Reincarnation is the prevailing belief, primarily in many Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism, that each soul is subject to a spiritual evolution process across several lifetimes. The soul, by successive rebirths, bears the consequences of its past actions or karma. Karma is a Sanskrit word that simply means “action” and is neutral in its meaning, implying it could represent either good or bad action. Each soul continues to repay its accumulated debt in the unambiguous accounting system of the universe until it rediscovers that true spiritual self which it once knew and identified with.

When the soul no longer attaches importance to impermanent lifetime events and material experiences but evolves progressively through the process of self-knowledge toward attaining eventual union with the universal soul, ...