“Science looks at trauma and its impact on the individual from the outside in. If someone suffers from ill health or a difficult upbringing, it is the unfortunate accident of being born in the wrong family. We are the passive victims.
“According to the Gita, birth is not a random event but an intentional choice made by a deeper self, our soul. Our soul chooses experiences that enable us to learn and embody qualities such as compassion, kindness, courage, and so on. According to this perspective, we are the causes, and the families we are born into are the effect.
“The Gita sees our life on Earth as an evolutionary journey, each lifetime merely one page, with growth being the end.”
