Re-incarnation revisited.

The topic about Sikhs believing in re-incarnation or not often shows up in Sikh religion based forums. Here is one written by Manmohan Singh (Baveja)Sydney - Australia, that i agree with. It is also how Prof Jaswant Singh from Sikh Center, Singapore desribed it.

As stated in Gurbani, the body is formed of elements and instilled with Jyot, which origniate from Ek-Onkar or Akal Purukh or Parmesar or Nirankar, as one may prefer to call. On end of any particular life of a human, the Jyot re-merges with the Source ( Akal Purukh or Ek-Onkar etc.) and the physical body made up of elements disintegrates to re-merge with the similar elements in environment. Whether on calls the Jyot, as stated in Gurmat, Soul or Atma, is another matter, but it MUST not be confused with commonly understood mythological form of Soul, which is believed to move from one life body to another and at times it is also believed to be without a body, when some believe it beomes a Ghost.

Thus, let us restrict this name to Jyot, as is stated in Gurbani and avoid use of Soul in relation to Sikh beliefs, as per Gurmat.

One has to first grasp the concept of Akal Purukh or Ek - Onkar or Nirankar or Parmatma or Parmesar. For this one has to stay focused on the defination of Ek - Onkar at the start of Gurbani in SGGS, which is Ominpresent and Formless. This clearly expresses Its existance in the immediate envronment of us all. Thus on end of one life form the Jyot merges back with the Ek -Onkar, present in its immediate vicinity and the body of course with the source elements in the earth and atmosphere.