What Actually is Reincarnating?
Corne van Nijhuis
What is actually reincarnating?
Towards the end of the year is typically the time when we take a moment to conclude the old year and welcome the new year. A time where we close the calendar circle, which builds up to the circle of our life. And as we speak of the circle of life people often say easily that it is ‘the soul’ which is ‘it’ that reincarnates. But this might be an answer for some, it’s not a satisfying answer for me. Because ….. what is exactly a soul, what is included and what not? So it made me think a little deeper, which brought me the following personal reflection about the essence of that which reincarnates. But before giving my personal answer to the specific question, it seems good to give a little broader perspective on how I see human life, so my perspective of ‘it’ has hopefully more substance and relevance for others.
My personal view on existence and with that of human life is based in vedantic philosophy. Two fundamental principles within Vedanta that are relevant in this perspective are maya and avidya.
Maya is the principle of appearance, or the power of the Absolute which shows the unreal as real and presents that which is temporary as everlasting. As such it is the force which brings about the illusory manifestation of the universe. Consequently is Maya the ethereal conceiving power that veils the true nature of reality.
Avidya then is the ignorance or lack of knowledge of man through witch the true nature of reality – the real Self – is veiled for him. Hence is avidya for man the root cause of the illusion created by Maya. It is also avidya which therefore gives existence to the illusion of an individual spiritual entity – the Jiva – as well as the bodies which constitute a human being.
The human being
In vedantic philosophy, a human beings is the inner-self enveloped within five bodies. The five bodies or sheaths are the physical body, the vital body, the mental body, the intellect body and the causal body. The inner-self is the (universal) witness-consciousness within the five bodies, which is pure, undifferentiated and self-shining and unaffected by personality or ego.
Now the question of ‘what’ reincarnates is about the aspects of a human being which transmigrate from one life to another. To answer that question let’s look to the proces how man is born. Conception results in the forming of the zygote, after which the blastocyst is formed and subsequently the foetus. This proces is the first phase of the evolution of the physical, vital, mental and intellect body of the ‘human in the making’. So in the firsts three months the foetus is just a body without inner-Self: a body-foetus. It is in the fourth month, when the incarnation will occur. At that moment witness-consciousness will bond to the body-foetus and pervade it. At exactly the same time two other things happen.
The first additional thing what simultaneously happens is that the constituents of a (not yet reincarnated) causal body wil incarnate the foetus. The causal body contains residual impressions and subtle potentialities from human experiences in a life that has ended due to the death of a person. This consists of:
- Residual karma: the accumulated residual karma from actions in past lifetimes. This karma co-shapes the current circumstances and experiences of an individual.
- Vasanas: the latent tendencies or impressions left by past actions and experiences. They influence a persons desires, habits and future actions
- Samskaras: the psychological imprints created in former lives.
The the second additional thing what simultaneously happens when the (universal) witness-consciousness bonds to the body-foetus, is that through Maya the five sheaths will cover the witness-consciousness in the body-foetus, leaving the human being thus manifested, with the ignorance of his true nature – universal witness-consciousness – as well as with the idea of being an individual personalized self: the ego.
So if we ask what incarnates, we have to realize that every incarnation is a new manifestation of the universal witness-consciousness, in a way that it is immediately veiled by maya, by which the illusion emerges of a separate consciousness: the inner-self. This inner-self bonds directly with the constituents of a transmigrating causal body as well as with a newly evolved foetus-body. As such the incarnation is complete. To put is short: incarnation is the emerging of the inner-self (within consciousness) which bonds with a causal body, to incarnate in the new body-foetus.
So what reincarnates is not something like the personality or character. By reincarnation there will not be a newer version of you. What reincarnates is the casual body. As such is each human being a unique and onetime experience.
I hope to have inspired you to find your answer on the question “What is actually reincarnating?”.
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Dhr Corne van Nijhuis is a Vedanta scholar. He contributes regularly to this magazine. He has written and translated books, and has travelled extensively almost all over the globe. His in depth study into Vedanta and other systems helps him express difficult ideas in a simple and easily comprehensible way.