Memories survive death

How to understand death; here was a person who was born in 1960 and then lived in this world for sometime and then suddenly died in 2000 for certain reasons. Where was he in 1958 and where he will be in 2001? How to comprehend his life that came into existence for a while and then vanished into a thin air? Is death a termination and the final end? Is it an irreversible process? Most Westerners believe death is the final and the irreversible. People remember the dead and cherish their past memories of them. Those memories too fade away over a period of time. But for me personally, such an abrupt end of a life does not make any sense. Hinduism believes that death is not a termination but a transition. In fact they celebrate death rather than mourn the death. Patanjali explains in his Yoga sutra:”the depth memory and its latent impressions are of a piece, their dynamics of cause and effect flows uninterruptedly across the demarcation the birth, place and time”. He implies that deep memories embedded in the conscience mind survive death and this flow of memories is not interrupted by their type of birth, place or time. He says that ‘the will to exist’ is eternal. Even a toddler who has never heard or seen a death has a fear of death. Unless this toddler had experienced death previously and such a death had left a deep scar in his depth memory he would not have acquired this instantaneous sense of death. Scientists have now started believing that ‘conscience’ survives death and a number of NDE (near death experience) support this belief. A growing number of clinical Psychologists around the world are using past life therapy in their practices. There are quite a number of parapsychologists now seriously documenting purported cases of reincarnation. One of the pioneers in the field is Dr.Ian Stevenson, professor at the University of Virginia Medical School. In 1966 he published a well documented work titled ‘Twenty cases suggestive of reincarnation’.He has documented cases of reincarnation in many different cultures as diverse as those of India,Tukey,Thailand,England,Canada and the Inuit people of Alaska. Jesus too has implied in his speech according to John 11.25: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies: and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”. Our thoughts, actions and their fruitions in our life time leaves impressions in our deep memeory, which we may forget over a period in our life time. But those good and evil thoughts,actions,fruitions and their residual impressions cause rebirth. Such a conscience is always witnessed by ‘Pure awareness’. This cycle of life, birth and death continues indefinitely until we realize the eternal truth that only ‘Iswara’ exists and everything else is an illusion or ‘Maya’. Every thought and action born out of ‘avdidya’ or ‘ignornce’ leads to failure to distinguish the difference between ‘conscience’ and “pure awareness”. The reincarnation will come to an end once the difference between the ‘ conscience and the pure awareness’ is clearly understood by witnessing one’s life experience. By using past life therapy one can understand those deep seated, dormant memories of their past and the cause of their birth. The ultimate realization leads to the fact that the ‘Seer, the Seen and the process of seeing’ is just one piece of continuum without any separation. “Pure awareness stands alone”, as explained by Patanjali under ‘Kaivalya Pada’ the final section of ‘Yoga sutra’.

A mistaken identity

The Sanskrit word ‘avidya’ cannot be translated precisely in English language because it has a religious connotation of ancient India. I use the word ‘mistaken identity’ to represent a closer meaning of this word. But the following example should be able to convey the meaning to the readers. India is known for deadly snakes like ‘cobra’ and even now, many Westerners think India is a country full of snakes and snake charmers. It is true that snakes are even worshipped as ‘God’ in some parts of India, and for that matter, any living creatures are treated as some form of God in India. But a common man has a grave fear for such snakes and they are very careful and avoid any direct encounter with snakes. On one evening, when the sun has already set, a man was walking on a street. Suddenly he noticed a snake lying, curled up in the middle of the road. The man had a grave fear for the snakes and he was hesitant to go past the snake. He was in dilemma, and he was overwhelmed with a fear of death by a snake bite. He waited for some time to see whether the snake will move away but the snake was lying in the same place without the slightest movement. He then started wondering whether it was really a snake or something else. He became little bolder and pelted a small stone at the snake hoping to chase it away. But the snake remained unmoved. Then he was convinced that it was a not a snake and he took a closer look at it. It was just a rope! It was a ‘mistaken identity’, described by the word ‘avidya’ in Sanskrit. The man identified a ‘rope’ for a ‘snake’. It was an incorrect identification that set the mind of the man racing with fear of death. The purpose of ‘Yoga’ is to remove such ‘avidya’, which causes suffering in life. This avidya is the fundamental cause for all forms of suffereings.Patanjali explains in Yoga sutra about five causes of sufferings beautifully in Sanskrit “ “Avidya,Asmita,Ragha,Dvesha,Abinivesha-klesa” Avidya is an ignorance, a mistaken identity; Asmita is a sense of “I” ness or ego; Ragha is a desire, passion or attachment; Dvesha is aversion, hatred; Abinivesha is clinging to life or self-preservation from death.Klesha is the cause of suffering, a hindarance.The purpose of yoga is to release a human being from all sufferings by removing ‘avidya’ and instill ‘wisdom’ in him. Due to lack of this wisdom one mistake impermanent for permanent, impure for pure, distress for happiness and emptiness for self. Any action based on ' avidya’ cause enormous sufferings and by removing this ‘avidya’, man can relieve of his impending sufferings. These wrongful actions due to ‘avidly’ leaves latent impressions deep in the mind, to be activated and experienced later in this birth or lie hidden awaiting a future one. So long as this root source exists, its content will ripen into birth, a life and experience. Such ‘avidya’ can be subdued or completely eliminated by the deep absorption and integration with “pure awareness” which is the purpose of ‘Yoga’. One can avoid such ‘avidya’ by carefully examining each and every thought and action by discriminative knowledge. A wise see suffering in all forms of worldly life.

Death,the mark of a new beginning

I am always fascinated with the concept of death because it is the single biggest secret in the world and man has absolutely no clue about it, whether we look at it scientifically, philosophically or spiritually. It is a metaphorical concept of termination. It need not be a physical being but a termination of conscience. When it comes to spirituality, linguistic words are inadequate to describe certain experiences which are too valuable for humanity to dismiss. We can feel or experience certain things in life which cannot be adequately described by words, by which fellow human beings can understand. Attaining ‘Samadhi’ through the practice of ‘Yoga,’ is one such concept. People who have experienced this deep contemplation and integration with universal conscience and attained a complete bliss, were unable to express them in words. We human beings with our mundane concepts dismiss them as a sort of “pipe dream’ and even ridicule such thinking because of our misconception that we are “scientifically more advanced”. In this physical world human beings have concepts which have nothing to do with reality.Patanjali describe this beautifully in Sanskrit: “Sabdha jnana anupathi vastu sunyo vikalpha” meaning, “conceptualization is derived from linguistic knowledge and not from contact with real things”. Therefore, concept is a form of human conscience and nothing to do with “Reality’. If a Neurosurgeon believes that he can cut the brain into pieces and examine them under microscope and he can discover the secrets of that mind (brain), then it is a concept. It has nothing to do with “Reality”. We live in a world of concepts, dreams, ideas and plans which, over a period of time vanishes into a thin air because all these things have nothing to do with “Reality”. “Reality” is beyond all human concepts and you can only experience “Reality” and you cannot concpetualise”Reality” by linguistic words.Thats is why absolute silence is a pre-requisite to calm the raging mind through the practice of “Yoga”. By the processes of purification of body and mind as I described in my previous articles, one can calm one’s raging mind and bring it under tranquility. It is a state of mind where there is no desire for anything; sages describe it as ‘Sat-chit-anand. To translate, it literally means, “being-conscience-bliss”. Just be yourself with no desire or thought or concept and then there will be only a bliss or quietness or without any sorrow. That is the “Reality” and it can only be experienced. Many people practice “Sahaja Samadhi’ which means you can practice “Samadhi” even when you are physically doing some work. Your mind will be in deep contemplation and integration with “Reality” while your physical body will be busy working. There will be no expectation in the outcome of the work you are doing, such as a reward or earning for the work. A creative work by a painter is one example of such ‘sahaja samadhi’.The painter is deeply engrossed in his work with no other thoughts in mind. It is a way of life and one can practice this ‘Samadhi while at work”. But the purification of body and mind is a pre-requisite to practice this because an impure mind can never concentrate and enter into deep contemplation leave alone integration. Morals and Ethics are fundamental for all spiritual pratcise.Othewise it is simply a concept which can be described only by linguistic words such as in “advertisements”. It never serves the purpose of “Yoga”. Death is also a concept in which the past disappears or vanishes into a thin air. Like Jesus said, “You must be born again to see the kingdom of God”. It does not mean that you must physically die and be reborn; rather you must bury the “past’ and make a ‘new beginning’. Your past may be unethical or sinful but your past must die for the future to be born again. One need not be afraid of death because it is the mark of a new beginning.

Yoga and Meditation

Morals and Ethics are two pillars of yoga. Any aspirant, who wants to practice yoga and gradually rise to the final stage of ‘Samadhi’, has to start with the process of purification called ‘yama’ and ‘niyama’, the external and internal purification processes. Patanjali explains three paths to yoga in Sanskrit: “tapa-svadhyaya-iswara pranidhanani-kriya-yogah”. Yoga has three components, Self discipline, self-enquiry and orientation to the ideal of pure awareness. He never uses the word ‘God’ but he mentions “pure awareness”, which is a separate entity within us other than our conscience, but ever present and ever witnessing. The self-discipline includes the purification of body and mind. In our present world it is almost impossible for an individual to adopt this purification process as Patanjali describes. It is similar to what Jesus Christ said, “Love your neighbor, like you love your-self”. How many of us can do it that can truly reflect the actual meaning of his words? The yama, external purification requires Ahimasa (non-violence, not harming others), Satya (Truth), Asetya (not stealing), Bramacharya (Celibacy, impeccable conduct), and Abarigiraha (not being acquisitive). Similarly the Niyama, the internal purification requires such as Succha (purity), Santosha (contentment), Tapa (intense discipline or austerity), Svadyaya (self-study), Iswara Pranidhanani (dedication, surrender, alignment with ideal of pure awareness). The yoga aspirant should take a universal vow to follow the above, crossing all boundaries of land, sea, nations, languages, religions, cultures etc. He has to strictly follow his vow, irrespective of any circumstances. I share here my own personal experience in practicing yoga. I have been trying to practice yoga for nearly 10 years but with very little success.I became a vegetarian for the past 10 years but I could not give up alcohol. But recently, I decided to follow vigorously and I became very conscience of each and every word and action of mine. I can now say with certainty, that there is a gradual change in my personality and my outlook. I remember the Autobiography by Mahatma Gandhi, “My experiments with Truth” in which he explains his very intimate feelings so openly and honestly to the readers, which makes this book one of the greatest in the history. It is a rare gem. The changes in personality happen very gradually but steadily. When I kicked off my alcohol habit overnight, which I followed for the past 25 years of my life, then I knew I changed. Where did I get that will power and steadfastness? For me, it is a simple miracle. I did not attend any ‘Alcohol anonymous’ or take any medical treatment, nothing.The only reason to kick off this habit is my self-realization. I realized that my body is a ‘temple’ in which the ‘the pure awareness’ called ‘Iswara’ is ever-present and ever-witnessing. I cannot do anything that will taint the presence of this eternal and formless “pure awareness” within me. This self-realization changed me completely. Any of my physical act due to intoxication of alcohol is an insult to the presence of ‘Iswara’ within me.It is unpordanable.I changed for good. I even stopped all my medications for high blood pressure and cholesterol overnight. I decided that anything other than natural materials consumed by my body may taint the presence of “pure awareness”. My blood pressure now is normal and I have no health problems. The whole purpose of ‘Yoga’ is to distinguish this difference between your conscience and the “pure awareness”. But you can distinguish this pure awareness from your conscience only by using your conscience. When you mistake your conscience for “pure awareness” then there is a conflict. This mistaken identity is called ‘Avidya’ ignorance, the root cause for all the human sufferings in the world.

The other side of the Valley

I started publishing articles on my blog a month ago about clean technologies. The main idea of the blog is to create awareness about the environment and how we should treat Nature with respect and reverence. It is a human nature to ignore certain things when they are within our reach. We always take such things for granted and look for something beyond, because we believe ‘the other side of the valley is always green’. I had several such experiences in my life. Once you ignore what you have on hand and move away seeking better things, only then you realize that other side is not as green as you think. We learn from experience. ’Wisdom comes from experience; but experience comes from foolishness”. It was absolutely true at least in my life. Human consciousness is constantly expanding and evolving and exploring. This constant quest for something new allows our conscience to expand exponentially. As our conscience expands we start acting physically trying to implement certain ideas without knowing the consueqences.We believe such action will yield certain results, which should be beneficial and expect certain positive outcome from all our actions. But most of these thought and actions are actually irreversible. You cannot reverse what your thought and you cannot reverse your actions. Once you finished thinking and acting then, you can see the results. Only based on the results, you can retrospectively look back your thought and actions, and evaluate how far your thoughts and actions helped you achieve your goals. This process is never ending and we peruse our thoughts and actions till our death. Science is nothing but a form of human thought, orginates from human mind. It speculates, hypothesizes, experiments and draws certain conclusions by physical observations. Seeing is believing and proving is science. This is how the science and civilization evolved over many certuries.All such thoughts and actions are available for us in the form of document or product or books from which we learn lot of things, even without thinking or experimenting. It is the result of a set of human beings who were born before us and died before us. But does it all make any sense? Nothing makes sense to me when human beings die one day. What happens to all their lifelong pursuits and goals and achievement? It comes to an abrupt end. It looks like a dream which vanishes into a thin air as you wake up. Hinduism describes this as ‘Maya; a grand illusion. Can science explain this ‘Maya’ with theories and instruments? Therefore, the beginning of all these pursuits starts with simple expansion of your consciousness. This is what patanjali explains in yoga sutra eloquently.He defines ‘Yoga’ in Sanskrit. Yoga is ‘Chita vriti nirodha’. Yoga is nothing but restriction of expanding conscience.When conscience is not allowed to expand exponentially, and the mind is quieted or subdued, there is an absolute silence and there is no mind. In the absence of human consciences ( “I” thought) and in that silence, what remains in only Universal consciousness or supreme consciousness, called ‘Iswara’ (The God). Eastern philosophy says only when your mind becomes calm, silent and serene, you can witness the ‘seeker’. During this process you realize that you the ‘seeker’ is the ‘sought’. You have not realized it earlier because of your ‘Avidya’ ignorance. When the expansion of mind stops completely what remains is your physical body. In order to achieve this quietness of mind and integrate with supreme conscious, one should be able to meditate. Meditation and integration is not possible without purification of mind. That is why purification of mind and thought is the fundamental to ‘Yoga’. In fact such purified existence is not practical because they cannot survive in this world. That is why the wise men of the East practised ‘Samadhi’, a suspended animation by which one’s body can exist in this world but his consciousness merged with super consciousness in a great bliss. Aravinda of Pondicherry in India is an example of one such human being who achieved this ‘Nirva kalpa samdhi’ an eternal bliss, while his physical body remained alive.

"When the student is ready-the teacher appears"

I mentioned in my previous article that my life transformed completely after the ‘mirror experience’. This transformation is nothing but a spiritual manifestation. There is no more fear of death because I am always one with divinity. In other words, the seeker became the sought. In deep meditation the subject is no longer in existence. There is only the object. Patanjali explain this meditation beautifully in his ‘Yoga sutra’: “One can become fully absorbed in any object, whether vast or infinitesimal . As the external disturbances of consciousness subsides, a transparent way of seeing, called coalescence, saturates consciousness; like a jewel, it reflects equally whatever lies before it - whether subject, object, or act of perceiving So long as conceptual or linguistic knowledge pervades this transparency, it is called coalescence with thought At the next stage, called coalescence beyond thought, objects cease to be colored by memory; now formless, only their essential nature shines forth In the same way, coalesced contemplation of subtle objects is described as reflective or reflection-free. These four kinds of coalescence - with thought, beyond thought, reflective, reflection-free - are called Integration that bears seeds of latent impressions. In the lucidity of coalesced, reflection-free contemplation, the nature of the self becomes clear. The wisdom that arises in that lucidity is unerring Unlike insights acquired through inference or teachings, this wisdom has as its object the actual Distinction between pure awareness and consciousness” The knowledge of this meditation is unique and unparallel and no science can offer this wisdom. The above process of complete integration is the whole purpose of yoga and meditation. It is a step by step practical guide for an aspirant to meet God personally. During that meeting only God exists and nothing else. This is the moment of awakening from worldly dream when everything ceases and only God exists. When the spirit of God descends upon you, the spiritual manifestation takes place. You will be born again, though you continue to live in this world as a normal human being till your end. But this manifestation will expand your conscience and you will realize that the whole universe is a just a tiny part of universal conscience and there will be only deep compassion and love. There will be no more expectations but a complete surrender. Can anybody achieve this spiritual manifestation? Absolutely. If you want to build a healthy body muscle or reduce obesity, then you need to pay attention to your diet and regular exercise. Similarly, the practice yoga and dispassion Vairaghya are only two requisites. Of course you need faith and a positive attitude. Yoga is a spiritual practice that trains your mind and body. Yoga asana is not just a physical exercise or just a mechanical act. It is a physical posture while the mind is in deep contemplation and concentration. It is the third part in the eight part practice of astanga yoga namely yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, prathihara, dhyna, dharna and Samadhi.The first two stages are about purification of your mind and body, the next three stages are about bringing the mind under control and the last three stages are about contemplation, deep concentration and integration with universal consciousness.During the above practice of yoga, you need to practice vairaghya, a mentality of dispassion or indifference to the worldly affairs. You will reach a stage where nothing matters anymore. What is the result of all these things? You will understand the purpose of your life and there will be peace and real happiness, which no money fame or material can buy! There is so much of struggle and suffering all over the world and people get depressed and turn to woman, alcohol, drugs and violence. Happiness comes from within and not from outside. When you struggle and get depressed and there is nobody to turn to, then you wonder what life is all about. You question yourself “Who am I?” That is the moment of reckoning and time to look for a solution with complete earnestness and integrity. That is the time, “The student is ready and the teacher will appear” miraculously from nowhere to show you the path.

The sage who showed me the path

I wrote my personal experience in my previous article “You don’t’ die”, which was just the beginning of a great transformation into my life. When I witnessed my own image in the mirror for a split of a second, it was my rebirth. I must say I was born again. What really happened was a total annihilation of my personality and I looked at my own image with so much indifference in that brief moment. That was the moment of transformation. Suddenly I realized that it was my body that reflected on the mirror and yet I lost a sense of ‘me or I’ for a short moment and witnessed the image, as if it belonged to somebody else. That sense of witnessing continues till today and it transformed me and the world around me completely. I am absolutely convinced that I am not the body but something else. What is that ‘something’ is a question that is nagging me constantly till I delved deeply into my conscience? When you believe that you are not the body and start witnessing your body and its behavior, then you go through whole new experiences in your life and you change forever. Imagine your body commits a crime then you become a witness and when you body has to go through a punishment, you may feel compassionate but you agree that the body should be punished. The witnessing voice becomes powerful. There is no sense of attachment or ego. You judge your body with detachment. Like Jesus said, if one part of your body commits a sin, then cut off that part. It is better to live without that part which committed the sin rather than live with that part. In Sanskrit, it is called ‘Vairagya’, a dispassionate attitude towards life. You live in a society but never mix with the society like a ‘lotus leaves, which are permanently floating on the water, yet it never get wet’. I was not born as a Christian but I used to read bible occasionally and many times wondered about the ‘parables’ and ‘preaching’ of Jesus. Some of them never made sense to me then. I clearly remember few of them: Jesus once told his disciples “To tell you the truth, you will not be able to see the kingdom of God if you are not born again”. In another incident he quotes “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” On another occasion Jesus said to a man,”Follow me”. But the man replied, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God”. He clearly implied through these sayings that you are not just a body but a spirit. If you don’t realize that you are not the body then you are just a carcass. Most of us live and die as carcass without questioning ourselves ‘Who am I?” even once in our entire life time. This is an important question and you need to seek an answer to this question with great earnestness and integrity. We all live with family, friends and colleagues in a society and we take many things for granted. We claim to be scientifically advanced and we believe we can solve all our worldly problems with wealth and richness. We donate few thousand dollars to charity and feel good about it. Do all these things make any sense? Bhagwad Gita says “You were not in this world before you were born and you will not be here after death. How can the one who lived briefly in this world can be eternal?”

If we carefully think about human life on earth, it makes absolutely no sense, if we are to die and never be born again. What is the purpose of this life then? Hinduism clearly says that “every beginning has an end and every end has a new beginning”. Death is only a transition but not a termination. Gita says that ‘Death is like getting rid of an old dress’ and ‘rebirth is like wearing a new dress’. Will anybody cry to get rid of an old dress and wear a new dress? Death is a constant reminder that we have to get rid of this old dress one day but you need not wear a new dress, if you are not going to be born into a new body of flesh and bones. You can become a spirit and become one with God into an eternity, your original form. It is called ‘returning to your source’.