Rebirth of a Developed, Highly Evolved Soul

When we reflect on the autobiography of Paramahansa Yogananda, we find that he not only had a spiritual aspiration from a very early age, but that he was born into a family of devotees. Spiritual texts describe the potential birth choices of the soul and indicate that rare is it for someone to be born into a family of spiritual dedication. The birth of a great soul into a spiritually-focused family circumstance involves both the choice of the psychic being and the corresponding aspiration and receptivity on the part of the birth parents.

The rebirth of the high Lamas of Tibet offer another illustration. They often choose simple parents who were devoted to the teachings, but not part of any hierarchy or leadership levels in the spiritual tradition. Tibetan Buddhist tradition holds that the Lama chooses the parents and circumstances of his next birth.

Much more common, however, is that of an evolved psychic being into general circumstances and environments chosen to aid in the next phase of the soul’s development, or in its carrying out of its mission.

In the live of spiritual seekers, we hear of many similar circumstances, which, while obviously their own subjective experience, relate closely to the kind of process of rebirth that we are reviewing here. In one case, a young person clearly was a highly dedicated soul who took up, very spontaneously and personally, the teachings and developments that suited his nature. In this case, the parents were themselves devoted spiritual seekers and part of a larger family of people who were upright, honest and morally of high standards, while expressing their own form of devotion in other directions while leaving the young individual free.

In other cases, we observe the children of certain individuals who were dedicated to spiritual practices. They did not indoctrinate the children into any specific path or teaching, nor did they try to determine what the lives of those children turned out to be. They went into different directions in their lives, but developed, in their own way, a highly compassionate , non-judgmental, receptive, caring and giving relationship to others in the world around them. They did not choose a spiritual teaching, but embodied the higher ideals of spiritual teachings of virtually all paths.

In yet other cases, we see individuals who transform their focus at some point in their lives, particularly in late teen or early years of adulthood after taking birth in families that had totally different value sets, but who were positioned within a culture, society, civilisation and economic structure to give these individuals training, background and education that would wind up helping them achieve their objectives once they took up their own path. In some cases the parents tried to control but found the individual was setting out in a different direction. In other cases, they exercised a sort of benign neglect, simply giving the young person the freedom to find his own way.

A disciple asks: “When great souls want to be born upon earth, do they choose their parents?”

The Mother answers: “Ah! that depends on their state of consciousness, it depends on the state of their psychic formation. If the psychic being is completely formed, if it has reached the perfection of its being and is free to reincarnate or not, it has also the capacity of choosing…. They don’t have a physical sight like ours so long as they are not in a body. So, evidently, they look for a body which is adapted and fit to express them, but they must give its share to the material inconscience, if it may be put thus, and to the necessity to adapt themselves to the most material laws of the body. So, from the point of view of the psychic, the choice of the place where one is born is important, it is more than an insignificant detail. But there are so many things that can’t be foreseen. For instance, one chooses an environment, a country, a certain type of family, one tries to see the nature of the probable parents, one asks for certain already well-developed qualities in them and a sufficient self-mastery. But all this is not enough if one does not carry in oneself a sufficient dynamism to overcome the obstacles. So, all things considered, this is not enormously important. Anyhow, even at the best, even if the parents have collaborated consciously, there is an enormous mass of the subconscient and the yet lower inconscient which from time to time rises again to the surface, gets stirred up, damages the work, makes calmness and silence indispensable. Always, always a preparation is needed, even if one has chosen — a long preparation. Not to speak of the phenomenon of being half-stunned at the moment of birth, the descent into the body, which often lasts for a very long time before one can escape from it completely.”

reference: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Psychic Being — Soul: Its Nature, Mission and Evolution, Section 4 The Afterlife and Rebirth, pp. 144-145