The Choosing of the Body by the Evolved Psychic Being Seeking Rebirth, Part 1

“I know I ordered this body, but now that i actually see it, I’ve changed my mind and want to exchange it for a different one.” Thus runs the intent of the question raised by a disciple, requesting the Mother’s response. It is clear that the question arises from a mindset that is based in the external process and being, not taking into account the direction and intention of the evolved psychic being. Clearly this can only even be considered for mature and developed souls, as the vast majority of souls do not actually have much of a choice, but are driven by fear and desire during the time after death and their experiences in what the Tibetan Book of the Dead calls the ‘bardo‘.

The psychic being does not choose a body the way we would walk into a shop and choose clothes, does not ‘try it on’ to ‘see how it looks’ before deciding whether to take charge of that body. Rather, the psychic being identifies a vibrational resonance that meets its own vibrational pattern and thus, before the body is formed, chooses its birth.

A disciple inquires: “The formation of the body depends entirely on a man and a woman, but is the soul which manifests in the child, in the body which is being formed, compelled to manifest in this body?”

The Mother responds: “You mean whether it can choose between different bodies?”

Yes.

“Well, it is very exceptional, after all, in the great mass of humanity, that a conscious soul incarnates voluntarily. It is something very unusual. I have already told you that when a soul is conscious, fully formed, and wants to incarnate, usually from its psychic plane it looks for a corresponding psychic light at a certain place upon earth. Besides, during its previous incarnation, before going away, before leaving the earth-atmosphere, usually as a result of the experience it had in the life that is coming to an end, the soul chooses more or less — not in all details but broadly — the conditions of its future life. But these are exceptional cases. Possibly we could speak of it for ourselves here, but for the majority, the vast majority of men, even those who are educated, it is out of the question. And what comes then is a psychic being in formation, more or less formed, and there are all the stages of formation from the spark which becomes a little light to the fully formed being, and this extends over thousands of years. This ascent of the soul to become a conscious being having its own will, capable of determining the choice of its own life, takes thousands of years.”

“So, you are thinking of a soul which would say, ‘No, I refuse this body, I am going to look for another’?… I don’t say it is impossible — everything is possible. It does happen, in fact, that children are still-born, which means that there was no soul to incarnate in them. But it may be for other reasons also; it may be for reasons of malformation only; one can’t say. I don’t say it is impossible, but generally, when a conscious and free soul chooses to take a body on earth again, even before its birth it works on this body. So it has no reason not to accept even the inconveniences which may result from the ignorance of the parents; for it has chosen the place for a reason which was not one of ignorance: it saw a light there — it might have been simply the light of a possibility, but there was a light and that is why it has come there. So, it is all very well to say, ‘Ah! no, I don’t like it’, but where would it go to choose another it likes?… That may happen, I don’t say it is impossible, but it cannot happen very often. For, when from the psychic plane the soul looks at the earth and chooses the place for its next birth, it chooses it with sufficient discernment not to be altogether grossly mistaken.”

reference: Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, The Psychic Being — Soul: Its Nature, Mission and Evolution, Section 4 The Afterlife and Rebirth, pp. 145-148