Hinduism speaks of the cycle of “birth and rebirth”. It says one’s “Karma” in this life determines one’s future births until the soul,”Atman”, escapes to attain “Moksh”.

Similarly Plato says that the soul of those who indulge in vices like ‘gluttony, wantonness, and drunkenness” (Page 39), “And those who have chosen a life of injustice, tyranny, and violence” (Page 40) will be reborn as animals as diverse as asses, wolves, hawks and kites.

John Locke says, “The same immaterial substance, without the same consciousness, does not make the same person” (Page 14), which I interpret to mean that if a man’s soul has no consciousness of being the same “person” as when he committed a particular action, then he cannot be held accountable for that action.

I, honestly, find these thoughts extremely fanciful. I cannot fathom how one can be punished for what others think one may have done in the previous birth. I feel we have just this one life in which to act and face the consequences of our actions. One cannot mourn and despair over the troubles and miseries of this life and put the blame on the mistakes one may have made in the previous birth. One cannot feel guilty about wrongs one may have committed in a previous life that one cannot even recollect!

Why should one be punished by suffering in this life for the so-called past life’s offences?