Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2010 16:23:21 GMT
hai friends,
Occasionally in moments of calm contemplation, when we are thrown in an introspective mood, we sometimes wonder why God, who is such a kind, compassionate and merciful Father, should have included death in the scheme of life. The fact is, death comes as a necessity to egg us on in our evolution.
Could you just imagine of a world where there would be no death? Over population even today poses as a difficult problem with all the deaths that are taking place in normal course. So, imagine the extent of chaos and confusion that would result if there would be no deaths. Life would no longer be worth living. It would become a dull drab drudgery.
Living in the same body we cannot grow beyond our bonds and ties of attachments. Complete separation is necessary to make us cautious of our attachments. During our brief sojourn in this world, we get so much attached to this terra firma that when death knocks at our door, we feel too reluctant to be torn from our family surroundings and leave our material possessions so painstakingly created. Therefore to completely snap the tie of attachment, death is the only solution.
Death is not only a necessity for those who die, but it is also necessary for the evolution of those who are left behind. Death helps devolve responsibilities on new shoulders. They accept the challenge of life and grow in experience. Father suddenly passes away. Son takes up the new responsibility, bears it and enriches his treasure-house of experience. When a child dies in his infancy, it may not be much of an assimilation of experience for him except for certain Karmic purgation, but it means all the more for those who are left behind. We have to grow beyond attachment, ego and desire to enjoy immunity from sufferings. Thus by helping us transcend our worldly attachments, death plays an indispensable role.
In fact, individual soul could never grow without death. The evolutionary process is a long one. It requires various types of experiences of poverty and riches, of purity and pollution, of ignorance and education of every country, clime, culture, race and religion. It requires experiences of both the sexes as well. In a single body all this is not possible to assimilate. Therefore by virtue of necessity we die and are born again under different circumstances for a different set of experiences.
Assimilation of experiences is also not possible without death. In the post-mortem states the consciousness widens. The deeds of the past lifetime have a reaction, and we learn many new lessons. We often notice monkeys devouring eatables rapidly and then masticating them at leisure. Similarly we masticate our experiences in a higher and wider light which shines after death. During our stay in the astral plane, the scenes of our past life flit pass our eyes one after another. We begin to relive our lives with the difference that now we are identified with all the actors in every situation. We feel as we did, when we tortured someone as also like the one who was tortured by us. We experience the pain of the latter. This process exhausts our Karma to a degree and provides us a useful lesson. Karmic purgation occurs when both, the oppressor and also the oppressed have been able to excuse each other. Retaliation only augments Karmic bondage.
Death comes as a necessary drop-scene between two births. It is a drop-scene inasmuch as the activities go on behind the curtain. Thus after the assimilation of one set of experiences of one life, the individual soul is provided again with a new set of mental, emotional and Pranic body, eminently suited for his next reincarnation. In this manner from life to life, he travels assimilating his diverse experiences.
In normal course, the period that intervenes between two births is about four to five hundred years (in occult parlance our one year is equal to one day of Pitris). But occasionally instances are there which indicate that births have been immediate. Invariably in all such cases where the births have been immediate, the death has been in an accident. Where we have not completed the experiences of one birth up-to-date, a second birth in similar surroundings for similar experiences, becomes absolutely necessary. The other reason is that sometimes the attachments and certain resolutions are so overwhelmingly overpowering that in order to exhaust them a second birth in the immediate future becomes absolutely necessary. For illustrations we need not go to the distant past. Narrations of a young girl, Mridula from Dehra Dun, who came to meet me in 1960, corroborate the validity of my statement. But it may be remembered that in all such cases the memory of the previous birth does not last long. Sometimes, instances have also been found where the dead man has come back to life. Sri Chandresekhara Iyer of Hyderabad, Deccan, who was a resident in Sivanandashram was an example, who died, and after being dead for two hours, came back to life and lived for some time afterwards.
At the time of death, a little distortion and contraction which we find in the body is just the effort of the Pranic double to extricate itself from the physical body. The experience is said to be painless. But how does it matter even if it were painful when Death promises light behind the curtain!
by Sri Swami Sivananda
thanks
vj
Occasionally in moments of calm contemplation, when we are thrown in an introspective mood, we sometimes wonder why God, who is such a kind, compassionate and merciful Father, should have included death in the scheme of life. The fact is, death comes as a necessity to egg us on in our evolution.
Could you just imagine of a world where there would be no death? Over population even today poses as a difficult problem with all the deaths that are taking place in normal course. So, imagine the extent of chaos and confusion that would result if there would be no deaths. Life would no longer be worth living. It would become a dull drab drudgery.
Living in the same body we cannot grow beyond our bonds and ties of attachments. Complete separation is necessary to make us cautious of our attachments. During our brief sojourn in this world, we get so much attached to this terra firma that when death knocks at our door, we feel too reluctant to be torn from our family surroundings and leave our material possessions so painstakingly created. Therefore to completely snap the tie of attachment, death is the only solution.
Death is not only a necessity for those who die, but it is also necessary for the evolution of those who are left behind. Death helps devolve responsibilities on new shoulders. They accept the challenge of life and grow in experience. Father suddenly passes away. Son takes up the new responsibility, bears it and enriches his treasure-house of experience. When a child dies in his infancy, it may not be much of an assimilation of experience for him except for certain Karmic purgation, but it means all the more for those who are left behind. We have to grow beyond attachment, ego and desire to enjoy immunity from sufferings. Thus by helping us transcend our worldly attachments, death plays an indispensable role.
In fact, individual soul could never grow without death. The evolutionary process is a long one. It requires various types of experiences of poverty and riches, of purity and pollution, of ignorance and education of every country, clime, culture, race and religion. It requires experiences of both the sexes as well. In a single body all this is not possible to assimilate. Therefore by virtue of necessity we die and are born again under different circumstances for a different set of experiences.
Assimilation of experiences is also not possible without death. In the post-mortem states the consciousness widens. The deeds of the past lifetime have a reaction, and we learn many new lessons. We often notice monkeys devouring eatables rapidly and then masticating them at leisure. Similarly we masticate our experiences in a higher and wider light which shines after death. During our stay in the astral plane, the scenes of our past life flit pass our eyes one after another. We begin to relive our lives with the difference that now we are identified with all the actors in every situation. We feel as we did, when we tortured someone as also like the one who was tortured by us. We experience the pain of the latter. This process exhausts our Karma to a degree and provides us a useful lesson. Karmic purgation occurs when both, the oppressor and also the oppressed have been able to excuse each other. Retaliation only augments Karmic bondage.
Death comes as a necessary drop-scene between two births. It is a drop-scene inasmuch as the activities go on behind the curtain. Thus after the assimilation of one set of experiences of one life, the individual soul is provided again with a new set of mental, emotional and Pranic body, eminently suited for his next reincarnation. In this manner from life to life, he travels assimilating his diverse experiences.
In normal course, the period that intervenes between two births is about four to five hundred years (in occult parlance our one year is equal to one day of Pitris). But occasionally instances are there which indicate that births have been immediate. Invariably in all such cases where the births have been immediate, the death has been in an accident. Where we have not completed the experiences of one birth up-to-date, a second birth in similar surroundings for similar experiences, becomes absolutely necessary. The other reason is that sometimes the attachments and certain resolutions are so overwhelmingly overpowering that in order to exhaust them a second birth in the immediate future becomes absolutely necessary. For illustrations we need not go to the distant past. Narrations of a young girl, Mridula from Dehra Dun, who came to meet me in 1960, corroborate the validity of my statement. But it may be remembered that in all such cases the memory of the previous birth does not last long. Sometimes, instances have also been found where the dead man has come back to life. Sri Chandresekhara Iyer of Hyderabad, Deccan, who was a resident in Sivanandashram was an example, who died, and after being dead for two hours, came back to life and lived for some time afterwards.
At the time of death, a little distortion and contraction which we find in the body is just the effort of the Pranic double to extricate itself from the physical body. The experience is said to be painless. But how does it matter even if it were painful when Death promises light behind the curtain!
by Sri Swami Sivananda
thanks
vj