trying to recollect their past lives. But I think it will be much more
helpful to us if we devote our time and energy in moulding our future
and in trying to be better than we are now, because the recollection
of our former condition would only force us to make a bad use of the
present. How unhappy he must be who knows that the wicked deeds of his
past life will surely react on him and will bring distress, misery,
unhappiness or suffering within a few days or a few months. Such a man
would be so restless and unhappy that he would not be able to do any
work properly; he would constantly think in what form misery would
appear to him. He would not be able to eat or even sleep. He would be
most miserable. Therefore we ought to regard it as a great blessing
that we do not recollect our past lives and past deeds. Vedanta says,
do not waste your valuable time in thinking of your past lives, do not
look backward during the tiresome journey through the different stages
of evolution, always look forward and try first to attain to the
highest point of spiritual development; then if you want to know your
past lives you will recollect them all. Nothing will remain unknown to
you, the Knower of the universe. When the all-knowing Divine Self will
manifest through you, time and space will vanish and past and future
will be changed into the eternal present. Then you will say as Sri
Krishna said to Arjuna, in the "Bhagavad Gita:" "Both you and I have
passed through many lives; you do not recollect any, but I know them
all." (Ch. iv., 5.)



II. HEREDITY AND REINCARNATION.


Those who accept the theory of heredity deny the existence of the