When they're in too much of a hurry to burn them, sometimes they burn them alive! ... They should wait.

For there's a consciousness of the form, a life of the form. There's a consciousness, a consciousness in the form assumed by the cells. That takes SEVEN DAYS to come out. So sometimes the body makes abrupt movements when burned - people say it's mechanical. It's not mechanical, I know it's not.

I know it. I know that this consciousness of the form exists since I have actually gone out of it. Once, long back, I was in a so-called cataleptic state, and after awhile, while still in this state, the body began living again'; that is, it was capable of speaking and even moving (it was Theon who gave me this training). The body managed to get up and move. And yet, everything had gone out of it!

Once everything had gone out, it naturally became cold, but the body consciousness manages to draw a little energy from the air, from this or that ... And I spoke in that state. I spoke - I spoke very well, and besides, I recounted all I was seeing elsewhere.

So I don't like this habit of burning people very much.

I think they do it here (apart from entirely sanitary considerations in the case of people who have died from nasty diseases), here in India, mainly because they are very afraid of all these little entities that come from desires, impulses - things which are dispersed in the air and which make 'ghosts' and all kinds of things. All desires, all attachments, all those things are like pieces that break off (each one goes its own way, you see), then these pieces gain strength in the surrounding atmosphere, and when they can fasten on to someone, they vampirize him. Then they keep on trying to satisfy their desires.

The world, the terrestrial atmosphere, is full of filth.

page 376 , Mother's Agenda , volume - 1, 28th May 1960

Then and there I said to myself, "This habit of cremating people is appallingly brutal!" (They put the fire in the mouth first.) He didn't know he was dead and that's how he learned it! ... From the reaction of the life of the form in the body.

Even when the body is in a thoroughly bad condition, it takes at least seven days for the life of the form to leave it. And for someone practicing yoga, this life is CONSCIOUS. So you burn people a few hours after the doctors have declared them dead, but the life of the form is every inch alive and, in those who have practiced yoga, conscious.


Because they cremated him he was abruptly (Mother violently shudders) and violently thrown into contact with the destruction of the body's form.[[. "I mean a SUBTLE form," Mother clarified, "it's the body's subtle form." ]] It must have been the life of the form; when hurled so brutally out of the body, the life of the form must have thrown itself at him! So of course....

(silence)

I immediately said to myself, "But he was still existing, living, having the experience, absolutely INDEPENDENT of his body - he didn't need his body to have his experience." And with my protection and knowledge I could have put him either in a place of rest or, if need be, in touch with another body - and that would have been the end of it. Now, of course, everything is disrupted and we have to wait for things to calm down. [[One week later, Mother added: "It has worked out: he has gone to the psychic domain for a while (I think it's only for a while) to concentrate." ]]

But it is possible to die without knowing you are dead.

And to retain full consciousness - he was totally conscious and blissful.

I find that important, an important experience.

I haven't told anyone what happened when they cremated him, because it would have made them all quite upset and miserable. I said only that he came to me. So don't say a word; they mustn't know. Not that it's irreparable, but still, it's not a pleasant experience.

But it came as if to put me in contact with this possibility.

page 241-42 , Mother's Agenda , volume 3 , 4th July 1962.

So many things, so many things.... Human beings have made an appalling tragedy out of death. And I saw, with all these recent experiences, I saw how many, many poor human beings have been destroyed by the very people they loved the most! Under the pretext that they were dead.

People give them a very bad time.

Destroyed?
Yes, burned. Or shut up in a box without air and light - while FULLY CONSCIOUS. And just because they can no longer express themselves, people say they are "dead." They don't waste any time declaring them dead! But they are conscious. They are conscious. Imagine someone who can no longer speak or move - according to human laws, he is "dead." He is dead but he is conscious. He is conscious, so he sees the people around him: some of them are weeping, some of them are ... if he's a bit clairvoyant, he also sees that some of them are rejoicing. And then he sees himself put into a box, sees the lid nailed down, shutting him in: "Ah, now it's all over, they're going to cover me with earth!" Or he's taken over there [to the cremation ground], and then it's fire in the mouth - FULLY conscious.

I have lived this in recent days. I have seen it. Last night or the night before, I spent at least two hours in a world - the subtle physical world - where the living mingle with the dead with no sense of difference, it makes absolutely no difference there. For instance, when Mridu [[ Sri Aurobindo's old cook, round as a barrel. ]] was in her body I used to see her at night maybe once a year (maybe not even that much). For years she was utterly nonexistent in my consciousness ... but since she left her body, I see her almost every night! There she is, just as she was, you know (rotund gesture), but no longer troubled, that's all. No longer troubled. And there were both living and ... what we call the "living" and the "dead" - they were both there together, eating together, moving around together, having fun together; and all in a lovely, tranquil light - pleasant, very pleasant. "There! " I thought, "and humans have drawn a sharp line, saying, 'Now he's dead!'" Dead! And what really takes the cake is the way they treat the body like an unconscious object, and it's still conscious!

It's treated like an object: "Now then! Let's get rid of this just as quickly as we can: it's a nuisance and it gets in the way." And even those who feel the most sorrow don't want to see it; it's too painful for them.

page 374 - Mother's Agenda , volume 3 , 12th Oct. 1962

But then, is it better to be buried or burned?
Had you asked me this question a week ago, I would unhesitatingly have said "buried" - and advised people not to do it too quickly, to wait for external signs of decomposition.

Now, because of this, I can't say any more. I just can't say.

I have the feeling I am learning a lot of things about this transition called death. It's starting to become thinner and thinner, more and more unreal. It is very interesting.

page 383 - Mother's Agenda , volume 3 , 16th Oct. 1962

I was wondering.... Concerning whether people should be burned or buried, you said, "A week ago, I would unhesitatingly have said 'buried'.... Now, because of 'this,' I can't say any more." Which experience are you referring to?

It's because of what I am beginning to be aware of.

Do you mean that what you are learning tends to show you that it's not necessarily best to be buried?
Yes. It depends on the case, on the country, on all kinds of things. There are people in Europe who ask to be burned because they're afraid of being buried alive. Here, when people are convinced that a person is conscious, he's buried instead of burned.

Actually, each case is entirely individual.

But there is only a small beginning of knowledge. It will come later on.

page 385 - Mother's Agenda , volume 3 , 20th Oct. 1962

(Mother first comments on the death of a disciple, M.)

How they treat those poor dead! ...

Naturally, they rushed to cremate him; they asked me candidly (because his nephew was coming but not before the next morning, that is, a little less than twenty-four hours after Ml's death - nearly twenty hours), they asked me, "Should we keep him or not?" I answered, "It depends. If you ask me as far as HE is concerned, certainly the longer you keep him the better." Then I see eyes open wide, a mouth open wide - don't understand anything! I told them, "It takes QUITE A WHILE for the consciousness to come out slowly! Otherwise, when you burn him, it's pushed out violently, it gives a terrible shock."

To tell the truth, people burn the dead in that way to destroy the vital, I am sure of it. The idea is not to have any ghosts.

page 239 - Mother's Agenda , volume 4 , 27th July 1963