Rebirth Continued

As mentioned earlier, after death of the physical body, the astral and causal bodies reside in a plane of the astral realm commensurate with one’s karmas. Those who have been really evil on earth get to reside in the very low realms where their experience is horrible and they are aware of the reason why they are there. If they do not realize or become aware of their mistakes or sins committed they continue to suffer in that realm for ages or centuries. Some of these souls, however, may have a desire to improve. If the desire to improve spiritually is genuine they may get a chance of another birth on earth but they will be born as animals, like beasts of burden with their memories of the lower realm intact ( it is believed)to enable them to bear the hardships of the rebirth. It is also believed that spiritual evolution is much faster when born on earth. This cycle may go on.
It is very unlikely that anyone from a very low astral realm will be born as a human since one has to be in a certain realm (something like a middle level or higher one) to get a chance of being reborn as human.
Those in the middle or higher realms, who genuinely want to evolve spiritually, based on their free will and karmas, wish to take a rebirth as a human being, need to first choose their mother. It is said that at the time of the union of the sperm and ovum, a flash of light appears which attracts a soul based on karmic characteristics of the parents. If the karmas of the soul trying to incarnate and the parents is harmonious, the soul takes birth as the baby of the parents so selected. The soul chooses the parents based on the type of experience it wishes to have and needs to evolve spiritually. This, therefore, means that we actually choose our time and place of birth. It is important to remember that the bottom line is spiritual progression in every birth. One wonders, then, why is it that a baby is born with certain birth defects and dies soon after birth. It is believed that the baby does so for certain reasons.It often does so to instill a sense of love, affection, and compassion in the parents. One has seen so very often that often when this happens the parents, having become so attached to the baby who has left them, start helping other children, open organizations for them, donate for orphanages etc. This way the little child has helped in the spiritual progress of the parents!
It is believed that small children upto the age of two to three years remember their previous births. It is also said that while in the mother’s womb, the soul can still decide whether to carry on with its birth or not (their subconscious mind is quite active). If for some reason, the soul in the womb decides that perhaps the mother is not quite right, it may decide to go back to the astral world, and the baby may then be still born!
Sometimes, the soul purposely decides to be born to a mother who is not a good person or of loose character, but still decides to be born to her, the reason is that the soul wants to bring about an improvement in the mother, to take her up spiritually.
It is, therefore, quite clear that one is not born randomly but there is always a specific purpose for one being born in a particular family. Most of the time, the reborn progresses spiritually, gaining from parents and other souls being born at the same time around( I had earlier mentioned that very often people are born in clusters, ie those one has known in earlier births are born again around the same time and come in contact, without one’s knowledge). All this is based on karmas of the concerned souls.


I would also like to point out that sometimes, the reborn, does not actually follow the chosen path, due to bad company, negative influences and negative people who somehow manage to get the worst out of them. This happens when they allow themselves to be ruled by their conscious minds and do not follow the guidance of their subconscious minds.(The subconscious is both a guard as well as a guide to us) When they die, they go back to much lower realms this time and their possibility of being reborn as humans becomes remote!
At this point I need to digress a little. All of us have chakras or energy centres in our heads and spines, which are actually energy transformers. They are acted upon by the electromagnetic energy of the various stars, and based on our karmic characteristics, our life unfolds. This means that it is not the stars which decide how our lives are going to be but actually our karmas. The stars alone do not have the power to do anything! Our karmas, therefore, decide everything.
Births can be compared to a step ladder of progress, the human birth is the topmost step, the next step can take us towards divine union. This will, however, happen only if we have evolved spiritually to a level which merits this union. Human birth, is, therefore essential for this to happen. All other births cannot take us to ‘Yoga” or union. Those who get repeated chances of being born as humans are being given multiple opportunities by God Almighty to go back to their Creator by the proper methods of spiritual progress based on the teachings of their God Realized Guru!

Rebirth Revisited

This is a response to Mr Anirudh Kumar Rastogi's comment which is sincerely appreciated. It is interesting to note that it is the gravitational force which leads to rebirth(Mr Rastogi). We are all aware of the three forces, namely, electromagnetic force, nuclear force, weak and strong and the gravitational which are present all over and responsible for everything that happens in this Universe, including the human body. It is believed that the electromagnetic force is the strongest. It is true that our body also comprises of energy since matter and energy are both interchangeable and interconvertible based on Einstein’s famous equation.

Yogis have always known that the human body consists of three parts, a Sthula Sharir, comprising of the physical body made of matter , a Sukshma Sharir, also known as the Astral Body, comprising of Energy or Pranshakti as well as the mind or manas. The third part is the Karan Sharir, also called the Ideational or Causal body which consists of the Intelligence or Buddhi and the Soul or spirit.The Individual Superconsciousness is the same as the human soul or spirit and is the gateway to the Universal Superconsciousness or God. The soul represents the Divine in us since we have been created in the image of God. Our entire body, therefore, comprises of energy.

We have all come into this world for three reasons. One is to evolve spiritually, secondly to serve others selflessly and thirdly, which, I think is the most important, to use our innate talent or ability for the good of others. Each of us is actually unique and have a trait or a gift which has been called an ‘archtype”by Carl Jung. This could be the ability to heal, (doctor, nurse), a unique talent of writing, singing, making people happy etc. Since all of us have been bestowed with this gift, we need to rediscover it. Once we do that, we should use it for the good of mankind, whereby, we wash off our karmas and improve spiritually.

At the time of physical death, the physical body comprising of matter gets destroyed and becomes part of the elements. The two other parts ie the astral (sukshma sharir) and karan sharir comprising of the soul(spirit), intelligence and pranashakti remain and go the Astral realm.This realm has many levels. One goes to the lower or higher realm depending on one’s karmas on earth.(We understand that karma is the law of cause and effect).The lower realms are inhabited by those who have done a lot of evil on earth. Here the soul sleeps for most of the time and will be born again. Those who have been good on earth in their physical bodies go to higher realms which are very beautiful. Both kinds of souls remain here till their earthly desires remain. They take rebirth in order to fulfill those desires and at the same time to gain experience and to further evolve spiritually. They choose the time, place, and family of their birth depending on where the soul feels it can evolve and gain experience.
Those souls who reside in the lower realms may also get a chance to take rebirth in order to evolve spiritually and to improve themselves. It is believed that spiritual evolution is fastest in the human form and slow but steady in the astral realms. If the soul, therefore, wishes to evolve faster it will need to take another human birth.
Those highly evolved souls who reside in the higher astral realms stay there for a long time till all their earthly karmas as well as karmas of the astral realms, which are enjoyments based on vibration, have been fulfilled. Once that happens they go higher to the causal realms. They stay there till all their causal desires are fulfilled, which are based on perception. Once this has happened the soul merges with the Creator….the drop becomes the ocean.(Kindly refer to the book “Autobiography of a Yogi” beautifully written by Sri Yoganand Paramhans for a detailed description)

So, to cut a long story short, a soul reincarnates, ie a soul takes a body form, complete with all the experiences gained by the senses and intelligence earlier. Therefore, the subconscious mind is completely aware of all the past births, and the experiences gained. This memory, however, is inaccessible to most people since there is a barrier between all the levels of our minds(the conscious, subconscious, individual superconscious and universal superconscious minds)but can be accessed either by meditation or by Hypnotic Regression, whereby past lives can actually be seen or experienced.

I feel it is God’s gift to us that He has made us forget about our past lives. I think, till such time one is spiritually mature, memories can be a cause of tremendous stress and everyone may not be able to handle it. When one progresses spiritually, one gradually develops enough wisdom to understand all these things and not get affected by them. I also feel very strongly that if one is on the spiritual path(which Deepak Chopra calls the “pathless path)one realizes that knowing and discussing about one’s own previous births becomes superfluous, since it is part and parcel of one’s spiritual evolution and ceases to have any meaning as one’s spiritual aim is to reach Him. One also realizes that in any case death is “just a beginning” and one will meet all near and dear ones on shedding the physical body on reaching the higher astral realms.