To Light a Thousand Lamps - The Theosophical Society

Reincarnation / 39
worked through intelligently and with love, will benefit
child and parents alike.
Paradoxically, we know too much and too little about
the mystery of birth. Modern technology enables parents
to see the growing embryo and discover perchance that their
baby will be badly crippled or mentally handicapped. The
thought instinctively comes: wouldn’t it be kinder to end
the baby’s life before it is born, so as to save it and its parents
needless su¤ering? It is a harrowing decision; but with the
larger perspective that a knowledge of reincarnation and
karma yields, the question remains: should we not give the
benefit to life rather than to death? We have to distinguish
between the immortal element and the body. Oftentimes
physical handicaps are of signal import for soul development;
we are not trained or wise enough to comprehend the
inner purpose behind an incoming ego’s choice of a mental
or physical abnormality. Isn’t it conceivable that the reincarnating
ego might ‘‘choose’’ the karma of a defective vehicle
for purposes beyond our knowing?
When we trust that life is inherently just and compassionate,
regardless of appearances and seeming injustices
and cruelties that beset people all over the world, we know
that no child is born to a family or into circumstances where
it does not belong. In principle, it is fairly simple to agree
to this. However, if our higher self invites into our home a
child who is severely impaired, mentally, physically, or psychologically,
it may be diªcult at first not to feel we have
been cheated. There are thousands, probably millions of
these ‘‘special’’ children, but this by no means indicates they
are spiritually handicapped. If we can take the long-range