"Transmigration is not a question of religion. It is a question of science. You are a spiritual being, but because you are materially conditioned, you are under the spell of material nature. When your body is annihilated, you are not finished. You get another body, just as you may change your coat and shirt. Eternally the spirit soul within the body remains the same." Bhaktivedanta Swami

Throughout history, some of the most thoughtful minds have advocated that life does not end with the death of our body, but continues via a process known as reincarnation. The Vedic literature advocates that the soul, or atma, gives life to the body. Life does not arise from a particular combination of material elements as some modern scientists theorize. At the time of death, we leave one body and enter a new one. That is called reincarnation.

We can observe we change from one body to another throughout our lifetime. Our body at birth is completely different from our adult body. Yet throughout the conscious self remains the same. Similarly, the self remains the same at death and transfers from one body to the next in the cycle of reincarnation. Our present body is the result of a long series of actions and reactions in previous lives. The law that governs this is known as karma. Our previous actions have produced our present body, and our current actions will determine our next body. Only in the human form can we free ourselves from the endless cycle of reincarnation, of birth, and death. As Krishna states in Bhagavad Gita “From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one attains to My abode.. never takes birth again.”

Sripad Jagannatha Das is a fifty-year Bhakti yogi, author, and Emmy-nominated actor.