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What is Reincarnation?
Picture Copyright Bhaktivedanta Book
Trust
"As a person puts
on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly
accepts new
material bodies, giving up old and useless ones." -
Bhagavad-gita, 2.22
In his recent book Adventures in Immortality, George
Gallup, Jr. reports that one out of every four Americans
believes that within each person there exist a soul, which
survives the death of the body and is then reborn in another
body. This is reincarnation.
Unfortunately, the ideas that many people have about
reincarnation ( technically known as transmigration of the
soul ) are generally based on sensationalistic tabloids and
books. But the incomplete and sometimes inaccurate
information found in such publications does not give us
truly satsifying answers to life's ultimate question: "What
happens after death?"
In their search for answers to these types of questions,
many people are turning to India's ancient Vedic
literatures. These are the oldest writings on earth; they
present the most complete and systematic explaination of
reincarnation known in human history. The most fundamental
information about reincarnation appears in the Bhagavad-gita
As It Is, the quintessence of Vedic knowledge.
According to the Bhagavad-gita, there exist in the
universe a total of 8,400,000 species of life, including
varieties of microbes, fish, plants, inects, reptiles,
birds, animals, and humans. At the time of death the soul
moves from one body into a new one.
In the Bhagavad-gita it is explained, "Whatever state of
being one remembers when he quits his body, that state of
being he will attain without fail ( in his next life )." In
other words, our lifetime experiences and thoughts make an
impression on the mind and the composite of these
impressions constitute our final thoughts at death.
The change of body can also be observed, even in the span
of one lifetime. As our bodies transform from babyhood to
childhood, childhood to youth, youth to adulthood, all the
molecules in our bodies, medical science confirms, are
regularly replaced. Yet throughout these bodliy changes, the
conscious self within the body remains the same. The
Bhagavad-gita states, "As the embodied soul continually
passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the
soul similarly passes into another body at death."
"As the embodied soul continually
passes, in this body from boyhood
to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at
death.
A sober person is not bewildered by such a change." -
Bhagavad-gita, 2.13
Our present body is a result of a series actions and
reactions experienced in this life and previous lives. This
law of nature is known in Sanskrit as the law of karma,
which means simply stated: every action has a reaction. One
who acts rightiously receives good results in the next life,
and one who acts in an evil way has to experience adverse
reactions in the next birth.
Human beings are the only species subject to this law of
karma, because only the human is endowed with higher
intelligence. The Vedas explain that lower life forms are
under the control of nature and their instincts, and
therefore, not held responsible for their activities.
In the human form form of life, however, the soul can
free itself from the cycle of reincarnation if it becomes
self-realized. Therefore, the soul inhabiting a human body
stands at a critical crossroads.
By understanding the principles of reincarnation as
explained in the Bhagavad-gita, we, as living souls, can
become free from repeated birth and death; and the Vedas
instruct us how we can resume our natural constitutional
position in the eternal spiritual world of knowledge and
bliss.
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