So many westerners and scholars from many countries have done research on this topic and wrote books about it as being scientific in basis rather than a belief system (Children's Past Lives, Carol Bowman, Bantam Books, New York, 1997). Young children between the ages of 2-4 years had given accounts of their previous lives with proof like their birthplaces, important incidents, and instances, previous parent's names, descriptions, etc. Their claims were proven to be true by the researchers, much to their astonishment (Lifetimes, True Accounts of Reincarnation, Frederick Lenz, Ph.D., Fawcett Crest, New York, 1979). There were incidents where a 3-4-year-old child was able to play Bach and Beethoven's symphony on the piano, which can only logically be explained by the fact that the child had knowledge of his previous birth (Children Who Remember Past Lives, Ian Stevenson, University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1987). According to Vedānta shāstrās, re-birth is not mere belief but a fact. They claim that bondage is the root cause of re-birth and we are caught in a cycle of birth and death due to our actions and results. The only way to get out of it is realizing that Ataman is Brahman (eternal) and getting rid of our ignorance about our true divine nature.
