In Reply to: What a load of codswallop!!! posted by Tony G on Friday, 14. January 2005 at 18:23 Bali Time:
Essentially, you are be right - the goal of Hinduism is ultimately to achieve liberation and transcend rebirth or reincarnation entirely. But you have to understand that Hinduism works on many different levels. Moreover, Balinese belief can't be said to be the same as Hinduism that you might find elsewhere.
While the scriptures might urge people to relinquish all material thinking and embark on a spiritual path of acseticism to God, this goal is simply too ambitious for the majority of ordinary lay people with families and jobs. For that reason, being reincarnated in a positive way is very important to the majority of ordinary people. It is only by doing good things (and gaining 'merit' or 'good karma')in this life that one can hope to be reborn into a position where embarking on the higher, real spiritual path (that you speak of is possible.