Reincarnation: Fact or Fiction?

So the divide between the rich and poor is quickly evident in India. Especially since during the day I spend time with my middle class, down-to Earth, coworkers in medicine and in the evenings I am often hanging out with the children of rich Industrialists. Yesterday, I thanked my friend’s driver for waiting for us for 2 hours. My friend then told me that I shouldn’t do that. That is his job. He said when your in India, you soon see that life can be unfair, but it is what it is… So I have to contemplate if the Hindu belief in reincarnation is fact or fiction? Has it made people too complacent in life here? Riti Aunty, my host Mom, became upset when I told her that reincarnation doesn’t make sense to me. She said, “How do you explain everything around us then, and separate the haves from the have-nots?” She says the cycle of birth and death acquired from karma and dharma make the most sense. But if people in India believe in reincarnation than it makes sense why no one has done more for the poor, since I guess it is believed that they deserve what comes their way. I mean, maybe they are paying for having killed someone in their last birth? But how can you suffer, from an act you did not remember you committed? It all seems pretty strange to me. I am starting to wonder if the stories I have heard as a child about Rama and Krishna, are all true? Wasn’t religion just created as a crutch to make us all feel better? If we look to God for help, instead of the inner divinity within us, then it takes away the responsibility we have to live life with a moral compass right? But what I have noticed is that maybe the differences are only visible to me? Everyone seems really content where they are in life here. The poor don’t want the life of the rich nor the rich the life of the poor. The poor have the frame of mind of living each day in the present, and not worrying about the past or future. Although they might not know where their next meal is coming from, they truly embrace living in the now, and take life as it comes. The wealthy seem to want more, and are more focused on living in the future and procuring more materialistic goods. I guess with every life there are pros and cons. But if everyone in India is happy, then maybe my American way of thinking is the real problem…. For instance, I went to a children’s home on the first level of my office where 8 children live along with an elder care taker. We watched Agneepath and ate Chinese food, talked the night away, and we all couldn’t be happier! Maybe more, isn’t always better, maybe the last laugh is on those who have too much and take it for granted (my well to do friend couldn’t remember the last time he had a decent conversation with his parents or when they all sat around the dinner table and ate....)