The metamorphosis of reincarnation creates a connection between several fields. On the subjective level it opens the physical and metaphysical realms of man's existence, and even the planes of his intragalactic inner system, into one. Thus, with regard to the individual soul too, we may speak of two kinds of transmigration. One is the extroverted variant, when the individual soul passes from one body into another and always runs the courses that each body makes possible. Through its bodily lives it advances in spiritual evolution towards complete purification. In the course of this, man is subject to the compulsion of being born, of living, of dying, and then of being reborn. This is re-incarnation, that is, repeated embodiment.
The other facet of the subjective side of transmigration is inner samsara. Here we speak not of a change of body, but of changes between planes of consciousness that come about within a single lifetime. It is said that a hero must die once, but a saint countless times. The hero gives up his body for the truth, the saint his imperfect states. In payment for every single fault he ‘dies’, and growth is long, for there is always more to purify. Through inner samsara man may travel the regions of his own inner world, from the most elementary levels of vibration to the highest aims and ideals.
Objectively, in the outer world, samsara creates free passage between the world-spheres and the dimensions of time. Transmigration in many directions – that is, not only from human existence to human existence – creates a connection not only on a single planet, between the worlds of biological existence – plant, animal and human – and the astral worlds, but also between the various spheres of the universe, since life spreads everywhere.
It also links the boundaries of one of the greatest pairs of opposites in the universe, life and death. The world itself pulses between manifest and withdrawn states, and this is the cosmic parallel of man's being born and dying. Worlds arise and pass away, just as the individual soul takes on a body and sheds it.
It is said that the world-creating spirit is eternal – and eternal, too, is the soul of man. And as the latter takes on ever new bodily forms, so the former shapes the worlds again and again.
Finally, the last great connection is made between the relative and the absolute world, when the sphere of transience opens towards eternity. This transcendent stargate stands open to purified souls, who cast off the compulsion to change bodies and return in their original spiritual nature to the divine primordial harmony.
The final metamorphosis is therefore reintegration, finding the way home. Man does not overcome the endless series of changing forms by attaining formlessness. Neutrality is not the answer to the ills that samsara brings. The definitive answer, that is, the blessed state, is nothing other than the recognition and attainment of the soul's original position.
The closing section of one of the most important Indian theological works, the Vedanta Sutra, deals with the natural history of salvation. It asks whether the position of the soul that has overcome every limiting material factor and returned to the realm of God can be regarded as final?
Whoever, knowing the qualities of the Lord and thanks to his devotion, has reached the divine realm never returns to the circle of samsara … Once the Lord has led them back to his own home and washed from them the ignorance that causes unfaithfulness, he never again leaves his children, beloved to the point of adoration, who are tiny sparks of his own being.
And man, who through countless lives chased the false shadows of seeming-joy, never again leaves the boundless homeland of true joy and wisdom, nor his best friend and most compassionate master… Whoever has at last found the way back to his source longs for nothing but God, follows him alone, and could not be parted from him for a single moment. (Vedanta Sutra 4.4.22. Commentary)
Through all this wandering, what course does the soul run? What metamorphosis, what changes of consciousness does it pass through? Many hold that the great metamorphosis is the atheist's transformation into a believer, while the wise add that the true miracle is the simple believer becoming enlightened, an ardent mystic. ‘Every death is a moulting. After the moulting we live in a renewed body, in renewed strength, until the next moulting. Then again a degree further on. … Our intellect grows stronger, like the light of a growing star.’ – writes Gárdonyi in The Invisible Man. Looking back, we see clearly the moments of our life when fate turned, and yet we must live forwards…