You are what you desire. You take birth because you desire an experience. Depending on your desires, you take up a body; not the body you see in the mirror but what extends beyond to include the five sheaths – annamaya or physical body, pranamaya or life-force, manomaya, vigyanmaya and anandmaya. An ordinary being desires only the physical and exists at the level of the annamaya which in turn is controlled by the prana . The soul stays in the body till there is prana in it. What we call as death, is when there is no prana left in the body and the soul leaves the body. There are many who have survived near-death experiences … healers could revive them because there was some prana left in the body and the soul took shelter in that prana . Healers then replenished the pranic body and restored the person back to health. But once the soul leaves the body, it cannot be brought back. The soul might leave the body...