Reincarnation FAQ
March 4, 2011 by ajeet-k-mall
Filed under Science
Answers to common questions people have about reincarnation.
Common questions people have with the concept of reincarnation
- How many people believe in reincarnation?
Statistics world-wide are difficult to obtain, but in the US the Gallup Organization made a survey in October 2001 of Americans’ belief in psychic and paranormal phenomena. For this survey, they asked adults 18 and over amongst other things if they believed in “Reincarnation, that is, the rebirth of the soul in a new body after death”. In the results, 25% said they did believe in reincarnation, 20% didn’t know, 54% didn’t believe in it and 1% had no opinion. Belief was only slightly higher among males than females, while it varied significantly between age groups: belief amongst 28-29 year-olds was at 25%, 30-49 year-olds were at 22%, while people 50 and over were at 28%
- Is there any evidence at all suggesting life after death?
Scientists investigating ‘near-death’ experiences say they have found evidence to suggest that consciousness can continue to exist after the brain has ceased to function.
More details: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/986177.stm
- Is there a scientific basis for reincarnation?
Any biologist can tell that our body’s cells are constantly dying and being replaced by new ones and every seven years we change the complete set of cells that means we change our body every seven years but this change is so gradual that it’s imperceptible. So, each of us has a number of “different” bodies in this very life. The body of an adult is completely different from the body the same person had as an infant. Yet despite bodily changes, the person within remains the same. In other words, we reincarnate even in the course of one lifetime. Something similar happens at the time of death, when this body cannot be worked any more, the self undergoes a final change of body.
Therefore Krsna says:
“As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth, and then to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death” (Bhagavad-gita 2.13)
He further says:
“As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, similarly, the soul accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones” (< ahref=http://www.asitis.com/2/22.html>Bhagavad-gita 2.22)
Forensic Evidence of Reincarnation: Indian forensic scientist Vikram Raj Singh Chauhan is trying to prove reincarnation is real. He has presented his findings at the National Conference of Forensic Scientists in India. More details: http://science.krishna.org/Articles/2002/10/025.html
- So why can’t everyone believe in reincarnation?
Lord Krsna explicitly says- “Some look at the soul as amazing, some describe him as amazing, and some hear of him as amazing, while others, even after hearing about him, cannot understand him at all. The foolish cannot understand how a living entity can quit his body, nor can they understand what sort of body he enjoys under the spell of the modes of nature. But one whose eyes are trained in knowledge can see all this. The endeavoring transcendentalists, can see all this clearly. But those whose minds are not developed cannot see what is taking place, though they may try to” (Bhagavad-gita 2.29, 15.8-10)
- If people remember a past life as a foreigner, why can’t they remember their past life language?
A Russian woman who claims to be able to speak 120 languages says many of them are from her previous lives.Linguists claim to have identified that she speaks 16th century English,Chinese, Persian, Egyptian, Mongolian, Vietnamese, Korean and Swahili, reports Komsomol’skaya Pravda.
- If there’s only a fixed number of souls, how has the world population increased?
This is often heard from people who don’t believe in reincarnation. why such people really expect that there is a limit to life in the universe. It is interesting to note that as man’s population has increased, the animal kingdom has gradually been decimated – and that is where some mystics say human souls gradually evolve upwards from. Also of note, highly advanced Yogis state that life exists on many other places in the unlimited expanse of the universe, in which case the planet Earth would be only one of many places for souls to inhabit. In the Vedic literature, our universe with innumerable planets throughout the galaxies is comparable to a grain of mustard seed in a bag full of mustard seeds.
- Do people reincarnate as animals and vice-versa?
An popular reincarnation myth posits that the soul, once attaining a human form, always comes back in a human body in the next life and never reincarnates in a lower species. We may reincarnate as humans, but we could come back as dogs, cats, hogs, or lower species. There is no scientific or scriptural evidence anywhere for this fanciful “once a human, always a human” notion, which runs contrary to the true principles of reincarnation, principles that have been understood and followed by millions of people since time immemorial.
So Lord Krsna says:
“When one dies in the mode of goodness, he attains to the pure higher planets. When one dies in the mode of passion, he takes birth among those engaged in fruitive activities; and when he dies in the mode of ignorance, he takes birth in the animal kingdom”(Bhagavad-gita 14.14-15)
- What factors decide the type of body in the next incarnation?
The type of body one gets in his next life will be determined by the type of consciousness he develops in this life and by the immutable law of karma. Krsna Says –
“Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail”(Bhagavad-gita 8.6)
- So do people undergo sex changes in next birth?
Sex Change Without Surgery: As already explained, a person gets his next life’s birth according to what he thinks of at the time of death. If someone is too attached to his wife, naturally he thinks of his wife at the time of death, and in his next life he takes the body of a woman. Similarly, if a woman thinks of her husband at the time of death, naturally she gets the body of a man in her next life. –Srimad Bhagavatam (3.31.41)
- Does everyone just keep reincarnating forever?
The sages of ancient India tell us that the goal of human life is to escape from the endless cycle of reincarnation. Don’t come back, they warn. One can break the cycle of rebirth by breaking free of the bonds of karma. Karma is what entangles us and continues the soul’s revolving in the cycle of repeated birth and death. Piety and its rewards are bound to make us inadvertently commit some act of impiety, because that is the nature of this material world which is full of inebrieties. Only pure spiritual activity frees us from the cycle of repeated birth and death. In bhagavad gita (14.20), Lord Krsna tells that one has to transcend even the mode of goodness to become free from birth and death” . He tells us how to transcend the modes of matarial nature– Those engaged in full devotional service, at once transcends the modes of material nature. Thus being engaged in devotional service and always meditating upon Me, who has fixed his mind upon Me, for him I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death, but those who are not faithful on the path of devotional service cannot attain Me, but return to birth and death in this material world (bhagavad gita 14.26,9.3,12.6-7).
- But what is the problem if one keeps reincarnating forever?
The real goal of understanding reincarnation is to become free from the painful cycle of birth and death. This is not a very good business–to die and take birth again.
The great sage Kapila Muni informs his mother about the true nature of the death experience: “In that diseased condition, one’s eyes bulge due to the pressure of air from within, and his glands become congested with mucus. He has difficulty breathing, and there is a rattling sound within the throat. He dies most pathetically, in great pain and without consciousness.” (Srimad Bhagavatam 3.30.16–18)
But taking birth in the material world is no picnic either. For months the human fetus lies cramped within the darkness of the womb, suffering severely, scorched by the mother’s gastric fire, continually jolted by sudden movements, and feeling constant pressure from being contained in the small amnion, or sack, which surrounds the body in the womb. This tight, constricting pocket forces the child’s back to arch constantly like a bow. Further, the unborn child is tormented by hunger and thirst and is bitten again and again all over the body by hungry worms in the abdominal cavity, and what makes the situation even worse, when mother kills the children within the womb, which is not uncommon nowadays. Birth is so excruciating, the Vedic literatures say, that the process eradicates any past-life memories one may have retained.
- So after we die, there’s no eternal heaven?
There is certainly a eternal spiritual sky. This information is there in Bhagavad Gita. Krsna says:
Yet there is another nature, which is eternal and when all in this world is annihilated, that part remains as it is, and that is the supreme destination (Bhagavad-gita 8.20)
But to reach that place, requires certain qualification — Just like we require the same qualification as prime minister to enter PMO, so we need godly qualities to enter the kingdom of God. We can acquire such godly qualities by living in association of saintly persons, discussing about God and chanting His holy name, the way iron rod acquire all the qualities of fire when placed in fire. This is the secret. Therefore Krsna says:
He, who practice to remember Me, undeviated from the path, and at the time of death, quits his body, remembering Me alone, at once attains My nature. After attaining Me, the great souls never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries- wherein repeated birth and death take place, because they have attained the highest perfection — (Bhagavad-gita 8.5,7,15)
- How do I know that someone, after death, has reincarnated or gone to spiritual world?
There are two ways of passing from this world–one in the light and one in darkness. When one passes in light, he does not come back; but when one passes in darkness, he returns. Those who pass away from the world during the influence of the fiery god, in the light, at an auspicious moment, during the fortnight of the moon and the six months when the sun travels in the north, don’t come back, but who passes away from this world during the smoke, the night, the moonless fortnight, or in the six months when the sun passes to the south, again comes back — (Bhagavad gita 8.24-26)
To come back as a dog.? The human brain is well advanced.The knowledge that we know is 25,000 times of a dog.A computer can’t even do things the human brain can do.I would say that it is in the D.N.A. Why should we revert back to a dog?.The human brain is so unique.I always concluded,once you’re in.You’re in.As long as there are humans around us we’ll come back as humans.But if one human were to die on an island of dogs with no humans around.I don’t know what would happen.We have to die with humans around us.
Hare Krishna James
A dog does four things, he eats, he sleeps, he has sex and he defends himself and his family. He has all the relationships and attachments we have. If you have had a pet dog you will know he has attachment for his owner and he likes certain foods and does not like other foods. He is an individual just like you. And yes, in the human form of life we have a great opportunity, but if we just use the human form of life for these four things: eating, sleeping, mating and sex, then we are no better than the dog. Human form of life is meant for making spiritual advancement, it is only in the human form of life that we can question, “Why am I here?”, “What happens after death?”, etc. If we do not ask these questions and die simply trying to eat, sleep, mate and defend, then we are dying in animal consciousness and our next body will be an animal’s body. Our next body is created as a result of our consciousness at the time of death. That is why we are trying to be Krishna conscious all the time, so at the time of death we will remember Krishna and will not have to take another birth in this material world, but will go back home, back to Godhead, to live with Krishna.
As far as the DNA is concerned, the DNA of a man and the DNA of a mouse are virtually identical. So it is not the DNA that is determining anything, it is the soul. You may like to look at this article:
http://krishna.org/born-again-findings-of-the-genome-project-have-given-an-impetus-to-the-theory-of-reincarnation/
In the genome project scientists were thinking that man would have about 100,000+ genes compared to the mouse’s 30,000. But turns out that man only has about 30,000 also and they are practically identical…
Hare Krishna
Namaste, I am new to krishna consciousness
I enjoy reading your articles and it helps me think of krishna almost all the time.
I really want to know about what a human should do in this life according to krishna consciousness apart from: no illicit sex, no gambling no meat eating no intoxication no smoking etc.I follow all these rules.
The bhagavad gita talks about detachment from material things eg money which is the most important thing now a days, I am a management student for me my career, job, family, business are most important, money is very important to survive but all these things are material, when I die these things will remain behind. I know that but it is impossible to be non material in today’s life………. Is it possible to remain material and still be close to Lord Krishna
Hare Krishna Abhijit Prabhu
Following the four rules (no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gambling and no intoxication) is essential for the practice of Krishna consciousness but simply following these rules is not Krishna consciousness. These rules simply bring one to the human platform. Krishna consciousness involves performing devotional service. We are all servants by nature. Mostly we are serving some master in the material world with the object of satisfying our own senses or the senses of our family, etc. This is material consciousness.
Krishna consciousness means to serve in the material world with the objective of satisfying Krishna’s senses. That is the difference between material consciousness and Krishna consciousness. The materialist works for the pleasure of his own senses or for the pleasure of his families senses whereas the devotee works solely for the pleasure of Krishna’s senses.
Exactly how to do this we need to get the instruction of the bona fide spiritual master.
Of course in addition to following the four regulative principles we MUST chant at least 16 rounds of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra daily. You do not mention that you are doing this. We must do it. That is the practical process that enables us to keep our mind on Krishna, ie: Krishna Consciousness, without chanting Hare Krishna there can be no Krishna consciousness.
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Also please read the books of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. You can read them online at http://www.PrabhuapdaBooks.com or get the printed books at http://www.KrishnaStore.com
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
we can become an animal, If we became Human so it all depend in our karma. each one pay there own price.
Hi James 1974
you have spoke about computer is clever.
My answer to you
Human have made computer. computer do not work on its own, Human activate the computer. so who is clever, Human or computer.
Human beings think from past experiences, knowledge …. In reality we do not know what is future and past every body is commenting based on his personal experiences (may be feeling also), their practices.. Evey one feels they are correct
I do not understand why the purpose of Soul is to cut off from the cycle of birth & death . Firstly there is no death for the SOUL it is only the body which die, since there is no death to the soul obviously there is no birth, but then soul enters a body uses it and then deserts it, So the pain of life and death is for the body , the soul does not suffer. Further if life has a purpose and God wants us to do some thing how can the soul do any thing if it is out of the cycle. Supposing all the souls join back with God then Srusti becomes meaningless!
Hi first of im sorry for posting this in which may be the wrong place to do so but i really need closure on this topic. i come from a family who’s life is devoted to krishna consciousness and im the black sleep of this family. i have attended the hare krishna temples to an extent but have given up on that completely in the recent months. i do believe in god and please mind me for saying this but i just don’t trust in him anymore. my life has been downhill from the begining. i clearly remember once going to temple when i was much younger, there was a lecture been given by a swami whos name i don’t remember and the conclusion/point of the lecture was that we all live for love, without it life has no meaning. ive had many medical problems preventing me from ever having a normal relationship. i cant go on knowing im going to be alone for the rest of my life. with that being said, im ready for death, contemplating it this very moment. the only thing that scares the hell out of me is what happens after death. are there any guarantees espically when is wasen’t natural? please answer me a.s.a.p. i would like nothing more than to break the cycle of birth and death for good. what happens to the soul when life’s ended by suicide? some say that the world we live in is actually hell and going back to godhead would be heaven, is there any truth to that? i believe that nobodys happy, everybody has problems so why would we want to come back to this horrible place called earth
Hare Krishna!
Today’s ISKCON is a mess and you are one of the victims of this mess.
The Swami you heard speaking at ISKCON was talking complete nonsense. “We all live for love…” It is not like that at all. There is no love in this material world. It is, as you are experiencing it, a place of suffering.
Don’t worry. You are seeing the world as it is. A miserable place full of suffering. You have been “brainwashed” into thinking that this world is a wonderful place and that somehow you are missing out. But no, everyone here in the material world is simply suffering. This world is for suffering.
The place where we can be happy is the spiritual world, the Kingdom of God. So we need to use this human form of life to make our journey back home, back to Godhead.
The human form of life is very valuable. We can use this human form of life to completely escape from the suffering of the material world and to return to the spiritual world where we will regain our original, eternal spiritual body that is full of bliss and knowledge.
You can not escape the sufferings of this world by commiting suicide. That is a very big mistake and will simply make things much worse for you. You will suffer much more for untimely ending your life. You have this human form of life for a purpose and that purpose is to serve Krishna. So please use this vauable human form of life by studying the books of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and there you will find all the answers you are looking for and you will find a path that enables you to transcend the problems of this world even while you are in a material body and at the end you will remember Krishna and go back to Krishna.
So please stay away from ISKCON and take shelter of Srila Prabhuapda and chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
hare krishna
i would like to know whther our pet dogs can recarnate and born as human.my dog died but she had a sense like humans and wish she could be born in my family again
Hare Rama Hara Krishna,
I am forensic scientist dealing with cases of Reincarbation. I need ur blessings.
Dr. Vikram Raj Singh Chauhan
2460/1, Shamsher Singh Street,
Near Triveni Chowk, Patiala-147001-(Punjab) India
Phones: 09814030711, 09316530711
E-mails: vikramrajchauhan@gmail.com and vikramrajchauhan@yahoo.com
we lost our pet dog on july 15 on flight to India, and we are heart broken. my son is depressed and my heart aches. the pet was very close to us, a loving darling. it possibly died due to lack of air, suffocation.
we buried the dog in my parents house, in the garden adjacent to the house, because he always wanted to be near us, not alone.
can you please tell me if he will come back to us, be reincarnated somewhere near us? how i wish i can recognise him, wish he comes back to us. should i look for him here in India, or where we came from?
please answer my questions. we are really suffering … the dog was only one and a half years old, too young to die …
hope you’ll help, thank you
Hare Krishna Kshan
It is not very good to become so attached to a dog. You may know that there is a narration in the Srimad-Bhagavatam about Maharaja Bharata. He was a great yogi and mystic practicing spiritual realization in the Himalayas. He was every day very carefully performing his religious duties, but then one day he saw a tiger chasing one female deer. The deer, trying to escape from the tiger jumped over a river but she was pregnant and died. The small baby deer was born prematurely and Maharaja Bharata naturally as a kind hearted sadhu adopted the baby deer and fed it and kept it warm and looked after it in every way. As the baby deer grew it became very playful and Maharaja Bharata became very attached to the baby deer.
He became completely captivated by the deer and could no longer concentrate on his spiritual duties. He was always thinking about where his deer was and worrying if it was safe…
So in this way he died thinking of the deer and as a result of this he had to take birth as a deer in his next life.
So it is very dangerous to become so attached to an animal like this. The human form of life is very special. Only in the human form of life can we question, “Why am I here? What is the purpose of life? What happens after death?” And in the human form of life we can find the answers to these questions and perfect our life and escape from the cycle of samsara, repetition of birth and death.
So if you become so attached to a dog and think of the dog at the time of death then you will be forced to take birth as a dog in your next life and that will be a great disaster. You will have lost the special opportunity of the human form of life.
So if you are at all interested in making spiritual advancement you should avoid this close attachment and affection for animals…
As far as the dog, he died when he was supposed to die according to his karma and the suffering that his death is causing you is also due to your karma and you have to see it like this. You have no particular attachment to the living entity who was present in the dog’s body. You were just attached to that dog’s body. So the dog’s body that you were attached to is gone now, rotting in the ground, and will never come back. You do not even know the living entity who was in the dog’s body…
As animals do not have the free choice to to right and wrong as we in the human bodies do, they do not generate good or bad karma in their animal bodies. Animal bodies are for burning off karma which is generated in their previous human bodies. So he will take birth again in a species higher than a dog automatically and will gradually make his way back to the human form of life again after many, many rebirths…
So the best thing is you should get over this attachment to the dog, forget about it. This is the nature of the material world. Everything is temporary, transitory. You can not expect anything to last, so it is better not to get attached to these temporary material bodies because if you do you are bound to be separated and that will cause you grief…
So I suggest you read Bhagavad-gita As It Is by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami and start chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
And gradually this will awaken your spiritual consciousness and you will be able to see things as they are and instead of becoming attached to temporary material things like the dog’s body, you will become attached to Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And if you can develop a relationship with Krishna that will be eternal. And there will be no separation… This is the only way we can be truly happy…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhuvisa dasa
Hello,
I was read somewhere that there were 9 animals that could directly reincarnate to human form in the next life cycle. Does anyone know what the nine animals are?
Thank you,
Les
Hare Krishna Les
Not nine, three. One for each of the modes of material nature. The animal in the mode of goodness [sattva-guna] who’s next birth is human is the cow, in the mode of passion [rajo-guna] it is the lion and in the mode of ignorance [tamo-guna] it is the monkey. So these three animals are top of each of the three modes of material nature in the animal forms and they will get human bodies in the next birth.
Madhudvisa dasa
we lost our darling one and a half year old puppy on a flight to India from abroad. it was on 15 July 2011. we arrived at bangalore about 3 pm and the poor pup arrived dead. the doctor at the airport said he might have died about 2 hours earlier, that is, around 1 pm Indian time. it broke our hearts. we are still heart broken, trying to cope with the tragedy. obviously the pup died due to suffocation, due to lack of oxygen/air conditioning in the cargo hold.
we are Hindus and believe in God. we hope our little pup comes back to us.
could you please help us – when will he come back? how do we recognize him? we are back in the middle east where we bought him first and travelled to India from … we are waiting for our pup.
please help with your answers, suggestions, advice …
thank you
Hare Krishna Kshan
That is the nature of the material world. It is like twigs flowing down a river. Sometimes one twig is close to another twig and then there is some turbulance in the water and the twigs are separated and they never meet again. So it is pointless to become attached to things in the material world like this dog because as soon as there is a little turblance you will be separated and will never meet again. This happens with everyone, not just dogs. So it is better not to become attached to things in the material world but rather become attached to Krishna. Because our relationship with Krishna is eternal and is on the level of the spirit soul, not the body. So even when our body dies our relationship with Krishna continues.
So the whole idea of Krishna consciousness is to eliminate all these material attachments and replace them with attachment to Krishna.
Forget about your puppy, he is gone now and you will never see him again, he is no longer a puppy, he will have taken birth in another body somewhere else according to his destiny… And chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
i m in love with a person….i know i’ll nvr get tht person…..i cry….i suffocate…..the harder i try to remove tht person from my heart the closer it comes…..this suffocation is killing me…..i don know wat sins i hv done bcoz of which this is happeneing……bt i wan my life back….plz help
Hare Krishna Ansh
There is no point in this silly falling in love. It is not love, it is lust only. Your body is attracted to their body and your mind has simply gone crazy and invented so many imaginary situations that will never become reality. There is no real love in the material world. Everyone is interested in their own personal benefit, they do not love anyone else. They are only concerned with their own pleasure and when the don’t get it any more in a relationship the ‘love’ is finished.
So I can understand your difficult position but you have to at least intellectually understand that this material love is nonsense and instead you have to try to fall in love with Krishna. Love in the material world is simply a perverted reflection of our real love with Krishna. It is a reflection only, not the real thing. Just like if you see a mango tree reflected in the water of a lake, you can see everything. You can see the mangos but if you try and grab those reflected mangos in the lake and taste them it is not at all possible to taste the mangoes in this way. There is no mango there in the reflection, you are looking for the mangos in the wrong place. If you want the real mangos you have to look in the tree not in the reflection in the lake.
So if you want real love you have to look for that in your relationship with Krishna, not in the perverted reflection of that original spiritual love in this material world.
So the medicine to cure your disease is chanting:
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
at least 16 rounds a day and following the four regulative principles (no illicit sex, no meat eating, no gabling and no intoxication) and reading Srila Prabhupada’s books. And in the beginning you may find this a little difficult to do. But for any disease the cure may be a little difficult but if we actually want to become well we have to tolerate the cure. And as your material disease becomes cured the chanting of Hare Krishna and following the regulative principles and reading Prabhupada’s books will become a very blissful and joyful occupation for you and you will actually really feel your original loving relationship with Krishna being reawakened and your attachments for things of the material world will simply drop away…
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
very good meterial.i got some enlightment through it. om namay shivaye. hare krishna