REINCARNATION
After death, the soul goes to the next world, bearing
in mind the subtle impressions of its deeds,
and after reaping their harvest returns again
to this world of action. Thus, he who has
desires continues subject to rebirth.
—Yajur Veda, Br. Upanishad 4.4.6
Reincarnation is the natural cycle of birth,
death and re birth. We are not the body in
which we live, but the im mortal soul which
inhabits one body after another on the Earth
during its evolutionary journey. Like the caterpillar’s transformation
into a butterfly, physical death is a most natural transition for the
soul, never to be feared. We are now the sum total of all our past lives.
The ac tions and re actions we set in mo tion in our last life form the
tendencies in the next. Re in car nation ceases when all karmas have
been resolved, dharma has been well performed and God fully realized.
This is known as mok sha, or liberation from rebirth.
