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- Herausgeber: Gita Publishing House
- Kategorie: Ratgeber
- Sprache: Englisch
Death is the one eternal verity of life. One thing is certain— we shall cease to live on this earth one day. But what is death? What follows after? Is death the absolute end? These are all unanswered questions.
This book will dispel your fears and doubts and cast a light over the darkness of death. Lucidly, with anecdotes, stories and real-life incidents, Dada J.P. Vaswani shows us that death is not to be feared, but it is an aspect of existence that we have to come to terms with. In his inimitable words, we have to “cultivate friendship with death”.
Inspiring and comforting this book will give you a profound understanding of the mystery that is death.
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Seitenzahl: 141
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020
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Published byGita Publishing HouseSadhu Vaswani Mission,10, Sadhu Vaswani Path, Pune – 411 001, (India)[email protected]
© J.P. VaswaniFirst Published - 19802nd Reprint - 19903rd Reprint - 19924th Reprint - 19965th Reprint - 19986th Reprint - 10,000 copies - 20007th Reprint - 3500 copies - 20048th Reprint - 3000 copies - 2019eBook edition - February, 2020
LIFE AFTER DEATHE-ISBN: 978-93-86004-30-7
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Author.
Printed atThomson Press (I) Limited
CONTENTS
Publishers’ Note
THERE IS NO DEATH
Death Is Sweet As Sleep
Why Fear Death?
Survival After Death
Cultivate Friendship With Death!
Three Practical Suggestions
ON THE OTHER SIDE OF DEATH
The Dead Are Not Dead
Life After Death
The Etheric Double
The Silver Cord
To The Astral World
Three Practical Suggestions
HEAVEN AND HELL: WHAT ARE THEY?
The Astral World
There Is No Hell!
The Heaven World
The World Of The Gods
Three Practical Suggestions
SOME QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Reincarnation
Spirit Communication
Astrology And Death
Best Way To Die
Death By Accident
Capital Punishment
Death By Suicide
The Path Of Light And Liberation
PUBLISHERS’ NOTE
Most of us live in the fear of death. It is not uncommon that the mere mention of the word “death” causes tension to many. Fear of death is usually caused by the feeling that the individual has not earned his conscious immortality, which in turn increases his fear of the Unknown. Another reason is that death comes as a break in the continuity of physical life, a parting from things that he has held dear and the uncertainty of the future. This fear must go!
Nothing is certain in this mad, tempestuous atmosphere of modern life— nothing but death. Everyone must die one day. Come you may: go you must! We are all moving closer to the hour of death, which provides freedom from the turmoil, changes and uncertainties of physical life.
Thus it is necessary that we know something more about what is certainly going to come upon us— death.
Is death the end of all things? Does life end with the end of the physical body? If not, what happens to us after death? Where does the individual soul go? What does it do? What are heaven and hell? Answers to these and many other questions can be got from this most inspiring and interesting book.
Death is a friend of man. There is a true story given by a girl whose mother was about to pass away. “Her eyes opened; they looked straight into mine. ‘I am in God’s hands now, and it is so wonderful! As she was saying this, she seemed bathed in light. As I stared at her, the mysterious radiance enveloped me as well. I said to her, ‘Do you mean, mother, that you see God?’ And she answered, ‘Yes, face to face, and it is so important that everyone knows. It’s so wonderful!’
“What’s so wonderful? Tell me!”
“Millions and millions of people,” she began slowly. ‘So many millions… and all on different levels. There is light… light everywhere— so much light! Tell them, the glory of God, it is so wonderful!’
“These were the last words which mother spoke. Her eyes closed, but the smile did not fade.”
This is only one example that proves that the state of death is painless and wonderful.
Everything happens according to the Great Cosmic Will of God— including death. And God is concerned and loves each one of us. And there is good in everything He plans for us and our evolution.
The after death states of the human being are largely determined by what he thinks during his last moments. The dominating thoughts of the life just ending, crowd into these last moments and hold the attention of the human. He has made them and so they rule his destiny, his condition after death, and the span of his next life. It is imperative, therefore, that man thinks of the Infinite, his God, at the last moment, but this may not happen unless the thoughts of God are imprinted on his consciousness many times before his death.
The fact that man’s days are numbered requires him to awaken out of his dreamy slumber and recognise the power of his being and the limitlessness of his self.
The series of lectures that have been compiled to make this book, were delivered by Dada J. P. Vaswani on the Sadhu Vaswani Mission Campus, at Pune. They give practical suggestions on how to live before death to achieve illumination after death, and give, in specific detail, a lot of valuable information about the very debatable subject of death. The book provides many rational answers to queries and misconceptions about a number of ideas erroneously fixed in us. Cases of certain deaths, which have been previously studied by scientists, are also narrated.
Every word of the lectures rings true intuitively and rationally, and what follows is greater understanding of this most difficult question in life— Death.
- The Publishers
There is no death!
Death is very much like sunset. It is only an appearance. For, when the sun sets here, it rises elsewhere. In reality, the sun never sets.
Likewise, death is only an illusion, an appearance.
For, what is death here is birth elsewhere. For life is endless.
THERE IS NO DEATH!*
Have you ever asked yourselves the question: “What is this world, this earth on which you and I find ourselves? What is it?” To this question a number of answers have been given. One of the answers which, to me, appears to be significant, is: “The world is a travellers’ inn. The world is a musafirkhana, a caravanserai.” We all are travellers. We are here on a short visit. Life at its longest is so brief. You may live to be centenarians. Yet the day will come in the life of everyone when, bidding adieu to his wife and children, his friends and relatives, his kith and kin, his properties and possessions, the institutions he has founded and nourished with the love of his heart— man will quit the scenes of life. Man is here as a traveller.
There is a significant little story told us concerning the king of Balkh. Ibrahim was his name. He was a great king. He had everything that the world could give. He was a master of pleasures and possessions and power. But his heart was not happy: there was within him a sense of emptiness. His soul was in quest. Of what— he did not know.
One day, suddenly, a stranger enters the king’s court and, quietly spreading his carpet on the floor, lies down on it. The king is naturally offended at his strange conduct and says to him: “What do you take my palace to be?”
Quietly says the stranger to the king: “I thought this is a travellers’ inn!”
“What do you mean by calling my palace a travellers’ inn?” asks the king.
And the stranger says to him, “O king, pray do not get angry with me. But do answer my question. Tell me who lived in this palace before you occupied it?”
And the king says: “Before me, my father lived in the palace.”
“Where is your father now?” asks the stranger.
And the king says: “He is dead and gone!”
“And who lived in the palace before your father occupied it?”
The king answers: “My grandfather occupied the palace before my father lived in it.”
“And where is your grandfather, now?” asks the stranger.
The king answers: “My grandfather is dead and gone!”
“And who lived in the palace before your grandfather occupied it?”
The king says: “My great grandfather lived in the palace before my grandfather occupied it.”
“And where is your great grandfather now?” asks the stranger.
Again the king answers: “My great grandfather is dead and gone!”
“Then surely,” says the stranger, “this is a travellers’ inn. For people come here, occupy this place for a while, then move on! You, too, O king, will have to move on!”
So saying, the stranger vanished as suddenly as he had appeared. But the words of the stranger lingered long in the heart of the king. And he said to himself: “This is not a palace: this is a travellers’ inn. Indeed, the whole world is a travellers’ inn. So many are born everyday; so many die everyday. This earth is not our Home. Where, then, is our true Home, leaving which we have come to this earth plane for a special purpose? Alas! we have forgotten the purpose, and we keep on chasing the shadow-shapes of pleasures and possessions and power!”
These and other thoughts come to the king. And sometimes you find him keeping awake in the middle of the night, asking himself the question: “What is the purpose of my visit to the earth plane? Why am I here? And where is my Home?”
One night, he hears a Voice. It says to him: “O king, if you want an answer to your questions, renounce, renounce!”
The king renounces the palace: he renounces the throne. Like the Buddha, he puts off his royal robes and puts on the garments of a fakir, a wandering mendicant. Donning the robes of a fakir, he moves on from place to place. Within him is the question: “What is the meaning of the mystery of this endless adventure of existence? What is life? And what is death?
We are told he comes to India and spends some years in the company of a holy man. I have not the time to give you the moving, thrilling story of this monarch who becomes a mystic, this sovereign who becomes a saint. I merely wished to tell you that his awakening began with the thought that this world is a travellers’ inn. We all are travellers. Our stay on earth is for a limited period. As we came to this earth plane, one day, we shall have to move out of it.
Farid was a great saint of Multan. He has left a number of wonderful slokas which still are sung in many homes. In one of his slokas, he says: “O Farid! Your father and your elder brother have already passed on! Soon, your turn will come! The children that are left behind— they, too, will have to move on to the Other Shore!”
No one has stayed on the earth forever. No one can stay on the earth forever. Leaving the earth is what we call death, even as coming to the earth is called birth. Death is a natural phenomenon. For whosoever is born must surely die. Why, then, are we afraid of death?
* Notes of a Lecture
DEATH IS SWEET AS SLEEP
A sister said to me: “Whenever I think of death, my whole body begins to tremble in fear.” We, many of us, I know, are afraid of death. And the very first thought that I would wish to pass on to you today is: Let us not be afraid of death. Death is a natural phenomenon. Moreover, death is a very pleasant experience. Death is just like going off to sleep.
Of all the experiences with which we are familiar, the sweetest is that of sleep. There is nothing sweeter than sleep. Sleep is such a sweet experience that the thought of it made the great English poet, Coleridge, exclaim: “O sleep! It is a gentle thing, beloved from pole to pole!” And Tennyson, who was gifted with deeper insight, tells us, in his In Memorium, that “sleep is death’s twin brother.” Death is as sweet as going off to sleep. And death is a natural phenomenon. Why, then, must we fear death?
In a number of messages that have been received from the spirit world, we are told that the state of death is utterly painless. Before death, a man might have passed through a serious illness, on account of which his body might have experienced great physical pain: but in the few moments before death occurs, all pain ceases, and man has the most pleasant of sensations that he has ever experienced. We are also told that, after death, man continues to be what he was before death. Man remains unchanged. All his characteristics— his thoughts, his emotions, his desires, his memories— are the same; they are unchanged.
A spirit is reported to have said: “We feel the change just as a serpent might feel, perhaps, when it has left the slough.” Serpents change their outer coverings which are called slough. The serpent continues to live in a new skin. The serpent is the same: it has only put off its old skin and worn a new one. That is just what happens to man in death. He puts off his outer body, the phyisical body.
Everyone of us, right now, has more than one body. To give you an illustration which you may easily understand, a man wears a shirt: over it he wears a coat: and over it, in the cold of winter, he wears an overcoat. When the man puts off the overcoat, he continues to be the same man: only instead of being clothed in an overcoat, we see him clothed in a coat.
This is what happens to man in death. He puts off his overcoat, or what we call the physical, the gross body, and he is clothed in what, for the time being, I would call the astral body. The man continues to be the same, even as I would continue to be the same, if I took off this shawl. I would then appear to you in my shirt, but I would continue to be the same man.
Man does not die: he only puts off the physical body. If you like, you may say that his physical body had died. Man does not die: man cannot die!
In the messages that come to us from the spirit world, we are told that, when the soul drops his physical body, he can see his friends and relatives, and he is greatly pained to see them mourning for him. He tries to explain to them that he has not died, that he is as much alive as anyone of them. He comes and whispers into their ears: “Why do you think I have died? Here am I, as much alive as any of you!” He comes and touches them and tries to comfort them. But because he is no longer in a physical form, he cannot be perceived by his friends. Within a few minutes, he realises the futility of his attempts, as the touch of his astral hands cannot be felt by his friends and relatives who wear physical bodies.
Whenever I am called to a place where someone has died, the very first thing that I tell them is this: “Do not weep, do not shed tears, do not grieve over the passing away of your dear one, for he is not dead. He lives in the Life that is Undying!” When you indulge in weeping and wailing, you do harm to your dear ones. The more we grieve over them, the more we cling to them, and so become a hindrance in their progress on the Other Side. We must not cling to them, but we must release them, so that in their new journey, they may move on— ever onward, forward, Godward. We should remember them in our prayers and, everyday, we should do some little deeds of service, in their name. This will bless them and help them in their new journey.
Immediately after death, a man looks around him and sees the same house with which he is familiar. He sees his physical body lying in a horizontal position surrounded by those whom he has known and loved, for they also have astral bodies, which are within the range of his new vision. Gradually, he realises that there is some little difference. He soon finds that he does not feel any pain or fatigue. The astral body does not experience pain or hunger and does not need to sleep. In death, man drops the physical body and continues to live in the astral body. In all other respects, he continues to be the same. His thoughts and desires, his emotions and aspirations and memories are exactly the same as before. He is in every way the same man, minus his physical body.
