Back to the roots - XXV

Journey of the Soul - VI

Bhagavad Gita says "As we survive the death of the baby body, and of the young body, so we live after throwing off the form of the physical body, as we throw off the old garments and put on new ones."

Death is nothing but a change of form. We fear it because of our ignorance of our state after death, because of our attachment to our near and dear ones and our material possessions, because of our anxiety on the uncertain fate of our uncompleted tasks and because of our fear of losing identity for ever.

At the time of death, we see that the physical body becomes weak and the senses become dull. What we do not see is a sharpening of psychical power in the dying persons. There will be cases when we can witness that the focus of the eye of the dying person changes as if the dying person is seeing something beyond us. There will be cases when the dying person starts conversing verbally or expressively with someone beyond us. This is probably the point when the dying person is in a unique position where he can communicate with Souls of dead relatives, acquaintances and friends and also the living beings. This is also the probable point when the dying person can send messages to great distances to his near and dear ones and seek assistance for the tasks that he has not been able to complete. I have received three such messages on three different occasions. 

Gradually all the sense powers and the energy driving all organs, power to think and emote etc. are withdrawn from the physical form and concentrated in the Soul and ultimately the physical form ceases to exist. Think of a candle flame slowly getting extinguished. Gita says "the Soul withdraws its limbs inside the shell, just as a turtle when frightened would withdraw its limbs within its shell". The soul comes out of the physical form earlier to total seizure of all physical organs of the body. To us it may appear that the person is still living as some of its organs seem to be working.

After the Soul is released from the body, there comes a period during which a state of confusion or indefiniteness exists in the Soul as it remain attached to the physical form in which it had lived. The strength of this attachment may depend on the length of sojourn of the Soul within the physical form, its incomplete tasks, its desires etc. The Soul is not immediately aware that it has become free of the physical form. it is not able to comprehend the situation when it sees its physical form lying. It fails to understand the hustle and bustle around the physical form, the weepings and wailings. It may even try to comfort the other living physical forms who are expressing their grief and try to reassure everyone that everything is fine. I have experienced the Soul returning to the home of its living physical form and going about its business as it was doing when living physically. The period of restlessness of the Soul in some cases is specially long and intense in case of accidental deaths.

Different religions deal with the physical bodies after death differently. Followers of Christian and Islam bury their dead under earth. Hindus, mostly, cremate their dead. When the Soul sees its physical form intact, its state of confusion persists for a longer time. When the physical form is destroyed quickly, as by the Hindus, the Soul is initially shocked to loose its erstwhile physical form suddenly but thereafter it is able to reconcile itself to the reality in a shorter period of time. In my experience, I have seen the period of confusion stretch up to 12 days out of which the restlessness in the Soul is very intense for the first 7 days. There are mentions in some memoirs that the soul's attachment to its physical assets, loved ones and hated ones may be much much longer. In one case I have seen the period of restlessness to be hardly a day.

Raymond A. Moody Jr. in his book Life after life has compiled the experiences of people who had undergone Near Death Experience (NDE). He highlights certain phenomena which were common to most of the NDEs. One of them is an intense buzzing or whistling sound at the point when the Soul leaves the body. The other is the appearance of other Souls - some of the relatives, friends and acquaintances who had died and not yet reincarnated - to help guide the Soul of the dead person into the new realm. The appearance of other souls has been communicated to me also. The phenomena of sound has not been communicated to me nor have I explored this in my communication exposures to the Souls.

The choice to go with other Souls or remain near its physical world, till the Soul is reconciled to the current reality, lies with the Soul. Moody in his book reports that those Souls who opt to go with other Souls pass through a dark passage towards to ball of intense brightness. The brightness is not of the variety that blinds the eyes but soft. My experience with Souls also confirms the brightness but not the dark passage. It may be that different experiences occur to different Souls. 

It is time to reproduce my experiences which confirmed to me that we are not only a mass of bones and flesh. We are spiritual beings seeking physical experience and not the other way around.



Phir Milenge



Prabir