An individual soul is called jiva or jivatma. Jivatma goes through the cycle of lives on account of its karma. The Kathopanishad verse “yonimanye prapadyante shariratvaya dehinah. Sthanumanyenusamyanti yathakarma yathashrutam” (Kathopanishad 2.2.7) explains the rebirth of an individual.
If the jivatma has a human body at present, it is not necessary that it gets a human
body in the next janma (birth) also. It may get an animal body or a plant body. it might as well get a devata body. The rebirth is determined by its karma. If it has more punya karma than
papa, it gets devata sharira – the bodies that are considered more pleasurable
and durable than human body. If it has more papa than punya, it takes birth as
a plant or animal, depending of the intensity of the papa.
The
transmigration of a jivatma is not linear or evolutionary in nature. A jivatma
that is human being at present can take many other bodies and then return to
human birth once again. However, one is able to do fresh karma in human body. In
plant and animal bodies, one can only experience the results of karma that was
done in some past human birth.
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