Death—part 1
This is the first part of the series on death; together the
series covers the following topics:
There
is nothing like death / only fools desire to be immortal / there are various
spiritual planes / ashes to ashes, dust to dust---it is not as simple as that /The
state of mind at the time of death is very important / extreme quiet and
self-control should be observed in the chamber of death / why cremation is
preferable to burial, as a way of disposing of corpses / about tombs / and in
spite of the warning by adepts, tombs were opened, releasing forces upon the
world which have endangered it /controversy regarding prophet Muhammad’s tomb /
Zoroastrian burial rituals and importance of the dog in the funeral rites and
the psychic power of animals / All you wanted to know about the Manikarnika cremation Ghat at Varanasi
Death
There
is only life; death does not exist
What we
call as death is the phase when life changes from one plane to another
Death
is nothing but a birth for a new life
Believe
in life not death, for life is unbreakable, we either live on Earth or any
other higher realm
We are
embodied on this physical plane after that we become disembodied, that is
without a physical body
On immortality
Only
fools desire to be immortal
The
ultimate goal of all souls is to merge with that infinite
There
is a limitation of spiritual progress on Earth
In the
Nasadiya Sukta which is the Hymn of Creation of the Rigveda; it is clearly
stated the even the Gods do not have the knowledge of the one eternal God, the
absolute creator for they came into existence after the creation
So to
make spiritual progress that is to go closer and closer to the creator one must
move upwards to higher and higher realms
Great
masters have explained about some of the higher realms but have clearly stated
that it is impossible even to comprehend (grasp mentally; understand) the
topmost realms while we are on Earth
The two highest planes existed even before our solar system was
created
In the
case of death on Earth we go to a higher state of consciousness and ultimately
back to eternity
So one
must not be attached to this world and strive to progress further on; and hence
accept and welcome death when it arrives
The
soul when on Earth is trapped in the physical body and the five coverings
called the pancha kosha---the five layers, or sheaths, around the human soul.
The term comes from the Sanskrit pancha, meaning “five,” and kosha meaning
“sheath” and also the soul is also under the strong influence of maya
Please
click to read the article on maya
A few
can free themselves and experience bliss and higher consciousness when they are
on Earth by overcoming their passions; after death the soul has a greater
chance to elevate
One teacher has so nicely explained this I
quote
“The once free immortal Intelligence thus entangled, enswathed,
enchained, works heavily and laboriously through the coatings that enwrap it.
In its own nature it remains ever the free Bird of Heaven, but its wings are
bound to its side by the matter into which it is plunged. When man recognises
his own inherent nature, he learns to open his prison doors occasionally and
escapes from his encircling gaol; first he learns to identify himself with the
Immortal Triad, and rises above the body
and its passions into a pure mental and moral life; then he learns that the
conquered body cannot hold him prisoner, and he unlocks its door and steps out
into the sunshine of his true life. So when Death unlocks the door for him, he
knows the country into which he emerges, having trodden its ways at his own
will. And at last he grows to recognise that fact of supreme importance, that "Life" has nothing to do
with body and with this material plane;”
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust---it is not as simple as that
Materials
to make the human body are drawn from the mineral, vegetable, animal, and human
kingdoms
There
is no such thing as “dead” matter; all matter is living, the tiniest particles
are lives, there is spirit associated with matter
Further
there are seven planes (These are
the seven great regions of the universe); we are on the physical plane, the
next plane is the astral plane
Also on
a plane there are various subdivisions,
that means matter on the physical plane is subdivided into seven sub divisions
Materials
are drawn from the various planes to
compose the five coverings called the pancha kosha
Also materials
are drawn from the various subdivisions,
of the physical plain to compose the physical body
The
higher the plane or sub division finer is the texture lower the plane or sub
division the texture is coarse
Hence a
man’s body is fine or coarse in its
texture according to the materials its draws as per the law of balance; hence
the body of a criminal or a butcher will be more coarse than the body of a refined person, a small child has materials
drawn from higher subdivisions and is soft and fine
A pure
body repels coarse particles because they vibrate at rates discordant with its own;
a coarse body attracts them because their vibrations accord with its own. Hence
if the body changes its rates of vibration, it gradually drives out of it the constituents
that cannot fall into the new rhythm, and fills up their places by drawing in
from external nature fresh constituents that are harmonious. Nature provides
materials vibrating in all possible ways, and each body exercises its own
selective action; as per the law of balance operating in the Universe and this
vibration is as per our quality of DNA
There
are the spiritual part of the DNA which are manufactured in some part of the Universe
and are sent to Earth
Please
click to read the article, in which I have written that NASA has proved that
our DNA has come from outer space
And
after death, the body is disintegrated and the components which make up the
body are returned back to the five elements, to rebuild bodies of all kinds in
the mineral, vegetable, animal, and human kingdoms; but as per the law of
balance, that means the components from the body of a spiritually elevated
person get transformed into a precious ore, plant of high aura or they get
attracted towards building the body of a person of a high spiritual level
So we
must strive to become a person whom the earth eagerly welcomes receiving his
body components after deaths; then we have lived our life well—and have indeed
walked the pilgrimage called life
Science
has still not proved the existence of subdivisions of matter but masters who
due to their through and their mystic insight carried out clairvoyant
observations of elements have described the seven subdivisions of matter; they
had in earlier times also described the structure of the atom and what they
described was later proved by atomic physics after the invention of powerful
microscopes
The state of mind at the time of death is very important; teachers have explained this, I quote “A suicide will repeat
automatically the feelings of despair and fear which preceded his self-murder,
and go through the act and the death-struggle time after time with ghastly
persistence. A woman who perished in the flames in a wild condition of terror
and with frantic efforts to escape, created such a whirls of passions that,
five days afterwards, she was still struggling desperately, fancying herself
still in the fire and wildly repulsing all efforts to soothe her: while another
woman who, with her baby on her breast, went down beneath the whirl of waters
in a raging storm, with her heart calm and full of love, slept peacefully on the
other side of death, dreaming of husband and children in happy lifelike
visions.” this is what we call Rest In
Peace
At the
time of death a person experiences a Life
review that is the whole life passes swiftly in review before the person as
he sees every detail of the life just lived, hence extreme quiet and
self-control should be observed in the chamber of death.
According
to the deeds of the person, he may even transmigrate to be an animal in the
next birth
Some
hours after death – generally not more than thirty-six, it is said – the man
draws himself out of the etheric (astral) body, leaving it in turn as a
senseless corpse, and the latter, remaining near its dense counterpart, shares
its fate. If the dense body be buried, the etheric double floats over the grave,
slowly disintegrating, and the unpleasant feelings many experience in a
churchyard are largely due to the presence of these decaying etheric corpses.
If the body is burned, the etheric double breaks up quickly, having lost its
nidus (a place in which something is formed or deposited; a site of origin),
its physical centre of attraction, and this is one among many reasons why cremation is preferable to burial, as a
way of disposing of corpses.
Many famous
people who had studied the Vedas opted for cremation
During
cremation it is important that the skull burst, explodes, otherwise the ritual
of piercing / breaking the burning skull with a stave (bamboo) has to be
carried called the kapal kriya
Please
click on the link to read the meaning of why Shiv lives in the cremation
grounds
The
planes that I mentioned earlier are concentric interpenetrating spheres, not
separated from each other by distance but by difference of constitution.
The
astral world is above us, below us, on every side of us, through us; we live
and move in it, but it is intangible, invisible, inaudible, imperceptible,
because the prison of the physical body shuts us away from it, the physical
particles being too gross to be set in vibration by astral matter because as
mentioned earlier as the level of plane rises the materials become more fine in
texture and hence the spirit-matter of the astral plane is more highly
vitalised and finer than any grade of spirit-matter in the physical world
This is
what is explained in the books written long ago, but I having experienced
voices from that other dimension (plane) am a witness to what is written above
Instead of this
If only, death was portrayed like this, people would understand
death better
And
finally a man should live so as to be ever ready for death and I suggest you
die daily and experience a rebirth by improving yourself continuously
This
article will be continued in part-2
