How is a Man Reborn?

The doctrine of reincarnation is taken for granted, and almost as a matter of common sense, in a large part of Asia. In the Western world it was widely accepted before it was anathematized by the Church at the Council of Constantinople in A.D. 543. On account of its reasonableness it is again widely accepted in the West. In view of the spread of the scientific outlook in the East and of the rebirth doctrine in West, a clear and concise exposition of the doctrine in relation to the findings of modern biology will be interest to many people.

How is a Man Reborn? is such an exposition. It was first published in the July and August 1970 numbers of Prabuddha Bharata. We are now publishing it in booklet from for the benefit of a wider public. The author, Swami Satprakashananda was a senior monk of the Ramakrishna Order and founder-head of the Vedanta Society of St. Louis, U.S.A. We are thankful to him for preparing the article for Prabuddha Bharata in the first place, and also for agreeing to its present republication.

From his discussion of the subject it will be evident that rebirth doctrine has nothing to fear from the findings of modern science. On the contrary, it explains a variety of facts which neither science nor any other doctrine of theory is able to explain so satisfactorily. The doctrine of rebirth and its complementary law of Karma bear directly on the subject for creative, responsible living.