HOW LONG IT TAKES BEFORE REINCARNATION

       Those who believe in reincarnation, may have a question that if we are incarnated , how many years it takes for reincarnation. This is a theological questions and so there is could be many answers. It may depend upon what one believes as to the reincarnation and why are we born again . 

   The short answer could be -'quick' to  hundreds of years. What I am writing is my OWN THOUGHT PROCESS. To know the time lapsed between the death and new life one must answer as to why we are born or may be why we need to be born . What is it that we CANNOT have in Astral world that we can get only in PHYSICAL world. 

   We have unfulfilled desires or VASANAS or have DEBT - give and take with the people that we come in contact with. Certain Desires or VASANAS cannot be fulfilled without having a physical body, e.g. eating food that I loved or alcohol or drug or sex .We cannot experience that pleasure without physical body and so we must be born in physical body to experience that pleasure. But these desires are not always intense and so they may not be effective to force us to be born quickly. But if a person dies in an accident, he or she will have more intense desire to come back than a person dying at age 90 years . So the person dying young will come back earlier than older one. Think of a mother who dies when her child is very young. She will be born very quickly. So it may happen in days or year . Contrast to that if someone dies a natural death at late age when usual Desires - VASANAS are fulfilled  including taking care of small children - parents or achieving success in life etc. , then they will  not be born for years . These people will be born to UPLIFT THEMSELF rather than fulfilling desires . Remember most of the things that we do as GOOD DEEDS or KARMA are to physical body - helping hungry, sick suffering in pain and so on - we cannot help them unless we have physical body . So if I need to create good KARMA ,I must have PHYSICAL body . To neutralize bad KARMA -debt that I did not repay - I have to come back in physical body . So to fulfill Desires , to Create Good Karma  and to wash out bad Karma ,, we need new physical body . 

    Depending upon these forces time that it takes for one to be reborn is determined .  .