Is Reincarnation A Fact? Do We All Have Past Lives?

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Reincarnation is the process by which the spiritual essence of an individual i.e., the Soul, passes from one body to another in a repeated cycle of birth and death.

The Soul is eternal. It never takes birth nor does it ever die. It always remains in its natural form as it is. However, when the Soul leaves the physical body, life ends and the body dies. After leaving one body, the Soul, along with the ego and the other things, moves on to form another physical body, which is called rebirth or reincarnation.

Not everyone believes in reincarnation, although the fact is that we all experience it almost every day in our life.

Everyday reincarnation

Let’s understand this through an example. You are walking on a busy street. Suddenly, a dog comes and bites you. Why? There were so many other people on the street; then why was it that only you were hurt by the dog?

It is because at the moment it was you alone who had a karmic account with him. You may say, “Oh, I’ve never seen this dog before. Then, how could I have a karmic account with him?’ It’s a rule that without a cause, the effect cannot come, which means the cause of the effect of the dog biting you took place in a past life.

Let’s see another example. You do not wish to get angry at all, yet you end up being angry. Have you ever thought about why this is so?

It is because the atoms of karma were charged in the previous life (the cause), which the Soul carried with itself into the next life, and since the charged atoms became due for discharge in this moment, you end up being angry although you don’t wish to do so. In yet another example, where a baby is born with some problem or where the baby dies in the womb itself, it automatically speaks the fact that the cause of this effect has to be from the past life for the baby’s present life has not even begun as yet.

Thus, the theory of reincarnation establishes itself in the life of all of us, and it proves that we all had past lives.

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What does a Soul carry with itself to the next life?

There is birth after death, which implies the Soul carries with it the material due to which one is having to take a rebirth and go to the next life. What’s that material? It is the atoms of charged karma, based on which the entire next life unfolds, right from entering the womb up to the death, as the discharge of each atom takes place one after another. And while the karma discharges, owing to ignorance of the Self, one is simultaneously charging new karma, which the Soul carries with itself into yet another next life!

Until one attains Self-Realization, or in other words, unless the ignorance of the Self is removed, the new atoms of karma continue to be charged, and consequently, the Soul continues to wander from one life to another. Only when the charging of new karma (causes) ceases, the cycle of birth and rebirth will be able to end. If causes were destroyed, eventually effect too would come to an end, and thus next life would cease to occur.

How can one stop charging new karma?

Causes of new karma can only be stopped in the human life. It becomes possible when the Living Gnani Purush (the Enlightened One) graces us with the knowledge of ‘who am I?’ (Self-Realization) and also gives us the understanding of ‘who is the real doer’ in this world.

We all are really a Pure Soul, whose function is to just see and know. However, owing to ignorance of the Self, we develop a sense of doership, due to the wrong belief that, “I think, I speak, I do, etc.” This sense of doership is the root cause of bondage of any new karma.

When Pujya Deepakbhai, with the blessings of Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan, the founder of Akram Vignan, graces us with the knowledge of the Self in GnanVidhi, a scientific process wherein the separation between the real Self and the worldly self takes place, we attain Self-Realization. Thereafter, following his guidance, we learn to stop charging new karma.

Conclusion

Thus, reincarnation is a fact, which happens until the Soul happens to carry with itself the atoms of charged karma into the next life. One is able to come out of this cycle of birth and death, when one attains Self-Realization from Gnani, the Enlightend One, and stops charging new karma!