Reincarnation

 Reincarnation has been a subject of considerable interest to mankind through the ages and though it is well understood by those who have studied the revealed Vedic scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita and the Puranas, the general mass of people hold only belief or disbelief regarding reincarnation in the absence of their knowledge of a proper explanation or evidence regarding the phenomena of reincarnation. In the Sanskrit, language reincarnation is generally referred to as re-birth (punar-Janam). In India, people have traditionally known about reincarnation, and the learned sages who are well versed in the revealed scriptures have detailed knowledge of it. From his teachings, it is clear that Socrates, the great philosopher, was also knowledgeable about reincarnation. The Vedic scriptures are replete with references to reincarnation. Reincarnation, i.e., transmigration of the soul according to one's karma into various species of life in successive re-births, is an integral part of the Vedic philosophy. In this chapter, I wish to present to the reader a coherent theory and 

explanation of reincarnation with reasoning, available research, and scriptural evidence. The implications of reincarnation concerning morality and the meaning of life will also become evident to the reader as he examines this the- ory with his rationality and intelligence. Rational people want theory, explanation, and proof. That will be presented in this chapter. However, some people regard only seeing as proof. They want to limit the proof to sight. But evidence may also be through other senses such as hearing, touch, smell, and taste along with the view. And above the reasons such as sight is the mind and intelligence. Proof may consist of observation, logical deduction, knowledge based on experience, and scriptural evidence. Reincarnation means that the dead person is born in the flesh again, with a new body. Reincarnated in his new body, he will not be recognized as the person who had died since his new bodily features will be different. He will have a new young body with new features acquired according to his mentality at the time of death. This new body is not necessarily a human body again. In fact, the human body is a rarely obtained precious gift from God. The new body in which the person reincarnates, i.e., the new body he acquires, could be from any species of life such as the beasts, aquatics, plants, birds, insects, etc. Rein- carbonated in a new body, he generally forgets what he was in his previous life, and it's happenings except in some exceptional cases. The term reincarnation would have no meaning unless life, i.e., the living being, the person, or the self, survives death. It has already been discussed in the previous chapters that life is eternal. If death meant the annihilation of the self (the person), who would reincarnate again. Therefore to understand "reincarnation," we must first understand what life is and how life is different from matter. This has already been discussed in the earlier chapters of this book. So far as the dead body is concerned, it will not reincarnate since it is burnt or buried, resulting in putrefaction, and is lost into dust forever. Life is the originally pure soul without a material body. The body is subject to birth, growth, decay, and death, but the living being is eternal. He is without 

birth or death. Every person is an individual, and the terms person, life, soul, the living being, also called the Jeev-Atma in Sanskrit, are synonymous. To the question of life or soul, the answer is that the soul is the natural person with all the senses, intelligence, and personality. In his healthy life, the Jeev- Atma (soul) is untouched by matter and not covered by point in the shape of a material body. The Jeev-Atma is a real-life, living being with personality, feelings, consciousness, and desires. He has full spiritual senses. All the senses manifest in the material body have their spiritual counterpart. In this material world, we are used to seeing people with an earthly body, and in our ignorance, we think of a person as an earthly body. Still, the material body is only an external acquired thing and unwanted and unnecessary for life. The difference between the body and the living being, the soul, maybe understood by the example of a car and the passenger in the vehicle. The body is a machine like a car. The soul in the body is like the passenger in the vehicle. The soul is not the body, just as the passenger is not the car. With the demise of the car, the passenger can buy another car. The passenger does not die if the car breaks down. Similarly, when the body dies, the soul, the living being, acquires another body. The soul is the actual person. The body is only a machine in which the soul is sitting. He does not die or take birth. He is eternal. The body is continuously changing through one's life, but the body owner is the same person, the same individual, through all his bodily changes. "As the embodied soul continually passes in this body from boyhood to youth and then to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death." The bodily changes from birth to death can be seen, but the soul's movement into another body after death cannot be perceived. When the soul sheds the physical body at death, he is carried by the subtle body consisting of mind, intelligence, and false ego into a new body which gradually develops, and thus the person retakes birth. The person remains unchanged. A soul is an eternal person, and the bodily changes do not pertain to him. Under no conditions or circumstances can the living being be annihilated or transformed. Unfortunately, although he may be covered by a material body, he behaves according to the manifestation of the body. For example, we behave like children when we have a child's body, and as our body grows, our behavior also changes. The contents of the mind, the memory, etc., may all change, but the owner of the body remains the same person. The body owner is different from the body, just as the passenger in a car is different from the car he rides. The body is like a garment that the soul wears and periodically changes as the body gets worn out or unusable. Under the presence of the soul, the body is permeated by consciousness. Otherwise, the material body, like all matter, is always dead. When the soul leaves the body, the body drops dead and no longer exhibits consciousness. Life is of the same quality in any species of life, be it the body of a man, woman, child, beast, aquatic, worm, germ, reptile, plant, bird, etc. The presence of consciousness or desire indicates the presence of life. All these different bodies in different species of life are like different machines. The behavior will vary according to the body acquired by the soul, but the quality of life is the same in all species. For example, a person with a child's body will behave like a child, and when he grows up and has an adult's body, he will behave like an adult. It is not that the quality of the life or soul has changed from childhood to adulthood. Only the body has changed. Similarly, the quality of the soul is the same whether one is a man or a woman. Only the behavior or characteristics of the body are different. The machine may differ, but the quality of life is the same. Similarly, if one acquires a dog's body, he will simply bark. Only the machine is different. So far as life is concerned, the dog also displays consciousness and desire. The brain or nervous system manifestation in the human species is perhaps more elegant, but that is only an external material arrangement. So far as the presence of life or soul is concerned, he is present in any species of life. And the proof of that is consciousness. Like human beings, the beasts also display consciousness and desire. 

They also have sex and children; they eat and sleep and experience pain and suffering like us. If you attack or hit any beast, his cries of pain can be heard loud. Like people, dogs also fight pitched battles in the streets for sex, food, and territory. So how are they any different from men? It is not that there is a child-soul, a woman-soul, a man-soul, a dog-soul, or a bird-soul. The soul is of the same quality everywhere, irrespective of the species. The soul is of the same quality in any embodiment of matter. He is a fully conscious person with desires, feelings, thinking, and senses. His subtle nature can be compared with that of the sky. Clouds and so many things may pass through the atmosphere, but the sky remains unchanged because of its quiet nature.

Similarly, the soul is untouched by matter even when entrapped in it. He is more refined than the senses, mind, and intelligence and is beyond time and space. He is unborn, eternal, undying, and neither fire nor water nor wind nor weapons can touch him. He is an eternal person in all circumstances and conditions. Each of us is an individual person, a soul, bound because of false ego in a body made up of matter. The soul or life is of the same quality in any species, characterized by consciousness. The manifestation or display of his consciousness will vary according to the body he has acquired, just as a person sitting in a machine such as a bicycle, car, scooter, train, airplane, or a sputnik will exhibit the varying capacity to travel according to the acquired machine. If we say that we human beings only have life or soul and the beasts and other species don't, then how do we explain the presence of consciousness and desire in them and the exhibition of common traits such as eating, sleeping, mating, reproduction, etc. 

Admittedly we may be more intelligent than animals, but that is because of our more developed brain than the beasts. But then, an adult's brain is also more developed than a child's brain. Does that mean that a child or a retarded person has no soul, and the average adult does? Some are killing children with this argument, saying that the child in the womb has no soul and therefore we may kill him by abortion. A convenient argument indeed to justify one's heinous deeds! Without the soul's presence, the egg cannot develop into a body, which cannot grow. The sperm carries the soul into the egg during sex, and once the sperm lodges the soul into the egg, the egg develops into a child because of the soul's presence.

Similarly, despite the presence of consciousness and other similarities, those who wish to kill animals for eating their flesh also want to deny them a soul. Without the soul's existence, the life, how is the beast running around, displaying consciousness and having sex and children? According to logic, the analogy of consciousness, desire, and other commonalties is proof that the soul, the life, is of the same quality in all species, irrespective of the body and the brain.