This is a continuation from the previous theme we explored in the Bhagavad Gita series, that you are not your body. Here we examine what is often called reincarnation, or more correctly, the transmigration of the spirit soul.
There are many misconceptions surrounding this topic. It is not uncommon that someone may ask “you mean I can become a dog?” And of course, the answer is, no, you do not BECOME a dog, but it is possible to enter into that type of a body and falsely assume that external identity.
The Bhagavad Gita speaks of how over lifetimes, the spirit soul can cycle through a myriad of bodies. And even within our current lifetime we cycle through a baby’s body, then a child’s, a teenager’s, and an adult’s, a middle-aged, and eventually and old aged body. Looking at things objectively and considering the constant turn-over of all the material particles that make up a body, within a maximum of 5 years it is like a constant process of recycling bodies.
But how does this really happen and what are the drivers?
The following are verses I quote in the talk:
Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be. – Bhagavad-gītā 2.12
As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. – Bhagavad-gītā 2.13
As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones. – Bhagavad-gītā 2.22
Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail. – Bhagavad-gītā 8.6
The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas. – Bhagavad-gītā 15.8
The caterpillar transports itself from one leaf to another by capturing one leaf before giving up the other. Similarly, according to his previous work, the living entity must capture another body before giving up the one he has. This is because the mind is the reservoir of all kinds of desires. – Bhāgavata Purāṇa 4.29.76-77
The living entity, thus taking another gross body, obtains a certain type of ear, tongue, and nose and sense of touch, which are grouped about the mind. He thus enjoys a particular set of sense objects. – Bhagavad-gītā 15.9
When the living entity passes from the present body to the next body, which is created by his own karma, he becomes absorbed in the pleasurable and painful sensations of the new body and completely forgets the experience of the previous body. This total forgetfulness of one’s previous material identity, which comes about for one reason or another, is called death. – Bhāgavata Purāṇa 11.22.39
If you would like to dig a little deeper into this subject the following links to other talks may be helpful. The 3 topics of these talks are:
Reincarnation The Ins and the Outs
Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? – Understanding Reincarnation
Purpose, Reincarnation, and Suffering – an online Q&A session.
