VEDANTA AND REINCARNATION

Reincarnation is the succession of birth, death, and rebirth resulting from a person’s ignorance of his divinity.  A person’s true identity is the Atman, which is the personal aspect of Brahman, God, and the way in which a person is divine. 

This is the famous Vedanta teaching tat tvam asi, that art thou, referring to the oneness of the Atman with Brahman. 

The ignorance that is referred to is the Atman’s mistaken identification with the so-called sheaths: body, mind, intellect, ego, etc., that make up a person. 

Reincarnation continues to occur until the person awakens spiritually and realizes, in the superconscious state as it is called, his divinity. 

Reincarnation gives a person repeated opportunities, in as many lives as necessary, to manifest this divinity, or spiritual perfection, and thus to achieve immortality. 

In Vedanta, immortality is a state of being beyond time, space, and causation.  It is the superconscious state in which the Atman unites with Brahman.

As for who actually reincarnates, it is not John Jones or Mary Smith but their subtle body.  The subtle body is the vehicle with which one passes from life to life.  It does not disintegrate at death but forms the basis of a new physical body.