The Reincarnation Principle

This is one of the articles in a book I have written on spirituality. The book is available on Amazon.com.


The Spirit Of Spirituality


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Reincarnation is an interesting subject for almost everyone. There are many people from various faiths who consider it heresy to even talk of reincarnation. At the same, there are oriental religions which consider reincarnation as the very fundamental principle to explain life’s emergence in various forms. Who is right and who is wrong? Why are there such diametrically opposite views on a subject? Let me try and put forth my understanding of reincarnation.

At its base, reincarnation states that individuals take birth in an ongoing cycle of birth and death based on their unfulfilled desires. The question that comes up then is : who is undergoing repeated births and deaths? Is it me, the individual? Does Shashank on death in this life, come back as a monkey in the next birth? Who is it that returns back after I die to complete my unfulfilled desire? Will I know what my unfulfilled desires were and when and how they got fulfilled?

I have covered earlier about the structure of an individual consisting of:

1. The gross body consisting of the physical body and the inner organs
2. The subtle body consisting of the mind and the intellect
3. The causal body that is the storehouse of all desires and is the driver for sprouting of life in a particular name and form.

Now in the context of death and getting reincarnated, when an individual dies will the gross bodies reincarnate? The gross body is just plain elements (carbon, phosphorus etc.). Once the body is cremated or buried after death, it seems highly unlikely that the gross body will reincarnate. Even chemistry says that any chemical change is irreversible. So the gross body cannot reincarnate.

Can the subtle body reincarnate? As discussed above, the subtle body is the mind and intellect. These two are subtle organs that house emotions and thoughts respectively. They are something like containers. So they will not reincarnate.

What cause reincarnation are the thoughts and desires. They are like a potential energy, which gets released under the right circumstances. Just as deep under the earth, there is phenomenal heat, which results in volcano eruptions only under certain circumstances, the unfulfilled desires and thoughts sprout into life wearing the inner covering of the subtle body and the outer covering of the gross body under certain circumstances.

Still this does not address as to who reincarnates. To whose account are the desires and thoughts linked? There are millions of people with billions of desires. How does the universe know which desire belongs to whom?

Now we come to the entity called the “ego”, which is at the heart of reincarnation. As discussed several times, our true self is the Brahman or pure consciousness. Due to the innate power of ignorance, which is a characteristic of Brahman, Brahman seemingly acquires several identities, each of which think they are separate from Brahman. This entity which believes it is separate from the Brahman is the “ego”. Ego is what gives us self-identity and makes us feel we are not Brahman. It is this ego which is associated with desires and thoughts. All unfulfilled desires/thoughts which are known as “vasanas” define the character of the “ego” and its expression in the world.

So, Shashank’s expression as one of the “ego”, is a combination of all the desires accumulated over several births. In this birth, the name and shape of a human being is linked to this specific “ego”. Maybe in the next birth, the same ego may have a name called Tommy and be in the form of a dog to fulfill some of its burning desires. The ego always remains the same, but its name and form changes.

To understand this concept better, let us consider a person, John Doe with particular social security #. Assuming John has been diligent with his finances, his identity using the social security #, would reveal an individual with a good credit score. If he opens multiple accounts, his identity based on his social security #, would show his balances and debts. Even if he moves from state to state, his identity would be the same and that is his social security #. However, in one stage, the same identity may reveal a person with good credit. Depending on his spending patterns, the same identity may reveal a person with a bad credit. So in effect, the entity which had the form and name of a person with a good credit may be replaced with a form and name of a person with a bad credit, depending on the type of actions taken. The actions taken and its impact is always linked to the social security #.

In exactly the same way, every action driven by desire which in turn is driven by thoughts is linked to the ego and the ego as it goes through multiple names and forms to meet its unfulfilled desires is said to be reincarnating.

Does everyone have to go through reincarnation? The answer is No. We know that the entity that is reincarnating is the “ego”. If the “ego” itself is not there, there is no reincarnation. What causes “ego”? It is caused by “ignorance’ of our true nature. What can remove “ignorance”? The opposite of “ignorance” is “knowledge”. Hence it is only knowledge of the true nature of oneself that will free us from reincarnation. 

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.


1. My Humble Understanding  Of Spirituality


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

2. Attain Infinite Bliss

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

3. The Spirit Of Spirituality

The Spirit Of Spirituality