Extract from the book : “What becomes of the soul after death”

Doctrine Of Reincarnation
Emerson, Plato, Pythagoras had perfect belief in the doctrine of reincarnation. The doctrine of reincarnation is the foundation of Hinduism and Buddhism. The ancient Egyptians believed it. The Greek philosophers made it the corner-stone of their philosophy.
Man clings to this earthly life. This clinging to life proves that there is past experience and existence. This proves also that there is a future life. Man likes this life immensely and strongly yearns for a future life also.
Some are born and pass out within a few weeks, a few months, a few years. Some children die in the womb. Some are centenarians. Why is this? Why do some people come and live for a short time and others live longer? Is this accidental? Is there any law that governs life and death? Do the human beings come here and pass out without any definite purpose? There is a law which governs life and death. That law is the law of cause and effect.
The law of cause and effect governs everything. The law of cause and effect is inexorable and all-powerful. This whole world runs under this supreme law. All the other laws come under this law. The law of Karma is the law of cause and effect. God does not punish any one. Man reaps the fruits of his Karma. The law of cause and effect operates on him. He reaps a harvest of pleasure for his good actions. He suffers and experiences pain and disease, loss of property for his wicked actions.
Instinct is the result of past experience. One of the important arguments for reincarnation has been built on this by the Hindus. The past experiences of death remain in the subconscious mind or Chitta in a latent or dormant state. They are in the form of Samskaras or impressions. They are working underneath the conscious, objective mind. Man is terribly afraid of death, because the past experience of pain is in the subconscious mind.
Love at first sight is a certain feeling of a previous life lived together. These souls loved before. They remember that and actually feel as if they had met each other. Such loves are not at all a matter of sex, and are seldom broken off. Lord Buddha told his wife of her kindness to him in a previous birth and several times gave details of the previous lives of other people.
Every effect must have a cause. Something cannot come out of nothing. Existence cannot come out of non-existence. This is the fundamental principle of modern science. This is the fundamental doctrine of philosophy also. You have not come out of nothing. There is a cause for your existence here. One is born blind. One is a genius. One is dull. One is rich. One is poor. One is healthy. One is sickly. There is a definite cause for all these things.
The cause is the unmanifested condition of the effect. The effect is the manifested state of the cause. Tree is the cause. The seed is the effect. Vapour is the cause. Rain is the effect. The whole tree remains in the seed in potential form. The whole human form remains in the drop of semen in an invisible potential state. The seed of a banyan tree can produce only a banyan tree but not a mango tree. The drop of human semen can produce only a human being but not a horse. From a tiny drop of semen a big human form with various limbs and organs comes out. What a great marvel! From a small seed a gigantic banyan tree comes out. What a great wonder! Just close your eyes and reflect over this mystery. You will be struck with awe and wonder.
Within the gross physical body there is another subtle body or Linga Sarira or Sukshma Deha. This subtle body comes out with all its impressions and tendencies at the time of death of the gross physical body. It is like vapour. It cannot be seen by the naked eye. It is the subtle body that goes to heaven. It manifests again in a gross form. This re-manifestation of the subtle form into the gross physical form is called the law of reincarnation. You may deny this law, but the law is there. It is inexorable and unrelenting. If you deny the law, it clearly shows that you are quite ignorant of it and it will surely operate whether you admit it or not. The light of the Sun is there whether the owl accepts it or not.
You acquire your knowledge through experiences. A man plays on the harmonium. He places each finger on each key consciously. He repeats it again and again. After some time the movement of fingers becomes a habit. He plays a tune without looking into the particular keys. Even so your tendencies are the result of your past conscious actions.
Sri Sankara and Sri Jnana Dev knew the Vedas and other Sastras in their boyhood. A child plays on the piano in a masterly manner. A child delivers lectures on the Gita. Goethe, the eminent German poet, was the master of seventeen languages. These geniuses did not acquire these in this life. They must have had them in past lives.
Every child is born with certain tendencies or predilections generated by past conscious actions. No child is born with a vacant mind or a clean blank page of a mind, a tabula rasa. We have had past lives. This is the emphatic declaration of the great sages, Rishis and Yogis of the past and of modern times. Jesus Christ believed in it. He says in the Bible: “Before Abraham was, I am”. Reincarnation made its appearance in the early Christian Church. Elijah is reborn as John the Baptist.
Heredity cannot explain all these inequalities and diversities, the cases of geniuses. The parents, brothers and sisters of these prodigies are quite common persons. Tendencies are the result of the past actions. They do not come through heredity. The geniuses have gained their talents in their previous lives. If your desires are not gratified in this life under present conditions, you will have to come back again to this earth-plane for their fulfilment. If you have a strong desire to become a Master Musician in this birth and if you cannot achieve this and still cherish this desire, this desire will bring you back to this earth-plane and place you in suitable environments and favourable conditions. You will start again from your childhood with a tendency to become a Master Musician.
An objection is brought against the doctrine of reincarnation. That objection is, “Why do we not remember our past?” Do you remember what you did in your childhood? Will you say you did not exist then, because you cannot remember? Certainly not. If your existence depends upon your memory then this argument proves that you did not exist as child, because you do not remember your childhood. The details have passed out of your memory, but the knowledge you have acquired through your experiences is still in your subconscious mind or Chitta as impressions.
If you remember your past you may make a bad use of the present. Your inveterate enemy in your past life may be born as your son in this life. If you remember the past you will draw your sword to kill him. Feelings of enmity will rise in your heart at once. When you enter college you carry with you all the knowledge you acquired at school. You increase and develop that kind of knowledge in your higher studies. You do not remember fully everything you did at schools, yet the experience is there when you are in the college. Even so past experience influences your present life.
Mother Nature has concealed the past from you. It is not desirable to remember the past. Suppose for a moment you know the past—you know that you have committed a sinful action in your past life and you are going to suffer for it. You will be thinking of this always. You will worry yourself constantly. You will not have sound sleep. You will not relish your food. That is the reason why sages tell you, “Do not think of the past. Do not plan for the future. Mould your present. Live in the solid present. Entertain good thoughts. Do virtuous actions.” You can make your future better.
A Yogi can remember his past lives, through concentration on the Samskaras. He can tell you all about your past lives also through concentration on the Samskaras or impressions that are lodged in your subconscious mind.
Your present birth is the result of your past actions. All the actions that you do now will determine your future birth. You have set the law of causation in motion and you are caught in this wheel of birth and death. This is the law of reincarnation. This law binds all beings. When you attain the perfect knowledge of the Imperishable the wheel is broken and you attain freedom and perfection.
Your experiences can hardly be destroyed. Your actions are endowed with an invisible power called Adrishta or Apurva which produces fruits. The actions manifest again as tendencies. If you do several merciful acts you develop a very strong tendency to do acts of mercy. Those who are merciful in this birth have done great acts of mercy in their previous births.
Reincarnation depends upon Karma. If a man does actions of a beastly nature he will take the birth of an animal.
The doctrine of reincarnation is as old as the Vedas or the Himalayas. The doctrine of reincarnation will solve many problems of life. Each word, thought and deed lays up a store for you. Be good. Do good. Entertain good thoughts. Do virtuous actions. Purify your heart. Meditate regularly on the Immortal Atman, thy universal Self. You will free yourself from the round of births and deaths and attain Immortality and Eternal Bliss in this very life.

Karma And Reincarnation
The doctrine of reincarnation is accepted by the majority of mankind at the present day. It has been held as true by the mightiest Eastern nations. The ancient civilisation of Egypt was built upon this doctrine and it was handed over to Pythagoras, Plato, Virgil and Ovid, who scattered it through Greece and Italy. It was the keynote of Plato’s philosophy when he says that all knowledge is reminiscence. It was wholly adopted by the Neo-Platonists like Plotinus and Proclas. The hundreds of millions of Hindus, Buddhists and Jains have made that doctrine the foundation of their philosophy, religion, government and social institutions. It was a cardinal point in the religion of the Persian Unagi. The doctrine of Metempsychosis was an essential principle of the Druid faith and was impressed upon the Celts, the Gauls and the Britons. Among the Arab’s philosophers it was a favourite idea. The rites and ceremonies of Romans, Druids and Hebrews expressed this truth forcibly. The Jews adopted it after the Babylonian captivity. John the Baptist was to them a second Elijah. Jesus was thought to be a reappearance of John the Baptist or one of the old prophets. The Roman Catholic purgatory seems to be a makeshift, contrived to take its place. Philosophers like Kant, Schelling and Schopenhauer have upheld this doctrine. Theologians like Julius Muller, Dorner and Edward Beecher have maintained it. And today it reigns over the Burmese, Siamese, Chinese, Japanese, Tartarian, Tibetan, East Indian and Ceylonese including at least 750 million mankind and nearly two-thirds of the human race. Is it not surprising then that this great and grand philosophical education, which the Hindus and Buddhists and Jains gave to the world centuries and centuries before the Christian Era, should or could be blotted out of existence from the Western and European world by the soul-blighting and absurd dogmas of the dark ages that supervened? By the persecution of the wise men and destruction of the innumerable works in the Library of Constantinople, the Church hierarchy managed to plunge the whole of Europe into mental darkness, which has given the world the black record of inquisition and the loss of millions of human lives through religious wars and persecutions.
Here is a challenge to the non-believers of the Hindu theory of transmigration. In Delhi, a little girl Santi Devi gave a vivid description of her past life. There was great sensation in Delhi and Mathura, nay, throughout the United Provinces. There was a great assembly of persons to hear her statements. She recognised her husband and child of per previous birth who were living in Mathura. She pointed out the place where money was kept and an old well in the house which is covered now. All her statements were duly verified and corroborated by respectable eye-witnesses. Several cases like this have occurred in Rangoon, Sitapur and various other places. They are quite common now. In such cases the Jiva takes immediate rebirth with the old astral body or Linga Sarira. That is the reason why memory of previous births comes in. He did not stay in the mental world for a long time to rebuild a new mind and astral body to his various experiences of the world.
Transmigration made its appearance in the early Christian church. Elijah was reborn as John the Baptist. “Did the blind man sin, or his parents, that he was born blind?” asked the believers in transmitted retribution. There is a period of anxiety immediately after death, when angels contend with demons for the possession of the departed soul on its way to purgatory.
Pythagoras and others had their belief in metempsychosis from India only. Pythagoras who flourished in the 6th century also taught a doctrine of transmigration; and, curiously enough, prescribed abstinence from the eating of flesh.
The suckling of a child and the act of swimming of a duckling—these instinctive acts are proofs of memory which must be the result of their corresponding and inseparable impressions left by the same acts in a previous incarnation, never mind when and where. Every act leaves Samskaras in the Chitta which causes memory. Memory in its own turn leads to fresh actions and fresh impressions. This cycle or Chakrika goes on from eternity like the analogy of seed and tree.
There is no beginning for them, the desire to live being eternal, for them, i.e., for the desires. Desires have no beginning or end; every being is clinging to this physical life (Abhinivesa). This “will to live” is eternal. Experiences are also without beginning. You cannot think of a time when this feeling of ‘Aham’ or ‘I’ has existed. This ‘I’ exists continuously without any interruption. From this we can easily infer that there have been previous births for us.
Now could there be fear of death to avoid pain, in any being who has been born, if he has no experience of liability to death, it being understood that desire to avoid anything is only caused by remembrance suffered in consequence thereof. Nothing which is inherent in anything stands in need of a cause. How should it be that a child, which has not experienced this liability to death in the present life, should, as he may be falling away from the mother’s lap, begin to tremble and hold his hands tightly the necklace hanging on her breast? How is it that such a child should experience the fear of death, which can only be caused by the memory of the pain consequent upon aversion to death, whose existence is inferred by the trembling of the child?
We have got boy-geniuses. A boy of five becomes an expert in piano or violin. Sri Jnanadev wrote his commentary Jnanesvari on the Gita when he was fourteen years old. There had been boy-mathematicians. There was the boy-Bhagavatar in Madras who conducted Kathas when he was eight years old. How could you explain this strange phenomenon? This is not a freak of nature. The theory of transmigration only could explain all these things. If one man gets deep grooves in his mind by learning music or mathematics in this birth he carries these impressions to the next birth and becomes a prodigy in these sciences even when he is a boy.
Even in the New Testament there is sufficient evidence for reincarnation. In St. John IX-2, a question is put to Jesus by his disciples—which did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? This refers to two popular theories of time—one, that of Moses who taught that the sin of fathers would descend on children to the third and fourth generation, and the other, that of the doctrine of reincarnation. Jesus merely says that neither that man’s sin nor his father’s sin was the cause of his blindness; he does not deny the pre-existence of that man. Lord Jesus indicates that John took the reincarnation of Elijah.
But people may say—if this doctrine is true, how is it that he does not remember his past incarnation? I will ask such people, in what way do we exercise the faculty of memory? Certainly, so far as we are living in a body, we exercise it through the brain. In passing from one incarnation to the other, the soul does not carry the former brain in the new body. Even during the course of one life, do we always remember our past doings? Can any one remember that wonderful epoch—the infancy?
If you have a knowledge of the Raja Yogic technique of perceiving the impressions directly through the Raja Yogic Samyama (Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi at one time) you can remember your past lives. In Raja Yoga philosophy of Patanjali Maharshi, you will find: “Samskara-Sakshat-Karanat Purvajati-Jnanam.” By perceiving the impressions, comes the knowledge of the past life (Ch. III—18). All experiences that you have had in various births remain in the form of impressions or residual potencies in Chitta or subconscious mind. They remain in a very, very subtle form, just as the sound remains in a subtle state in the gramophone record. These impressions assume the forms of waves and you get memory of past experiences. Therefore if the Yogi can make a Samyama on these past experiences, in the Chitta, he can remember all the details of all his past lives.

Reincarnation Is Quite True
Man can hardly attain perfection in one life. He has to develop his heart, intellect and hand. He has to mould his character in a perfect manner. He has to develop various virtuous qualities such as mercy, tolerance, love, forgiveness, equal vision, courage, etc. He has to learn many lessons and experiences in this great world-school. Therefore he has to take many lives. Reincarnation is very true. One small life is a part of the long series that stretches behind you and in front of you. It is quite insignificant. One gains a little experience only. He evolves very little. During the course of one life man does many evil actions. He does very little good actions. Very few die as good men. Christians believe that one life determines and settles everything. How could this be? How can the everlasting future of man be made to depend on that one small, little, insignificant life? If in that life he believes in Christ, he will get eternal peace in heaven; if he is an unbeliever in that life, he will get eternal damnation, he will be thrown for ever in the lake of fire or horrible hell. Is this not the most irrational doctrine? Should he not get his chances for correction and improvement? The doctrine of reincarnation is quite rational. It gives ample chances for man’s rectification, growth and gradual evolution.

Transmigration Of Souls
The word ‘transmigration’ means passing from one life to another. The one great and fundamental tenet of most schools of Indian Philosophy, with the exception of the Charvaka or the materialist, is the belief in the immortality of the soul. The soul passes through a number of lives for attaining perfection. This is technically called ‘transmigration of souls’.
Belief in the metempsychosis or transmigration of soul ‘dates from primeval times. It is as early as primitive man. One solution of the mystery of death and a consoling thought about death is the indestructibility of the soul and its existence after death in other forms. In India the ancient Aryans found in it the solution of the age-long problem of human suffering and developed it into a very distinct religious doctrine.
The purpose of transmigration is not reward of punishment, but betterment and perfection. It prepares the human being for the ultimate realisation which frees him from the cycle of births and deaths. It is not possible to achieve perfection and absolute freedom without a plurality of lives.
Man develops tendency and aptitude in several births and becomes a genius in one birth. Buddha gained experiences in several births. He became a Buddha only in his last birth. In one birth all virtues cannot be developed. One can cultivate the virtues by gradual evolution. The baby sucks, the young duck swims. Who taught this? They are the Samskaras or the tendencies of previous births.
There had been many instances of children like Santi Devi, etc., who have narrated all about their previous lives. All these have been fully corroborated also. The children have actually pointed out their houses in which they lived in their previous lives.
Soul, retribution, transmigration, divinity were all accepted by Plato. Pythagoras also taught the doctrine of transmigration. Buddha also taught the doctrine of transmigration.
The older Egyptians embalmed their dead and buried them in the best tombs they could afford. The deceased had a kind of twin soul, one half of which remained in the tomb as long as the body continued undecayed, while the other proceeded on passport to the immortal gods. The requisite indication was given by a divine Judge, whose opinion as to destiny was final. Transmigration in some obscure form was nevertheless held by the Egyptian priesthood.
The human body is only a vesture and dwelling place for the immortal soul. The soul can certainly re-inhabit another dwelling place and put on another vesture in order to develop and realise better than before the Divine plan and purpose for it. The Creator has so planned. The soul of a depraved and corrupted human being is given another training in another body. The evolution of all beings is for a better condition. Evolution to the higher and not a deterioration to the lower is generally the law and principle of Nature. But there is exception to the general rule.
The soul armed with the little virtue and divinity gained in the previous existence enters another life to increase, develop and better that original stock. There is now a greater response of the body controlled by the soul to God, Goodness, Truth, Holiness and other attributes of God.
No opportunity is afforded to the sinner to purify himself in later births. His finite sin, if not somehow purged, precipitates him at death into endless misery. This cannot be. This is not reasonable. The doctrine of transmigration gives ample scope for the sinner to correct and educate himself in future births. Vedanta says that there is hope of salvation even for the worst sinner.
He reaps the harvest of his misdeeds for a limited period. After he has been purged of his sins, he is again born as a rational being and is thus given a fresh chance for working out his emancipation with freedom of will to choose the right path or the wrong one, and with knowledge to distinguish the one from the other.
You are responsible for your well-being or otherwise, through your own Karma or action. The diversity in individual characters, the different predilections or tendencies of the different children at their births and the inequalities of human lives can only be accounted for and explained through the Law of Karma. The Law of Karma gives liberty and freedom to an individual to grow to his full perfection.
The image of a man is reflected in a mirror. Nothing passes from the man to the image. The image is not the same as the man nor yet is it another. In exactly the same way rebirth takes place. The new being is like the image. The Karma which gives rise to the new being is like the mirror, through the agency of which the image of the man is reflected.
The enlightening influences of Yogis and Sages, their lives and teachings assert themselves more and more in the new life. The light of God is more sought after and the gravitation towards God becomes stronger and stronger. More and more the life becomes fit to see God and hear His voice. Progress advances from the existence to the next—we cannot say through how many lives—until the final and stainless state of perfection is reached and the individual soul merges itself in the Supreme Soul.
Whence have I come? Whither shall I go? These questions will be asked by every intelligent person. They are problems of life. Your present life is but one in a series of countless incarnations, though not all in the human form necessarily.
The union of the soul with a particular body is known as birth and its separation therefrom is called death, when the soul leaves its physical sheath, it transmigrates into another body, human, animal or even vegetable, according to its merits. The Kathopanishad says: “Now I will tell you, O Nachiketas, the eternal and divine mystery as to how the soul fares after attaining death. Some souls attain to other bodies, while some fall to the vegetable state according to their action and knowledge” (1-2-18).
The process of transmigration continues till the soul being purged of all its impurities and having acquired a true and full knowledge of the Imperishable Soul by Yoga attains Mukti or the final emancipation and enjoys perfect, eternal bliss by its union with the Supreme Self or Para Brahman.
According to Indian philosophy, there is a subtle body or Sukshma Sarira within the physical body. When the physical body perishes, this subtle body does not perish. It moves to heaven to enjoy the fruits of its good actions done here. This subtle body perishes only when the soul attains the final emancipation. The impressions or Samskaras, Vasanas or the tendencies are carried in the subtle body.
There are blessed souls like Vama Deva, Jnana Dev, Dattatreya, Ashtavakra and Sankaracharya who in their very first entry into the world attained a high degree of perfection before death. They are all born Siddhas. There are some other souls who will need few further rebirths for their full perfection and attainment of Moksha.
A good soul makes a good body, a bad soul a bad body. Body is an indispensable aid to the soul in its progress towards God. The body was designed by God to carry the soul on its onward march. Petrol and steam are great forces. But by themselves they cannot make the journey with a definite course and a definite destination. They must be harnessed to a machine, a running train or steamer. A pilot or a driver puts petrol or steam into the conveyance and drives and steers it towards his destination. Therefore the soul must have a body to run its course and reach its destination in God.
When knowledge of the Imperishable is attained, there is no more transmigration. Mother Prakriti’s work is over now. She shows all the experiences of this world to the individual soul and takes him higher and higher through various bodies till he regains back his essential divine nature, till he merges himself in the Supreme Self or Para Brahman.
Strive by every means to make your life better by ceaseless spiritual culture and practical Yoga Sadhana. Only by enlightenment or Brahma Jnana you can obtain deliverance from the wearisome round of births and deaths.

Theory Of Rebirth
Man can be compared to a plant. He grows and flourishes like a plant and dies in the end but not completely. The plant also grows and flourishes and dies in the end. It leaves behind it the seed which produces a new plant. Man leaves when dying his Karma behind—the good or bad actions of his life. The physical body may die and disintegrate, but the impressions of his actions do not die. He has to take birth again to enjoy the fruits of these actions. No life can be the first, for it is the fruits of previous actions, nor the last, for its actions must be expiated in the next life following. Therefore, Samsara or phenomenal existence is without beginning and an end. But there is no Samsara for a Jivanmukta or liberated sage who is resting in his own Sat-Chit-Ananda Svarupa.
When a man dies he carries with him the permanent Linga Sarira, which is made up of five Jnana Indriyas, five karma Indriyas, five Pranas, Manas (mind), Buddhi, Chitta and Ahamkara and the changing Karmasraya (receptacle of works), the actions of the soul, which determines the formation of the next life.
Sri Jnana Dev, the reputed Yogi of Alandi, wrote his commentary on the Gita, Jnanesvari, when he was only sixteen years old. He was a born Siddha. You can also become a Siddha if you try in right earnest. What one has attained can be achieved by another also.
If a new-born child who has not done any wrong action in this birth undergoes great suffering, this is the fruit of some evil deed done in the previous birth. If you ask, how the person was induced to do a wrong action in this former birth, the answer is that it was the result of some wrong action done in a birth still anterior and so on.
Many intelligent fathers have sons with dull intellect. If a shepherd boy gave you some food and water in your previous birth when you were dying of starvation, he will be born in this birth as your son, with a dull intellect to enjoy your property.
When creatures are born, they evince a desire to suck the breast and show an instinct of terror. Therefore it follows that they remember the sucking of the breast and the pains experienced in the previous birth. This shows that there is rebirth.
Even a child exhibits Harsha (exhilaration), Soka (grief), fear, anger, pleasure and pain. The Dharma-adharma Samskaras of this birth cannot be the cause of these. The Samskaras of the previous birth must have a support (Asraya). From this we can clearly infer the existence of Jiva in the previous birth, and the Jiva is Anadi, or beginning-less. If you do not accept that the Jiva is Anadi, the two defects, viz., Kritanasa and Akritabhyagama will creep in. Pleasure and pain which are the fruits of virtuous and vicious actions done previously will pass away without being enjoyed. This is Kritanasa (loss of merited reward). So also, one will have to enjoy the pleasure and pain, the fruits of good and evil actions, which were not done by him previously. This is Akritabhyagama (receiving unmerited reward). In order to get rid of these two defects, we will have to accept that the Jiva is Anadi or beginningless. Else, life would be unaccountable.
Some Yogic students ask me: “How long should one practise Sirshasana or Paschimottanasana or Kumbhaka or Mahamudra, to awaken Kundalini? Nothing is mentioned on this point in any book on Yoga”. A student starts his Sadhana from the point or stage he left in his previous birth. That is the reason why Lord Krishna says to Arjuna: “Or he may be born in a family of wise Yogins. There he recovereth the characteristics belonging to his former body and with these he again laboureth for perfection, O Joy of the Kurus” (Ch. VI: 42, 43). It all depends upon the degree of purity, stage of evolution, the degree of purification of Nadis and the Pranayama Kosa, degree of Vairagya and yearning for liberation.
Some are born with purity and other requisites of realisation on account of their having undergone the necessary discipline in their past life. They are born Siddhas. Guru Nanak, Jnana Dev, Vama Deva, Ashtavakra were all adepts from their very boyhood. Guru Nanak asked his teacher in the school when he was a boy, about the significance of OM. Vama Deva delivered a lecture on Vedanta when he was dwelling in his mother’s womb.
Man does actions with the expectation of getting fruits and so he takes a birth to enjoy the fruits of his actions. In the next birth, he does some more actions and he has to take another birth. In this manner the Samsaric wheel is revolving from eternity to eternity. When one gets knowledge of the Self, he is liberated from this round of births and deaths. Karma is beginningless and Samsara also is beginningless. When a man does actions without expectation of fruits in selfless spirit, all the fetters of Karma get loosened gradually.
Die to live. Kill this little ‘I’ and attain immortality. Live in Brahman. You will live for ever. Possess Atman. You will have eternal life. Identify yourself with your soul. You will cross the ocean of death or Samsara. Rest in your Satchidananda Svarupa. You will have everlasting life.
A leech moves on a blade of grass and reaches the end of the blade. It first catches hold of another blade with the forepart of its body and then draws its hindpart on to it. Even so, the Jivatman (individual soul) abandons the present body at the time of death, fashions the future body by his thought and then enters into that body.
A good or bad deed always brings its good or bad fruits. You will find in Mahabharata: “Just as a calf finds out its mother among a thousand cows, so also an action that was performed in a previous birth follows the doer.”
Yadrisam kriyate karma tadrisam bhujyate phalam,
Yadrisam vapyate, bijam tadrisam prapyate phalam.
Just as the fruit corresponds to the seed that has been sown, so also the fruit of the actions that are performed by us correspond to the nature of the actions that we perform. This is an infallible law of nature. He who has sown the seed of a mango tree cannot expect a jack fruit. He who has done evil actions throughout his life cannot expect happiness, peace and prosperity in his next life.
“Many are the times we have been together in the past, and also been separated and so again shall it be in the future. Even as a heap of grain removed from granary to granary ever assumes new order of arrangement and new combination, so is the case with Jiva (human being) in the universe through his arrangement” (Yoga Vasishtha).

Reincarnation Is Quite True (ii)
Kamlesh Kumari Devi, alias Gita Murti, commenced preaching the Gita at the age of two and a half years. She was born on Tuesday, the 12th of December, 1939. The ideas of the transmigration of soul and eternity of life, although recorded in our holy scriptures, are dormant and latent in our practical life.
She used to sit in the lap of her father and pronounce the Slokas of the Gita in her broken language. She used to glance at the Gita as well. At the age of two and a half years her father, Pundit Devi Dutt Sarma, took her to the garden outside Lohgarh Gate, Amritsar, where Swami Krishnananda was holding discourses on the Gita. The Swami narrated the story of an eight-year-old girl at Allahabad who could recite the verses of the Gita beautifully. On hearing this, Kamlesh Kumari felt excited and forced the Swami and audience to hear her lecture on the Gita. She delivered her first lecture and deeply impressed the audience.
Swami Krishnananda presented to her some Hindi books: Hindu Dharma, Parshisht, etc., which she fluently read to the astonishment of the Swami. After that she delivered lectures at Haridwar, Rishikesh, Ludhiana, Jandiala Guru, Har Sahai Mandi, Mukherian, Dharma Kot, Gujranwala and other places.
The other girl, Mahindra Kumari, alias Chand Rani, three and a half years old, died in Tango, Burma on 15 Oct. 1939 and was reborn in Amritsar in May 1940. At the age of three and a quarter years she forced her present mother to go to the house of her previous parents. The girl went on insisting again and again, and importuned her mother every day to accompany her to visit her real house and real ‘Jahai’. It is rightly said that persistence prevails and is proved true in this case. At last the mother yielded, the baby led, and the mother followed her, to an unknown destination. The baby girl took her mother from Mushkal Mohalla passing through the various streets and blind corners, brought her mother to Kucha Beriwala at the end of the street, before a house which she claimed as her own. When her previous life’s brother’s wife came from an adjoining house, on hearing the knocks and shouts at her door, the baby girl recognised her Jahai, and ferociously embraced her by clinging to her legs, and subsequently recognised her 20 year old son Siva, and other relatives and her belongings. She recognised her gold Mutter Mala, and photo of her dead body, saying that it was she who was sleeping. At the time of her death she had great desire (Vasana) to see her brother S. Sunder Singh, and his wife, who were not present at the time of her death and perhaps the deep-rooted Vasana at the time of leaving her body in Burma, led her to be reborn in Amritsar, to meet her brother and his wife.
Jain boy of Baroda (Statesman 5 Sep. 1937): In Baroda a Jain boy of six years surprised his mother by relating the incidents of his former life. He said that he was previously at Poona of parents who belonged to Patna. He was known as Kevalchand and later ran a drapery shop at Poona. He had business relations with several merchants at Patna. He had 6 sons, one of whom was named Ramanlal. All these were verified when the boy and his mother visited Patna.
The doctrine of reincarnation is supported by Guru Nanak Dev in Guru Granth Sahib as well as by the great philosophers of Greece such as Socrates and Plato who lived about 2400 years ago.
“All our knowledge is a remembrance of what we have known only before we are born”—Platonic doctrine of reminiscence.
“We must have received our knowledge of all realities, before we were born. Our souls existed formerly apart from our bodies and possessed intelligence before they came into man’s shape”—Philosophy of Socrates.
Bereft of the living self, this body dies, while the living self dies not; because we find that when a man has fallen asleep leaving some work unfinished, when he wakes up, he remembers that he had left the work unfinished; and also just because creatures are born, they immediately evince a desire to suck the breast, terror, etc., it follows therefore, that they remember the sucking of the breast, and the pains experienced in the previous birth.

Reincarnation In Lower Births
Ordinarily in most cases the soul is not willing to take birth in the lower Yonis (wombs) for the salient reason that it has done good works in the physical body as a human being in the past incarnation. No human being is out and out an incarnation of Lucifer. Certain good qualities and actions prompted by such good qualities always outweigh the bad qualities and their actions and the human being steps into another birth either low or high out of the same species for the future evolution of the soul.
The instances where the human soul should take a lower birth either as a wolf or as a pig may be very few, just as in the physical world, a murderer awaits his exit only through the doors of the gallows. At the same time we cannot deny the truth of the scriptural texts, considering the law that every cause produces its corresponding effect.
The future birth of each soul is the result of its past actions, and the theory of Karma and reincarnation plays an important part in determining the same. The law of cause and effect, action and reaction, holds good in the case of Karma also.
Generally man evolves upwards. The tendency of the evolution is to take a man to a high level or status. This is the natural biological law. But there are exceptions. If a man is endowed with devilish traits or Asuric tendencies and does highly brutal acts, if he behaves worse than an animal, if he acts like a dog or a donkey or monkey, he surely does not deserve a human birth in the next life. He will take birth in the womb of animals. He will be born as a dog or a monkey or a donkey. Such cases are, however, rare indeed.
If a man does very heinous sins, he can get the maximum punishment while dwelling in this very physical body. In such extreme cases it is not necessary that he should wait to take the birth of an animal. Man suffers more for his sins while remaining in the body of a man than taking an animal birth. The sufferings of a leper, or a consumptive, a person suffering from syphilis, gonorrhoea are beyond description.
The inexorable working of this law is brought out tellingly in the very unusual and extremely interesting case cited hereunder.
Tarak, aged 18 or 19, compounder of Kaviraj Mahendranath Sen of Benda, got intense colic which drove him unconscious. A Brahmin of Sarvavidya lineage touched with pity, put vermilion on Tarak’s forehead, uttering Mantras and praying to Mother Kali, to let him know why Tarak was suffering so badly.
Tarak roared in his unconsciousness, “I am a part of Mother Kali. Shall I not punish Tarak? In a past life he insulted his mother and his mother kicked her own husband, Tarak’s father. Both have been condemned to suffer for 7 births, Tarak from this terrible colic and his mother to become a widow only fourteen days after marriage. They have had 4 births already, and 3 more to suffer.”
“Is there no means of deliverance, Mother” asked the kind Brahmin.
Tarak, still unconscious, replied: “There can be no deliverance unless Tarak takes ‘Padodak’ (the water with which feet are washed) of his mother and also ‘Uchhishta’ (the leaving of her food), and if his mother gives him medicine, he may be cured in this life”. On enquiring where Tarak’s mother was, the unconscious Tarak replied: “Gopal Sen’s widow is Tarak’s mother”.
Tarak came to his senses, heard everything from the Brahmin and obeyed the mandate. Tarak’s mother gave him a portion of a ‘Pan’ (betel leaf) which Tarak wore in a ‘Maduli’. Tarak was cured straightaway.
Next year the same disease returned but Tarak was cured when Tarak’s mother sprinkled her ‘Padodak’. It was then found that Tarak’s ‘Maduli’ has been defiled by taking water from a lady in her menses.
Man learns lessons through bitter and painful experiences in this world. However sinful, cruel and brutal a man may be, he corrects and educates himself through sufferings, pains, sorrows, troubles and difficulties and diseases, loss of property, poverty and death of dear and near relations. God moulds and corrects the sinners in a mysterious manner. Sufferings and pain act as useful educative forces. They serve as eye-openers in the case of evil-doers. They check them from falling back and pull them upwards. They begin to do good actions and seek the company of the saints.
Some say that a man can never reincarnate in an animal body, as his individuality cannot be conveniently accommodated by the insufficient and incapable body of an animal. The higher principles of man can find no receptacle and expression in the rude, rough and imperfect habitation of the animal. The body of a creature is always an encrustation, as it were, of its inner bodies which, too, are similarly of the same shape and cast. Thus, the encrustation or body of a human soul should always be human. It should correspond to the necessities, requirements and ambitions of a human soul. It should be furnished with all the instruments of perception and conception, which a human soul stands in need of. It should, in short, be cast upon the mould and matrix of the causal and astral bodies which generally form the plan and design of a human body. Thus a human body cannot but incarnate in a human body. The sayings of ancient writers that a cruel person will become a wolf, an avaricious person a cobra, a lustful person a bitch, etc. are all metaphorical statements. When they say that a cruel person will reincarnate as a wolf, they mean thereby that he will be reborn as a ferocious and voracious man like a wolf and similarly do other statements mean.
Others hold the view that a man may try to fall back, nay, may do his best to live the life of a lower animal. He may try to push out of his mind all higher and finer feelings, and if he really succeeds in making a monkey of himself, if he succeeds in making his desires nothing but animal desires, and if he makes an animal of himself, then, of course, he will be born a monkey in the next incarnation. But man cannot do that. There are other forces which prevent and keep him back. Those forces are what are called sorrow, trouble, suffering etc. They are the guaranteed agencies against any falling back. These forces will not allow man to fall down; thus, progress is secured. Life of evolution is progress and progress must be made, and thus constant and continuous warfare is necessary. This is another view of others.
A human birth is the result of mixed Karmas, viz., good and bad. When good Karmas outweigh the bad, man gets the birth of a Deva, Yaksha, Gandharva, and the like. When evil Karmas outweigh the good, he takes birth as an animal, devil, etc. He falls into a lower birth. When good and bad Karmas are more or less equal, he gets a human birth. By good Karmas man attains heaven, by bad Karmas hell, and by mixed Karmas he attains the world of men.
It is the nature of a man or a beast to get attached to the particular body in which it resides. The body of an ant is as dear to it as the body of an elephant is to an elephant or a human body is to a man. This wonderful attachment to the body arising out of ignorance keeps this wheel of birth and death eternally going. Of all births a particular creature likes the particular body which it has taken in the particular incarnation. A man likes a human birth; an elephant is pleased with its birth as an elephant and so on. At the same time everyone craves for evolution and attainment of unalloyed bliss. This is common for all created beings.
Birth as a man is superior because he has the power to discriminate and decide for himself. He knows himself and others and he is endowed with finer emotions of love, faith, shame, decency, non-injury, etc. An animal is devoid of intelligence, memory and knowledge. Therefore, birth as an animal is not desirable.
The life of a man who is not endowed with discrimination, knowledge of the Self, non-identification with the physical body, faith and love for fellow-beings is equal to that of a beast. The ignorant man sinks in the ocean of Samsara, and takes birth in various wombs until the eye of discrimination is opened, until he comes in contact with a guide who is ready to take him to a higher path. The ignorant worldly man takes birth as a dog, a cobra, a wolf or a tiger. There is no definite law as regards to them. The Sastras are quite correct in their statements. It is a serious mistake to take such utterances of the scriptures as merely figurative or metaphorical.
A spiritual Sadhaka who has started his life in the Divine has no fear of birth in a lower womb. A Yogi who practises Yoga even though he happens to fall from his entitled position is not ruined. He takes birth in better circumstances once again and pursues his spiritual path. In the Bhagavadgita, you will find: “O Partha, neither in this world, or in the next world is there destruction for him (who has fallen from the path of Brahman); none verily, who does good, O my son, ever comes to grief. Having attained to the worlds of the righteous and having dwelt there for everlasting years, he who fell from Yoga is reborn in a house of the pure and wealthy. Or he is born in a family of even the wise Yogis” (Chapter VI—40, 41, 42).
King Bharata, son of Rishabha, renounced his kingdom and took to the path of an ascetic. One day he observed a small motherless deer in the forest. He took pity on the poor creature and he so passionately loved this little one that his thoughts were mainly centred on the deer and thoughts of God gradually waned away. At the time of his death the thought of the small deer harassed him much and he took the birth of a deer.
King Bharata was well versed in all the scriptures, Vedas and Puranas. He did very rigorous Tapas and meditated on the lotus-feet of the glorious Vasudeva. But the inordinate attachment to the animal gave him the birth of a deer. Bharata opened his eyes and recognised his folly. The deer remembered every detail of the past life as King Bharata. It ever meditated on the Lord, ate but little and never mixed with other deers of its type. It was actually counting the number of days of its life to get freedom from the low birth. The deer after leaving its body again took the birth of a Brahmin known by the name Jada Bharata. Now Jada Bharata grew wise enough as not to commit the same mistake once again and from his very boyhood kept himself aloof. He had a mind free from attraction and repulsion. Thus he escaped the clutches of Maya and at the dissolution of his mortal sheath attained oneness with the Paramatman.
Gajendra, though he had to take the birth of an elephant, never forgot his real nature and ever prayed to Lord Hari and attained emancipation from the life of an elephant itself. The Sastras quote instances where animals and even birds have attained emancipation. Vritrasura, the great Rakshasa, was highly devoted to Vasudeva. He was King Chitraketu in his past birth who was cursed by Uma to become a Rakshasa.
From the foregoing examples it is quite clear that for a true and sincere Sadhaka there is no fear of downfall. Devotees of the Lord become absolutely fearless and they are devoid of all desires. They welcome any birth in which the Lord can be remembered.
What is wanted is real devotion to the Lord. That being achieved, a man becomes happy in any sort of life and under any circumstances. He gets a peculiar joy which helps him to bear even the most excruciating pain of Samsara.
The Rishis of yore had power to curse wicked persons and bless the virtuous. The sons of Kubera became trees by the curse of Narada. Gautama cursed his wife Ahalya to become a stone. They do this out of compassion for those who go astray, leaving the feet of Lord Hari. It is not with any selfish motive or by becoming a victim to anger that they curse the wicked. Therefore, contact with a saintly personality is highly beneficial in changing one’s destiny.
Rishis are Trikalajnanis (knowers of the past, present and future). Therefore, they know the mysterious ways of Karma. They attained knowledge of the Self and by virtue of this knowledge everything else became known to them. The kind of body into which one enters depends on the pattern of the mind which is its causative factor. The law is inexorable.
It does not matter much what kind of body we wear. It matters much what our thoughts are. A man of high position may have the thoughts of a beast. When he becomes a prey to lust and anger, he is worse than an animal. A cow is a thousand times better than such a man who is devoid of discrimination, who indulges in vulgar enjoyments, who loses his temper for trifles.
Do not worry yourself as to what birth you will take in the future. Utilise the present life profitably and free yourself from death and birth. Develop devotion to the Lord. Renounce base desires. Be ever intent on doing good to others. Be kind and do good.
Lord Hari is the protector of the three worlds. The responsibility of taking every one of His creation to His immortal abode rests with Him. Let Him take you through any path He likes. Let Him give you Mukti when you are in the body of a man, a beast or a devil. Let your mind be ever centred on Him and cling to His lotus-feet like the bee that sticks to a full-blown lotus. Drink the sweet honey flowing from His lotus-feet and surrender yourself to Him like a child.
May you all become free from this ever-revolving wheel of Karma resulting in numerous births in various wombs and attain the bliss of the Immortal in this very life.

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