Death ended nothing; it opened up limitless adventures

[Guest guest]

" Memoir: The Life Beyond

 

While writing this book on the afterlife, I kept being drawn back to

stories that I'd heard in India as a child. Parables are a powerful

way to teach children, and many of the ones told to me have lasted

all my life. So I decided to weave the book around tales of the kind

I heard at home, around the temples, and at school, hoping that the

reader would be enticed by a world where heroes battle darkness in

order to emerge into the light.

 

In this case the hero is a woman, Savitri, and the enemy she must

defeat is Yama, the lord of death. Yama shows up in her front yard

one day, waiting to take away her husband the moment he returns from

his work as a woodcutter. Savitri is terrified. What strategy could

possibly turn Death away from his inexorable mission?

 

I had no trouble imagining these characters. I was frightened for

Savitri and anxious to find out how her battle of wits with Death

turned out. Their world flowed easily into my own, because the India

of my childhood was not that far removed from ancient India. I want

to take a moment to convey what death and the world beyond meant back

then. It may seem like a very esoteric place. If so, you can come

back to it after reading the main body of the book. However

mysterious and exotic, here is where I began.

 

What was most magical in my childhood was transformation. Death

itself was seen as a brief stopping point on an endless soul journey

that could turn a peasant into a king and vice versa. With the

possibility of infinite lifetimes extending forward and backward, a

soul could experience hundreds of heavens and hells. Death ended

nothing; it opened up limitless adventures. But at a deeper level,

it's typically Indian not to crave permanence. A drop of water

becomes vapor, which is invisible, yet vapor materializes into

billowing clouds, and from clouds rain falls back to earth, forming

river torrents and eventually merging into the sea. Has the drop of

water died along the way? No, it undergoes a new expression at each

stage. Likewise, the idea that I have a fixed body locked in space

and time is a mirage. Any drop of water inside my body could have

been ocean, cloud, river, or spring the day before. I remind myself

of this fact when the bonds of daily life squeeze too tight.

 

In the West the hereafter has been viewed as a place akin to the

material world. Heaven, hell, and purgatory lie in some distant

region beyond the sky or under the earth. In the India of my

childhood the hereafter wasn't a place at all, but a state of

awareness.

 

The cosmos that you and I are experiencing right now, with trees,

plants, people, houses, cars, stars, and galaxies, is just

consciousness expressing itself at one particular frequency.

Elsewhere in spacetime, different planes exist simultaneously. If I

had asked my grandmother where heaven was, she would have pointed to

the house we lived in, not only because it was full of love, but

because it made sense to her that many worlds could comfortably

inhabit the same place. By analogy, if you are listening to a concert

orchestra, there are a hundred instruments playing, each occupying

the same place in space and time. You can listen to the symphony as a

whole or, if you wish, put your attention on a specific instrument.

You can even separate out the individual notes played by that

instrument. The presence of one frequency does not displace any of

the others.

 

I didn't know it as a child, but when I walked around the crowded

Delhi market where more humanity was packed into one bazaar than was

possible to imagine, the world I couldn't see was even more crowded.

The air that I breathed contained voices, car noises, bird songs,

radio waves, X-rays, cosmic rays, and an almost infinite array of

subatomic particles. Endless realities lay all around me. "

 

Deepak Chopra, Life After Death: The Burden of Proof

Harmony; 1 edition (October 17, 2006), pages 1-2

ISBN-10: 0307345785

ISBN-13: 978-0307345783

[Guest guest]

http://www.adishakti.org/forum/shri_mataji_there_should_be_no_fear_of_death_but_\

on_the_contrary_should_be_welcomed_2-25-2008.htm

[Guest guest]

Dear Semira,

 

Your questions and assumptions on consciousness are prejudiced by your belief

that:

 

" The qualities of consciousness cannot be explained fully by genetic patterns;

consciousness seems to have the capacity of expansion out of physical

boundaries. How much is consciousness dependent on matter? Also, once

consciousness reaches a certain point, does it becomes fully independent of

matter, so that if the matter is destroyed, does the consciousness continue? …

consciousness seems dependent on matter for its continuing evolution``.

 

i have the perfect answer to your fundamental belief:

 

" To say that consciousness evolved from matter is to say that a TV evolved from

a refrigerator. Such things do not happen. " - Cairns Smith, chemical

evolutionist

 

i also find it strange that you asked these questions:

 

" Another question has arisen; consciousness seems dependent on matter for its

continuing evolution; but what about the very beginning? Was there any form of

consciousness before there was living matter? Did a spark of consciousness begin

the process of life? "

 

The only reason for your ignorance is probably due to your inability to grasp or

google the articles on `Consciousness` that have been posted on

www.adishakti.org. Probably you don`t think much of this:

 

" In the Devi Gita the Devi proceeds to describe her essential forms. The Devi

declares that prior to creation, She is the only existent entity, the one

supreme Brahman and is pure consciousness. The Devi Gita is clear about

salvation and attainment of eternal life: " Even when a person performs bhakti,

knowledge need not arise. He will go to the Devi's Island. Till the complete

knowledge in the form of my consciousness arises, there is no liberation. "

 

4) Sri Cidagni-Kunda-sambhuta

— Born from the Pit of the Fire of Consciousness.

— Burns out ignorance and confers Immortality.

— She who rose from the fire of knowledge and is the ultimate truth.

 

68) Sri Chakra-raja-ratha-rudha-sarvayudha-pariskrta

— Mounted on Sri Chakra inside body with all weapons i.e. Powers.

— Enlightens mind to realise Ultimate Reality as an All Pervading-Consciousness.

 

207) Sri Manonmani

— Highest state of Consciousness.

— Secret name of Sri Durga.

 

367) Sri Pratyak-Chiti-Rupa

— Inner Consciousness or Knowledge.

 

404) Sri Bhakta-harda-tamo-bheda-bhanumad-bhanu- santaih

— Effulgence of the Sun; dispels Darkness of Ignorance.

— Giver of the Vision of the Ocean of Consciousness.

 

573) Sri Prajnana Ghana-rupini

— Supreme Wisdom

— State of Consciousness where nothing else is experienced except Self. — " Like

the taste of salt in the sea (It) is everywhere; Prajnana is All Pervasive. "

Brahadaranyaka Upanisad

 

669) Sri Annada

— The Giver of Food.

— Sustains Life and Consciousness.

 

739) Sri Layakari

—The Fifth State beyond Turiya.

—The State where individual and Cosmic Consciousness merge.

 

807) Sri Param-dhama

— The Ultimate Light.

— The Ultimate Status

— 'Yadgatva na nivartante taddhama paramam mama'

" The State of Consciousness from which there is no return is My Ultimate State. "

(Bha. Gi. 16-6)

 

854) Sri Gambhira

— The Bottomless Lake.

— " The Ultimate Mother is to be visualised as a great and deep lake of

Consciousness, uncomprehended by Space and Time. " Siva Sutra 1.23

 

858) Sri Kalpana-rahita

— Pure Consciousness.

 

907) Sri Tattvamayi

— The Mother of the Ultimate State of Consciousness.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama,

C. S. Murthy, Assoc. Advertisers and Printers, 1989

 

 

i think you are wasting your time here Semira, and should seek answers

elsewhere. You have learnt little despite spending so much time here. Obviously

the source of all this ignorance and delusion is you yourself. You are now

posting at this forum again because your previous favourite anti-Shri Mataji

forum is almost dead …………….. hardly two or three posts a month. Can you find

another forum that can accommodate your dreams, delusion, ignorance and ego?

 

regards,

 

 

jagbir

 

 

, " caraleen98 " <caraleen98

wrote:

>

> Dear members,

> Expanding on my previous post...

> Having given some thought to the questions I have, I am realising that

everything has similar patterns of organisation. Just as consciousness has

specific mechanics in communities, so it also has these mechanics for one

individual human being, in which the organ systems and cells form the 'parts of

the community'. In this case also, the resulting consciousness is also greater

than the expected sum of the parts.

> Another question has arisen; consciousness seems dependent on matter for its

continuing evolution; but what about the very beginning? Was there any form of

consciousness before there was living matter? Did a spark of consciousness begin

the process of life?

> Also, something else is bothering me. Everything in the universe undergoes

transformation, and nothing can disappear. What happens then to the things that

people do that we regard as negative? Just as good things endure, do the bad

things endure also?

> Love, Semira

>

, " caraleen98 " <caraleen98@>

wrote:

> >

> > Dear Jagbir,

> > This is a lovely article. Strangely, when I was reading it, I thought the

person writing it was a young girl. I was surprised to see at the end of the

article that it is Deepak Chopra.

> > He writes of things I'm wondering about, and maybe you could have some

answers and information.

> >

> > In all communities on earth, there is a consciousness that arises which is

greater in total than is to be expected from the summing up of the individual

parts. This applies to all living things; flocks of birds, bee swarms,

ants...Somehow this consciousness is indirectly available to all in the

community. My questions are, how is this consciousness communicated? The

qualities of consciousness cannot be explained fully by genetic patterns;

consciousness seems to have the capacity of expansion out of physical

boundaries. How much is consciousness dependent on matter? Also, once

consciousness reaches a certain point, does it becomes fully independent of

matter, so that if the matter is destroyed, does the consciousness continue?

Also, each generation of organisms has the capacity to influence the direction

of consciousness. What happens to the energy of consciousness if an entire

community is destroyed, for example?

> > Warm regards,

> > Semira

> >

> >

> >

> >

> > , " jagbir singh "

<adishakti_org@> wrote:

> > >

> > > " Memoir: The Life Beyond

> > >

> > > While writing this book on the afterlife, I kept being drawn back to

> > > stories that I'd heard in India as a child. Parables are a powerful

> > > way to teach children, and many of the ones told to me have lasted

> > > all my life. So I decided to weave the book around tales of the kind

> > > I heard at home, around the temples, and at school, hoping that the

> > > reader would be enticed by a world where heroes battle darkness in

> > > order to emerge into the light.

> > >

> > > In this case the hero is a woman, Savitri, and the enemy she must

> > > defeat is Yama, the lord of death. Yama shows up in her front yard

> > > one day, waiting to take away her husband the moment he returns from

> > > his work as a woodcutter. Savitri is terrified. What strategy could

> > > possibly turn Death away from his inexorable mission?

> > >

> > > I had no trouble imagining these characters. I was frightened for

> > > Savitri and anxious to find out how her battle of wits with Death

> > > turned out. Their world flowed easily into my own, because the India

> > > of my childhood was not that far removed from ancient India. I want

> > > to take a moment to convey what death and the world beyond meant back

> > > then. It may seem like a very esoteric place. If so, you can come

> > > back to it after reading the main body of the book. However

> > > mysterious and exotic, here is where I began.

> > >

> > > What was most magical in my childhood was transformation. Death

> > > itself was seen as a brief stopping point on an endless soul journey

> > > that could turn a peasant into a king and vice versa. With the

> > > possibility of infinite lifetimes extending forward and backward, a

> > > soul could experience hundreds of heavens and hells. Death ended

> > > nothing; it opened up limitless adventures. But at a deeper level,

> > > it's typically Indian not to crave permanence. A drop of water

> > > becomes vapor, which is invisible, yet vapor materializes into

> > > billowing clouds, and from clouds rain falls back to earth, forming

> > > river torrents and eventually merging into the sea. Has the drop of

> > > water died along the way? No, it undergoes a new expression at each

> > > stage. Likewise, the idea that I have a fixed body locked in space

> > > and time is a mirage. Any drop of water inside my body could have

> > > been ocean, cloud, river, or spring the day before. I remind myself

> > > of this fact when the bonds of daily life squeeze too tight.

> > >

> > > In the West the hereafter has been viewed as a place akin to the

> > > material world. Heaven, hell, and purgatory lie in some distant

> > > region beyond the sky or under the earth. In the India of my

> > > childhood the hereafter wasn't a place at all, but a state of

> > > awareness.

> > >

> > > The cosmos that you and I are experiencing right now, with trees,

> > > plants, people, houses, cars, stars, and galaxies, is just

> > > consciousness expressing itself at one particular frequency.

> > > Elsewhere in spacetime, different planes exist simultaneously. If I

> > > had asked my grandmother where heaven was, she would have pointed to

> > > the house we lived in, not only because it was full of love, but

> > > because it made sense to her that many worlds could comfortably

> > > inhabit the same place. By analogy, if you are listening to a concert

> > > orchestra, there are a hundred instruments playing, each occupying

> > > the same place in space and time. You can listen to the symphony as a

> > > whole or, if you wish, put your attention on a specific instrument.

> > > You can even separate out the individual notes played by that

> > > instrument. The presence of one frequency does not displace any of

> > > the others.

> > >

> > > I didn't know it as a child, but when I walked around the crowded

> > > Delhi market where more humanity was packed into one bazaar than was

> > > possible to imagine, the world I couldn't see was even more crowded.

> > > The air that I breathed contained voices, car noises, bird songs,

> > > radio waves, X-rays, cosmic rays, and an almost infinite array of

> > > subatomic particles. Endless realities lay all around me. "

> > >

> > > Deepak Chopra, Life After Death: The Burden of Proof

> > > Harmony; 1 edition (October 17, 2006), pages 1-2

> > > ISBN-10: 0307345785

> > > ISBN-13: 978-0307345783

> > >

> >

>