Preface Death, in one of its conceptions, leads us from mansion to mansion in our journey from this mortal world of darkness to the doorsteps of the sphere of deathless Light. But it leads us blindfolded, so to say, and little do we remember of the worlds beyond that are hidden to our mist-laden eyes. Little do we remember of the journey through the Night of death when we return to the grey light of our earthly days again. Our birth, in the conception of a mystic poet, is a sleep and a forgetting. And rightly so, since we remember not the physical womb that delivers us to see the light of our mortal days and feel the struggle of our mortal life. Nor do we remember our sp

Role of Rituals Role of Rituals: As to rituals, we have already seen the view of traditional therapies based on the materialist model of man. From a deeper point of view the rituals had their origin in a subtle truth. It is this that those upon earth can help the onward journey of the departed. The occult basis is that after departure the soul lingers for a time in the earth atmosphere. Its prolonged nearness to the physical and vital worlds delays its onward journey and therefore keeps the soul bound to the vital sheaths, which is a source of continued suffering even after death. In the shradha ceremony of the Hindus, the whole occult rites and the mantras point t

Death, Dying and Beyond Contents Pre-Content Life and Death Preface Behind the Iron Mask - Introduction WHAT IS DEATH? Death - The Annihilator of Time's Works Death - A Partner in the Game of Life The Two Faces of Death The Scientific View of Death The Inner Dimension of Death The Tragedy of Inner Death The Pervertors of Life and Death Appendix to Chapter I Stopping the Heartbeat - Fact or Fiction THE WHY OF DEATH Death - The Paradox of Life Death - The Hooded Mask of Life Death - The

Is the Moment of Death Fixed? That brings us to the last question about the moment of departure. Is this moment of the fatal stroke fixed? Can the hour of death be postponed from an inner point of view? 17. The Bhagvad Gita: Ch. 8, Verse 10 The question is only of academic interest for the material scientist since as per material science the moment of death is not fixed. It is only the average lifespan of a species that is fixed and that too has a wide range in man at least. On the contrary we have authentic instances of yogis predicting their hour of departure. A view more consistent with the experience of those who have come bac

Self-Experience after Death Is there a self-experience after death? One thing is clear that there are no satisfactory answers to these questions as far as our traditional materialistic science is concerned. And whatever data exists through the collective experience of humanity (which in itself is abundant) is often shrouded by a sense of mystique mingled with fantasy and superstition. The result is truth mixed with fiction fed on the milk of individual belief. Mainstream science simply disregards the evidence as fiction of the mind but that explains nothing. To disregard the very evidence and to infer even without studying is to throw away the

Appendix IV Beyond Death Possession by the Asura "The death of Stalin (unfortunately not any more than the death of Hitler) has not changed the present state of the world. Something more than that would be necessary. For this is like the assassin who is guillotined: when his head is cut off, his spirit remains behind and is projected outside him. It is a vital formation and it goes and takes shelter in one of the benevolent spectators, who suddenly feels a criminal instinct in himself. There are many men like that, specially very young criminals who when questioned have acknowledged this. They have been asked: 'When did this desire to kill

Ancient Texts An Ancient Indian Tale: The Secret of Death Far back in time, life may have been different in its outer aspects, but the inner quest was the same. So also with Nachiketas, a child of faith and simple sincerity. His father Vajashravas is holding a yajna (sacrifice) and as is symbolic of the worldly wise he chooses to offer the old and infirm, unyielding cattle and cows to the gods. It may be noted in passing that in the symbolism of the Vedic and the Upanishadic period, cows represented Light or all our upward striving for true knowledge. The gods are the powers of Light who bring down the gifts of true knowledge and

Death of a God Is there a difference between the death of ordinary mortals and that of beings of a higher consciousness like saints and sages or incarnate gods and higher still, that most deceptive appea- 19. Refer to Appendix 3 for the Wisdom from the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Page-80 rance of God in humanity - the phenomenon of the Avatara? Gods (beings of a higher luminous plane of consciousness) do not die except when they take up a human body for a particular work. But even here it is not the kind of death that we understand but a conscious withdrawal from the mortal to the immortal planes unlike the mortal's death which is an unconscious with

The Inflexible Iron Law of Death and the Dilemmas of Human Law Ethical Issues involving Death and the Dying Death raises many an ethical question and as with everything else related to death, none have a simple answer. The reason is that we do not know with certainty the state of an individual who is dead or is in coma. We do not know whether there is an inner psychological life going on during coma or after death, independent of the body. We do not know whether the surface choice of a man reflects the choice of his soul or is it simply rendering into mental terms, the recoil from pain of the nervous and sensational

The Great Leveller This is another image of death that we secretly admire, perhaps even cherish. Is it not justice itself that death sees the great and the mighty and prosperous fall even as the lowly and weak and poor have fallen? Maybe. But the falling of the strong and prosperous does not spare the agonies of the weak and the maimed even though it may provide some solace of retribution to the rebellious heart. Equally, all that is rich and strong is not necessarily bad. Both prosperity (even outer prosperity) and strength (even physical prowess) are also divine. The divine is not only the bare ascetic sitting ash-smeared on the snow peaks, clad with nothing b