What is reincarnation?

From:  "jagbir singh" <www.adishakti.org@gmail.com>
Date:  Tue Nov 23, 2004  3:47 pm
Subject:  Re: What is reincarnation?

—- In
> Let us find out what you mean by reincarnation-the truth of it,
> not what you like to believe, not what someone has told you, or
> what your teacher has said. Surely, it is the truth that
> liberates, not your own conclusion, your own opinion.... When you
> say, "I shall be reborn," you must know what the 'I' is. ... Is
> the 'I' a spiritual entity, is the 'I' something continuous, is
> the 'I' something independent of memory, experience, knowledge?
> Either the 'I' is a spiritual entity, or it is merely a thought
> process. Either it is something out of time which we call
> spiritual, not measurable in terms of time, or it is within the
> field of time, the field of memory, thought. It cannot be
> something else. Let us find out if it is beyond the measurement of
> time. I hope you are following all this.
> Let us find out if the 'I' is in essence something spiritual. Now
> by "spiritual" we mean, do we not, something not capable of being
> conditioned, something that is not the projection of the human
> mind, something that is not within the field of thought, something
> that does not die. When we talk of a spiritual entity, we mean by
> that something which is not within the field of the mind,
> obviously. Now, is the 'I' such a spiritual entity? If it is a
> spiritual entity, it must be beyond all time; therefore it cannot
> be reborn or continued. ...That which has continuity can never
> renew itself. As long as thought continues through memory, through
> desire, through experience, it can never renew itself; therefore,
> that which is continued cannot know the real.

The Science of Reincarnation
Reincarnation in Judaism, Christianity, Islam

Hints of reincarnation are also common in the history of Judaism and
early Christianity. Information about past and future lives is found
throughout the Cabala, which according to many Hebraic scholars
represents the hidden wisdom behind the scriptures. In the Zohar,
one of the principal Cabalistic texts, it is said, "The souls must
reenter the absolute substance whence they have emerged. But to
reunion with God." According to the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia,
the Hasidic Jews hold similar beliefs.

In the third century A.D., the theologian Origen, one of the fathers
of the early Christian Church, and its most accomplished Biblical
scholar, wrote, "By some inclination toward evil, certain souls ...
plants. From this condition they rise again through the same stages
and are restored to their heavenly place."

There are many passages in the Bible itself indicating that Christ
and his followers were aware of the principle of reincarnation.
Once, the disciples of Jesus asked him about the Old Testament
Matthew we read, "And Jesus answered them, Elias shall truly first
he spake unto them of John the Baptist." In other words, Jesus
reincarnation of the prophet Elias. In another instance, Jesus and
his disciples came across a man blind from birth. The disciples
asked Jesus, "Who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was
born blind?" Regardless who had sinned, Jesus replied, here was a
chance to show a work of God. He then cured the man. Now, had the
man been born blind for a sin of his own, it must have been a sin
done before his birth—that is, in a previous life. And this was a
suggestion that Jesus did not dispute.

The Koran says, "And you were dead, and He brought you back to life.
in the end shall gather you unto Himself." Among the followers of
immortal soul continually passes through different bodies. Jalalu 'D-
Din Rumi, a famous Sufi poet, writes,

I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as a plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?

The timeless Vedic scriptures of India confirm that the soul,
according to its identification with material nature, takes one of
8,400,000 forms and, once embodied in a certain species of life,
evolves automatically from lower to higher forms, ultimately
attaining a human body.

Thus, all of the major Western religions—Judaism, Christianity,
and Islam—have definite threads of reincarnation throughout the
fabric of their teachings, even though the official custodians of
dogma ignore or deny them.

The Quest for Immortality

we were going to die? (Paul McCartney)

understand reincarnation and how it works. It's that simple.
we could only enjoy life forever!

Man's eternal quest for immortality is so fundamental that we find
it nearly impossible to conceive of dying. Pulitzer Prize winner
to the media, "Everybody has got to die, but I have always believed

one third of the world's population—over 1.5 billion
people—accept reincarnation as an irrevocable fact of life.

Reincarnation is not a "belief system," or a psychological device
for escaping the "grim finality" of death, but a precise science
that explains our past and future lives. Many books have been

But most reincarnation literature is poorly informed, highly
speculative, superficial, and inconclusive. Some books purport to
previous lifetimes. They describe in detail houses they lived in,
makes for interesting reading, and while such books have certainly
stimulated the ever widening public interest and belief in
reincarnation, careful investigations have revealed that many of
inaccuracies, and even fraud.

But most importantly, none of these popular works explain the
fundamental facts about reincarnation, like the simple process by
which the soul eternally transmigrates from one material body to
another. In rare instances when basic principles are discussed,
authors generally present their own theories about how and in which
particular cases reincarnation occurs, as if some special or gifted
living beings reincarnate and others do not. This type of
presentation does not deal with the science of reincarnation but
introduces, instead, a confusing array of fabrications and
contradictions, leaving the reader with scores of unanswered

For example: Does one reincarnate instantaneously or slowly, over a
long period of time? Can other living beings, like animals,
in determining our next body? What is the relationship between karma
and reincarnation?

Coming Back fully answers these questions, because it scientifically
explains the true nature of reincarnation. Finally, this book
provides the reader with practical instructions on how to come to
grips with and rise above the mysterious and generally misunderstood
phenomenon of reincarnation—a reality that plays a vital role in
shaping man's destiny.

The Mystery of Consciousness

Death. Man's most mysterious, relentless, and inevitable adversary.
another life, another dimension, or another world?

If man's consciousness survives the death experience, then what
determines its transition to new realities?

traditionally turned to enlightened philosophers, accepting their
teachings as representative of a higher truth.

Some criticize this method of acquiring knowledge from a higher
and traditional wisdom, they "consider it fashionable to ridicule
and only believe in what they see and touch and measure." Or, as the
saying goes, "Seeing is believing."

But when man endeavors to understand something beyond the scope of
the material senses, beyond instruments of measurement and the
faculty of mental speculation, then there is no alternative but to
approach a higher source of knowledge.

No scientist has successfully explained through laboratory
investigations the mystery of consciousness or its destination after
the destruction of the material body. Research in this field has
produced many divergent theories, but their limitations must be

The systematic principles of reincarnation, on the other hand,
comprehensively explain the subtle laws governing our past, present,
and future lives.

If one is to understand reincarnation at all, he must acknowledge
the fundamental concept of consciousness as an energy distinct from
and superior to the matter composing the physical body. This
principle is supported by examination of the unique thinking,
or other genetic components possibly induce the feelings of love and
respect one person has for another? What atom or molecule is
responsible for the subtle artistic nuances in Shakespeare's Hamlet
or Bach's "Mass in B Minor"? Man and his infinite capabilities
cannot be explained by mere atoms and molecules. Einstein, the
father of modern physics, admitted that consciousness could not be
adequately described in terms of physical phenomena. "I believe that
the present fashion of applying the axioms of science to human life
is not only entirely a mistake, but also has something reprehensible
in it," the great scientist once said.

Indeed, scientists have failed to explain consciousness by means of
the physical laws that govern everything else within their purview.
Frustrated by this failing, Nobel laureate in physiology and
medicine Albert Szent-Gyorgyi recently lamented, "In my search for

Accepting the notion that consciousness arises from molecular
interaction requires an enormous leap of faith, much greater than
that required for a metaphysical explanation. As Thomas Huxley, the
well-known biologist, said, "It seems to me pretty plain that there
is a third thing in the universe, to wit, consciousness which I
cannot see to be matter or force or any conceivable modification of

Further recognition of the unique properties of consciousness was
given by Nobel laureate in physics Niels Bohr, who remarked, "We can
admittedly find nothing in physics or chemistry that has even a
thing as consciousness, simply because we have it ourselves. Hence
laws of quite a different kind." Such laws might well include the
laws of reincarnation, which govern the passage of consciousness
from one physical body into another.

To begin understanding these laws, we may note that reincarnation is

Reincarnation—based on the principle of a conscious self
governing the living being's transmigration from one material form
to another. Since reincarnation deals with our most essential

Coming Back explains the fundamentals of reincarnation presented in
older than the Dead Sea Scrolls, provides the most complete
explanation of reincarnation available anywhere. It has been studied
for millennia by many of the world's greatest thinkers, and since
spiritual knowledge is eternally true and does not change with each
new scientific theory, it is still relevant today.

Harvard biophysicist D. P. Dupey writes, "We may lead ourselves down
a blind alley by adhering dogmatically to the assumption that life
remaining open to the ideas embodied in the Vedic tradition of
India, modern scientists can see their own disciplines from a new
perspective and further the aim of all scientific endeavor: the
search for truth."

In this age of global uncertainty, it is imperative that we
understand the real origin of our conscious selves, how we find
ourselves in different bodies and conditions of life, and what our
destinations will be at the time of death. This essential
information is comprehensively explained in Coming Back.

Chapter One shows how reincarnation has profoundly influenced many
of the world's greatest philosophers, poets, and artists, from
Socrates to Salinger. Next, the process of reincarnation as

Chapter Two, a lively dialogue between His Divine Grace A. C.
Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and noted religious psychologist
Professor Karlfried Graf von Durckheim, clearly shows how the
material body and the antimaterial particle, the spirit soul, can
systematic research into the soul, and Srila Prabhupada cites the
Vedic version, thousands of years older and strikingly more
informative than modern medical science. Three fascinating
narratives from the Vedic text Srimad Bhagavatam constitute Chapter
Four. These accounts stand as classic examples of how the soul
transmigrates through different types of bodies under the control of
the precise laws of nature and karma.

In Chapter Five, excerpts from the writings of Srila Prabhupada
clearly demonstrate that the principles of reincarnation can be
easily understood in terms of ordinary events and common
observations that regularly occur in our daily lives. The next
chapter describes how reincarnation embodies a universal and
infallible system of justice, wherein the soul is never banished to
eternal damnation but is constitutionally endowed with a permanent
opportunity to escape the perpetual cycle of birth and death.

Common misconceptions and chic notions about reincarnation form the
subject of Chapter Seven, and the concluding chapter, "Graduate
Samsara: End the Cycle of Birth and Death," presents the process
through which the soul can transcend reincarnation and enter realms
Having once achieved this status, the soul never again returns to

The Science of Reincarnation


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