The Doctrine Of RE-INCARNATION.


Dear bloggers and members of Satsang,We are now studying 2nd chapter and just completed 'The Re-incarnation theory.' I will try to summarise what we have learnt
about Re-incarnation.Any comments are welcome.


The doctrine of reincarnation is a major tenet of Hindu religion. This doctrine distinguishes it from other major religions. Lord Krishna, the 9th incarnation of Lord Vishnu, says in the Bhagavad-Gita that it is a transcendental truth.

In the Bhagavad-Gita, when Arjuna starts grieving for the death of Bhishma and Drona, Lord Krishna says, Oh Arjuna, you should not grieve for Bhishma and Drona because they, in their true nature, are not dying. They are only leaving one embodiment to take a different embodiment. For this, do you have to grieve, Oh Arjuna? Your grief is because of your delusion. The wise do not grieve if someone leaves one embodiment to take a different embodiment. Lord Krishna further goes on to say, Oh Arjuna, in your delusion, you think that Bhishma and Drona are that body, mind and intellect. In actuality, they are not that body, mind and intellect, but in their true nature, they are the immutable, omniscient, all pervading Brahman. Therefore, the wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead.

We are the soul with a body and not the body with a soul. All of us go through our infancy, childhood, youth, adulthood and old age. When we reach childhood our infancy is dead. When we reach youth our childhood is dead. When we reach adulthood our youthfulness is dead. And when we reach old age our adulthood is dead. But, the soul never died and it passed from infancy to childhood, from childhood to youth, from youth to adulthood and from adulthood to old age. The soul passes from one embodiment to another embodiment. Grief and sorrow belong to the body, mind and intellect, but not to the Soul. We know that we are the soul with a body, mind and intellect, but not the other way around.

The realized masters say that self alone is real and everything else is unreal. Self or Soul or Spirit was, is, and will be. Hence, self is real. That which was not there before, which is seemingly present today, and which will not be there tomorrow is unreal. Our body was not there before. It is seemingly present today but it will not be there a hundred years from now. Hence it is unreal. Self was there in the previous embodiment, self is here in the present embodiment, and self will be there in the future embodiment. Hence, self alone is real and that is our true nature. In other words, in our true nature we are birthless and deathless. Hence, self is SAT (real), everything else is ASAT (unreal). Let us take an example. All of us know what the ocean is and what the waves are. Ocean is present all the time. Waves are coming and going. Thus we can describe the ocean as real and waves as unreal. Ocean was, Ocean is and Ocean will be. Waves were not there before, waves are seemingly present now, and waves will not be there the next minute. Hence, the ocean is real and the waves are unreal. Similarly, self alone is real and that is our true nature.

Our body is like the shirt that we wear. When we wear the shirt, we don’t say I am the shirt. We say, this is my shirt. Similarly, we, as the self, are wearing this body and hence, we are not this body. We are wearing this body temporarily for a short period of time. Our identification with the body is the cause for many of our sorrows. Let us take another example. Let us take a room, which is dark. If we switch on the electricity, the light comes on and the darkness disappears. If we switch off the electricity, the room becomes dark. The illuminator, electricity and the illumined, the room are different. Similarly, we the self and the body we wear are different. We are the self. The self is the illuminator and the body, mind and intellect are illumined. The illuminator and the illumined are different. Hence we the self are wearing this body and we are not this body. We wear different embodiments in different reincarnations.

Birth, death and rebirth cycles are inevitable for us as long as we are suffering from the delusion, dream state, camouflaging and veiling. As long as we are dreaming, whatever is happening in the dream is true. It is only when we wake up from the dream, that we realize that the dream is false. Similarly, as long as we are deluded and ignorant of our true nature, we identify with this body and hence, ego has arisen. Ego is the cause for all our suffering and sorrows. To the extent we detach ourselves from our body, mind and intellect, to that extent our ego is diminished. It is always our ego that is the sufferer. Hence, if the ego is dead, there is no question of suffering. Total egolessness is nothing but self-realization.

Our goal is to become aware of our true nature. That is called enlightenment. If we get enlightened, we are called Jivan muktas (liberated while we are in this embodiment). When we leave this embodiment after enlightenment, we will not be born again. No more reincarnations. That state is called liberation, Moksha, Nirvana, or Kaivalya. That is immortality. We become awakened to the glory of the all pervading Brahman. That is Godhood. That is Brahmic state. No more re-incarnations. That is true liberation from birth, death and re-birth cycles. How to reach that state of liberation and bliss-infinite is the subject matter for another discussion.

Eswara Dutt.