Gita key verses course 3 – What is death & reincarnation? Do we all have soulmates? – Gita 2.22

Today is our third session, and after the session, I’ll be sending you a broad outline of what we will be covering in the 51 sessions. Each session will be based on one question that addresses both the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita as well as some contemporary need or concern that we all have in our lives. And so, in today’s session, we’ll be discussing what is death, what is reincarnation, and do we have soul mates. And basically, these are the three topics we will cover. And here, this is the slideshow. These three topics I’m going to cover today. And each topic—so we will be discussing based on a verse from the Bhagavad Gita. Each topic. So today, I’m discussing from 2.22 in the Bhagavad Gita. So 2.22 is…

So the body is like a cloth, and the soul is like the wearer of that cloth. The body is like a cloth, and the soul is like the wearer of that cloth. And when the cloth becomes old and worn out, at that time, a person leaves and discards that cloth and wears another set of clothes. So similarly, it is said that the soul leaves one body and goes to another body. So death is the most undeniable of the realities of life. Sometimes you may have this question, especially in today’s world where everything has been relativized: what is real? What is? Is the world real? When people behave properly with us, are they really good people? Is their good behavior real, or does it conceal a bad heart? The government media gives us some messages, some newspaper reports. Are they for real? There’s a whole lot of fake news. So we get the question: what is real? And we might gravitate to the idea that nothing is real. But even if we deny everything else, we can’t deny the reality of death. So there’s some founding realities with which we can rationally build a worldview. And that is what we’ll be doing over the course of our sessions. So what can be rationally understood? What can be scripturally understood through revelation? And how can that be integrated with our experience? So let’s begin with death.

So death is the most undeniable reality, and yet it is the most denied reality. And if somebody doesn’t accept some reality, it means that they are in denial. So similarly, when we don’t accept the reality of death, then we are in denial. Now, what does it mean to not accept the reality of death? If anybody is asked, “Are you going to die?” Unless the person is insane, most people will never say, “I will not die, that I am immortal.” So in what sense is anyone denying death? We accept that we are going to die, but we think of death as something so remote and distant, so abstract, as if it is happening to someone else. And as if it were going to happen to someone else in the distant future.

So it’s just like, if we knew that we are working on a job and we are going to be fired from that job—there is going to be retrenchment and we’re going to lose that job—then knowledge has no meaning without action. Knowledge is not real unless we apply it. If we knew we were going to lose a job, then we would immediately start looking for another job. If we knew that we are going to lose our house, maybe we are renting and the rent period is getting over, then we would start looking for a new house. So if we similarly knew—knew in the sense that we accept it as real—that we are going to die, then we would start asking, at least ask the question: what is death? Is there anything after death? What really counts in life?

So the fact that most of us don’t seriously ask this question, and certainly we don’t ask this question as seriously as, say, “Okay, what will I do if I lose my job?” or “What will I do if I lose my house?”—the seriousness of the question is seen by how seriously we look for some alternative arrangement. Somebody might say, “Okay, what happens after death is unknowable. So why bother about it?” Well, if we are going to think of it that way, even the future itself is unknowable. If we lose our house, what kind of house we are going to get, what kind of economic condition the country is going to be in, what kind of neighbors we are going to have—we can’t predict any of that. So just because we can’t predict a thing accurately, it doesn’t mean that we don’t think about it or plan for it. So yes, that’s the way. Why do we deny death like this? Because it is so scary. At one level, it is so scary, and it seems so unknowable what is going to come after death. And that’s why it’s important that we see through the eyes of knowledge. That is spiritual knowledge, scriptural knowledge, what is given in the Bhagavad Gita. In a later session, we will be discussing more in detail about the principle of revelation and how knowledge can come to us from a higher source. But let’s look at this from a rational perspective.

So in the last session, I discussed how there are empirical pointers towards the existence of the soul, towards something that exists and goes from this body to another body. That’s how people have past life memories. So there is something spiritual within us which is indestructible. And that brings us to the question: okay, then what is death? So if the spiritual is indestructible, then that’s not going to die. So then what will death mean? Let’s look at this. So death is the departure of the soul from the body. Basically, our existence has three levels: the body, the mind, and the soul. I’ll talk about the mind more in detail in a later session. But suffice it to say at a simple level that the body is like the hardware, the mind is like the software, and the soul is the user. Now, say we are working on one particular computer.

We have a desktop at our workplace, and then we go somewhere else, get traveling, and then we reach there, and then we log into the computer over there. Now, as soon as we log into the computer, many of our details get linked with that computer. Say we buy a new computer. Once we log in, our bookmarks and our preferences all get linked with that computer. So similarly, what happens at death is that we leave one computer. The physical structure of the computer is the hardware, and that is like the body. And we, the user, are like the soul. So the soul leaves the body. The hardware is left behind.

Now, when we go to a new place, basically what happens with your computer is that we have certain memory—that is, we know our password—and suddenly we log in, then the remaining details get linked with that computer. So similarly, when the soul goes from one body to another body, along with the soul, the mind also goes, and the impressions that we have—the desires, the inclinations, the overall inspiration, and the overall kinds of actions that we have—are all impressed in the mind. And then the mind is what helps us interface with that next body. So basically, when the soul departs from one body and goes to the next body, that is death.

Now, if we look at reincarnation—now, what is reincarnation? Death is basically a departure of the soul from one body, and reincarnation is the entry of that soul into another body. And when the soul enters into the next body, what essentially is happening again? Essentially, for the soul, the body is like a tool.

So till now, I’ve talked about two distinct examples for reincarnation. One is like a dress. The second is like a computer. So if we consider it to be like a dress, one dress gets worn out, and we wear another dress. So for the soul, the body is like a dress. But the interface between the soul and the body is quite complicated. It is not as simple as simply raising our arms and slipping them through some sleeves and putting on a dress, putting on some clothes. The interface between the soul and the body is complicated. And that complicated interface is mediated through what the Bhagavad Gita calls the mind. So through the mind, the soul gets linked to the next body.

And reincarnation—the word reincarnation—literally means: karna is flesh, re is again, and ashen is to come again. So what reincarnation essentially is, is the soul comes back into the next body. So it comes into a new world, to come again in flesh. Now, reincarnation is something which is universal and unavoidable. That means the soul needs some physical interface for functioning in the world. So the soul needs some physical interface for functioning in the world. The soul is very different from the body. And just as, say, human beings, if we go to some environment which is unnatural for us—say if we go underwater—then we need a whole set of diving gear. We need some way to respire, to get oxygen. So without that gear, we cannot function in the environment which is alien to us. So if humans go into space, similarly, we need spacesuits.

So for the soul, the material environment is actually not natural. It is unnatural. And that’s why the soul basically needs some physical tool for interfacing with the material world. And that tool is the body, that tool is the material body that we have.

So reincarnation is mentioned here. Krishna talks about it again later in the 15th chapter, from 15.7 to 15.11, and there he says in 15.8, 9, 10 especially, so in 15.9, he says that the soul gets a new body. Basically, it gets a set of senses. That means the sense of hearing, the sense of seeing, the sense of touching. And these are the ways in which we interact with the outer world, basically gain knowledge from the outer world, and then we function in the outer world.

So reincarnation is something that happens to every single soul. Now, what kind of body the soul gets—that depends. That depends on what? Broadly two factors. So just as if we are having a particular dress, a particular set of clothes, and they get torn, and then we want to buy new clothes, how do we decide which clothes to buy? Basically two things: our budget and our likings. What we desire and how much we can pay. So similarly, for the soul, what body it will get in the next life depends on its desires. But not just on its desires. It also depends on the kind of karma that the soul has done.

See, our karma—if we do good actions, we get good results. If we do bad actions, we get bad results. We’ll talk more about the principle of karma in the future. But at this stage, this is going to be a simple understanding: that when we do good, we get good. When we do bad, we get bad. And some of the results of our actions come immediately, and some come gradually. So the actions that we do, they get accumulated, and they comprise our—we could say our karmic bank account, our karmic assets in the karma bank account. And depending on what kind of assets we have accumulated, what kind of actions we have done during the course of our life, we decide we get a particular body.

So that is reincarnation. Now, the concept of reincarnation is—now we are moving to the third question. So to summarize, say the body and the soul are here. This is a previous life. So this is death, meaning the soul leaves the body. And then after that, there’s another situation somewhere else, in a different place, at a different time. And then the soul enters into the body. And when the soul acquires a body, that is reincarnation. The departure from here is death. The entry over here is reincarnation. And the concept of reincarnation has been used quite a few times in today’s entertainment industry, and it has become romanticized and sensationalized.

There have been some researches on the concept of reincarnation conducted through hypnotic regression into past lives. Brian Weiss is a prominent researcher in this field, and he found that people often suffer from certain traumas, phobias, or behavioral deficiencies because these issues are carried over from a previous life.

For example, suppose someone is irrationally afraid of water—they have hydrophobia. Through hypnotic regression to a previous life, they might come to know the root cause of this fear. The therapist may guide the person backward in time by saying, “Remember when you were taking a bath… Remember when you were 10 years old… Remember when you were 5 years old… Remember when you were 1… Remember when you were 6 months… Remember when you were in your mother’s womb. What do you remember before that?” Gradually, as they are led backward, they might suddenly say, “Oh, I’m at this place,” and begin describing a very different environment. They may express vivid emotions and talk in detail about things that can often be correlated with actual historical facts.

Through such hypnotic regression, it might be discovered that the person who has hydrophobia in this life was drowned in a previous life. This realization can sometimes free them from the fear of water in the current life. Recollecting the hurts of a previous life, in this way, can help one heal from ongoing emotional or psychological pain in the present. If that happens, such a process is undoubtedly helpful.

This idea—that we may have had previous lives—is further substantiated by such findings. However, in the context of relationships, unresolved issues from past lives are often linked with the idea of reincarnation. To some extent, this notion has also been utilized by the entertainment industry. Many movies and stories portray a couple whose love was thwarted in a previous life. They die, reincarnate, long for each other, and eventually reunite in their new lives. Such people, when they meet each other, are often referred to as “soulmates.”

The concept of reincarnation has, therefore, been highly romanticized and sensationalized. Many people dream about finding their soulmate, thinking, “I wish I could find mine.” We all long for relationships and love, and this idea resonates deeply because relationships can feel like a gamble. Sometimes, we get involved with someone who turns out to be very different from what they initially seemed. Instead of joy, such relationships can bring pain. The idea of a soulmate aligns perfectly with our inherent longing for love.

In a spiritual sense, when people hear about reincarnation, they often wonder, “Do I have a soulmate? Can I find a soulmate?” However, the first thing to understand is that in discussions about the soul, spirituality, and reincarnation, the focus should be on the soul, not on the mate. This means that the priority is to understand oneself—who I am as a soul—and only then think about who to relate with.

If the focus shifts entirely to finding a mate or a partner, we risk missing the essence of spiritual knowledge. Are we truly gaining spiritual understanding, or are we simply indulging in the same desires as those who know nothing about the soul? While the longing for love and companionship is natural, it can sometimes overshadow or even sabotage our spiritual search and growth.

So, the first step is to focus on our true identity: “I am a soul.” What does this mean? The soul is connected to the body and related to it. Understanding this foundational spiritual truth is essential before thinking about relationships or external connections.

When we relate to people, say I am a soul residing in this body, and someone else is a soul residing in their body, quite often our attraction to others is based on their physical appearance. Of course, we may also be drawn to personality traits, which is perfectly fine. However, when we focus too much on the external aspects, we may mistake physical attraction for a deeper connection, believing someone to be our “soulmate.” This kind of infatuation can blind us—not only to our own spirituality but also to the spirituality of the other person—because we reduce them to their physical form rather than recognizing their essence as a soul.

This is the first point: the concept of soulmates, when misunderstood, can distract us from our spiritual growth if we allow infatuation to dominate our perspective.

Now, the question arises: are we, in our journey across multiple lives, destined to have some soulmates? The foundational idea in spiritual teachings is that the soul’s ultimate relationship is with the divine. The Bhagavad Gita (15.7) states that every living being is a part of God, and thus our eternal relationship is with Him.

In this eternal relationship with the divine (a vertical connection), we also form relationships with other souls (horizontal connections). However, these horizontal relationships are temporary because they are based on the material body. When we or those we love leave this world, those material relationships come to an end. In contrast, our relationship with the divine is eternal.

That said, it is possible for souls to meet again across different lifetimes. Some souls may journey through life, death, and rebirth, and encounter each other again. However, this is not very likely, as there are countless souls, each with its own unique karma, history, and trajectory. The destination of each soul after death is shaped by its individual karma, which may lead it to a very different path from others.

This is not to trivialize the relationships we form in this life. They are meaningful and valuable in their own ways. But we must balance this understanding with a reality check: our material relationships should not be unnecessarily sensationalized or eternalized. From a spiritual perspective, our ultimate soulmate is the Supreme Soul—God.

The purpose of transmigration (the soul’s journey through various lifetimes) is spiritual evolution. In biological evolution, living beings adapt to their environment and develop traits that help them survive. Similarly, spiritual evolution refers to the gradual improvement of our consciousness, enabling it to become more spiritual. As our consciousness evolves, we grow closer to the ultimate spiritual reality, which is Krishna (or God).

To the extent that we remain attached to the material world—its possessions, positions, and pleasures—our consciousness remains entangled and does not evolve. But when our consciousness rises above material attachments and connects with the eternal divine, we progress spiritually.

One significant barrier to spiritual evolution is the denial of death. When we deny death, we stagnate, as we fail to reflect on life’s deeper purpose or seek higher truths. Spiritual evolution requires us to expand our capacity to learn and love. This means learning what truly matters, what lasts, and directing our love toward that which is eternal.

For the soul, this eternal connection is with the divine. God resides in our hearts and accompanies us from one life to the next. While it is unpredictable whether we will meet the same souls across different lives, what is certain is that the divine always remains with us. In this sense, the divine is our ultimate soulmate, the one constant companion through all lifetimes.

Therefore, our focus should be on understanding the soul before seeking the mate. Once we understand the soul, we realize that our eternal relationship is not with another soul but with the divine. This is the connection we should strive to nurture above all else.

Developing relationships and building a connection with the ultimate reality is the essence of yoga. Specifically, bhakti-yoga is the path that helps us connect with the ultimate spiritual reality through devotion. While we’ll explore these concepts in more detail later, for now, it’s important to understand that when we begin by recognizing ourselves as souls and then reflect on the nature of relationships, the idea of a “soulmate” can inspire us to focus on spiritual evolution.

But what about our relationships in this world? It’s true that some people are more compatible with each other, and occasionally, two individuals may “click” so well that they believe they are soulmates. That’s perfectly fine. The key is to prioritize spiritual evolution. Even in the best relationships, there will be differences. Maturity lies in learning to live with and transcend those differences.

If we fixate on the horizontal level—constantly searching for the “perfect partner” or “soulmate”—our consciousness gets entangled in worldly desires, hindering our spiritual growth. On the other hand, when we focus on understanding ourselves and evolving spiritually, we become calmer, purer, and more self-aware. This clarity enables us to understand and relate to others more effectively. Consequently, our relationships can become more stable and harmonious, possibly even sweeter, as we cultivate spiritual maturity within ourselves.

We will explore relationships further in future discussions, but it is essential to address the idea of soulmates here. One last point before we move on to questions: the concept of reincarnation has often been sensationalized and romanticized. Much of what exists in popular imagination about reincarnation is shaped by movies, novels, or overly dramatized presentations of spirituality. These portrayals need careful evaluation.

For instance, some books on reincarnation sensationalize the idea by claiming, “This famous actor was this person in their past life,” or “This individual in this life resembles someone from centuries ago.” Such claims often use superficial methods, like comparing facial structures, to suggest connections between two lives. However, many people’s facial features could overlap significantly, especially when stripped down to skeletal structures. Such comparisons are not sufficient to establish evidence for reincarnation. When this kind of shallow “evidence” is debunked, people may dismiss the entire concept of reincarnation as baseless, which is unfortunate.

Serious research on reincarnation, however, has been conducted by credible scientists, yielding significant evidence. Ian Stevenson, one of the most prominent researchers in this field, has documented cases that go beyond superficial claims. However, even he does not place much credence in hypnotically induced past-life memories. For instance, in cases of hypnotic regression—where a person recalls a past life under hypnosis—it might appear that someone’s hydrophobia (fear of water) stems from drowning in a previous life. If revisiting that memory alleviates their phobia, it may seem like strong evidence for reincarnation.

While the therapeutic benefits of past-life regression are well-documented, they don’t necessarily prove the reality of past lives. It’s possible that such memories are fabricated by the mind, particularly under hypnosis, where individuals are highly suggestible. Just as the placebo effect can cause physical healing when someone believes they are receiving medication, a psychological placebo can also occur. For example, if someone imagines a past-life memory under hypnosis and that imagination leads to emotional or psychological relief, it doesn’t confirm the memory’s factual accuracy.

Serious researchers in this field take great care to avoid leading individuals under hypnosis with suggestive questions. However, even subtle or subliminal suggestions can influence a person’s recollections, making it challenging to determine the authenticity of such memories.

In conclusion, while the health benefits of practices like past-life regression can be appreciated, they should be evaluated critically. Rigorous research—like that conducted by Ian Stevenson—provides more credible insights into reincarnation, moving beyond the sensationalism and superficial claims often seen in popular media. By approaching these topics with care and discernment, we can better understand the profound spiritual truths they represent.

When we recall something during hypnotic regression, is it accurate? This question has both intriguing possibilities and significant limitations. While hypnotic regression can sometimes bring forth memories that seem to verify past lives, caution is necessary.

For example, cases of xenoglossy (speaking in a foreign language) and xenography (writing in a foreign script) during regression provide compelling evidence when verifiable facts emerge. There are documented instances where individuals, under hypnosis, recalled languages or scripts that had been extinct for centuries—languages they had no conscious knowledge of in their current life. Such tangible evidence can support the reality of past-life memories. However, not all regression cases hold up under scrutiny.

Memories accessed during regression can be influenced by the suggestibility of the individual, particularly when hypnotized. The mind, prone to imagination, can fabricate memories that feel real but are not factually accurate. Just as a placebo can produce physical or psychological benefits without actual treatment, regression can lead to emotional or psychological healing without confirming the reality of the memory itself.

Similarly, the notion of using regression to find a “soulmate” from a past life can be counterproductive. Romanticized depictions of soulmates in media often amplify our longing for idealized relationships but fail to align with spiritual truths. While such narratives might temporarily satisfy emotional cravings, they don’t guarantee actual connections to past lives.

Spiritual evolution is about understanding what is eternal and real. It focuses on connecting with the supreme spiritual reality, which offers lasting satisfaction, rather than romanticizing transient relationships. Ultimately, the culmination of reincarnation is to grow spiritually and reconnect with the divine.

Summary:

1. Death and Reincarnation: At death, the soul leaves the body and carries impressions from the mind (akin to software) into the next body (hardware). The soul is the user, transitioning from one life to the next. Denial of death often hinders preparation for it, but inquiry into the afterlife is the first step to readiness.
2. Horizontal and Vertical Relationships: Relationships in the material world are horizontal and temporary, while the soul’s ultimate vertical relationship with the divine is eternal. The divine, as the indwelling Supersoul, accompanies us through every life, making it our true “soulmate.” Connecting with the divine is the ultimate purpose of reincarnation.
3. Soulmates and Reincarnation: While it’s possible for two souls to reconnect in future lives, it’s not probable due to individual karmas. Focusing on spiritual growth fosters inner stability and clarity, allowing us to form relationships based not on infatuation or neediness but on maturity and compatibility.

To evolve spiritually, we must prioritize our relationship with the divine, rather than becoming overly attached to idealized notions of past-life relationships. In doing so, we can cultivate deeper, more meaningful connections in this life and beyond.

And with whoever we are already relating, we can relate more maturely with them. Sometimes concluded by, we need to have, whenever any past life memories are touted, we need to have a little critical attitude; we can’t be completely naive about it. So, just facial matches do not point to the soul from a previous level in the next life. And even if, through hypnotic respiration, sometimes a soul, somebody’s healed of some fear—say, somebody’s healed of hydrophobia—that could be a placebo effect at a psychological level, which need not indicate the reality of the memory.

Similarly, just because we feel that we can relate strongly with someone, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are our soulmates. So, we focus on using our intelligence. And with respect to past life memories, when there are objective, evidential things, like, say, zero-glossier or zero-mammography, then the memories can be real. Similarly, we use our intelligence to make decisions about our relationships and about our life. As we evolve spiritually, we learn to raise our consciousness from the material towards the spiritual. We learn about the spiritual, and we learn to love the spiritual. That’s how our reincarnation will ultimately attain its culmination in a connection—in a reconnection with the divine.

Thank you very much. Now, we have some questions over here. So, mind is a subtle body; doesn’t the subtle body elements like mind—it is a false ego—die? No, the subtle body is not so easily destructible. It’s not physical. It’s not gross physical. See that we differentiate between the physical and the material. Physical usually refers to that which is perceivable by the physical senses. So, form, shape, and smell—all these are physical sense objects. The physical things are destroyed, but the mind, intelligence, and false ego—they are subtle. So, they are not destroyed. They go with the soul.

The soul is here; around the soul is the mind, and the soul along with the mind goes to the next body. These will be not exactly destroyed but dissolved at the time of ultimate liberation. The soul goes out of the material world to the spiritual world at the time of liberation. Then the mind, intelligence, and ego—they dissolve while the soul is going through its journey of transmigration and ultimate journey toward liberation. At that time, they dissolve, but they are not destroyed.

So, how long is the time between death and reincarnation? The time is variable. Generally, each soul has some of its own karma to process. The soul is in this body and goes to the next body. In between, the soul has to stay, and how long it has to stay depends on various factors. Just like, say, if we are at one place and we go to another place, sometimes we might do the journey, take a flight, and reach in a few hours. Sometimes we might take a car, and it might take more time. Sometimes we might go by foot, wanting to enjoy a trek. It might take a longer time.

That’s why the time a soul takes to go from one body to another body varies. Just as our karma and how much we can pay for determines whether we take a flight or hitchhike, the kind of karma the soul has done also plays a role in determining how long the soul takes to go from one body to another.

Where does the soul go in between? Broadly speaking, if the soul is in a human body, it can go to another human body, to a lower body (an animal body), or to a lower or higher level of existence. There are higher heavenly levels of existence and lower hellish levels of existence. The soul can go there. If it goes to the lower species or the lower lokas, that transition may take much more time. Where exactly the soul goes depends on karma.

In between states, the soul stays in a disembodied state. There are two different cases here. One is during the journey when the soul leaves this body and gets another body. As explained in the Garuda Purana, in between, the soul gets a temporary covering. It’s not exactly a body but a temporary covering grosser than the subtle body and subtler than the gross body. This becomes the transition body, sometimes called Preta.

Bhuta or ghost is different. A ghost exists when the soul leaves the physical body but does not get a gross body at all. For instance, when someone commits suicide, the soul may not get another body for the remaining time they were supposed to live in the original body. If they were meant to live for 70 years but commit suicide at 40, their next 30 years might be spent in a disembodied state.

In this disembodied state, the soul is there, and the mind is there, but the physical body is absent. This is called a ghostly body. Living in such a state is distressing because the soul has desires that cannot be fulfilled. For instance, the soul might desire to eat but lacks the physical tongue to do so. Sometimes, such souls, to fulfill their desires or resolve unfinished issues, try to possess someone, which is known as possession—the ghost entering into someone.

Yeah. Now, normally, when somebody dies, we say conventionally “Swargavasi” or “Narakavasi” or something similar. But that is more of a conventional saying. Where exactly the person goes will vary from person to person. I answered this earlier. Regarding this Bhoga Yoni, I discussed scientific proof for reincarnation in my previous session. Please refer to the previous session for that.

Why do other religions not talk about reincarnation? It’s not exactly true that they don’t. In my book on mysticism and reincarnation, I have discussed other religious traditions as well. I can’t go into all of them now, but Buddhism does accept reincarnation. However, since it was a heterodox tradition that emerged as a rebel tradition from Hinduism, it tried to assert its philosophical autonomy by rejecting the idea of a soul. According to the Bhagavad Gita, the soul reincarnates, but Buddhism refuses the idea of the soul while still accepting reincarnation. This raises the question: if there is no soul, what exactly reincarnates? This is something Buddhist thinkers find difficult to explain.

If we consider the original writings of Buddha, he was remarkably non-philosophical. He did not address such questions much. It can be reasonably said that he did not deny the soul, but later Buddhist thinkers rejected the idea of the soul. Nonetheless, reincarnation is still accepted in Buddhism. If reincarnation exists, something must reincarnate, and the soul is the most logical explanation.

Christianity, on the other hand, accepts the soul but rejects reincarnation. However, this rejection is not explicitly stated by Jesus. For instance, there is a famous incident where Jesus was asked about a person born blind. The disciples asked whether the person was blind due to their own deeds or their parents’ deeds. Interestingly, this was not about an adult but a newborn child born blind. If reincarnation is dismissed, what could the child have done to deserve blindness? Could they have committed some act in the womb? That makes no sense.

Jesus answered the question differently, stating that the person was born blind so that the power of grace could be demonstrated. He then performed a miracle and restored the child’s eyesight. But not everyone who is blind receives such a miracle. If Jesus had wanted to categorically deny reincarnation, this would have been the perfect opportunity to do so. The very fact that his disciples asked if the blindness was due to the person’s own deeds suggests they believed in the possibility of pre-existence, which aligns with the idea of reincarnation. Pre-existence refers to what happens before this life, while reincarnation refers to what happens after. So, accepting pre-existence implicitly means accepting reincarnation.

In the history of Christianity, the rejection of reincarnation became prominent later. Early Christian thinkers like Origen openly discussed reincarnation. St. Augustine, considered one of Christianity’s foundational theologians, also entertained questions about it. However, when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, political purposes began to dominate. Roman emperors like Constantine and Justinian wanted Christianity to ensure moral conduct among people, as morality made people more governable. To enforce morality, they promoted the idea of “one life” followed by eternal reward or punishment. This historical shift sidelined the discussion of reincarnation, even though it was never categorically denied.

For more on this topic, you can read my book Demystify Reincarnation. Devotee scholar Steven Rosen has also written a book on reincarnation in world traditions.

Now, regarding horizontal relationships, I will talk about them in my next session. Horizontal relationships are important, and I will discuss them along with other topics like dealing with bad habits in a future session. If something is unexplainable, don’t worry too much about it. Focus on learning to deal with it as best as you can. More important than where something comes from is where it is taking us. Instead of questioning why you have a particular impression, focus on how to deal with it now. Bhakti involves a process of purification, which helps us handle such issues. In the third chapter of my discussion, I will talk about past bad habits and how to overcome them.

We’ll come to it eventually.
Now, as far as performing religious rites for deceased relatives, that’s fine. If that is part of our family tradition, we can do it. It’s part of a religious obligation that we may want to follow. But the essence—see, every culture will have its own traditions. And there are spiritual principles which are cultural, and there are spiritual principles which are transcultural. So we need to primarily focus on the spiritual principles that are transcultural, that is, connecting with the divine. And certain spiritual principles that are cultural, if it’s our culture, we follow them. If it’s not our culture, we don’t follow them. That is a matter, and that is something which can be decided based on individual discretion. We’ll talk more about relationships in the future.
Okay, so I’ll keep questions about that.

So why are life’s punishments so acute?
Let’s discuss this more in a future session because we cannot—let’s stick to the philosophy here, what we discussed in the session.

Is our soulmate already determined by destiny, or is it based on our conscious soul that we pull toward us?
See, destiny should never be used as a reason for irresponsibility. That means we have been given intelligence in this life, and we have to use that intelligence to choose wisely, to choose responsibly. And we use our God-given intelligence whenever we are forming any relationship.
Now, what exactly is destined and what is not destined, that is quite difficult to say. Broadly, you could say destiny is like a weather forecast. A weather forecast means that if we are going on a drive, it’s good to know that it’s going to be rainy, stormy, dark, or misty. Similarly, destiny gives us some kind of weather forecast about what kind of situation we’re going to get in our life. And now, how well we drive—that’s up to us. That is not determined by destiny.
Similarly, for us, what we do and how we relate to people is not determined by destiny. So we need to be as responsible as possible in our relationships, in forming relationships, and growing those relationships.

So is it that our life partners are already determined?
Well, much of the romantic literature depicts that. And sometimes some people might quote something from scripture also to support that. But the broad idea is that it’s not necessary that everything is predestined. And that’s why it’s very difficult to say this.
So we, rather than thinking that there is some perfect partner out there who I need to find, we need to use our intelligence to find the best that we can in our situation.
Is it that if our consciousness is not good, then we attract someone who leaves us, or who doesn’t stay with us?
Well, it’s not that simple. It’s not that simple that our consciousness does affect our decisions, and sometimes we may take bad decisions because of that. But is it that simply bad consciousness will naturally mean that we will attract a bad person? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on context. Sometimes people may not have any spiritual consciousness, but still, they may have very good relationships at a practical, functional level, at a familial level. So relationships are complex.
The past life karma is complex, and we can’t reduce them to oversimplified statements of what is to be done and what is not to be done.
Chakras I’ll talk about in a later session.
Where is the soul living while in the transition body?
The transition body basically is around the soul, just like our physical body is around the soul. That’s how the soul is around the— that’s how the transition body is around the soul.
What is the guarantee that we will not reincarnate if we practice devotional service?
Ultimately, we have to understand what is the purpose of why we are existing in this world. God loves us, and He doesn’t want us to be in the world. If, by the time of our death, our love for God has become greater than our love for the things of this world, then there is no reason for God to keep us in this world. He will go with us to the next world. That’s how, if we consider simply from a logical perspective, we stay in this world because we desire to enjoy the world. If the desire is no longer there, then we will leave this world.
Does our love for God go with us? Yes, definitely.
Or to speak of love for God, even broad spiritual inclination also we carry from this life to the next life. Well, liberation, as a subtle body, dissolves by liberation or going back to Godhead. Both are essentially the same. The ultimate liberation is to go back to Godhead. And the subtle body dissolves when we go out of this material world and enter into the spiritual sky.
So thank you very much for your questions. And we’ll continue in our next session. I’ll be sending the topic for the next session shortly. Basically, we’re talking about how do we deal with the loss of a loved one, and does spirituality mean suppressing our emotions or sublimating our emotions? We’ll discuss this in our next session.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Of course, today is our third session and after the session I'll be sending you a broad outline of what we will be covering in the 51 sessions. Each session will be based on one question that addresses a question that addresses both the philosophy of the Bhagavad Gita as well as some contemporary need or concern that we all have in our lives and today's session will be discussing about what is death, what is reincarnation and do we have soulmates and basically these are three topics we will cover and here this is the slideshow. These three topics I'm going to cover today and each topic so we will be discussing based on a verse from the Bhagavad Gita.

Today I'm discussing from 222 in the Bhagavad Gita. So 222 is Vāsāṃsī jīrāṇī yathā vihāya na vāni gṛhṇāti naroparāṇi yathā śarīrāṇi yathā nirāṇi ajñāni sañjāti na vāni dehi. So Vāsāṃsī jīrāṇī that the body is like a cloth and the soul is like the wearer of that cloth and Vāsāṃsī jīrāṇī.

Jīrāṇī is that when the soul, when the cloth becomes old and worn out at that time a person leaves, they discard that cloth and goes to another, wears another set of clothes. So similarly it is said that the soul leaves one body and goes to another body. So that is the most undeniable of the realities of life.

Sometimes you may have this question especially in today's world where everything has been relativized, what is real? What is, is the world real? When people behave properly with us are they really good people? Is their good behavior real or do they conceal a bad part? The media gives us some messages, some newspaper reports. Are they for real? There's a whole plethora of fake news. So this question, again the question what is real? And we might gravitate to the idea that nothing is real.

But even if we deny everything else we can't deny the reality of death. There are some founding realities with which we can rationally build a worldview and that is what we will be doing over the course of the course of our sessions. So what can be rationally understood, what can be scripturally understood through revelation and how that can be integrated with our experience.

So let's begin with death. So death is the most undeniable reality and it is the most denied reality. When somebody doesn't accept some reality they said that they are in denial.

So similarly when we don't accept the reality of death then we are in denial. Now what does it mean to not accept the reality of death? If anybody is asked are you going to die? Unless the person is insane, most people will never say I will not die, that I'm immortal. So in what sense is anyone denying death? So if we accept that we are going to die but we think of death as something so remote and distant, so abstract as if it is happening to someone else and as if it were going to happen to someone else in the distant future.

So it's just like if we knew that we are working in a job and we are going to be fired from that job. There is going to be retrenchment and we are going to lose that job. Then knowledge has no meaning without, knowledge is not real unless we apply it.

If we knew we are going to lose a job then we would immediately start looking for another job. If we knew that we are going to be, we are going to lose our house, maybe we are rented and the rent period is getting over then we would start looking for a new house. So if we similarly knew, knew in the sense that we accepted as real that we are going to die, then we start asking, at least ask the question, what is death? Is there anything after death? What really counts in life? So the fact that we, most of us don't seriously ask this question and certainly we don't ask this question as seriously as say, okay what will I do if I lose my job? What will I do if I lose my house? So the seriousness of the question is seen by how seriously do we look for or look for some alternative arrangement? Now somebody might say that okay what happens after death is unknowable so why bother about it? Well if we are going to think of it that way, even the future itself is unknowable.

Now when we, if we lose our house, what kind of house we are going to get? What kind of economy we are going to, what kind of condition the country is going to be there? What kind of neighbors we are going to have? We can't predict any of that. So just because we can't predict a thing accurately, doesn't mean that we don't think about it or we plan for it. So yes, death is a way.

Why do we deny death like this? Because it is so scary. At one level it is so scary and it is so, it seems so unknowable what is going to come after death. And that's why it's important that we see through the eyes of knowledge, that is spiritual knowledge, scriptural knowledge, what is given in the Bhagavad Gita.

Now in a later session we will be discussing more in detail about the principle of revelation and how knowledge can come to us from a higher source. But let's look at this from a rational perspective. So in the last session I discussed about how there are empirical pointers towards the existence of the soul, or something that exists and goes from this life to another life, this body to another body.

That's how reincarnation essentially, that's how people have past life memories. So there is something spiritual within us which is indestructible. And that brings us to the question, okay then what is death? So if the spiritual is indestructible then that's not going to die.

So then what will death mean? Let's look at this. Okay, I'll do the screen share here. So death is the departure of the soul from the body.

Basically there are, we could say our existence has three levels, the body, the mind and the soul. I'll talk about the mind more in detail in a later session. But suffice it to say at a simple level that the body is like the hardware, the mind is like the software and the soul is the user.

Now say we are working on one particular computer. We have a desktop at our workplace and then we go somewhere else, we are traveling and then we reach there and then we log into the computer over there. Now as soon as we log into the computer, then many of our details get linked with that computer.

Say we buy a new computer. Once we log in, then our bookmarks and our preferences, they all get linked with that computer. Similarly, what happens in death is basically we leave one computer.

The physical structure of the computer is the hardware that is like the body and we the user are like the soul. So the soul leaves the body. So the hardware is left behind.

Now when we go to a new place, basically what happens in your computer? So we have certain memory, that is we know our password and certain other details. Then when you log in, then many details get linked with that computer. So similarly, when the soul goes from one body to another body, along with the soul, the mind also goes.

And the impressions that we have, the desires, the inclinations, the overall inspiration, the overall kind of action that we have and they're all impressed in the mind. And then the mind gets, mind is what helps us interface with that next body. So basically when the soul departs from one body and goes to next body, that is death.

Now, if you look at reincarnation, now what is reincarnation? So death is basically the departure of the soul from one body to another body. And reincarnation is the entry of that soul into another body. And when the soul enters into the next body, what essentially is happening again? Essentially for the soul, the body is like a tool.

So till now, I've talked about two distinct examples for reincarnation. One is like a dress. The second is like a computer.

So if you consider it to be like a dress, one dress gets worn out and we wear another dress. So for the soul, the body takes the dress. But the interface between the soul and the body is quite complicated.

It is not as simple as simply raising arms and slipping them through some sleeves and putting on a dress. The interface between the soul and the body is complicated. And that interface is mediated through what the Bhagavad Gita calls as the mind.

So through the mind, the soul gets linked to the next body. And reincarnation, the word reincarnation literally means karna is flesh, re is again, and asian is to come again. So reincarnation essentially is the soul comes back into the next body.

So it comes into a new body to come again in flesh. Now reincarnation is something which is universal and unavoidable. That means the soul needs some physical interface for functioning in the world.

The soul is very different from the body. And just as a human beings, if we go to some environment which is unnatural for us, say if we go underwater, then we need a whole set of diving gears. We need some way which we can respire, we can get oxygen.

So without that gear, we cannot function in the environment which is alien to us. So if humans go into space, similarly, we need spacesuits. So for the soul, the bodily and the material environment is actually not natural.

It is unnatural and that's why the soul basically needs some physical tool for interfacing with the body, interfacing with the material world. And that tool is the material body that we have. So reincarnation is mentioned here.

Krishna talks about it again later in 15th chapter. From 15.7 to 15.11. And there he says in 15.8, 9, 10 especially. So in 15.9 he says that when the soul gets a new body, basically it gets a set of senses.

That means the sense of hearing, the sense of seeing, the sense of touching, the sense of tasting and smelling. And these are the ways in which we interact with the outer world. We basically gain knowledge from the outer world and then we function in that outer world.

So reincarnation is something that happens to every single soul. Now what kind of body the soul gets, that depends. That depends on what? Broadly two factors.

Say just as if we are having a particular set of clothes and they get torn and then we want to buy new clothes. How do we decide those clothes to be bought? Basically two things. Our budget and our likeness.

So what we desire and how much we can pay. So similarly for the soul, what body will get in the next life depends on its desires, but not just in its desires. It also depends on the kind of karma that the soul has done.

See our karma, if we do good actions, we get good results. If we do bad actions, we get bad results. We'll talk more about the principle of karma in future.

But at this stage, this is going to be a simple understanding that when we do good, we get good. When we do bad, we get bad. And some of the results of our actions come immediately, some come gradually.

So the actions that we do, they get accumulated and they comprise our, we could say our karmic bank account, our karmic assets in the karma bank account. And depending on what kind of assets we have accumulated, what kind of actions we have done during the course of our life, we decide, it is just, we get a particular body. So that is reincarnation.

Now, the concept of reincarnation. So now we are moving to the third question. So to summarize, say the body and the soul are here.

This is a previous life. So this is the death means the soul leaves the body. And then after that is another situation or somewhere else in a different place at a different time.

And then the soul enters into the body. And the soul acquires a body that is reincarnation. The departure from here is death.

The entry over here is reincarnation. And the concept of reincarnation has been used quite a few times in today's entertainment industry. And it has become romanticized and sensationalized.

So there have been some researches on the concept of reincarnation done through hypnotic regression into past lives. So Brian Wace is a prominent researcher in this field. And he found that people, people often suffer certain traumas or phobias or certain behavioral deficiencies or limitations because they are carried over from a previous life.

Say somebody is irrationally afraid of water, they have hydrophobia. That maybe you take them through hypnotic regression from previous life and they come to know that the person is sitting on some seat and the therapist leads them backwards. Remember when you were 10 years old? Remember when you were 5 years old? Remember when you were 1? Remember when you were 6 months? Remember when you were in your mother's womb? What do you remember before that? And that way, when they are led backward, then gradually, what happens is that they suddenly say, Oh, I'm in this place.

And they start talking about an entirely different place. And they have very vivid expressions, very vivid emotions. And often they speak things which can be factually also correlated.

So through hypnotic regression, it may be found that this person who has hydrophobia in this life was drowned in a previous life. And that's why they have fear of water. So sometimes recollecting the hurts of a previous life can free one from continuing to hurt in this life.

And if that happens, this is helpful. So this is also the idea that we may have some previous lives that is substantiated by this, but concurrent to our topic. Such memories of previous lives often are associated with relationships from previous life.

And so to some extent, the idea of we having unresolved issues in a previous life has also been utilized by the entertainment industry. And as there are men, there are movies that come up with people who, say a couple, who maybe their love was thwarted in a particular life. And then they die.

And then they reincarnate. And then they again long for each other. And then they meet each other.

And then such people who meet each other, they are called as soulmates. So the idea of reincarnation has become highly sensationalized and romanticized. That people think that oh, I wish I could.

I should find my soulmate. Now we all long for relationships. And we all long to love and be loved.

And we know relationships can be a big gamble. Sometimes we may get together with a person who is not what they initially appeared to be. And then instead of getting joy, we can get a lot of pain in that relationship.

So the idea of a soulmate actually gels fully with our longing for love. And now this is so often in the spiritual sense, whenever people hear about reincarnation, they also want to know, okay, do I have a soulmate? Can I find a soulmate? And the first thing first is that when we talk about the soul and about spirituality and reincarnation, the important thing is to focus on the soul, not on the mate. To focus on the soul, not on the mate.

That means at first we need to understand ourselves, who I am. And secondarily, we can think about who I should relate with. Because if the focus shifts on just finding a mate, finding a partner, then are we really gaining spiritual knowledge? Are we really appreciating the value of spiritual knowledge? How are we at a functional level different from people who do not know anything about the soul and are still looking for some mate, some partner, someone to love and be loved by? This longing is fine.

But this longing, we need to understand that it can sometimes sabotage or take over our spiritual search and spiritual understanding. So first things first means we need to focus on our identity. That I am a soul.

And what does it mean when I say I'm a soul? That, as I said, the soul is connected with the body. The soul is related with the body. So when we relate with people, say I am a soul here and this is my body here.

And somebody else is a soul and this is their body there. So quite often, we are attracted to people based on their physical appearance. Of course, we can say I'm also attracted by personality traits.

And that's fine. At the same time, what happens is when we go too much through externals, then we may consider somebody to be our soulmate, but we are attracted to them primarily at the physical level. And then that relationship, that infatuation can blind us not only to our spirituality, but also to their spirituality.

Because we simply see them as attractive physical creatures. So this is the first point that the courage of soulmates, it can distract us from our spiritual life if we become infatuated with it. Now having said that, is it that still, is it that we are going on a journey of multiple lives and we do have some soulmate? The idea primarily is that the soul is related with the divine.

We'll talk about the divine more in detail in future sessions. But the Bhagavad Gita says that we are all a part of God. And thus our eternal relationship is with God.

And while having this eternal relationship with God, we also have a relationship with others in this world. So we could say you have a horizontal relationship with the divine, with the whole whose parts we are. And then you have horizontal relationship with others.

Now the horizontal relationship that we have with others, they are temporary. Because they are at the material level, we relate with them at the level of the body. And those relationships end.

Now we live this world, when we die, we live this world, when they die. But either way, the relationship that we have with God is eternal. Now other relationships, in some cases, it can happen that some souls go through one life and they go to another life and they meet again in another life.

So the possibility is there. But the probability of that is low. Because there are many, many souls and each soul has its own karma.

Each soul has its own history of the karma in this life, as well as karmic history in the previous life. And the soul leaves the body and goes. The destination of the soul is often determined by its own karma.

It can be very different from the destination of another soul. So this is not to trivialize the relationships that we have in this world. But also, we need a reality check so that we don't unnecessarily sensationalize or artificially eternalize those relationships.

So we could say from the spiritual perspective that our ultimate soulmate in the Supreme Soul, that is God. And the purpose of transmigration is spiritual evolution. Evolution means, just like in biology, the idea of evolution is there.

And that essentially means that as living beings survive in a particular environment, they adapt to that environment, they become more resilient, and they develop more and more features that can help them function. So to evolve means to gradually improve. That's the broad idea of evolution.

Now, spiritual evolution means that our consciousness becomes more and more spiritual. And our consciousness evolves in the spiritual direction. So when that happens, when our consciousness evolves in the spiritual direction, then we go closer and closer to the ultimate spiritual reality, that is Krishna.

We'll discuss that later more specifically. But the idea is, to the extent we are caught in the world, in the things of the world, positions and possessions in the world, then to that extent, our consciousness stays materially entangled and it doesn't evolve. To the extent our consciousness arises beyond the things of this world and connects with the eternal beyond this world, then we are evolving spiritually.

This evolution happens, like I started, that we deny death. So the denial of death is what stagnates us in our spiritual evolution. Because as long as we're denying death, we cannot really consider, contemplate, or pursue anything higher in life.

So basically, spiritual evolution happens by the expansion of our capacity to learn and to love. To learn what really matters, what counts, what really lasts. And then to direct our affection, our heart, our love towards that.

And so for the soul, it is described in the way that the divine, that God resides in our hearts, and he goes from one life to another life with us. So whether other souls with whom we relate, they go from this life or not to another life, that is unpredictable. But what is predictable is the divine within us always goes with us.

And in that sense, this divine is our ultimate soul. And it is that connection that we should try to pursue. So once we understand the soul, the primary focus should be on the soul and then on the mate.

So if you understand the soul, then we'll understand the eternal relationship of the soul is with the divine. And developing relationships, developing a connection with the ultimate reality is the process of yoga. And the way to develop a connection with the ultimate spiritual reality, that is Bhakti Yoga.

All this we'll discuss later. But at this stage, the idea, if we begin with the soul, and then we focus on the nature of relationships, then the idea of a soulmate will inspire us to pursue our spiritual evolution. But then what about our relationships in the world? Yes, it is definitely possible that some people are more compatible with each other and other people are less compatible.

And some people might just click. And if that happens, we might feel that this is our soulmate. Now, that's fine.

The important thing is that we focus on our spiritual evolution. And even people who are very compatible together, there are going to be some differences sometimes with others. And maturity means we learn to live with those differences.

We need to transcend those differences. So the idea is if we keep craving at the horizontal level, oh, where will I find my perfect partner? Where will I find my soulmate? Then our consciousness will get caught in that itself. And we won't evolve spiritually.

But on the other hand, if we pursue spiritual evolution, we focus on growing spiritually and understanding ourselves, then we gain further clarity about ourselves, we become purer, our minds become calmer. And then we can understand other people better. We can relate to them better.

And thus, whatever relationship we have, they can also become stabler, possibly even sweeter, if we know ourselves better, and if we have become spiritually stabler ourselves. So about relationships, again, we will discuss more in a future session. But the idea of soulmates is something which we wanted to address here.

And one last point, and then we can have, we have time to keep a lot of time for questions so that we can discuss more. So one last point. The idea of reincarnation, as I said, it has been sensationalized and romanticized.

And there's much research, or much of what people have in the popular imagination for reincarnation comes from movies or novels, or some other area, some other presentation of spirituality where things have been sensationalized. So now this has to be very carefully evaluated. That it is not that if, just because something seems similar, sometimes there are some books on reincarnation, which show, okay, this particular famous actor, he was this person in this previous life, this person in this life.

There are books that sensationalize things like that. And now if you just take a face cut of, a cross-section of the face cut of people, basically the, not the face with the plate, but a broad face cut, a large number of people's faces will match. And you cannot really prove reincarnation based on simply the similarity of the faces.

So that's a very superficial understanding. And sometimes such such evidence, supposed evidence of reincarnation, which does not stand critical scrutiny, that is portrayed in the public media. And when that is refuted, that is, that is challenged, that is debunked.

And people think that they are, all reincarnations are just focus, focus. But reincarnation has been seriously investigated by scientific researchers. And they have come up with significant evidence like what I talked about in the previous sessions, about past life memories especially.

So now, Sir Ian Stevenson is one of the most prominent researchers in this field, and he does not give much credence to hypnotically induced past life memories. So what I said earlier, somebody had hydrophobia, and they remember, they go back to the previous life, to recognize regression, and they get, they remember, they remember, or they see in their memory that they drowned. And then that memory, that removes them of that fear of water.

So now the health benefits of past life regression are widely documented. But that itself does not prove the reality of the previous life. Because it could well be that that person just imagined it.

And so just like at the physical level, we can have placebo effect, where people think that they're being given some medication, but they're just being given sugar pills. And they get cured of their disease. So just as there can be placebo at a physical level, there can be placebo at a psychological level also.

Where somebody might just be imagining that they're remembering. Especially when somebody is under hypnosis, they're very prone to suggestions. Now the serious, some of the serious researchers in past life, they won't actually fraud too much.

They will just guide back, not give specific suggestions. But sometimes some suggestions can be given even at the subliminal level. And so it's very difficult to determine for sure that when we recollect something in a hypnotic regression, is it accurate? So sometimes when people try to go into hypnotic regression, to try to find out who they were related to in their previous lives and to try to find a soulmate that day.

That can be a very counterproductive endeavor because we might just get caught in the imaginings of our mind and think that they are real. So of course, some hypnotic past, hypnotic regression cases can be accurate. So especially, so in my book on reincarnation, demystifying reincarnation, I talk about cases where people in their past lives have exhibited xenoglossy and xenography.

Xenoglossy is the capacity to speak in foreign languages. Xenography is the capacity to write in foreign languages. So there are cases where somebody remembered that they were a Viking warrior in the, before the 15th century, 11th, 12th centuries, something like that.

Or somebody spoke in a town that just couldn't be identified. Or sometimes some people wrote in a script that this shouldn't be identified. Later it was found that it was actually a language that had existed in the 3rd century to 6th century.

And apart from say a dozen language specialists, nobody else knew this language. So how did this person who had never even heard of this language in their conscious life, who couldn't recognize what they had written after they came out of reincarnation, who, and yet during, not after their reincarnation, during their hypnotic regression, but they remembered during that hypnotic regression and they wrote it that way. So this, if there is some tangible, verifiable, factual evidence that emerges, then that can point to the reality of the past life memory through regression.

Otherwise it is questionable. So if some, if regression gives benefits to someone, that is fine, but that benefit itself does not prove the reality of the memory of regression. And similarly, romantic depictions of people who are soulmates meeting each other in a few years in this life, they might satisfy our heart's longing for love, but that doesn't necessarily guarantee that actually we have met our soulmate.

So spiritual search is essentially a search for spiritual evolution, for understanding what is real, for understanding what is eternal and connecting with that. It is not so much to romanticize the things of this world and the longings that we have for various things in this world. When we focus on spiritual evolution, then we can have lasting satisfaction and ultimately we connect to the supreme spiritual reality that is the culmination of our reincarnation.

That we will talk in a future session. To summarize what I spoke, I broadly spoke on three things. What is death? The soul, the mind and the body are existences of three-dimensional.

So at death, the soul leaves the body and goes to the next body. It's like we discard an old set of clothes and take a new cloth. But the connection with the soul and the body is more complicated than a person and their clothes.

So we're talking about the interface that is the mind. It's like the body is the hardware, the mind is software, the soul is the user. So when we go to a new computer, then we log in and our previous data comes over there, connects us, gets linked with that computer.

Similarly, the body goes to the next life and then the mind and its impressions get calibrated and get connected with the next body. So death is the departure of the soul from the body. We often live in denial of death, although death is the most undeniable reality, because it seems so scary, it seems so disconcerting and nobody will practically, when they're asked directly, they won't even realize death, but they live as if they're not going to die.

To take death seriously means to prepare for what is going to come for death. The most basic preparation is at least inquiry, what is going to come out of it? And the Gita offers us some answers. So reincarnation of the soul enters into another body.

And then I discussed elaborately about the concept of soul mates. And we need to first focus on the soul rather than on the mate. First understand our identity and then look for some relationship.

So in the media, when reincarnation is romanticized and used as a plot, as a plot twister in romantic novels and movies, we get a very trivialized understanding of reincarnation. We have two kinds of relationships, the horizontal relationship with others and the vertical relationship with the divine. So the ultimate soul mate for the soul is the divine, who goes from this life to the next life, each life as the indwelling super soul, and connecting with whom, connecting in love with him is the ultimate purpose of reincarnation.

So in that sense, the divine is our ultimate soul mate. And while we are functioning in the world, we also have horizontal relationships. And it is always better if we have more compatible partners in our relationship, more compatible people around us in our relationships.

So it could, it is possible that one soul, that two souls from one life can again re-link in a future life. But considering that each soul has own karma, and our future life is determined not just by our desires, but also by our karma. Just like the clothes we buy depend not just on what we like, but also what we can pay for.

So two souls from one life may not have the karma, they may go to the same place and be linked again in the future life. So that's why it's possible, but it's not probable. And if we focus more on our own spiritual growth, then we can have more inner stability and clarity.

And then we relate to people not simply based on infatuation or neediness, but not based on physical infatuation or emotional neediness, but based on inner maturity, inner clarity. And then we can find out who we can be compatible with. And whoever we are already relating with, we can relate more maturely with them.

And sometimes I conclude it by, we need to have, whenever any past life memories are touted, we need to have a little critical attitude. We can't be completely naive about it. So just facial matches do not point to a soul from a previous life or next life.

And even if through hypnotic recreation, sometimes a soul, somebody is healed of some fears, somebody is healed of hydrophobia, that could be a placebo effect at a psychological level that need not indicate the reality of the memory. So similarly, just because we feel that we can relate strongly with someone, that doesn't necessarily mean that they are our soul mates. So we focus on using our intelligence and with respect to past life memories and their objective, evidential things, like say, zero-glossy isomography, then the memories can be real.

And similarly, we use our intelligence to take our decisions about our relationships and about our life. As we evolve spiritually, we learn to raise our consciousness from the material towards the spiritual. We learn about the spiritual and we learn to love the spiritual.

And that's how our reincarnation attains ultimately its culmination in a connection and reconnection with the divine. So thank you very much. Hare Krishna.

So we have some questions over here. So mind is a subtle body. Isn't the subtle body elements like mind, intelligence, and policy go dire? No, the subtle body is not so easily destructible.

It's not physical. It's not gross physical. We differentiate between the physical and the material.

Physical usually refers to that which is perceivable by the physical senses. So form, shape, smell, all these are physical sense objects. So the physical things are destroyed.

But the mind, intelligence, and policy, they are subtle. So they are not destroyed. They go with the soul.

So the soul is here, around the soul is the mind, and the soul along with the mind go to the next body. These will be not exactly destroyed, but dissolved at the time of ultimate liberation. And the soul goes out of the material world to the spiritual world at the time of liberation.

Then the mind, intelligence, and ego, they dissolve while the soul is going through the honest journey of transmigration. And the ultimate journey towards liberation, at that time they dissolve, but they are not destroyed. So how long is the time between death and reincarnation? And if it is… Okay, how long is the time? Basically, the time is variable.

Generally, each soul has some of its own karma to process. So if the soul is in this body, it goes to the next body. In between, the soul has to stay.

And how long it has to stay, that depends on various factors. Just like say, if we are at one place and we go to another place, sometimes we might, while doing the journey, we might take a flight and we might reach in a few hours. Sometimes we might take a car and it may take some more time.

Sometimes we might go by foot and we might just want to enjoy a trek or whatever. It might take longer time. So that's why the soul can… So how long it will take for the soul to go from one body to another body varies.

Just as how much we can pay for determines whether we'll take a flight or whether we'll hitchhike. So similarly, the time of karma the soul has to go, it determines how long the soul takes to go from one body to another body. So now where does the soul go in between? Broadly speaking, the soul can say generally, the soul, if it's here in the human body, when it gets the next body, it can, if we can get a human body immediately, it can go to a lower body, animal body, or it can go to a lower level of existence.

There are higher heavenly levels of existence, lower hellish levels of existence. The soul can go there. So if it goes to the lower species or the lower lokas, then it may take, that transition may take much more time.

So where exactly does the soul go, that depends on the karma. And in between states, the soul stays in a disembodied state. Now there are two different cases over here.

One is the soul just during the journey. So there is, during the journey, when the soul leaves, the Garuda Purana explains, the soul leaves this body and gets another body, goes to another body. In between, the soul gets a temporary covering.

It's not exactly a body. It's a temporary covering, which is grosser than the subtle body and subtler than the gross body. And that becomes the transition, the transition body, you could say.

So that is called sometimes, the soul with that kind of body is called the preta. Now bhuta or ghost is different. A ghost is when the soul leaves the physical body, but does not get a gross body at all.

That is, say, when the soul commits suicide. So somebody was supposed to live in a particular body for 70 years. They commit suicide at the age of 40.

Then by their karma, the next 30 years, they may not get a body. Then they have to live in a disembodied state. So disembodied means the soul is there, the mind is there, but the physical body is not there.

So that is called a ghostly body. And with that ghostly body, when somebody lives, then that is a state of quite a great distress because the soul has desires, which they can't fulfill. They may desire to eat something, but they don't have the physical tongue by which to eat it.

And that's why sometimes our souls, to fulfill their desires, to fulfill some unfinished, maybe some unfinished issues, they might try to possess somebody. And that's what is called as possession, the ghost entering into someone. Yeah.

Now, normally when somebody dies, we say conventionally swargavasi or narakvasi or whatever, but that is more of a conventional saying where exactly the person goes, that will vary from person to person. So, which means now regarding this bhoga yoni, I discussed about scientific proof for reincarnation in a previous session. Please hear the previous session.

You can get it over there. Hmm. Why do other religions not talk about reincarnation? Not exactly.

It's not that they don't talk. In my book on reincarnation, I've talked about other religious traditions also. So I can't go into all of them.

The Buddhism does accept reincarnation, but because it was a heterodox tradition that emerged from Hinduism as a rebel tradition, it tried to assert its philosophical autonomy. And one way it did that was by rejecting the idea of a soul. So there is soul and the soul has reincarnation.

So this is the understanding of the Bhagavad Gita. If you consider Buddhism, what it did was it refused the soul and accepted reincarnation. So then the question comes up, what actually reincarnates? That's very difficult for Buddhist thinkers to say.

And if we look at the original writings of Buddha, he was remarkably non-philosophical. He generally did not address philosophical questions much. So it can be reasonably said that he did not deny the soul, but subsequent Buddhist thinkers rejected the idea of the soul.

But reincarnation is accepted by Buddhism. And if you consider that reincarnation requires something to reincarnate, so soul is quite logical. Now Christianity, on the other hand, accepts the soul but rejects reincarnation.

Now that also is not explicitly denied by Jesus. If you consider, Jesus asked this famous incident when a person was blind and the prophets around him asked, is this person blind because of his own deeds or his parents' deeds? No, actually he was not a person, he was a small child who was blind. And he had been born blind.

So was he born blind because of his own deeds? Or his parents' deeds? So now Jesus did not address that question at a philosophical level at all. He simply said that he was born blind so that the power of grace could be demonstrated. And then Jesus performed a miracle and the boy got back his eyes.

Now if you consider, not everybody who is blind gets a miracle performed in their lives and they get their eyes back. So Jesus, if he had categorically been against reincarnation, this would have been an excellent point to reject that. The very fact that his disciples asked the question, that is he blind because of his own deeds? Now what deeds could it be? Unless he had a previous life, where could he have done any deeds by which he got born blind? Was it in the womb? Now what could he do wrong in the womb? Maybe just fold his legs wrong? And is that folding one's legs wrong a serious enough crime to invite the punishment of lifelong blindness? Doesn't make any sense.

So the very question indicates that the followers considered reincarnation as a possible explanation. Not specifically reincarnation, here it was pre- existence. So reincarnation refers to what happens after this life, pre-existence is what happens before this life.

So they accepted pre-existence and pre-existence also means reincarnation. Now in the history of Christianity somehow, when initially the Christians were persecuted by the Roman emperors and then the Roman empire itself was becoming very immoral and the Roman empire, Constantine and Justinian, they saw that Christians were among the most immoral people. So they decided to adopt Christianity as the official religion.

But then they adopted Christianity not because of spiritual purposes, but because of political purposes. Because they wanted to have better political administration and if people are moral, then they are more easily governable. But because he wanted to use Christianity as a tool to consolidate political power and authority, he basically pressured the popes or whatever and after that he had the idea, give them one life or give them hell.

And that way they will live this life morally. And morally means, his idea was they will obey me, they will honour the king. There are eminent Christian thinkers like Origen who have openly talked about reincarnation and St. Augustine who is considered the foundational theologian in Christianity, he has also entertained questions about reincarnation.

So there is no categorical denial of reincarnation in the Christian tradition. But somehow it has become historically sidelined. So you can read the Demystified Reincarnation book.

One of the devotee scholars Stephen Rosen has also written about reincarnation in world traditions. There is a whole book on that topic also. Now more about horizontal relationships, I will be talking in my next session.

Horizontal relationships are also important. One of the next future sessions I will talk about that. We will focus on bad habits.

We will be discussing that in a future session. But if something is unexplainable, don't bother about it. Just learn to deal with it as much as we can.

The more important than where something comes from is where it is taking us. We need to focus on not why I am having a particular impression but how can I deal with it now. And bhakti involves a process of purification by which we can deal with it.

And in the third chapter as we are talking about past bad habits and how to deal with them. We will come to it in the next session. So this is a part of our religious tradition.

We can do it. It is a part of a religious obligation that we may want to follow. But the essence, see every culture will have its own traditions.

And the spiritual principles which are cultural, there are spiritual principles which are trans-cultural. So we need to primarily focus on the spiritual, the spiritual principles that are trans-cultural that is connecting with the divine and certain spiritual principles that are cultural. Yes, if it's our culture, we follow them.

If it's not our culture, we don't follow them. That doesn't matter. That is something which can be decided based on individual discretion.

We'll talk more about relationships in the future. Again, so I'll keep questions about that. So why are life's punishments so acute? Let's discuss this more in a future session because we cannot let's stick to the philosophy over here, what we are discussing in the session.

Is our soul made or determined by our destiny or based on our consciousness pulled towards us? See destiny should never be used as a reason for irresponsibility. That means we have been given intelligence in this life and we have to use that intelligence to choose wisely, to choose responsibly. And we use our God-given intelligence whenever we are forming any relationship.

Now what exactly is destined and what is not destined, that is quite difficult to say. Broadly, you could say destiny is like weather forecast. So weather forecast means that if we are going on a drive, it's good to know that it's going to be rainy, it's going to be stormy, it's going to be dark, whatever.

So misty. So similarly, but it basically, destiny gives us some kind of weather forecast about what kind of situation we're going to get in our life. And now how well we drive, that's up to us, that is not determined by destiny.

And similarly, for us, what we do, how we relate to people, that is not determined by destiny. So we need to be as responsible as possible in our relations, in forming relationships and growing those relationships. So is it that our life partners are already determined? Well, much of the romantic literature depicts that.

And sometimes some people might quote something from scripture also to support that. But the broad idea is that it's not necessary that everything is ordained. And that's why it's very difficult to say this.

So we, rather than thinking that there is some perfect partner out there, who I need to find, we need to use our intelligence to find the best that we can in our situation. Is it that if our consciousness is not good, then we attract someone who leaves us and who doesn't stay with us? Well, it's not that simple that our consciousness does affect our decisions. And sometimes we make bad decisions because of that.

But is it that simply bad consciousness will naturally mean that we will attract a bad person? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on context. Sometimes people may not have any spiritual consciousness, but still they may, they may have very good relationships at a practical, functional level, at a familial level.

So relationships are complex. The past life karma is complex and we can't reduce them to oversimplified statements of what is to be done and what is not to be done. Chakras I'll talk about in a later session.

Where is the soul living while in the transition body? The transition body basically is around the soul, just like our physical body is around the soul. That's how the soul is around the body. That's how the transition body is around the soul.

What is the guarantee that we will not reincarnate if you practice devotional service? Ultimately, we have to understand what is the purpose why we are existing in the world. God loves us and he doesn't want us to be in the world. If by the time of our death, our love for God has become greater than our love for this world, then there is no reason for God to keep us in this world.

He will go with us to the next world. That's how, if we consider simply from the point of purpose of reincarnation, from the purpose of a logical perspective, we stay in this world because we desire to enjoy the world. If the desire is no longer there, then we will leave this world.

Does our love of God go with us? Yes, definitely. Purva bhya sena denaiva hriyate yava shobhase. To speak of love of God, even in broad spiritual inclination also, we carry from this life to the next life.

Does the subtle body dissolve by liberation or by going back to Godhead? Both are essentially the same. The ultimate liberation is to go back to Godhead and the subtle body dissolves when we go out of this material world and enter into the spiritual sky. So thank you very much for your questions.

And we'll continue in our next session. I'll be sending the topic for the next session shortly. Basically, we're talking about grief and how do we deal with the loss of a loved one.

And does spirituality mean suppressing our emotions or sublimating our emotions? That we'll discuss in our next session. Thank you very much. Hare Krishna.