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How Reincarnation Works: Soul, Karma, and Past Lives

Written by our advisorTrisha AdvisorTrisha
Explore reincarnation in Indian philosophy: why the soul is reborn, how karma works, and what spiritual lessons each life helps reveal.
8 mins
How Reincarnation Works: Soul, Karma, and Past Lives

1. The Indian Understanding of Reincarnation: A Spiritual Path Through Lives

What is reincarnation in Indian tradition?

In traditional Indian philosophy, life is infinite. It helps explain why we face certain difficulties, meet certain people, and experience attachments. All of this can be linked to previous experiences that the soul carries with it as it moves from life to life.

Eternal soul vs. temporary body

In their teachings, the body is temporary and changing, but the soul is constant, unchanging, and indestructible. The soul is neither born nor dies; it acquires a body at birth and leaves it at death. This understanding fosters a different approach to life: less fear of the end, more emphasis on the meaning of actions and inner development. Explore our Life Path Psychics to learn more.

Why does the soul move from body to body?

According to Indian philosophy, reincarnations continue until the soul completes its journey, cleanses itself of attachments, fulfills unfinished desires, and liberates itself from karma. This is an opportunity; each new life is a chance to correct, understand, and let go.

Why is a person reborn?

Life does not end when death occurs; the body may no longer perform all its functions, but the soul continues to develop and awaits the moment for rebirth.

Lessons the soul must learn

The meaning of rebirth lies in ambition; difficulties in your life that seem unfair are often tests necessary for growth; problems do not make people weaker. Emotions, desires, and actions that were not fully acknowledged or fully lived return in a new form to reveal where the soul is not free. By experiencing different roles and difficulties, a person gets the chance to see the causes of their suffering and transform them. When inner lessons are learned, tension subsides, and the cycle of repetition loses its meaning.

How does the law of karma work?

Sadhguru defines karma as information attached to a person. Each person has a record of everything we've done in our lives; this isn't ordinary memory; it shapes our personality. These records reveal the situations we experience. One person faces problems for no apparent reason, while another experiences happiness without doing anything about it - most likely the cause lies in their karmic trace.

Karma as cause and effect

Karma is the mechanism that links actions and consequences. What we call fate is a reflection of our actions, even if those actions weren't taken in this life.

Background

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2. How Eastern beliefs have influenced our thinking

Interest in Eastern philosophy has grown in the West because people have begun to apply many of its ideas to their lives, and in doing so, they have transformed their lives, often for the better. Instead of looking at fate, in which everything is determined by chance or signs from angels, Hindus offer a different vector: life is a journey that continues through reincarnation.

The emergence of interest in Hinduism and Buddhism

Hinduism and Buddhism have attracted attention among Western audiences because they offer a logically structured system where every action has a consequence, and where responsibility transcends external signs. These traditions eschew the idea of ​​chance; everything that happens has a root.

Past life regression as a tool

With the growing interest in Eastern views of humankind, a practice called past-life regression began to emerge. This method involves using relaxation to focus attention on images unrelated to one's life. Such images are perceived as memories, although no one can say for sure that they represent past events.

How does a session go?

The session takes place in a calm environment. The therapist guides the patient into deep meditation, after which they offer questions and images. The patient may recall moments that feel like events from another life. What's important isn't the historical validity of these memories, but rather how they resonate emotionally, what feelings they evoke, and what changes occur after working with them. Sometimes, such images allow the patient to rethink their history and free themselves from spiritual conflicts.

Why do people in the West have the idea of ​​past lives?

One of the reasons the idea of ​​reincarnation is gaining traction is the opportunity to look at one's difficulties differently. Within the concept of past lives, a person gets the chance to step out of the box (I don't understand why this is all happening) and begin to perceive their life from a different perspective.

Explaining the Unexplained: Trauma, Phobias, Unexplained Reactions

Some conditions, phobias, or inner fears cannot be explained in the current life. From this perspective, the idea of ​​past lives becomes a tool for finding another context, regardless of what exactly happened.

Strengthening a sense of meaning and spiritual perspective

This adds more meaning to the present day, and perhaps even difficulties are part of the process.

Use as a tool for self-knowledge

For many, past lives aren't a philosophy, but a tool. They offer an opportunity to look at themselves from a different perspective. It's not an attempt to prove something, but rather an opportunity to ask yourself questions.

3. Interpretations and Misconceptions: A View from Indian Philosophy

I was bound to be someone great

Many people think they were kings or queens in the past, but reincarnation isn't about social status, but about inner experience. Someone may have been a ruler, but the goal is to determine what qualities they developed. It's much more useful to learn what from your past influences you now, rather than what your status was.

Everyone remembers their past lives

Most people don't remember anything, and that's normal. They say we don't remember the past because it would interfere with our focus on the present. Such a volume of information is beyond our capacity. According to philosophy, a person is given exactly as much karmic memory as they can process, meaning we won't go beyond our own limits here.

Reincarnation guarantees progress

Myth or ExpectationRealityKey to ProgressExplanation
Reincarnation guarantees spiritual growthRebirth alone doesn’t lead to personal evolutionAwareness and inner work A person can live many lives and still repeat the same patterns.
Growth begins with conscious reflection and change.

It's all fiction - there's no evidence

From a scientific perspective, reincarnation hasn't been scientifically proven, but it hasn't been disproved either. And if it works as a way to understand oneself, then it has value.

Reincarnation-karma.webp

Conclusion: Why are people interested in reincarnation?

Knowledge of reincarnation as a psychological tool

Even if we perceive reincarnation as a metaphor, it remains a tool. It's a view of a person as something greater than their bigorophy; their actions begin to be valued more.

Helps you better understand your decisions and their consequences

If you view life through karma, you understand that every action leaves a mark. And not only in the world, but also within you, an inner responsibility emerges, not from fear, but from the understanding that everything has consequences.

Promotes personal growth regardless of religion

Reincarnation is an opportunity to see deeper, regardless of belief. A person can use this concept as a way to ask themselves important questions:

  • What am I repeating over and over again?
  • What scenarios am I unable to let go of?
  • Where am I ready to move to the next level? Sometimes, to truly change, you need to stop looking at things simply, without thinking.

FAQ

How many lives does a person live?

Within Indian philosophy, this question has no precise numerical answer. The soul is essentially eternal - it is neither born nor dies, but simply passes from one body to another. The number of lives depends not on an external count, but on internal progress. As long as a person has unfinished desires, attachments, and fears, they will return to navigate them consciously.

Is it possible to find out exactly who you were in a past life?

Interest in this question is understandable: we seek to explain certain traits, fears, or recurring patterns. But from the perspective of this same tradition, knowing "who you were" is not an end in itself. The important thing is not who you were, but what you carry with you now. Some practices, such as regression, can produce images and states similar to memories.

Can children's memories be considered proof of past lives?

Sometimes children recount events they couldn't have known. In some cases, these details are confirmed; there's no scientific evidence to support these stories, but they often make one wonder about the possibility of reincarnation.

Why don't we remember our past lives?

Conscious embodiment requires focusing on the current life, not all past ones.

Is reincarnation about karma?

You could say they are connected, like cause and effect. It's a reflection of how you live, what you rely on, and the choices you make.

Written by our advisorTrisha AdvisorTrisha
September 29, 2025
8 mins
Written by our advisor
September 29, 2025
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8 mins