Reincarnation in this Life, and after this life

Reincarnation in this life, and after this life

By Gauranga Premananda

The Latin re or red means again and again. In = in, carno/carnis = meat. Krsna explains in the Bhagavad-gita chapter 2, verse 13:

dehino 'smin yatha dehe

kaumaram yauvanam jara

tatha dehantara praptir

dhiras tatra na muhyati

"As the self moves in this body, from childhood to youth to old age, so the self passes into another body at death. The wise are not confused by this change."

Materialistic science speaks of 'turnover' times; the time it takes for a certain set of atoms or molecules in a cell or organ to be replaced by a new. This is for a blood cell 150 days, and for the average liver cell a couple of months, for the protein in nerve and brain cells a couple of weeks and for some enzymes in these cells less than an hour. Sometimes people think the brain is unchanging. This is not so. The number of brain cells increases until the 19th year and then decreases slowly. The genetic structure remains, but the substance changes or has "turnovers". For the intestines half the proteins are manufactured and dissolved every five 5 to 6 days. Skin cells have a 'turnover' of a couple of weeks. By the 16th or 17th year the bones are full-grown and 99% calcified. The skeleton is mostly living tissue where construction and breakdown takes place: if a bone breaks then in a couple of months the tissue is rebuild. Calcified bone remains but it is not indestructible. Another molecule that has no 'turnover' is DNA. DNA ultimately rules all living processes. However, if a part of the DNA molecule is damaged there are enzymes, which repair it. Thus, DNA is also temporary.

However, the soul or self never changes. The contents of the soul's consciousness changes, the person's qualities but the soul, the substrate is the same. The soul, during this lifetime, is always reincarnating or migrating from one body turning over to another body. The atma (self) is the witness of all this. By chanting of the Hare Krishna Mahamantra, the self can re-establish its natural loving position with Krishna in the transcendental dimension. The self will experience ever increasing bliss and becomes thus completely free of and aloof from matter.

Hare Krishna