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I was born. I had absolutely zero control over the type of body I happened to get, or the date and location of my birth. I refuse to categorize people on the basis of outward appearance. I guess that’s a radical opinion these days.
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You have the type of body that you have according to your karma from previous lives.
श्रीभगवानुवाच
कर्मणा दैवनेत्रेण जन्तुर्देहोपपत्तये ।
स्त्रिया: प्रविष्ट उदरं पुंसो रेत:कणाश्रय: ॥ १ ॥
śrī-bhagavān uvāca
karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa
jantur dehopapattaye
striyāḥ praviṣṭa udaraṁ
puṁso retaḥ-kaṇāśrayaḥ
Synonyms
śrī-bhagavān uvāca — the Supreme Personality of Godhead said; karmaṇā — by the result of work; daiva-netreṇa — under the supervision of the Lord; jantuḥ — the living entity; deha — a body; upapattaye — for obtaining; striyāḥ — of a woman; praviṣṭaḥ — enters; udaram — the womb; puṁsaḥ — of a man; retaḥ — of semen; kaṇa — a particle; āśrayaḥ — dwelling in.
Translation
The Personality of Godhead said: Under the supervision of the Supreme Lord and according to the result of his work [karma], the living entity, the soul, is made to enter into the womb of a woman through the particle of male semen to assume a particular type of body.
For the empiricist (pratyaksa pramana) skeptical about revealed scripture’s (śabdha pramana) knowledge of reincarnation there are the works of Dr. Ian Stevenson of U of Virginia.
Excerpt from the article:
I’d be happy to say it’s all complete and utter nonsense—a moldering cesspool of irredeemable, anti-scientific drivel. The trouble is, it’s not entirely apparent to me that it is. So why aren’t scientists taking Stevenson’s data more seriously? The data don’t “fit” our working model of materialistic brain science, surely. But does our refusal to even look at his findings, let alone to debate them, come down to our fear of being wrong? “The wish not to believe,” Stevenson once said, “can influence as strongly as the wish to believe.”
And this is a useful resource on the topic. This classic anthology offers ancient and modern perspectives on Job’s question: ‘If a man die, shall he live again?’ Spanning over 5,000 years of world thought, the selections invite consideration of an idea that has found hospitality in the greatest minds of history.
https://www.amazon.com/Reincarnation-East-West-Dialogue-Psychology-Philosophy/dp/1557000263
With all respect, I prefer explanations that do not depend on the supernatural.
Did you read down to this part?
Anecdotal data from a psychiatrist treating mentally ill patients leads me to conlude that I am, in fact, a cynic.
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