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Thread: Life after death?

  1. #1

    Life after death?

    Hi guys, its still a mystery and i don't think there's any explanation to it. Anybody has any scientific reason as to what happens after death.

  2. #2
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    Re: Life after death?

    Hari Om
    ~~~~~

    Namaste Jack,

    Welcome to HDF.

    The Upaniṣads discuss this topic... one of my favorites is the
    Kathā Upaniṣad; Another that reviews this is Chāndogya Upaniṣad.
    These great works review going and coming.
    Said another way these works discuss the process and what occurs.
    Perhaps others can recommend specific Pūraa-s (meaning ancient , old - from the root pur meaning to go before, precede) that will assist you.
    Also - many here are knowledgeable about this from their studies or have POV's for consideration.

    If I were asking the question, my thoughts would be captured by the following:
      • What is this life after death? How is it different then present life?
      • Is there a location or locations one goes to?
      • What 'goes' ? i.e. mind, intellect? Does one keep their personality?
      • Who manages the traffic?
      • How long does one stay? Is there a duration period?
      • If there is life after death, is there therefore another death of that existence?
      • Does one come back ? If so why and how?
    This subject has been discussed on HDF several times. Perhaps if you try the search feature and look for 'past births' , 'reincarnation' , etc ( these are guesses for the search) you may find some info and from there use it as a spring board.

    pranams
    Last edited by yajvan; 27 October 2008 at 09:35 PM.
    यतस्त्वं शिवसमोऽसि
    yatastvaṁ śivasamo'si
    because you are identical with śiva

    _

  3. #3
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    Re: Life after death?

    The nitty-gritty of life after death

    Physical Science cannot explain or even theorize life after death for the simple reason that such life is no longer physcial. Science does not accept a soul; science is not clear about mind nor can it map everything about the functions of the mind to the surface and core of the physical human brain; nor has Science any idea about what is Consciousness or awareness and exactly what or who is having that state.

    There IS life after death for the simple reason that our human soul (jIva) is encased primarily in three bodies: gross, subtle and causal with corresponding worlds or planes of life. When the gross body is dropped, the soul naturally has to live in the astral/mental world/plane using its subtle astral/mental body, and then move on to more inner worlds.

    Yajvan has asked the relevant questions as to the nitty-gritty of life after death. One way to answer these questions is:

    • What is this life after death? How is it different then present life?

    Life after death is more like the life we have in our dreams: self-created, so more subjective, yet objective as well, because we are told that every physical atom has its astral counterpart, which is why there are seven sub planes in the astral/mental worlds.

    The astral life is as much different (or same) as the physical life as it is in our dreams. Just as we strive to give physical shape to our mental propensities and create our own environment of living in physical life, we do it with far more ease in the astral life, because there the astral matter which is highly plastic lends easily to our thoughts of creation, which is why we are able to create whatever we wish in our dreams.

    • Is there a location or locations one goes to?

    The most favoured and loved location for everyone of us is our home, which in one sense is the physical shape lent by our thoughtforms. Apart from our home, we haunt the outside locations such as homes our relatives and friends, our places of work, shopping, travel and so on. These have their astral counterparts, so we haunt them, with far greater felicity and speed, in our astral life.

    • What 'goes'? i.e. mind, intellect? Does one keep their personality?

    Both the mind and intellect 'goes'. Since emotions make up our astral body and thoughts our mental, we carry pent up emotions too and create our own 'hell' in the astral world with them. Our personality remains exactly the same: a person does not become pure and virtuous the moment following death of physical body. The character and personality of the person remains the same, and also influence the future births.

    • Who manages the traffic?

    According to Hinduism, Devas live in three forms: divine, subtle and physical. They manage the 'trafic' in the physical, astral and mental (heavenly) worlds.

    • How long does one stay? Is there a duration period?

    Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya in his book The Life Beyond Physical Death says that the duration of life in the inner worlds is between three and twelve years before rebirth. Theosophy gives a much longer time of stay.

    • If there is life after death, is there therefore another death of that existence?

    Yes, a person has three deaths between birth and rebirth in the physical body: when the physical body dies, the soul survives in the astral body until it is worn out and dropped; then it enjoys the fruits of its good karma in the mental sub planes of the heavenly worlds, surviving in its mental and causal bodies. When this period is over, the mental body is dropped, and the soul descends via the astral world to the physical, to be reborn in a new physical body.

    • Does one come back? If so why and how?

    There is one word in Sanskrit that succinctly expresses why we come back: tRuShNA - thirst, strong desire. tRuShNA rules the entire hierarchy of life, right from Brahman to the lowest atom of the physical world.

    Here are some books on life after death and reincarnation:

    The Life Beyond Physical Death (awgp) (160 KB)
    http://www.awgp.org/english/books/life_death.pdf

    Vedanta Philosophy of Reincarnation (Abhedananda)(80 KB)
    http://manybooks.net/support/a/abhed...8rinc10pdf.pdf

    What Becomes of the Soul After Death (Sivananda) (435 KB)
    http://www.sivanandadlshq.org/download/afterdeath.pdf

    The Astral Body (Powell, A.E.)
    http://www.theosophical.ca/AstralBodyByPowell-A.htm (Part 1)(374 KB)
    http://www.theosophical.ca/AstralBodyByPowell-B.htm (Part 2)(324 KB)
    रत्नाकरधौतपदां हिमालयकिरीटिनीम् ।
    ब्रह्मराजर्षिररत्नाढ्यां वन्दे भारतमातरम् ॥

    To her whose feet are washed by the ocean, who wears the Himalayas as her crown, and is adorned with the gems of rishis and kings, to Mother India, do I bow down in respect.

    --viShNu purANam

  4. #4

    Re: Life after death?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jack_ripper View Post
    Hi guys, its still a mystery and i don't think there's any explanation to it. Anybody has any scientific reason as to what happens after death.
    What is life by the way? Where from you came? Why are you here and what are you doing? I find this equally mysterious and un-answered.

    Science has tried to explain some of the processes and phenominan's we "see" within this life, convinently accepting the master process of life and creation itself.

    Problem is with propaganda that science has answers to life and creation, while is has nothing on this front. Maybe I am digressing ...

    Btw, after death existence might not yet be measurable by scientific instruments...but rememberence of past life is a well documented phenominan. Science cannot deny this, but most scientist will try to explain it as some sort of psychological disorder.
    What is Here, is Elsewhere. What is not Here, is Nowhere.

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    Re: Life after death?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jack_ripper View Post
    Hi guys, its still a mystery and i don't think there's any explanation to it. Anybody has any scientific reason as to what happens after death.
    science is yet to find evidence for the survival of any awareness after death, so they cant answer this question.

    science tries to equate the mind with the brain and tries to find a physiological explanaition for all mind functions. So many religeous phenomena are explained by science in its own way.

    For eg, what would be considered as a possession by a spirit or a diety would be called by the scientist as a multiple personality disorder. (I do believe in MPDs but not all possessions are MPDs). What would be called a religeous vision by a devotee would be called by the scientist as a hallucination or as a sensation of abnormal electrical signals in the brain. If you are interested, you can read this
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2865009.stm
    http://www.atheistempire.com/reference/brain/main.html

    The scientist should first answer the basic question - Does he know himself? Then we can talk about other things.

    As long as science and religion hold on to their domains, there is no conflict. The problem comes when a scientist claims that there is no life after death because there is no evidence. Sometime ago we did not know about the existance of so many things that came to light recently, so this is a hasty generalization. Religion should also keep itself from making false statements that can be disproved by science. For eg, the history of the world given by every religion in the world is against all scientific evidence. While christianity talks about an earth that was created 6000 years ago, Hindu scriptures talk about civilizaitions that existed millions of years ago. Neither of these withstand scientific scrutiny. Wherever religeous texts have been interpreted textually they have come into conflict with empirical evidence.

    You have to depend more on science for knowing about the world. We have to know about supernatural entities through religion. If these are violated, then we have some real issues between science and religion. A religeous leader making a statement that there was some king in India a million years ago based on superficial reading of the scripture is probably as short sighted as a scientist denying the existamce of after life due to lack of evidemce.
    Guard your Dharma, Burn the Myth, Promote the Truth, Crush the superstition.

  6. #6

    Re: Life after death?

    Shree Ganesh !

    Dear All
    I a 36 year old Hindu after Birth, I am happy with my wife and 2 children. My Dad is also with us mom expired almost 24 year ago.

    We are Koirala's (Nepali ) for Darjeeling, that what's my dad say's. I am married to marwardi. I was having grate belief in God since my childhood. But from last 3 to 4 years I am not able to concentrate on that. The Devotion towards God has been reduce and when ever I pray my mind gets distracted.

    Almost 2 year ago I have read a book called "Laws of Spirit World" its talk about the Auto Writing - which is writing by some one but narrated by good spirit Soul.

    Q1. I want to know what does Hinduism says about Life after Death
    Q.2 Why a person eating non-Veg is treated as bad and will not get close to God. And if that is so then why Christian are close to their God.
    Q.3 Every Religion says that their god created the universe.


    There are many such question which has no answer, I am in this HDF to know and understand what is this all about .

    Requesting you all to please help me to come out of this with a solution and better understanding .

    Have anybody have an idea about the auto writing -
    I need some more information on the same. And is there such exist in this universe.

    Best Regards
    Vishal Koirala
    Last edited by Vishal.koirala; 14 February 2013 at 02:03 AM.

  7. Re: Life after death?

    Quote Originally Posted by saidevo View Post
    Here are some books on life after death and reincarnation:

    The Life Beyond Physical Death (awgp) (160 KB)
    http://www.awgp.org/english/books/life_death.pdf

    Vedanta Philosophy of Reincarnation (Abhedananda)(80 KB)
    http://manybooks.net/support/a/abhed...8rinc10pdf.pdf

    What Becomes of the Soul After Death (Sivananda) (435 KB)
    http://www.sivanandadlshq.org/download/afterdeath.pdf
    All 3 are excellent books! Thanks Saidevo for these. The Life BeyonD physical Death (awgp) link was not opening when I tried it, so I am posting a copy from scribd for anyone who may be interested:
    http://www.scribd.com/doc/58833184/T...Sharma-Acharya
    The Spiritual Bee - Rational answers to life's profound questions surrounding God, Soul, Consciousness, Life & Death, based upon the principles of Advaita Vedanta.

  8. #8

    Re: Life after death?

    Because science cannot test and experiment with the afterlife- they cannot use the scientific method. However, since they can make observations of us being alive - they cannot prove that our soul does not exist. They have to accept the fact that we have life.

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    Re: Life after death?

    It seems Devarishi Narada once met with Yudhishtira and told him that he had met with Pandavas' father King Pandu in Pitruloka and that the late king told the devarishi that if Yudhishtira were to conduct an Ashwamedha yaga, then he would attain a higher sphere/plane of existence whereupon which Yudhishtira and the pandavas conduct the Ashwamedha yaga. Even to this day, mediums exist all over the world who communicate with dead people and the belief that dead people still remember their relatives and preserve their emotions for them exists universally. Can anyone add to this and explain whether really the dead people do preserve their feelings for their relatives? If this is true, then they must be existing in the pitruloka with memories of their relatives, as in separation - to me this sounds impossible. Any thoughts?
    jai hanuman gyan gun sagar jai kapis tihu lok ujagar

  10. #10

    Re: Life after death?

    Quote Originally Posted by Viraja View Post
    It seems Devarishi Narada once met with Yudhishtira and told him that he had met with Pandavas' father King Pandu in Pitruloka and that the late king told the devarishi that if Yudhishtira were to conduct an Ashwamedha yaga, then he would attain a higher sphere/plane of existence whereupon which Yudhishtira and the pandavas conduct the Ashwamedha yaga. Even to this day, mediums exist all over the world who communicate with dead people and the belief that dead people still remember their relatives and preserve their emotions for them exists universally. Can anyone add to this and explain whether really the dead people do preserve their feelings for their relatives? If this is true, then they must be existing in the pitruloka with memories of their relatives, as in separation - to me this sounds impossible. Any thoughts?

    The dualistic view is that we have a material world and a spiritual world. But the spiritual world is actually full realization. Before full realization people look to the astral. The astral world includes dreams, spirits,good and evil. The dead are not really dead, their spirits want only to think of good and no longer have to deal with evil.

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