Indian
This story of rebirth is a preface to the story of the Buddha’s birth included in Part 1. For the Buddha each birth is a rebirth, and each death a preface to life.
Now while the future Buddha was still dwelling in the city of the Tusita gods, the “Buddha-Uproar,” as it is called, took place. For there are three uproars which take place in the world,—the Cyclic-Uproar, the Buddha-Uproar, and the Universal-Monarch—Uproar. They occur as follows:
When it is known that after the lapse of a hundred thousand years the cycle is to be renewed, the gods called Loka-byuhas, inhabitants of a heaven of sensual pleasure, wander about through the world, with hair let down and flying in the wind, weeping and wiping away their tears with their hands, and with their clothes red and in great disorder. And thus they make announcement:
“Sirs, after the lapse of a hundred thousand years, the cycle is to be renewed; this world will be destroyed; also the mighty ocean will dry up; and this broad earth, and Sineru, the monarch of the mountains, will be burnt up and destroyed,—up to the Brahma heavens will the destruction of the world extend. Therefore, sirs, cultivate friendliness; cultivate compassion, joy, and indifference; wait on your mothers; wait on your fathers; and honour your elders among your kinsfolk.”
This is called the Cyclic-Uproar.
Again, when it is known that after a lapse of a thousand years an omniscient Buddha is to arise in the world, the guardian angels of the world wander about, proclaiming:
“Sirs, after the lapse of a thousand years a Buddha will arise in the world. ”
This is called the Buddha-Uproar.
And lastly, when they realize that after the lapse of a hundred years a universal monarch is to arise, the terrestrial deities wander about, proclaiming:
“Sirs, after the lapse of a hundred years a universal monarch is to arise in the world. ”
This is called the Universal-Monarch-Uproar. And these three are mighty uproars.
When of these three uproars they hear the sound of the Buddha-Uproar, the gods of all ten thousand worlds come together into one place, and having ascertained what particular being is to be the Buddha, they approach him, and beseech him to become one. But it is not till after omens have appeared that they beseech him.
At that time, therefore, having all come together in one world, with the Chatum-Maharajas, and with the Sakka, the Suyama, the Santusita, the Paranimmita-Vasavatti, and the Maha-Brahma of each several worlds, they approached the future Buddha in the Tusita heaven, and besought him, saying, “Sir, it was not to acquire the glory of a Sakka, or of a Mara, or of a Brahma, or of a universal monarch, that you fulfilled the ten perfections; but it was to gain omniscience in order to save the world, that you fulfilled them. Sir, the time and fit season for your Buddhaship has now arrived.”
But the great being, before assenting to their wish, made what is called the five great observations. He observed, namely, the time, the continent, the country, the family, and the mother of her span of life.
Having thus made the five great observations, he kindly made the gods the required promise, saying,
“Sirs, you are right. The time has come for my Buddhaship.”
Then, surrounded by the gods of the Tusita heaven, and dismissing all the other gods, he entered the Nandana Grove of the Tusita capital,-—for in each of the heavens there is a Nandana Grove. And here the gods said, “Attain in your next existence your high destiny,” and kept reminding him that he had already paved the way to it by his accumulated merit. Now it was while he was thus dwelling, surrounded by these deities, and continually reminded of his accumulated merit, that he died, and was conceived in the womb of queen Maha-Maya.
(From the introduction to the Jataka, in Henry Clarke Warren, trans., Buddhism in Translations.)
Egyptian
The rebirth of Osiris is a revivification or resurrection. It symbolizes the hope for eternal life for all people and the hope for abundant crops.
The lamentations of the two sad sisters were not in vain. In pity for her sorrow the sun-god Ra sent down from heaven the jackal-headed god Anubis, who, with the aid of Isis and Nephthys, of Thoth and Horus, pieced together the broken body of the murdered god, swathed it in linen 5 bandages, and observed all the other rites which the Egyptians were wont to perform over the bodies of the departed. Then Isis fanned the cold clay with her wings: Osiris revived, and thenceforth reigned as king over the dead in the other world. There he bore the titles of Lord of the Underworld, Lord of Eternity, Ruler of the Dead. There, too, in the great Hall of the Two 10 Truths, assisted by forty-two assessors, one from each of the principal districts of Egypt, he presided as judge at the trial of the souls of the departed, who made their solemn confession before him, and, their heart having been weighed in the balance of justice, received the reward of virtue in a life eternal or the appropriate punishment of their sins.
15 In the resurrection of Osiris the Egyptians saw the pledge of a life everlasting for themselves beyond the grave. They believed that every man would live eternal in the other world if only his surviving friends did for his body what the gods had done for the body of Osiris. Hence the ceremonies observed by the Egyptians over the human dead were an exact copy of 20 those which Anubis, Horus, and the rest had performed over the dead god. “At every burial there was enacted a representation of the divine mystery which had been performed of old over Osiris, when his son, his sisters, his friends were gathered round his mangled remains and succeeded by their spells and manipulations in converting his broken body into the first
Mummy, which they afterwards reanimated and furnished with the means of entering on a new individual life beyond the grave. The mummy of the deceased was Osiris; the professional female mourners were his two sisters Isis and Nephthys; Anubis, Horus, all the gods of the Osirian legend gathered about the corpse.” 5
Thus every dead Egyptian was identified with Osiris and bore his name.
From the Middle Kingdom onwards it was the regular practice to address the deceased as “Osiris So-and-So,” as if he were the god himself, and to add the standing epithet “true of speech,” because true speech was characteristic of Osiris. The thousands of inscribed and pictured tombs that lo have been opened in the valley of the Nile prove that the mystery of the resurrection was performed for the benefit of every dead Egyptian; as Osiris died and rose again from the dead, so all men hoped to arise like him from dead to life eternal. In an Egyptian text it is said of the departed that “as surely as Osiris lives, so shall he live also; as surely as Osiris did not die, so 15 shall he not die; as surely as Osiris is not annihilated, so shall he too not be annihilated.” The dead man, conceived to be lying, like Osiris, with mangled body, was comforted by being told that the heavenly goddess Nut, the mother of Osiris, was coming to gather up his poor scattered limbs and mould them with her own hands into a form immortal and divine. “She 20 gives thee thy head, she brings thee thy bones, she sets thy limbs together and puts thy heart in thy body.” Thus the resurrection of the dead was conceived, like that of Osiris, not merely as spiritual but also as bodily. “They possess their heart, they possess their senses, they possess their mouth, they possess their feet, they possess their arms, they possess all their limbs.”
World History
