"In this way the living entity gets a suitable body with a material mind and senses, according to his fruitive activities. When the reaction of his particular activity comes to an end, that end is called death, and when a particular type of reaction begins, that beginning is called birth."
[Posted
January 20, 2010]Dead and Undead
The body is always dead, animated only by the living force that occupies it until evicted by the hands of destiny, but ignorant of his/her identity as eternal spirit soul, everyone is busy serving the body, maintaining it and decorating it in life and in death.
New York Times Jan 18, 2010
- DAMIEN CAVE
As Haitians Flee, the Dead Go Uncounted
Along with everything else stolen by last week’s earthquake, Haitians must now add another loss: the ability to identify and bury the dead. Funeral rites are among the most sacred of all ceremonies to Haitians, who have been known to spend more money on their burial crypts than on their own homes.
It is the product in part of familiarity with death — the average life span of a Haitian is 44 — but also the widespread voodoo belief that the dead continue living and that families must stay connected forever to their ancestors. go to story
Sri Guru and Gauranga
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Life after Death Living Beings - Spirit Soul - Life ForceAlthough we are conceived by the combination of mother and father, or male and female, the living entity, in fact, is not the son or daughter of anyone. The living entity is by nature spiritual. The mother and father are just incidental. They create a favorable condition in which the soul takes shelter and then expands to develop a particular kind of body according to his past pious or impious actions. In this particular life we have a mother and father. But before this life we also had a mother and father, and when this life is finished, we shall have another mother and father. As living spirit soul, we are actually part and parcel of Krishna. The mother and father are just temporary. Mother and father are also subject to the miseries of birth, death, old age and disease. Although the mother and father act as the guardians of the children, they cannot really give any relief to the children from the problems of material existence—birth, old age, disease and death. Therefore, in the human life there are books of knowledge (shastras) which are for helping the conditioned soul to get out of the cycle of birth and death. The value of human life is that one we revive our original consciousness and relationship with God and be released from the illusory existence in relationship to this body. more
Ash, stool and earth
excerpt from lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.1.27, Honolulu, May 27, 1976
What is this body? A combination of matter. It is already dead. Because the living soul is there, it is moving, and as soon as the soul is out of the body, it is useless, dead matter. So what is there important talking about this dead body? It is made of this earth, earthly ingredient, and it will become again earth. Either... There are three, how do you say, transformations of this body. One transformation is ash. Another transformation is stool. Another transformation is earth. There are three different types of transformations. Just like Christian people, they bury the body. So, in due course of time you'll find, say, after ten years, twenty, your body's finished. It is now earth. The body has become earth. And Hindus, they burn it, so the body becomes ash. And the Parsees, they throw the body to be eaten by the vultures. It becomes stool. That is the last, how would you say, transformation of this body. And we are so much busy about this ash, stool, and earth. Just see how foolish we are.
Therefore Krishna said to Arjuna, gatasun agatasumsh cha. Just like motorcar, with driver or no driver, what is it? It is dead matter. That's all. Why one should be busy about this motorcar? One should be busy about the driver, whether he's [indistinct] nicely, whether he's eating nicely, he'll drive. If you don't take care of the driver, simply you wash the car, what is the use? The car will not be moving without driver. Similarly, the whole civilization should be on the basis of understanding the soul. That is civilization.
Unfortunately, by the spell of maya [illusion]... Just like this Ajamila. He's committing sinful activities. He's now rogue, thief, cheater. He doesn't care for that. But he's taking care of the body of his child. He's thinking, "This child will save me when I'll be in danger." There is another verse in the Second Canto [Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.1.4]:
dehapatya-kalatradishu
atma-sainyeshv asatsv api
tesham pramatto nidhanam
pashyann api na pashyati
Deha means this body. Apatya means children. Dehapatya. Kalatra means wife. Dehapatya kalatradishu atm-asainyeshu. Here is struggle for existence, and you're thinking that "This my strong body and my nice children and my wife, they are my soldiers. Therefore I am saved." Everyone is thinking like that. "Now I am in a good family. I've got my family members very nice. I've got this strong body. Oh, what do I care, God is dead?" That's all. So this is our misconception. We are thinking that this paraphernalia—my country, my community, my countrymen or my family, my wife, my children and so many things, mine, mine, mine—so I'm thinking that they will give me all protection. No. Therefore, in the Bhagavata it is said, dehapatya-kalatradishu asatsv api. He knows that "They will be finished. They cannot give protection to themselves. What protection they'll give to me?" This is knowledge. This is knowledge. Dehapatya-kalatradishu atma-sainyeshv asatsv api pramatta tesham nidhanam [SB 2.1.4]. He knows that they will be finished, pashyann api na pashyati. He has practical experience, yet still he does not see. This is called maya. Maya means thing is one and he's thinking otherwise. His soldier, the so-called soldier, the protector, will be finished, but still he's depending on him. Suppose a bird is flying with his family in the sky. But if there is some danger, then no other bird can help him. You have to help yourself. Just like aeroplane. If dozens of aeroplane is flying, but if one aeroplane is in danger, no other plane can give him any help. It will fall down and crash. Finished.
So we have to take care of ourself. Daily, we are thinking, "My country, my community"—they're all busy in this way—"they'll save me." No. When death will come, nobody will save you. He'll remember that. You are challenging, "God is dead." When God will come and make you killed, nobody can save you. So we are so foolish for thinking that "God is dead, and I shall continue my life, and my wife, my children, my countrymen, my nation will save me." That is not possible.
Bodily relationship an illusion
excerpt from lecture on Bhagavad-gita 2.51-55, New York, April 12, 1966
Birth means death. Birth means old age. Birth means disease. Whenever there is birth, the other things are corollaries. They'll follow. Your birth means... A son is born. Oh, you are very glad, "I have got a son." But if you study philosophically ... he is not born. Death is born. Because the growing of the child means he is dying. It is dying. The dying process. The very day, the very moment the child is born, the dying process begins. So we do not know that it is not birth; it is death. This is called maya. This is called illusion, that death is born and we are jolly that there is birth of a child. This is called maya.
So everything, from the beginning of our birth, we are illusioned. And that illusion is so strong that it is very, very difficult to get out of it. Whole thing is illusion. The birth is illusion. This body is an illusion. And the bodily relationship, the country is illusion. The father is illusion. The mother is an illusion. The wife is illusion. The childrens are illusion. Everything illusion. Everything illusion. And we are compact in that illusion. We are thinking that we are very much learned and very much advanced and so many things we are imagining. But as soon as death comes, the actual fact, the beginning of death, then we forget everything. We can forget our country. We forget our relatives. We forget our wife, children, father, mother—everything gone. You see? If it is a fact that I am soul, eternal, then it is a fact also that in my previous life I had my country. I had my children. I had my home. I had my father. I had my everything. But can you remember any of these things, what you were in your previous life? Either human, human-born life or either animal life, you cannot remember. Death means forgetful. We have forgotten everything.
Actually, there is no death for the soul. Just like at night, you go to sleep. So that is a sort of death. And again you get up in the morning. So death is something like that. Death is sleeping for seven months. That's all. Without any consciousness. For three months without any consciousness. Or, say, seven months. Death means forgetfulness. Just like at sleep, we forget everything—what I am, where I am sleeping, who I am, what is my identity, identification—everything forgotten. Then again, as soon as I rise up in the morning, I remember, "Oh, I am such and such officer. I am such and such father, such and such husband, and I have got to do such and such things." Everything remembered. But during your sleep, you forget everything. Similarly, death means from the time of your leaving this body and entering into the womb of another mother, and so long another body is not developed, you remain unconscious. And as soon as another body's developed within the womb of the mother and the time is up to come out, then again you remember.
So practically there is no death. Death means changing the body. We have already discussed this point. Now... But that janma, that birth, oh, it is stated here that it is a bondage. Janma-bandha. Bandha means bondage. Practically there is similarity in English. It is called bandha. And in English, bond. There is similarity of sound. Janma-bandha. So this janma, so long, so long your mind will be absorbed in the activities of this material world, you are sure to take birth again. So those activities, by intelligence, have to be purified in such a way that it will not affect you. It will not affect you. That is the tactics. So we should be very serious. We should be very serious that many, many lives, many, many lives we have passed, but there was no opportunity to get out of this tribulation of birth, death, old age and diseases. Now here is a chance. Here is a chance in the human form of life. So every intelligent man should take advantage of it, and you can get assistance from these authorized books of Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam.
Wandering from one birth to another
Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.31.44, text & purport
In this way the living entity gets a suitable body with a material mind and senses, according to his fruitive activities. When the reaction of his particular activity comes to an end, that end is called death, and when a particular type of reaction begins, that beginning is called birth.
PURPORT
From time immemorial, the living entity travels in the different species of life and the different planets, almost perpetually. This process is explained in Bhagavad-gita. Bhramayan sarva-bhutani yantrarudhani mayaya: [Bg. 18.61] under the spell of maya, everyone is wandering throughout the universe on the carriage of the body offered by the material energy.
Materialistic life involves a series of actions and reactions. It is a long film spool of actions and reactions, and one life-span is just a flash in such a reactionary show. When a child is born, it is to be understood that his particular type of body is the beginning of another set of activities, and when an old man dies, it is to be understood that one set of reactionary activities is finished.
We can see that because of different reactionary activities, one man is born in a rich family, and another is born in a poor family, although both of them are born in the same place, at the same moment and in the same atmosphere. One who is carrying pious activity with him is given a chance to take his birth in a rich or pious family, and one who is carrying impious activity is given a chance to take birth in a lower, poor family. The change of body means a change to a different field of activities. Similarly, when the body of the boy changes into that of a youth, the boyish activities change into youthful activities.
It is clear that a particular body is given to the living entity for a particular type of activity. This process is going on perpetually, from a time which is impossible to trace out. Vaishnava poets say, therefore, anadi karama-phale, which means that these actions and reactions of one's activity cannot be traced, for they may even continue from the last millennium of Brahma's birth to the next millennium. We have seen the example in the life of Narada Muni. In one millennium he was the son of a maidservant, and in the next millennium he became a great sage.