Spirituality and Death

What is spirituality? What is death? Do we live on after death? What happens to us? Does it even make sense to ask questions like “What is my future after death”?

My spiritual quest began at a young age, although I didn’t know that it was called spirituality. But I dwelt deeper into life due to my love for Quantum Mechanics. I will write a blog on that some other time. But for now, I’ll stick to the topic of my blog.

Spirituality is anything beyond the physical dimension and not for the faint-hearted. Because what any yogic practice does, is that it dilutes your strong likes and dislikes, perceptions or ego etc… So, many people fear loosing themselves in the process as they are too attached with themselves or the world around them.

But that’s just half of the story. We all have a “warehouse” of Karma that needs to be worked out. Our past and present life karma, likes and dislikes, desires for material pleasures (even spiritual pleasures) keeps us in bondage and we end up getting re-incarnated to a physical body only to work out those karma.

So think about it.

We are here alive, in a physical body, only because of KARMA. The cycle of birth and death continues as we are not able to dissolve the past karma, and at the same time we are continuously generating new ones! So we end up coming back again just to work those out. But do we? That depends on each individual. If you still haven’t learnt your lessons, you end up coming back. Think of earth life as a school. You need to pass in order to get to the next grade. But this topic of Karma is so vast and complicated, I don’t think I can give my insights on them. Only a Guru or a self realized master can. I am not the right person.

Now coming to death….

According to the Hindu culture, death is just a transition that one makes from the present life to the next. It isn’t the end of the self. Yes, you do loose your physical body. But the very essence of who you are, which is the soul, never dies.

In some cultures, death is looked at as a day of celebration. At first I couldn’t really understand why people celebrated death? How sad and shocking. But now when I think of it, it makes a lot of sense. You are celebrating life and by the act of dying, the soul is now free to merge with the divine. So this is what the celebration was all about. Finally I got it. This is what we humans must strive for. To get back to our true “home” and to be one with the source.

I attended my grandfather’s funeral a couple of years ago and I saw the entire ceremony being performed. After that was done, I left for home. But instead of taking the road to home, I took the one leading to a local book store. I wanted answers and I just couldn’t wait anymore. You see, just like everybody else, my time was ticking too.

I browsed through their “spiritual” section and found something which looked interesting. It was The Tibetan Book of the Living and Dying. At the time, I had no idea what to expect from this book.

This was definitely a page turner and you could literally feel the wisdom pouring out from it. In a nutshell it spoke about the transition stage called the “Bardo”. The Tibetans believe that after the death of the physical body, the soul enters a state of existence which is neither of the present life nor the next. This state of existence is referred to as the Bardo. So here you are in the “in-between worlds” and the most crucial stage to be in because anything that happens here will dictate where you will be born next and to which womb.

Over the years I have read many books from great spiritual leaders like Ramana Maharshi, Sri Ravi Shankar, Sri Paramahansa Yogananda, Sadhguru, Eckhart Tolle…just to name a few. All of their teachings are amazing and I would recommend you to buy at least “one” book on spirituality by anyone of them. It’s needed now more than ever. Of course you can buy as many as you want. But one book on spirituality must occupy your bookshelf. It’s that important.

An inner experience of mine in the year 2015 also paved way towards spirituality. The experience was more to do on Astral Projection.

My interest in astral projection began when I was in my early teens. Now we are talking about the early 90’s. So still way behind the “internet era” and the only source of information were the newspapers or the library.

At the age of 14 I read a small article on astral projection in the sunday newspaper. You wouldn’t believe if I told you…but I still have the newspaper cut out :)..from 1994.

A couple of years ago I discovered Robert Monroe on google search and found his books (about his own astral projection experiences) extraordinarily charged up. It just blew my mind. I cannot emphasize enough on how good his books are. Amazing! You get a sense of hope and beyond when you read them. Those who believe that life cease to exist after death will think twice after reading his books.

So summarizing the article, here are my top 5 books you MUST read before you die! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not wishing for that to happen. But am referring to the inevitability of the situation. It’s a fact that we all WILL DIE someday and life will go on just fine without us.

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Currently at the time of writing this blog (JULY 2020), I’m reading the 2nd Vol of this book. If I were to die with that one book in my hand, it would be this one. And this is not written by just any man, but the one who attained “Maha-Samadhi“. The one who truly realized God himself. Such people are very rare.

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Moving away from being a novice, my “serious” search for the non physical dimension of life began from this book, the day my grandfather died. A must have to all those who want to know what happens after death and before we take another birth. The transitional state called “Bardo“.

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Sadhguru is a mystic and a modern day Guru. I have personally undergone a program called “Inner Engineering” from his organization. Here they taught a set of Yoga/Pranayama and a powerful Kriya. Do try it out if you haven’t. I start my day with his Kriya and have been at it since more than a year 🙂

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As mentioned above, amazing book with real experiences of the astral world. Get to meet the astral beings as Robert takes you on a journey to the astral world. Robert was so good at astral projection, that he could leave his body at will anytime during the day!

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The man who attained self realization. The man who saw God in everyone and everything.

Conclusion: Reading books about spirituality can only take you that far. It can motivate you to a large extent and help you make that jump, but they can’t provide you with real experiences. To experience something which is beyond the physical, you need to work towards it (using your body, mind and energies), either through Yoga or Meditation. These are scientifically proven tools and techniques which have been passed on from time immemorial. The greatest gift to man (and woman) is to be born a human. No other creature that we know of is capable of rising its level of consciousness like a human does. In that sense, we are indeed special.

So whatever you are, your goals and aspirations, just take spirituality along with you.

I hope this article was useful to you in your spiritual quest and I wish you the very best in life!