Gita Ka Gyan-2

You and I have been here before 

Our body is mortal but within this body is the immortal atma. Our body seeks security and creates boundaries whereas the atma doesn't seek any security and doesn't care for any boundaries but wrapped in mortal flesh, it experiences life and death again and again.

This life is not the first time you and I have experienced each other. We have been here before, but we have not learned from past experiences, that much of life defies explanation and control, that life always offers a second chance and that the world existed before us and will continue to exist after us. As long as we resist reality, we will not discover the immortal, and go from lifetime to lifetime, hungry for meaning and validation.

The idea of rebirth can be seen at metaphysical, social and psychological levels.

At metaphysical level,
rebirth helps us explain the inexplicable, and replace conflict with acceptance and peace. Why are some people born into rich families and some into poor families? Some to loving parents and some to cruel parents? Some with talent and some without?

At social level,
the idea of rebirth reminds us that the world existed before us and will exist after us. Many people have sought to change the world and make it a better place, but while changes do take place technologically, no real change takes place psychologically - people are still jealous and angry and ambitious and greedy and heartbroken.
The world into which we are born is like a stage full of actors but with no script, or director. Everyone assumes that they are the hero. We want our own dialogues to be heard. Some succeed in getting heard with some people, others fail with most people but none succeeds with everybody. Heroes emerge, villains emerge. Heroes of one plot turn out to be villains of the other plot. Eventually, all leave but the play continues. Who knows what is actually going on?

Gita doesn't speak of changing the world. It speaks of appreciating the world that is always changing. Belief in one life makes us want to change the world, control it or resign to the way things are. Belief in rebirth enables us to appreciate all three possibilities, without clinging to any.

Taken psychologically,
when you live only once, the value of your life becomes the sum total of your achievements. But when you live many lives, alignments and achievements are rendered meaningless. What matters is wisdom: an understanding of why this world exists, why we exist, and why we live again and again, in a Merry go round. When we understand, we do not seek control of the other, hence are liberated. We engage with the world, but not entrapped. We are no longer dependant, but we stay dependable.

Those unsuccessful in realisation in this life will be reborn.

Krishna says- Arjuna, the wise know that you and I and the rest existed before this event, and will continue to exist after this event. The resident of this body experiences it's childhood, youth and old age before moving on to the next. This body gets attached to the world around it, and so fears death. But the wise, aware of the inner resident's immorality, aware that the flesh goes through cycles of birth and death, do not fear change, or death. They know that what matters is the immortal.- Bhagvad Gita: Chapter 2, verses 12-16 (paraphrased)