What Becomes Of The Soul After Death By SriSwami Sivananda
Death is not the end of life. Life is one continuous never-ending
process. Death is only a passing and necessary phenomenon, which every soul
has to pass to gain experience for its further evolution. Dissolution of
the body is no more than sleep. Just as man sleeps and wakes up, so is
death and birth. Death is like sleep. Birth is like waking up. Death brings
promotion to a new and better life. A man of discrimination and wisdom is
not afraid of death. He knows that death is the gate of life. Death to him
is no longer a skeleton bearing a sword to cut the thread of life, but
rather an angel who has a golden key to unlock for him the door to a wider,
fuller and happier existence. Every soul is a circle. The circumference of
this circle is nowhere but its centre is in the body. Death means the
change of this centre from body to body. Why, then, should you be afraid of
death?
The Supreme Soul or Paramatman is deathless, decayless, timeless,
causeless and spaceless. It is the source and substratum for this body,
mind and the whole world. There is death for the physical body only, which
is a compound of five elements. How can there be death for the Eternal Soul
which is beyond time, space and causation? If you wish to free yourself
from birth and death, you must become bodiless. Body is the result of
Karmas or actions. You must not do any action with expectation of fruits.
If you free yourself from Raga-Dvesha, or likes and dislikes, you will be
free from Karma. If you kill egoism only, you can free yourself from Raga
and Dvesha. If you annihilate ignorance through knowledge of the
Imperishable, you can annihilate egoism. The root-cause for this body is
therefore ignorance.
How Soul Departs After Death
At the time of death when the breathing becomes difficult the Jiva or the
individual self that is in the body goes out making noises. Just as a cart
heavily loaded goes on creaking, so does the Jiva creak while the Prana
departs. The Jiva or the individual self has the subtle body as its
limiting adjunct. It moves between this and the next world as between the
waking and the dream states. It moves from birth to death. While in birth
it associates itself with the physical body and the organs, in death it
disassociates with them. The departure of the soul is immediately followed
by the departure of the vital force. It is presided over by the Supreme
self-luminous Atman. It is through the light of the self that the man sits,
moves and does his daily duties.
The subtle body has the vital force or Prana as its chief constituent. It
is revealed by the self-luminous Atman. When the subtle body rises up, the
Atman also seems to go with it. Otherwise how can the self, being unified
with the Supreme Self, go making noises like a cart? It goes making noises
because it is afflicted by the pain as the vital parts are being slashed.
Loss of memory is caused as a result of this vital and excruciating pain.
He is then put in a helpless state of mind on account of the pangs felt.
Therefore, he is unable to adopt the requisite means for his well-being,
before that crisis comes. He must be alert in practising the means
conducive to that end. He is not able to think of God.
In old age, the body becomes thin and emaciated on account of fever
and other diseases. When the body is extremely emaciated by fever and other
causes, dyspnoea sets in and at this stage the man goes making noises like
the overloaded cart.
Soul’s Journey After Death
The soul accompanied by the chief vital air (Mukhya Prana), the
sense-organs and the mind and taking with itself Avidya, good and evil
actions and the impressions left by his previous existence, leaves its
former body and obtains a new body. When the soul passes from one body to
another he is enveloped by the subtle parts of the elements which are the
seeds of the new body. He rises on the road leading through the smoke and
so on, to the sphere of the moon. After enjoying the fruits of his good
actions he again descends to the earth with a remainder of the works, by
the way he went and differently too. When the Karma, which gave the soul a
birth as a god in heaven, is exhausted, the remaining Karma, good or bad,
brings him back to the earth. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain the
happiness or misery of a new-born child.
The Two Paths–Devayana And Pitriyana
THE PATH OF LIGHT (DEVAYANA)
The Uttara Marga or Devayana path or Northern path or the path of light
is the path by which the Yogins go to Brahman. This path leads to
salvation. This path takes the devotee to Brahmaloka. Having reached the
path of the gods he comes to the world of Agni, to the world of Vayu, to
the world of Varuna, to the world of Indra, to the world of Prajapati, to
the world of Brahman. They go to light, from light to day, from day to the
waxing half of the moon, from the waxing half of the moon to the six months
when the Sun goes to the North, from those six months to the year, from the
year to the Aditya. When the person goes away from this world he comes to
Vayu. Then Vayu makes room for him like the hole of a wheel and through it
he mounts higher till he comes to Aditya. From the moon to the lightning
there is a person, not a man (Amanava Purusha), who leads him to Brahman.
The bright path is the path, to the Devas, Devayana, of the devotees; the
bright path is open to the devotees.
THE PATH OF DARKNESS (PITRIYANA)
The Pitriyana path or the path of darkness or the path of ancestors leads
to rebirth. Those who do sacrifices to gods and other charitable works with
expectation of fruits go to the Chandraloka through this path and come back
to this world when their fruits of Karmas are exhausted. There are smoke
and dark-coloured objects throughout the course. There is no illumination
when one passes along this path. It is reached by Avidya or ignorance.
Hence it is called the path of darkness or smoke. The dark path is to the
Pitris or forefathers–Pitriyana or the Karmins who do sacrifices or
charitable acts with expectation of fruits. These two paths are not open to
the whole world. The bright path is open to the devotees and the dark path
to the Karmins. Samsara is eternal and so the paths also are eternal. The
Pranas of Jivanmuktas who have attained knowledge of the Self do not
depart. They are absorbed in Brahman. The Jivanmuktas who attain
Kaivalya-Moksha or immediate salvation have no place to go to or return
from. They become one with the All-pervading Brahman. Knowing the nature of
the two paths and the consequences they lead to, the Yogi never loses his
discrimination. The Yogi who knows that the path of Devayana or the path of
light leads to Moksha (Karma Mukti) and the path of darkness to Samsara or
the world of births and deaths, is no longer deluded. Knowledge of these
two paths serves as a compass or beacon-light to guide the Yogi’s steps at
every moment.
K RAJARAM IRS 4425
On Fri, 4 Apr 2025 at 10:56, Narayanaswamy Sekar <[email protected]>
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