SmartSurat  #  Hinduism

Sansara: The Cycle of Reincarnation

Hinduism accepts the concept of reincarnation, the idea that at the end  of each life, the individual is born again in another existence in order  to carry on his or her evolutionary path. Hindus see all life as cyclical, evident in the cycles of the planets, of trees and plants, of nature, of  the universe and of humankind too. Apart from the physical body and  the breath which makes us live, Hindus see the individual as composed of two elements. One is the personality self, called the jivatman and the other is the part of the individual which is Brahman and which is called atman. The jivatman is our personality; it is constantly changing and is the sum total of all our experiences in life, all our desires and aversions and all our conscious arid subconscious characteristics : The atman, on the other hand, is the part of us which is Brahman, which cannot change, which is permanent, and which, like Brahman, is Absolute. The atman does not reincarnate at all; it is simple there in everything which is manifest in the world. It is the jivatman which is subject to reincarnation and the next reincarnation of a jivatman will depend entirely on the personality of an individual in the present existence. The Brhadaranyaka Upanisad describes  this very well :        An individual creates for himself his next life as a result of his desires, hopes, aspirations, failures, disappointments, achievements and actions performed during this life of his. Just as a caterpillar, before it leaves one leaf, makes sure that his front feet have been firmly fixed on the next leaf of the branch of a tree, a jivatman creates its next life before it departs from the present one.        What determines the state of the individual in the next existence, is karma