INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

In the Spiritist environment, it is common to spread the idea that reincarnation aims to pay off debts contracted in past lives. Such an idea, however, raises mistakes regarding the understanding of the functioning of the Law of Cause and Effect and of Divine Justice itself, as well as the understanding of the purpose of reincarnation.

According to the Spiritist Doctrine, the Spirit who commits violations of the Law of God is punished by physical suffering, in the corporeal world. And by moral suffering, in the Spiritual world, so that his afflictions constitute, at the same time, an atonement of faults committed in the present or past and a test for the future. Thus, suffering stems from our own actions, current or past, misaligned with the Divine Law; we are therefore heirs of our own doings. The Creator does not punish us. We punish ourselves.

In this context, Instructor Druso (Spirit), in consultation with Andre Luiz and Hilario, who is found in chapter XIX of the book Action and Reaction, when lecturing on the decisive influence of mental states on organic balance/imbalance, says that:

“[...] justice, being a fundamental institute of order in Creation, invariably begins in ourselves, on any and every occasion that we defraud its principles. Evolution towards God can be compared to a divine journey. Good constitutes a sign of free passage to the heights of Higher Life, while [...] evil means a sentence of interdiction, constraining us to stops that are more or less difficult to readjust.”

To be good is everything that is in accordance with the Law of God. In addition, to be evil everything that deviates from it (question 630 of The Book of Spirits), is enough to infringe the said Law, consciously, so that our conscience, in some way, becomes injured, “and every injury of this kind determines disturbance or mutilation in the organism that exteriorizes our way of being”.

THE PURPOSE OF REINCARNATION

Regarding the purpose of reincarnation, the writer and Spiritist speaker Orson Peter Carrara clarifies:

“Only ignorance of Spiritist principles can generate the idea that we have to pay with suffering, and for someone, debts of past existences. Here is the mistake.

What happens is that the existence of the Spirit is unique; the corporeal existences are multiple, but the integral being is always the same. The multiple corporeal existences fulfill the purpose of stages of learning, actually steps of improvement.

As we are all learning, we make mistakes. Such mistakes have consequences. Such consequences may result in damage to ourselves or to third parties. In addition, such damages must be repaired. This is from the Divine Laws.

Such repairs we owe to our own conscience, to life. And, in this process, we can find ourselves in distressing situations, all resulting from the mistakes we are involved in (sic).”

Regarding the subject under study, we quote question 167 of The Book of Spirits, according to which:

“167. What is the purpose of reincarnation?

- Atonement, progressive improvement of Humanity. Without that, where would justice be?”

Let us pay attention to the fact that the Superior Spirits were answering the question asked by an inhabitant of a world of atonement and evidence, that is, Allan Kardec, hence, in the answer under study, the word “atonement” appears at the beginning and, in sequence, "progressive improvement of mankind". Therefore, it is evident that, since the Earth is inhabited by Spirits that still do not adjust to the Law of Cause and Effect the Greater Spirituality has initiated the response using the word “atonement”. Thus emphasizing that to deserve “to ascend to a happier planet”, it is necessary for the Spirit that rebels against the Law of God to reincarnate in an expiatory world, in order to readjust itself before the Law, which takes place through the atonements.

This, however, does not mean that reincarnation has the purpose of “paying debts from past lives”. The readjustment before the Law of Cause and Effect – we repeat – is a necessity for the Spirit and, as such, is inherent to the incarnation in expiatory worlds, like the Earth. Such worlds provide the proper means for amends to take place.

Thus, it is not possible for the Integral Being to ascend spiritually with an uneasy conscience. For this reason, we ourselves, the Spirits still bound to the Earth, not infrequently ask for, before being reborn, certain challenges, limitations and difficulties to be faced during the next corporeal existence, to effect the readjustment and, consequently, to obtain peace with the conscience itself, where the Law of God is written (question 621 of The Book of Spirits).

In the same line of thought, Carrara goes on to state that:

“[...] the distorted view of Spiritist principles generates the erroneous idea that we are in the world to pay... We are reborn simply to continue the evolutionary process. However, as yesterday (here meaning corporeal existences) we fed ourselves in excess, today (currently we are living in the present incarnation) we may be facing a strong stomachache or even uncomfortable diarrhea, simply as an immediate consequence of gluttony. Now I ask the reader to replace the exaggeration of food with the different situations that can be imagined in other examples. The example of food is only comparative” (sic).

For Spiritism, the progress of Humanity occurs through individuals who improve little by little and clarify themselves. Through the efforts of good men, nations advance morally and intellectually.

The progress of peoples highlights the justice of reincarnation, which does not deprive Spirits of the benefits of advancing civilization. In fact, due to the plurality of existences, the right to happiness is always the same for everyone, since no one is disinherited by progress. Consequently, due to the principle of solidarity that flourishes in the divine work, the works carried out by previous generations are used by later generations.

In this sense, commenting on the “parable of the workers at the last hour” (Matthew, 20: 1 to 16), the Spirit Henri Heine asserts that:

“The beautiful dogma of reincarnation makes Spiritual filiation eternal and precise. Called to account for his earthly mandate, the Spirit realizes the continuity of the interrupted task, but always resumed. He sees and he feels that he has picked up, in passing, the thought of those who preceded him. He enters the field again, matured by experience to advance further. In addition, all, first and last hour workers, with their eyes wide open on the profound justice of God, no longer murmur: they adore.

Such is one of the true meanings of this parable. It contains, like all those that Jesus used when speaking to the people, the germ of the future and also, under all forms, under all images, the revelation of the magnificent unity that harmonizes all things in the Universe, of the solidarity that links all present beings to the past and the future.”

That is, evolution occurs gradually through a cumulative process of intellectual-moral improvement of the Spirits, which, through their action during their corporeal existence, also contribute to the improvement and expansion of God's work.

Thus, incarnation is necessary in order to put us in a position to support our part in the work of Creation. It is in this way that, contributing to the general work, we progress spiritually (question 132 of The Book of Spirits).

In this context, each bodily existence therefore represents an investment made by Cosmic Consciousness in us, whose goal is our own improvement and, by extension, the improvement of the world we inhabit and the expansion of His own work.

Thus, recalling the “parable of the talents”, narrated by Jesus, we will have to account for the application given by us of the resources – both material and Spiritual – that we brought with us to the earthly stage.

On the other hand, talking about negligence in carrying out the task, Carrara expands the reflection, stating that negligence naturally results in consequences:

“Negligence in the past or even in the present. Postponed, despised, abandoned tasks... Everything brings reflections. After all, we reap today the actions of yesterday and we are continually sowing for tomorrow.”

In effect, interrupted, unfulfilled, partially completed tasks, etc., constitute backlogs that we acquire, backlogs that we will carry into the next existence.

Like students, we cannot act with ill will, but with discipline, so that we do not have to repeat the lesson. In this sense, regarding reparation, the Encoder teaches that it:

“[...] consists in doing good to those to whom evil had been done. Whoever does not correct his mistakes in one existence, due to weakness or ill will, will find himself in a subsequent existence in contact with the same people who have complaints against him, and in conditions voluntarily chosen, in order to show them recognition and make them as much good as harm has been done to them. Not all faults entail direct and effective harm. In such cases, reparation is carried out by doing what should have been done and was neglected: fulfilling the despised duties, the unfulfilled missions. By doing good in compensation for the evil done, that is, becoming humble if he was proud, kind if he was austere, charitable if he was selfish, benign if he was perverse, laborious if he was idle, useful if he was useless, frugal if he was intemperate, in short, exchanging the bad examples perpetrated for good ones. And in this way the Spirit progresses, taking advantage of its own past.”

(Continued in the next issue of this magazine.)