17. Reincarnation

Incarnation or reincarnation is not the same thing in all cases. A reincarnation we call the life between birth and death. It is only arbitrary to say that man died after death and his incarnation is here. Let us think of an entity that never incarnated on earth and never incarnated in the astral; such an entity would observe man in the devachan. It would see man disappear when he went to earth, and would then see him arrive again. This being would say: He is born when he arrives and he dies when he disappears. It depends entirely on the point of view of the observer. When a student of occultism develops higher knowledge, devachanic seeing, the first thing he comes to know in devachan is the area between death and a new birth that man goes through. That is why it is said that what a seer first sees is in the midst of Devachan. When he comes up still higher, even the planetary chain with its manvantaras does not light up for him, but first the pralayas become bright. It is important because now we have to ascend to another kind of reincarnation, namely one that does not have devachan and pralaya in the sense that man does - these are the racial spirits.