The Two Faces of Death Not only philosophy and mystic lore but science also recognises two forms of death. One that is natural and normal as a process complimentary to life, called Apoptosis; the other as something unnatural and superimposed upon the organism, called Necrosis. Death, through apoptosis is woven into the very fabric of life. The fingers of a six-week-old embryo separate following the death of cells located in the web between the fingers. The death of these specific cells allows the appearance of the hand as it is. Even before the full organism begins to breathe and before the heart begins to beat with new life, the game of death and life has

Quest for Immortality - The Two Approaches The Indian tradition has given a lot of attention to this subject of immortality. Through a significant series of myths it has pointed out basically two different approaches to the problem. One is the asuric or the demoniac way typified in the tales of Ravana, Hiranyakashapa, Trishanku, Jarashandha and others. These beings were attracted towards immortality for the sake of prolonging their ego's empire indefinitely. Meaning thereby they wanted physical immortality without changing within in their consciousness. For this they try many outer, inner, subtler and occult means, including great tapasya

The Sheaths of the Soul The soul is clothed in many sheaths which are like integuments that protect the divine seed till it becomes ready and mature to express itself. For a long time in its journey of growth this miniature divinity experiences the world-Self through these sheaths which are arranged hierarchically as an evolutionary ladder. These sheaths reflect only one or few of the several aspects of the world and are therefore also called as casings of Ignorance. Yet these partial and imperfect and indirect glimpses are necessary before the individual soul can wake up to its true divinity and the experience of the integral truth and undivided reality o

Death, Dying and Beyond Death, Dying and Beyond Dr. Alok Pandey SRI AUROBINDO INSTITUTE OF RESEARCH IN SOCIAL SCIENCE SRI AUROBINDO SOCIETY, PONDICHERRY First Edition : Jan 2006 ISBN: 81-7060-237-8 © Sri Aurobindo Society, Pondicherry Researched and Published by Sri Aurobindo Institute of Research in Social Sciences, a unit of Sri Aurobindo Society, Pondicherry - 605 002 Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN INDIA www.sriaurobindosociety.org.in No power can slay my soul; it lives in Thee. Thy presence is my immor

Disembodied Beings Disembodied Beings: Also known as ghosts or poltergeists, these are entities created when a part of the vital is suddenly 3. Sri Aurobindo: Letters on Yoga, pp.459-60 thrown out following the death of a person. Usually following an extremely violent or traumatic death, these elemental entities act in a repetitive manner around a small area of their influence with which they are conversant. They usually do not have much power to harm except that by inducing fear, they open the consciousness to other harmful influences. Some such elemental entities may even be helpful and there is a whole group of occultists who perform petty magic a

Behind the Iron Mask Birth and Death are the two great original mysteries - the birth of this vast and complex universe in a seeming void, the birth of life and living beings in and out of a seemingly mechanical universe, the birth of a thinking, half-conscious creature called man from a seemingly unconscious, unthinking life. So is death a mystery, the apparently dark void into which everything collapses, the great and the small, the high and mighty as well as the lowly and weak, the virtuous and the vicious, the pious and the wicked, the angels and demigods as much as the devils and the titans themselves. Death swallows all. The great phil

The Return to Earth - Karma The soul moves on from one body to another through the cycles of death and rebirth as do the karmas that stick as labels indicating the stage where we stand in our evolutionary journey. It is a kind of reminder of the things we have not yet experienced, steps we have not yet climbed. This label of karma goes and 9. Alexandra David Neel: Reincarnation of Lamas Page-143 returns with us in the form of our true mental, the true vital, the true physical - the three purushas projected by the soul to front this world and relate with it. These three inner purushas are withdrawn inside the soul in its reconstitutin

Recollections of Past Life "Recollections last only for a time, not till rebirth -otherwise the stamp would be so strong that remembrance of past births, even after taking a new body, would be the rule rather than the exception. You say "relationships of one birth persist in successive births, the chances depending on the strength of the attachment". This is possible, but not a law - as a rule the same relationship would not be constantly repeated -the same people often meet again and again on earth in' different lives, but the relations are different. The purpose of rebirth would not be served if the same personality with the same relations and

The Ancient Debate The Ancient Debate - Does the Soul Exist? "My soul knows that it is immortal. But you take a dead-body to pieces and cry triumphantly, 'Where is your soul and where is your immortality?"1 The controversy about the existence or non-existence of the soul is as old as the ages. The Katha Upanishad which deals specifically with this issue of death in great detail, starts with this query itself: Even by the gods was this debated of old; for it is not easy of knowledge, since very subtle is the law of it.2 There have been schools of thought in ancient India who did

Phenomenon of the Double Phenomenon of the Double: This is usually an authentic record of soul-seeing or identification with it. Here one sees oneself outside the body, as if in another body. One can also get projected into another Time-Space domain and consciously experience other worlds. This 'seeing' is one of the most authentic experiences and leaves little doubt about the soul's existence. It is more real than the physical seeing and those who go through it find their self-view and world-view profound! y changed for the better.