Reincarnation: Understanding the Fundamentals of Rebirth

Right now the combination of physical, mental, emotional and energy dimensions together is what you call myself. Any impact that happens on any of these dimensions will also affect the other dimensions. Say for example:

You can implant chemicals on your physical body (your physical space), which will have an impact on your physical, mind and energy body. Certain drugs you take in your physical body can make your mind peaceful.
You can implant thoughts on your mind (mental and emotional space), which will impact your physical body, mind and energy body. Hypnotic suggestions, consoling words like god loves you, dreams, illusions and all can make you peaceful.
You can implant energy on your energy body, which will impact your physical body, mind and energy body. Certain kind of consecrated spaces particularly ancient temples in Bharat are designed for this purpose. Energy healing like pranic healing, reiki etc can make you peaceful.

When someone leaves the body, genetical information or the physical memory perishes along with his physical body, so too his mind and its discretionary aspect. What he carries will be the energy body which have the information(memory) inscribed in it, which is called karma.

Same way you can also disturb the peace of human body, mind and energy.

Drugs or the food that you eat can make your body, mind and energy very disturbed.
Negative thoughts in your mind can take your peace out from you.
Certain spaces and black magic can be very pleasant or disturbing.

We now know that all these dimensions have their own limitations and are very changing. They are dialectical in nature. We can alter our body, mind and energy the way we want it, not only our body but others also.

When you start knowing the changing nature of these bodies, or when certain awareness arises within you, somewhere you begin to feel the meaninglessness of these cycles of changes. You may ask yourself these inevitable question, Who am I? What is Real or Truth?

Both memory and imagination have no existential relevance; they are not true." That is why it is called illusion or maya. Whatever you believe becomes your reality.

Real or Truth (Sathyam) is considered as that which exists for ever, without any change. The changes like, childhood, youth, old age, birth and death are jugglery of maya. As long as there is body, changes are inevitable for it, 'birth and death' are inevitable.

Who am I?
There is something that is beyond change, people call it in many names - life, self, consciousness, intelligence, soul, god, nothing, atman, brahman, existence and so on. Great ancient texts like Upanishads, Bhagavat Gita explains clearly on the nature of this unchanging being. In Gita, chapter Two verse 20 it is said, 'The soul is never born nor dies. It is deathless, decayless, timeless, causeless. Soul is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval.' It is the source and substratum for this body, mind and the whole world. All the changes or evolution happens for the body (physical, mental, emotional, energy).

You can consider the body as a bubble which holds or limits some space within it. Changes happens on the wall of the bubble, and not on the space within that bubble. Wall of the bubble that holds it or limits it is called the karma or memory. Without karmic substance you have no existence. Once that bubble breaks or when the walls (body) dissolve, the space within it becomes part of the infinite space or omnipresent. This is referred to as mukti (freedom) or enlightenment. In India , this is considered as the ultimate goal. There will be no birth or rebirth once you attain Mukthi.

Body means boundary, it has limitations. A form or body can never become infinite. Without body or boundary, you are everywhere or omnipresent.

Is Reincarnation also an Evolution?
Changes or evolution happens in all levels, viz. physical, mental, emotional and energy dimensions. If we really look into it, we will know that its happening because of memory. Without memory there won't be any evolution.

You can consider the body as a bubble which holds or limits some space within it. Changes happens on the wall of the bubble and not on the space within that bubble. Wall of the bubble that holds it or limits it is called the karma or memory.

We can say that everything that we are right now is just a memory of the past. "Both memory and imagination have no existential relevance; they are not true." That is why it is called illusion or maya. Whatever you believe becomes your reality.

What Decides Your Rebirth?
The information that you carry on your energy memory decides. Since you don't have any discretionary mind, you cannot judge anything or decide anything. You will only proceed according to your tendencies.

If you develop certain awareness or certain mastery over your energy body now (before you leave the body), may be you can decide the kind of body you want in your next birth. What gender or form you take is determined by the type of longing that you create. Having a strong volition also helps a lot. This can also be seen in many rebirth case studies. Click to view the following BBC documentary

Memory the Bondage
You develop a character based on the type of information that has gone into you. Unconscious actions springs from the past tendencies/habits or memory. They are considered as bondage. The slavery or bondage happens because of cravings, desires, egoism, pride, greed, lust, likes and dislikes which we have in our memory. Freedom means free from all the limitations of physical, mental, emotional and energy blocks. Freedom from slavery of memory is exactly what is called spirituality.

Without memory there won't be any evolution. We can say that everything that we are right now is just a memory of the past

Why we seek freedom?
We are a complex, huge heap of impressions of memory that have been taken in, which have been manipulated into different shapes and forms according to our thought and emotion, has become such a complex prison. When we build a wall to preserve ourself, the walls that we build for self-preservation may also becomes the walls of self-imprisonment. Within the prison we seek power, we seek freedom.

We also know that there is something within us which is longing to be a little more than what we are right now. More money, more power, more knowledge..., its nature is infinite. Because of body, mind, emotion and energy, it becomes limited. Or in otherway I got limited because of these bodies..

How I Know that there are previous births for me?
Like how you can remember your childhood days from your memory, you can read you previous lives and the information stored in it, when you are more aware of your energy body. The famous American Psychiatrist, Dr. Brian Weiss, mention in his book 'Many lives many masters' how he was able to know the past life experiences of his patient under hypnosis. Weiss advocates hypnotic regression as therapy, claiming that many phobias and ailments are rooted in past-life experiences whose acknowledgment by the patient can have a curative effect .

Many Yogis were able see their previous life vividly and they work on it for their ultimate liberation. Of them famous was Gauthama the Buddha, it was said to know that he was able to read many of his previous physical births with physical bodies of humans, animals and birds.

Thousands of years before Gautama Buddha, Bhagwat Gita clearly mentions about the rebirth in it:
"dehino-asmin yatha dehe
kaumaram yauvnam jara
tatha dehantar-praptir-
adhiras tatra na muhyati" (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Two verse 13)
"Just as boyhood, youth & old age are attributed to the embodied soul, it continuously passes through these cycles, similarly the embodied soul passes into another body at death. The wise man does not get deluded & bewildered with such a change.

(Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Two verse 27) "Sri Krishna said: One who has taken his birth is sure to die, and after death one is sure to take birth again..."

(Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Four verse 5) "Sri Krishna said: Both you and I have passed through many, many births. I can remember all of them, but you cannot..."

Is there something more than this birth and death?
We also knows that, this whole existence is a just a projection of the same energy which Upanishads call Brahman or God. Like how waves arise from the ocean, exist for sometime and return back to the ocean, same way, everything evolves from Brahman and return back to it. Upanishads says, Everything is Brahman (Sarvam khalvidam brahma), and I am that Brahman (Aham Brahmasmi). You are that too. (Tatwamasi) . This is an experiential Truth. Each and every person can experience it whenever he is able to move beyond the limitation of mind and body.

[References:

Life and death in one breath by Jaggi Vasudev
Many Lives Many Masters by Dr. Brian Weiss
Mystic Musings by Jaggi Vasudev
URL: www.nytimes.com/1999/09/26/weekinreview/conversations-dr-ian-stevenson-you-may-be-reading-this-in-some-future-past-life.html ]