The title of the post might be quite misleading in making one think that this is another post on Hinduism but it is not so. In fact, this has nothing to do with religion. This is about bringing in a new life to this world.
I want to dwell on 2 aspects of becoming a parent from a father's perspective
1. The actual reason for a man beget a child
2. The impact of the child on the father
To start of with the reason for people to beget a child is very selfish if one was to introspect. We know of all the perils, obstacles, and despair in this world and we have gone through the same. This being the case, why would we want one more life that we would dearly love to endure the same. Of course, the optimists would suggest there are numerous pros to live, but nonetheless, I am most positive that there would be not one who would disagree with the cons associated with life, unless one chooses a life of austerity and detachment. But in the current connected world there would be no one who is not materialistic.
Therefore, to beget a child is nothing short of selfishness and of course, I would be guilty of the same too. We want a child to bring joy, meaning in our lives, learn responsibility, etc.
Now coming to actual topic at hand, Reincarnation. What does this mean in the context of child birth? My viewpoint here is that this is targeted at the parents, especially the father. While the mother nourishes, showers love and looks after the well being of the child, the father job would be pass on the knowledge and prepare him for the future endeavours the child would embark upon. (Feminists please do not try to construe the above statement. I am NOT suggesting that the mother has no role in educating the child to prepare him/her for future battles and wars of life. It is more of a figure of speech and I being a man am talking from my perspective). In order to do this, the man would have to correct his shortcomings, be it in behaviour, perspective, culture, skills, manners, outlook, etc. He would strive to become the perfect man and father. In this process he is reincarnated as a new man in this life. He would try his best to make sure the faults he has in him are not inherited by his child. He wants to pass on the best traits and skills to his child.
This is my thinking. Do you have any other thoughts on this?
2 comments:
I agree - having a child means getting an obvious reason to be a better person. You are given a reason to take the high road in life because you do not want your child to know you as someone who cheats / steals / lies / falls for temptation or similar. There is someone now who you want to be a role model for, and that is an incentive for you to make extra efforts.
So to the extent that this incentive is valuable to you, having a child means you get this extra value.
Some people may even think that this is such a transforming event that they are reincarnated.
But the main tenant of the thesis above, that you would have a child to get this value, I disagree with. The positives of this world outweighs the negatives by at least two order of magnitudes IMO. You want your child to experience this world, imperfect as it may be, grow personally and physically and enjoy life. Hopefully make a net contibution to solving the problems of the world.
But living is not as hard as alluded to above. Perils, obstacles and despair is not a dominant theme in life for most people. And if a new life can help make the world a little bit better (if properly raised!) - that would be altruism, not selfishness.
@ lilja,
Thank you very much for the comment. Nice to see some discussion here.
Here I was merely talking with background in Hinduism, where in the goal of a living soul is to perform good deeds, be detached and so on and try to attain Moksha which means there will be no more births.
I have not said that only through begetting a child should a person transform but was talking about the motivation for a person to transform.
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