What does “Being Born Again” mean?
Meeting an authentic spiritual master, a servant of God, purifies existence and confers a second birth.
In truth, it is not through a father or a mother that a living being, a being who incarnates, comes into being. This being has an identity entirely distinct from its supposed parents.
It is by the laws of nature that it is compelled to enter the seed of a father in order to be subsequently introduced into the womb of a mother. It does not have the power to choose who will become its father. The laws of nature oblige it to go to different parents. The supposed kinship between a father and a son therefore exists only through an arrangement of material nature. It has no real meaning, and that is why it is called illusory. The same living being will have a father and a mother belonging sometimes to the animal kingdom and sometimes to the human species. Sometimes, its parents will even be celestial beings.
This is why Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the Golden Avatar, said: Harassed life after life by the laws of nature, the individual being, distinct from God (the soul), wanders throughout the entire universe on different planets and among various species. If, somehow, it is fortunate enough to encounter a holy being who will transform its entire life, then it can return to God, to its original home.
During the soul's reincarnation through different bodies, each one, regardless of whether it is human, animal, plant, or celestial being, receives a father and a mother. This is not difficult. What is difficult, however, is obtaining a true spiritual master and Krishna, God, the Supreme Person.
The true spiritual master, the true intimate servant of Krishna, bestows the second birth. Krishna has given him this power.
This is why it is the duty of humankind to seize the opportunity to connect with Krishna's representative, God, the Supreme Person, the true spiritual master, the true intimate servant of the Lord. Under the guidance of this spiritual father, one can then return to God, to his original abode, located in the kingdom of God, a realm of knowledge, bliss, and eternity.