The Transmutation of Death Are we to forever struggle under his hard and harsh inflexible law, individual cases of escape and partial victories apart? Is his reign as eternal as God's? To answer that, it is imperative to first understand the origin of death itself. Page-301 "There is a very old tradition which narrates this. I am going to tell you the story as one does to children, for in this way you will understand: One day 'God' decided to exteriorise himself, objectivise himself, in order to have the joy of knowing himself in detail. So, first of all, he emanated his consciousness (that is to say, he manifested his consciousness) b

Life and Death "Life, death, - death, life; the words have led for ages Our thought and consciousness and firmly seemed Two opposites; but now long-hidden pages Are opened, liberating truths undreamed. Life only is, or death is life disguised, - Life a short death until by life we are surprised." Sri Aurobindo

Post-mortem Examination The necessity of a postmortem examination for forensic purposes in order to bring a culprit to task cannot be questioned. So also perhaps in the study of anatomy by medical students for the moment at least, although one hopes that one day better means may emerge for this kind of study. What is doubtful however is the need of postmortem simply for legal purposes as for example in clear situations of accidents or where postmortem is not likely to yield any useful information. It is also doubtful whether the method of postmortem has really helped the cause of science. The rationale is that by studying the dead body we can establish

The Ideal of Divine Life The Ideal of Divine Life and an Evolutionary Transformation: The answer comes from Sri Aurobindo. He affirms that life upon earth is not an unfortunate accident but a field of evolution of the soul and its manifestation in material terms. The cycles of Page-161 death and rebirth serve a definitive purpose. This purpose is no doubt first and foremost, the growth of the individual soul within us. Having thus grown through the varied experiences of many lives, the soul arrives at a great point of departure. It is fully formed and therefore it is free, free to decide whether it wants to come back upon earth or not. It

Communication with the Departed Communication with the Departed: Is it possible to help the departed in some way? Can we reach out to them? Can they hear us or communicate with us? These questions often arise and vex the heart and mind of those who are left behind. It is especially so when the departure is sudden, unexpected and before the natural span of life is over. The answers differ from person to person. Thus while it is possible to help the departed through inner as well as occult means, it is not advisable to pull them towards earth through the ambiguous and risky means of planchettes, automatic writings, mediumistic trances etc. There are

The Dark-Browed Sophist of the Universe It is death that is directly responsible for much of the pessimism we encounter in life. Most schools of philosophy paint a grim and depressing picture of this world since there is so much uncertainty, unpredictability, and impermanence in it. Even schools of spirituality, subtly breathing the gospel of death have given up hope for any earthly perfection since nothing stays permanently, neither love nor hope. Our heights break off too low and the hearts that dare and aspire, tire too soon. So where is the hope for earth? Death seems to laugh at every dream of human perfection by razing it to ground so

Spirit of Death All traditions by and large believe in beings who come to take away the soul and help in separating it from the body. In Indian literature, such a being is known as yamadoot. Mystic experience and the experience of few who have survived death does affirm that there is some grain of truth in this notion of a being. However contrary to popular belief they are not evil forces, much as the hangman obeying the orders of the judge is not an evil person, but simply an obedient worker doing his assigned duty. So also these beings have possibly a certain fixed number of people allocated to them, the number required perhaps to maintain the balance of birt

-095_Nachiketa's Three Boons.htm Nachiketa's Three Boons2 Nachiketas is the young aspiring human being still in the Ignorance - naciketa, meaning one without consciousness or knowledge. The three boons he asks for are in reference to the three fundamental models of being and consciousness that are at the very basis, forming, as it were, the ground-plan of the integral reality. They are (i) the individual, (ii) the universal or cosmic and (iii) the transcendental. The first boon regards the individual, that is to say, the individual identity and integrity. It asks for the maintenance of that individuality so that it may be saved from the dissolution that Death brings about. Death, of

Accidents and Poisoning Accidents and Poisoning: It is obvious that life being what it is, an adventure in a dangerous charming world, there is little we can do by way of physical science to stop causes of accidents and poisoning except to grow the consciousness of the body. That indeed is the aim of all physical culture, to develop consciousness, mastery and balance and control. This would make the body more alert and conscious of any impending disaster thereby facilitating timely preventive action. If a rational physical culture can be combined with yogic processes which bring even the autonomic nervous system under control, then the mastery over dis

A Glorious Body "In the very, very old traditions - there was a tradition more ancient than the Vedic and the Chaldean which must have been the source of both - in that ancient tradition there is already mention of a 'glorious body' which would be plastic enough to be transformed at every moment by the deeper consciousness: it would express that consciousness, it would have no fixity of form. It mentioned luminosity: the constituent matter could become luminous at will. It mentioned a sort of possibility Page-280 of weightlessness which would allow the body to move about in the air only by the action of will-power and by certain processes of control of