JNANI AND REBIRTH

It is said that a man of knowledge, jnani, has no rebirth. How so? Because jnani knows that there is no birth in the first place! The question of re-birth arises only if one accepts the fact of birth. The jnani knows that in Me, the Eternal Consciousness, countless births appear, but, I, the Eternal Consciousness, is not subject to births and deaths.1

The Bhagavad Gita 2.20 puts it most succinctly:

न जायत मरि�यत वा कदाचि ननाय भतवा भविवता वा न भयःअजो विनतयः शाशवतोय पराणो न हनयत हनयमान शरीर २.२०

na jayate mriyate va kadacinnayaṃ bhūtva bhavita va na bhūyaḥajo nityaḥ śaśvatoyaṃ puraṇona hanyate hanyamane śarire 2.20

The Self is never born nor dies; nor does it come into being only after being born.It is unborn, eternal, everlasting, and primeval; It is not killed when the body is killed.

The illumined person knows the eternality of his or her real Self. He crosses the sea of sorrow with the raft of this knowledge. S/he is not subject to the cyclic rounds of births and deaths.

1 Based on Swami Paramarthananda ji’s Discourses on Śri Dakśiṇamūrti Stotram, discourse # 10 of 16.