"Why should you wish to return here? In My Father's House are many mansions -- many, many worlds! Why should you desire to come back to this particular planet?"
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken ca. Nov. 1911 in Paris -- ABU3526)
Reincarnation and return: identity, renewal, and the soul’s journey
reincarnation
Editorial introduction
Why would you wish to come back here, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá asks, when the Father’s house has many mansions, many worlds? The question moves the subject from whether we return to where growth might lead. The teaching is firm: the same soul does not take another earthly body, and a shell once opened has shown whether it held a pearl, a plant once grown has shown flowers or thorns. What does return is quality and illumination, as spring follows spring, the same yet not the same, and as John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah without being Elijah. The Bhagavad-gītā’s image of the embodied self changing bodies as a person changes worn garments [1] states a genuinely different view of personal continuity, and it deserves to be read in its own words rather than through a critic’s summary. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá asks that the matter be discussed tolerantly and admits it would take a book to explain; no butterfly goes back into the chrysalis, he says, and what we sow here we reap on the next plane. The path leads on to the nature of the soul, the condition of the spirit after death, the cycles of the physical and spiritual worlds, and the line between faith and superstition.
Selected passages
But regarding the issue of reincarnation, meaning return after death, do not oppose them on this as it is the beginning and one must be tolerant. Return is correct but not reincarnation.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1912-Mar-13, to Sara Louisa Blomfield -- AB04080)
Question. Do the Bahais credit the doctrine of reincarnation?
Answer. The question of reincarnation is a very important question. It is in need of elucidation and amplification. It cannot be briefly answered.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken at Theosophical Society in San Francisco, 1912-Oct-11 -- ABU1593)
Reincarnation is a very abstruse question. If one desires to give a satisfactory explanation, one must write a book, so that the real meanings may be fully revealed. This subject can only be explained through divine philosophy, not through mere exposition of theories.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken in Jan. 1913 -- ABU1774)
Reincarnation as understood by people is false, but in the Gospel there is reference to return, and that return refers to qualities, not essence.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1906 ca., to A C Hilbury -- AB01398)
Similar types recur again and again, but without a continuing individual life from one human being to another. This recurrence may be likened to that of the seasons. Spring, summer, autumn, and winter return in succession, each season the counterpart of the like season in the previous year-the same yet not the same.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to Myron Phelps and Madame Canavarro in Dec. 1902 -- ABU0343)
(When asked about reincarnation, He said:)
It is not as people have understood it. Rather, the intent is the return of past qualities and perfections in new forms.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to an American, spoken on board the SS Cedric at sea, 1912-Mar-27 -- ABU1969)
This reincarnation that people believe in is contrary to the divine books, because what is meant by return is the return of past attributes in future creation, and the comparison of the perfections of later creation to the conditions and attributes of those who came before.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken on 1912-Dec-26 in London -- ABU2254)
When John the Baptist was asked: "Art thou Elias?" he replied, "No." His soul was not the soul of Elias. When Christ was asked if John the Baptist was Elias, He said, "Yes." But Christ's meaning was a spiritual one. John the Baptist came in the same Spirit of God, but was not the same soul.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken in Dec. 1900 -- ABU1184)
As for your question about reincarnation, it is best to refer to the Book of Certitude which issued from the Supreme Pen. It explains in detail. These are divine texts, and there it is clearly stated that return refers to the return of human perfections and divine illumination.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1919-Mar-15, to Louise Waite -- AB01073)
In the Book of Iqan we can read the Word of God concerning the true Reincarnation, which is the Return of the Spiritual Qualities in the Servants of God.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to Julia Grundy spoken around Jan. 1905 -- ABU1773)
Answer to second question: In the teachings of Baha'u'llah, reincarnation of souls in multiple bodies is not mentioned.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1910-Jul-20, to Alice Mary Buckton -- AB01794)
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Chapter 81, Reincarnation, 1904 ca. -- AB00036)
This failure of the soul has led man to believe that God will give the wicked soul another opportunity by allowing it to return in another body and atone for its failure. There is no proof of this outside or inside the Holy Book of Scriptures.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to Julia Grundy spoken around Jan. 1905 -- ABU0744)
No: No one ever returns here, for this world is a school were the soul of man learns its first lessons in spirituality, and if he leaves this place without having learned his lessons sufficiently, the time is past and the opportunity lost; for the evolution of God's plans waits not for man.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to Madam J, spoken on 1904-Apr-15 -- ABU2606)
The visible world does nothing but change and change leads to annihilation. We must be sure then, when the soul of man leaves his body it never returns to that body again.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to E.J. Rosenberg et al, spoken around Feb. 1901 -- ABU1136)
Q. Does the Baha'i Revelation teach reincarnation?
A. No. A soul, once freed from its body, never again takes shape in this world.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to Aline Shane-Devin spoken on 1907-Oct-14 -- ABU3578)
"We have grown up step by step, always to a state in advance of the last. God's processes are never retrogressive. No butterfly goes back into the chrysalis: constant change, never a repetition, is the fundamental law. So with what comes after this life. Here we are subject to the conditions of matter; after this will succeed life on the mental plane, a life freed from this material body. But according to the life we have lived here depend the conditions of life on that next plane. What we sow here, that we reap there. Even though on leaving this body we enter upon a life of the sprit, the conditions of the spirit-life must depend upon the degree of development to which the spirit has attained."
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken ca. Sep. 1911 in London -- ABU2537)
But in this world all those called into being are new souls. It is not that a former soul becometh incarnated in another person, or that another individual becometh the soul of a former individual. Nay, rather they correspond with each other through manifestations; that is to say, he will be in the station of his soul, but his soul is not incarnated and the state of the soul does not become embodied.
(Bahá’u’lláh -- BH05340)
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1913-Nov-15, to Amin Effendi Al-Halabi -- AB04973)
And know thou, verily, that those whose were following the steps of Christ, detached their souls from the desires of the world, and made their hearts to depend on the bounties of heaven. Such are the people of the Kingdom and they are in no need of return for apprehending the bounty of the Kingdom.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, 1915 or <, to Maria Hay -- AB02800)
The first school believes that the spirit of man goes through infinite processes of birth and re-birth in the human kingdom, until it is refined and purified - finally attaining to the station of Nirvana.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken on 1913-Jan-22 in Paris -- ABU0234)
The doctrine of reincarnation as taught by the Buddhists, and some of the ancient philosophers is not true. It was largely invented by those people who clung to this world and loved it so that they could conceive of no happiness apart from it.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to E.J. Rosenberg et al, spoken around Feb. 1901 -- ABU1457)
I asked him to explain what these images meant. He would not say. I said, "Let me tell you," then he did not conceal it and said that the Theosophists have two things that people really like: one is the matter of reincarnation, saying you do not perish but simply remove one garment and put on another, and the other is being immersed in the ethereal realm with no return.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words spoken on 1916-Jul-12 in Haifa -- ABU0865)
If a soul makes the circle, will he return and make it again? Will he come back to the condition of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms again? That would not be possible, but the same spirit can return. … When Christ was asked if John the Baptist was Elias He replied "yes". When John the Baptist was asked the same question he replied "no". Both answered truly. Christ's meaning was a spiritual one. John the Baptist came in the same spirit of GOD but not in the same soul. John meant that his soul and body were not those of Elijah.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Words to Lua Getsinger, Dec. 1900 -- ABU0299)
Continue exploring
For thought and discussion
Questions to carry forward
- What is the difference between the return of a quality and the return of an individual, and where do the seasonal examples clarify it?
- How do the images of a school, a butterfly, and many worlds shape different expectations of spiritual growth?
- What continuity of self is suggested by the Bhagavad-gītā’s garment image, and how does it differ from the position in these selections?
- What difficulties arise when suffering is explained as punishment for an earlier life?
- How can firm disagreement about the soul’s journey coexist with patient, accurate, and respectful inquiry into another tradition?