Death—what is it? The dropping off of the physical body is the time when all of the karma-making actions go back to seed in the mūlādhāra chakra, into the memory patterns. All of our actions, reactions and the things we have set in motion in the prāṇic patterns in this life form the tendencies of our nature in our next incarnation. The tendencies of our nature in the present incarnation are the ways in which awareness flows through the iḍā, piṅgalā and sushumṇā currents. ¶These tendencies of man’s nature also are recorded in the astrological signs under which he is born. Man comes through an astrological conglomeration of signs, or an astrological chart, according to his actions and reactions and what he set in motion in the seed-karma patterns of his past life. So, we are always the sum total, a collection, of all the karmic experiences, a totality of all the seed patterns, that have happened to us, or that we have caused to happen, through the many, many lives. We are now a sum total, and we are always a continuing sum total. ¶A past life is not really so many years ago. That is not the way to look at it. It is now. Each life is within or inside the other. They exist as karmic seeds that appear in the prāṇic force fields in our life now and, like seeds, when watered they grow into plants. These seeds are nourished by prāṇa. When we die, when we discard the physical body, that is the end of a chapter of experience. Then we pick up a new physical body. This begins a new chapter that is always referring back to the last chapter for direction. These are tendencies. ¶This is the entire story of what happens after we die. We simply step out of the physical body and are in our astral body, going on in the mind as usual. The awareness does not stop simply because the physical body falls away. The iḍā force becomes more refined, the piṅgalā force becomes more refined, the sushumṇā force is there like it always was, but all are in another body that was inside the physical body during life on Earth. ¶One great peculiarity about man is that he individually feels that he is never going to die and goes on through life planning and building as though he were going to live forever and ever. The fear of death is a natural instinctive reflex. We encounter it sometimes daily, once a month, or at least once a year when we come face to face with the possibility of obliteration of our personality and of leaving the conscious mind. The fear of change or fear of the unknown is an ominous element in the destiny of a human being. The study and comprehension of the laws of reincarnation can alleviate this fear and bring an enlightened vision of the cosmic rhythms of life and death. It is a simple process, no more fantastic, shall we say, than other growth problems we experience daily. A flower grows, blossoms and withers. The seed falls to the ground, is buried in the earth, sprouts and grows into a plant and a flower.§
Where are we born after we die? How do we become born again? You are born again in the same way you died. After some time, the astral body cannot stay on the astral plane anymore, because the seeds of prāṇic motion have to be expressed on the physical plane again due to one’s activity on the astral plane. A new physical birth is entered. Generally, this happens through a newborn child’s body, but a more advanced soul who has his spiritual body well developed can pick up a body which is fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty years old and go right along in life from that point. ¶In what country do you become born? It all depends upon what country you were thinking about before and when you died. If you had a desire to go to Canada, most likely you will be born in Canada next time around. If you had been thinking about going to South America a year or two before you passed away, you would be reincarnated in South America, because that was your destination. If you were very much attached to your own particular family and you did not want to leave them, you would be born back in that immediate family again, because your desire is there. The astral body is the body of desire. ¶Students probing the mysteries of reincarnation often ask, “If reincarnation is true, why can’t I remember my past lives?” They might just as well ask another question: “Why do we not remember everything in detail in this life?” The memory capabilities, unless highly trained, are not that strong, especially after having endured the process of creating a new body through another family and establishing new memory patterns. However, there are people who do recall their past lives, in the very same way that they remember what they did yesterday. Former-life memory is that clear and vivid to them. ¶However, it is neither necessary nor advisable to pursue events, identities or relationships that may have existed in previous lives. After all, it is all now. We don’t think it important to remember details of our childhood years, to wallow in happy or unhappy nostalgia. Why pursue the remembered residue of what has already come and gone? Now is the only time, and for the spiritual seeker, past life analysis or conjecture is an unnecessary waste of useful time and energy. The present now is the sum of all prior thens. Be now. Be the being of yourself this very moment, and that will be the truest fulfillment of all past actions. ¶The validity of reincarnation and its attendant philosophy are difficult to prove, and yet science is on the threshold of discovering this universal mechanism. Science cannot ignore the overwhelming evidence, the testimony of thousands of level-headed people who claim to remember other lives or who have actually died and then returned to life, and the impressive literature spanning Hindu, Tibetan, Buddhist and Egyptian civilizations. Thus, the pursuit of various theories continues in an effort to bring theory into established law according to the reason and intellectual facilities of man. Those living in the heart chakra, anāhata, are able to cognize and know deeply the governing mechanism of rebirth from their own awakening. §
There are at least three basic theories or schools of thought related to reincarnation. At first they may seem to conflict or contradict one another, but further elucidation indicates that they all have merit. They are just different aspects of a complex mechanism. According to one theory of reincarnation, life begins with sound and color. Sound and color produce the first forms of life in the atomic structure of our being through binding the seed atoms together. At this point, life as we know it begins. It remains in a seed state or state of conception until the instinctive and intellectual cycles evolve into maturity through the process of absorption of more atoms into the astral body. This process continues until a physical body is formed around the astral body. But that is not the culmination of this theory. The cells and atoms of these bodies themselves evolve, becoming more and more refined as cycles of experience pass until complete maturity is reached in a physical body which is refined enough to attain nirvikalpa samādhi and begin the next process of building a golden body of light. According to this theory, the soul takes on progressively more advanced bodies, evolving through the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, slowly acquiring knowledge through experience. There may even be a life that seems to regress, such as a man incarnating as a cow to gain needed lessons of existence. ¶A second concept in this theory explains the lower evolutionary stage of animals, insects, plants and minerals. According to this principle, animals and lower forms of life function under what is called a “group soul.” They do not have an individual astral identity, but share a group astral atomic structure. That is one reason for the lack of so-called individuality among these groups and why animals move about in herds and birds live together in flocks—indicating the movement of the one group soul, so the theory goes. ¶In another theory, when man dies, he goes on to the astral plane after breaking the silver cord which binds him to the physical body. During out-of-the-body experiences, this silver cord is often seen as a cord of light connecting the physical, astral and spiritual bodies. When awareness leaves the physical body, it passes through one of the chakras. If our life has been one of baser emotion and reason, we would exit through one of the chakras near the base of the spine, either the mūlādhāra or svādhishṭhana, and begin a conscious existence on a lower astral plane. From there we would work out various experiences or reactionary conditions caused by congested mental and emotional forces which impressed our subconscious mind during the course of our lifetime. On the astral plane, we relive many experiences by reactivating them, creating for ourselves heavens or hells. When the lessons of that life had been learned and the reactions resolved, we would be drawn back into a family, into a new physical body, in order to gain more experience in the light of the new knowledge acquired while on the astral plane. ¶If we have evolved to the point that our life was one of service, understanding and love, then we would exit through the next higher chakras, for that is where awareness has been polarized, and our astral existence would be of a deeper, more refined nature. However, if we had discovered and practiced a dedicated spiritual life, then our exit would be through the top two chakras, which do not lead awareness onto the astral plane but take it into the Third World of divine existence, never to reincarnate again into the physical world. After nirvikalpa samādhi is attained and perfected so that the mahāyogī can go into it at will, he leaves the body consciously through the door of Brahman, the center of the sahasrāra chakra above the pituitary gland at the top of the head. This depends on whether or not the golden actinic causal body, which has been developed after Self Realization, is mature enough to travel in actinic force fields on its own. §
Reincarnation is a refining process, contributing to the evolution of consciousness. To the watchful observer, the evolution of man’s inner bodies can be seen reflected in the tone and form of his physical vehicle. Being a reflection of the inner bodies, the physical shell can and does pass through radical transformation as the spiritual path is followed. Some people seem to reincarnate within this very life, changing themselves so deeply through tapas and sādhana that they are totally renewed or reborn on the physical plane. Their new light and energy pass through the very cells of the body, invigorating and strengthening it. Still, the inner bodies are more malleable than the physical forces and generally evolve more quickly, becoming quite different and more refined in this life than the physical shell. In the next life, the physical structure will be entirely different, as the spiritual body manifests a new physical body more like unto itself. ¶Other theories propose that the soul remains on the astral plane after death. After reviewing all of our Earthly experiences on the playback, we release the astral body and enter the heavenly realms of consciousness, never coming back to the physical plane, or at least not for a long time. Many cultures, such as the Native American Indian culture, recognize this basic law of reincarnation in their “Happy Hunting Grounds” concepts. Also related to this theory is the belief that when something is destroyed through fire on the physical plane, whether animate or inanimate, it will be found again on the astral plane. For example, when an Indian brave died, his saddle, clothing and valuables were buried and sometimes burned along with his body so that he might continue using these possessions to live well on the inner, astral, plane. These theories of reincarnation assure us that we will meet our loved ones and friends on the inner planes after death. Similar traditions exist among the Hindus in Bali and the Shintoists in Japan. ¶By exploring the theories of various civilizations, we discover that man can either incarnate soon after his death, with little or no interlude, or he may remain for thousands of years on the astral plane, evolving in those force fields, just as on Earth he evolved from experience to experience. How long he will spend on the astral plane depends on how he has created or chosen what he wants to do while on Earth. If he left things undone and felt compelled to accomplish more, to see more, then he would return quickly to another body in fulfillment of the desire for Earthly experience. However, were he satisfied that life had taught him all of its lessons and wished to exist away from the physical plane in mental and spiritual spheres, he might never return to inherit another body. ¶If we study the Pyramids and explore the intricate ceremonies which the Egyptians provided for their dead, we find that they kept the body preserved with elaborate chemical and environmental treatment. When the elements of the physical body are kept intact and not allowed to decompose, the departed may remain consciously on the astral, mental or spiritual plane for as long as he wants. A contact can even be maintained on the physical plane through these laws. However, as soon as the physical body begins to disintegrate, awareness is polarized once again and pulled back to the lower chakras and the physical plane. Actually, as the elements of the previous body disintegrate, all of the instinctive-mind atoms form a force field around that body. This generates a power center. When the body is completely disintegrated, the force field is dissolved, and the soul reincarnates at that time. The Egyptians believed that if a body could be durably mummified, the deceased could enjoy a fine life on the inner planes for thousands of years. Modern science can freeze bodies and thus preserve them perfectly, thus opening up possible research into these principles one day.§
These first laws of reincarnation dealing with the astral plane governed by the powers of the first three chakras seem to be quite valid when man is living in his instinctive mind. However, when he passes from the physical body through the will, cognition, or universal love chakras, he comes into a different reincarnation law. He then is living on two planes at the same time and, according to this theory, would have representative bodies on both planes. His evolution on the physical plane would be quick, since his only physical, conscious expression would be a small animal, perhaps a little bird or cat or some extremely sensitive animal. This creature would represent and polarize the advanced soul’s instinctive mind on the physical plane while he evolved at an accelerated pace on vast inner planes. This dual existence would continue until such time as the process of reincarnation was intensified and the vibration of the Earth was strong enough in his mind to pull awareness back dynamically to another human life. This might take years, and it might take centuries. ¶In a sense, this mystic would be held through the power of the higher chakras in a very subtle force field and only touch into physical consciousness sporadically by using different bodies of animals and people for a few minutes or hours to contact the Earth. He would not necessarily be conscious of doing this. His awareness would exist predominantly on the inner planes. ¶This is one reason we find some of the Indian religions forbidding the killing of animals of any kind. They believe an animal may be a great saint or jñānī who has passed on. Nonkilling of animals, especially cows, is widely observed in India even today. Of course, many consider such a theory senseless, ridiculous, fraught with superstition. However, we could look at everything which we don’t yet understand as superstitious until we comprehend the intricate mechanism of the laws of the governing force fields. ¶Another postulate of this theory is that an advanced being living in his inner bodies, having left consciousness through one of the higher chakras, would be working out a certain amount of karma by helping others who are still in physical bodies to work out their karma. For various reasons, this being would not be able to return to Earth consciously. What, then, would cause him to reincarnate? It would be the intellectual clarity and spiritual intensity of the mother and father in the process of conception or planned conception. They would have to reach very deeply into the inner planes in order to provide the channel for a high reincarnation, whereas couples cohabiting in lust or free-for-all sex more or less take potluck off the astral plane. This indicates briefly an ancient but neglected law: that the parents—through their love for one another, through their devotion and through their states of consciousness during the days of conception—attract to themselves either old souls or young souls. ¶Generally, the soul, at the time of conception, chooses the body he will inhabit but does not actually enter the womb until the infant body takes life and begins to move and kick. Similarly, on the physical plane we may buy an acre of land and plan the house we wish to live in, but not actually move in until months later when the house is completed. §
The next theory of reincarnation, governed by the throat, brow and crown chakras, states that when an advanced soul leaves the body through the brow chakra, or third eye, he enters a highly refined force field world from which he is able to pick and choose exactly when and where he will return. At this point he does not have to reincarnate as an infant, but could take an already well-matured physical body. In such a case, the soul inhabiting the body would have karmically ended this life and be involved in the reincarnation process, either dead or preparing to die. The advanced yogī would flow his awareness into the nerve system of the body, revitalizing it with the spark of his will and consciously bring it back to life. ¶He would face the problem of amalgamating himself with the memory cell patterns still resident within the mature brain. Affectionate detachment would have to be practiced as he adjusted to his new family and friends who wouldn’t feel as close to him anymore. They would sense that he had changed, that he was somehow different, but would not understand why. Once his mission in that body had been completed, he could leave that body consciously, provided he had not created too much karma for its subconscious while inhabiting it. All such karma would then have to be dissolved before dropping off the body. This practice is exercised only by souls who have sufficient mastery of the inner forces to leave consciously through the ājñā chakra at death. Those who leave through that force center unconsciously would then reincarnate as an infant. ¶A related law, for those far advanced inwardly, states that the reincarnation process can begin before actual death takes place. While still maintaining a body on this planet and knowing that death is imminent, the inner bodies begin their transition into a new body at the time of conception. After a three-month period, the first signs of life appear and the advanced being enters the newly forming physical body. During the nine-month gestation cycle, the waning physical body is in the slow process of death, and exactly at the time of birth, the death finally comes. ¶If evolution continues on the astral and other inner planes, and is in some ways more advanced in these realms, then do we need a physical body at all to unfold spiritually? Is it perhaps an unnecessary burden of flesh? According to classical yoga precepts, you must have a physical body in order to attain nirvikalpa samādhi—the highest realization of God, the Absolute. This is due to the fact that on the refined inner planes only three or four of the higher chakras are activated; the others are dormant. For nirvikalpa samādhi, all seven chakras, as well as the three major energy currents, have to be functioning to sustain enough kuṇḍalinī force to burst through to the Self. The very same instinctive forces and fluids which generate material involvement, uncomplimentary karma and the body itself, when transmuted, are the impetus that propels awareness beyond the ramification of mind into the timeless, spaceless, formless Truth—Śiva. §
If you were to die at this very moment, where would what you call you go? Where would your awareness be drawn? The laws of death and reincarnation tell us that your awareness would go into various refined force fields of the mind, similar to some states of sleep, according to where you are in the mind at the time of death. By a similar law on this plane, when a wealthy executive and a mendicant enter an unfamiliar town, one finds himself lodged at the finest hotel among other businessmen of his caliber, and the other is drawn of necessity to the slums. The entire process of reincarnation is the inner play of magnetic force fields. ¶Should you reincarnate now, you would undoubtedly enter a force field which would approximate where you are inside yourself, unless, of course, you had broken through barriers into a force field different from the one in which you are now living. In other words, to use an analogy that can also be applied to states of instinctive, intellectual and superconscious awareness, if you were living in America, but had your mind centered in the force field called France, owned things imported from France and spoke fluent French, you would undoubtedly reincarnate in France and act out that drama to its conclusion.¶Reincarnation and karma in its cause-and-effect form are practically one and the same thing, for they both have to do with the prāṇic forces and these bodies of the external mind. The sannyāsin’s quest is Self Realization. To make that realization a reality, he always has to be conscious consciously of working out these other areas. Why? Because the ignorance of these areas holds and confuses awareness, preventing him from being in inner states long enough to attain the ultimate goal of nirvikalpa samādhi. ¶Little by little, as he goes on in his esoteric understanding of these mechanics, he unwinds and reeducates his subconscious. He conquers the various planes by cognizing their function and understanding their relation one to another. This knowledge allows him to become consciously superconscious all the time. He has sufficient power to move the energies and awareness out of the physical, intellectual and astral bodies into sushumṇā. Then the kuṇḍalinī force, that vapor-like life force, merges into its own essence. ¶It is therefore the great aim of the aspirant on the path of enlightenment to live a well-ordered life and control the forces of the mind that propel him into cycles of life and death. He must strive to gain a fundamental knowing of the life-death-reincarnation processes, and to be able at the point of death to leave the body consciously, as a matter of choice, depending upon the consciousness leading to the moment of transition. He must throw off the false identification with this body or that personality and see himself as the ageless soul that has taken many, many births, of which this is only one, see deeper still into the total unreality of life and death, which only exist in their seeming in the outer layers of consciousness, for he is the immortal one who is never born and can never die.§