Talk:Cause of Rebirth:Curse of a Rishi
The last cause of Rebirth is the curse of a Rishi to a tormentor, who is then asked to be reborn multiple times and bear the results of his misdeeds towards the Rishi. For example, in the Purāṇas it is narrated that King Nahusha was reborn as a serpent due to the curse of a Rishi he had hit and abused.
Even logically speaking, Rebirth is preferable to living a single, eternal life; a single, finite life followed or not followed by a next life in heaven and hell. No matter how happy and contented one is in his present life, he will be weary of living further after several decades and would like his existence to be extinguished. Furthermore, if there were no rebirth or afterlife, fluke events could destroy life forever and demotivate those who’d like to keep progressing in life. Vinoba Bhawe once remarked -
“If we do not believe in rebirth, life loses all charm. Suppose a snake bites me now and I die. This then means that whatever knowledge I have gained till today will be useless. If a low form of life without any intelligence like a snake can destroy all my knowledge in one moment, then all my desires to gain more knowledge will perish. However, I have greater and greater desires to gain knowledge since I have faith in rebirth.”