social and economic space, denial of upward mobility, or plain violence.  But it also locks in the Aryans by endogamy keeping the classes apart.  Which explains the importance of the “Love Jihad” as a center piece of the Muslim marginalization strategy.

There is an interesting aspect to the theory of reincarnation that may be the Gordian Knot to unravel for the thrice-born Hindu Nationalists.

Consider what happens to those condemned to the purgatory, after having flunked the karma-dharma exam, in other religions such as Christianity or Islam.  These people have no where to go.  Do they keep burning in the eternal fires?  That seems hardly becoming of a merciful God.  What sort of a universal Brahman would keep other bits of Brahman burning in eternal fires for ever?

The Hindu theory of reincarnation makes your life just one in millions and millions of them, with God keeping a sharp eye on the karma you accumulate, as you traverse each one of them; be it as a lamb, a lion who eats that very lamb, or a hunter who hunts that lion next.  In each instance, your karma balance grows in proportion to how well you do your job; eat the lamb, or kill the lion, as applicable.

There is no eternal fire.  Success is guaranteed.  No matter how dull and dim-witted you are like me, over millions of lives, like random mutations of the DNA, or the neural network of Artificial Intelligence computer, you will learn to accumulate a large enough karma to have your Brahman merged with the Universal one.  No one needs to be without hope. Your Brahman evolves into God. That Charlie Darwin; he was just an ape whistling in the dark about evolution, compared to our Nationalist Sages.

Friedrich Nietzsche, in his book “Will To Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values” [start at 1058 para] prophesied the theory of Eternal Recurrence, an infinite time that circled back on itself, like a Mobius strip, going forward all the time, but always remaining in place.  Obviously he hadn’t read the original Upanishads, relying on a poor translation by that Colonialist Max Muller.  Else he would have known that the Vedic people had already discovered “Eternal Recurrence” as a reality, and were using it for the very purpose he had in mind - the foundation of an oligarchy above the plebeians and their interests; a political philosophy for the Ubermensch.

Now that the social engineers of our thrice-born Hindu Nationalists, wish to do away with caste, at least for public consumption, if not in reality, what happens to the theory of reincarnation?  Without caste, the theory is redundant.  Its only purpose was to create hope for the hopeless.  But when you throw out caste, can you do the same with theory of reincarnation?

I rather think the Engineers have a problem. While the RSS Chief may well wish to give up on caste, I doubt if the laity are willing to give up on the possibility of reincarnation. Even the Buddhists, who doubt if a Brahman exists all, could not take away the hope of reincarnation from their devout, and live to tell the tale.