I was watching the video of Jaggi Vasudev talk about what happens after death to Shekar Kapoor. The link is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2tL4pgY-b8.
It was not very different from what you would have heard if you are born in a Hindu family. Though it was told by Jaggi with lot of conviction as if he knew them all (Note - I am in no way saying here that he does not know) unlike the elders in your family who would have not told with that much of a conviction or it would have been hazy. Jaggi was quite clear.
If I have understood him correctly, I can summarize that 'Life and Body are two different things'.
What this means is, you have this body and after you die, the life in the body is no longer there. This can be interpreted in two different ways. One, your body had something called a life in it when you were alive. When you died, that life thingy left. What I mean here is the life itself is something that is independent of your body. If I go back to Jaggi, this body is a gross body and the body in which life resides is a subtle body which may or may not appear for your eyes or some people would be able to see such subtle bodies. The subtle body leaves the gross body when you die. The subtle body also enters a womb sometimes within 48 hours if it had a very gradual and death by ageing (normal death). Such people who die naturally , peacefully may get a womb to enter immediately to get rid of their karmic desires if any remaining. While a person who had an unnatural death goes through a state of limbo for even centuries as the death is violent and the subtle body is probably not in a steady state. The subtle body itself has tendencies (which I understood as desires to accomplish this or that) only. It does not have any discerning mind to differentiate good vs. bad or control itself. It is in a uncontrollable state. Pain or pleasure, it is amplified 1000s of times than it would have otherwise happened when the subtle body was a life form in a gross body. As in a gross body it has the discerning mind to control itself. Thus if the person was not in a state of peace or calmness at the time of dying, it take a while for the subtle body to find a womb. At the same time irrespective of whether a subtle body finds a womb or not immediately, it has to be born again to fulfil its karma. Thus a person with a calm state has a better chance of cycling back again than a person with lots of disturbance even in the gross body and this means when he dies his subtle body goes through HELL truly until probably some good deeds show its way to take birth again.
There is probably not much difference above in what you would have heard if you are a hindu where I have seen personally people doing rituals at homes after death for 10 days and the whole year every month and then every year once to the passed away soul. There is also cases where if there are unnatural deaths, they do variety of homams (rituals) to probably show way to the soul in limbo to calm it down and probably guide it to take birth.
While I have also been a reader of science, big bang etc. If you go by that we are a evolution from the star dust. Our body is a product of nature and thus it goes back to nature when you die. There is nothing like a Life independent of body. When a body lives it has life. When it dies, the life in the cells of the body also perished. There is no separate subtle body hanging around after you die to find a womb. You come to life with the cells fusing - the sperm and egg. The characteristics are in the DNA carried over generations. Some are OFF and some are ON. That explains the different behaviours we exhibit. Also during this life some characteristics get imbibed in you for new situations that you encounter. You are a life form made of cells, DNA and the molecular fabric. And nothing else. Period. You die, You die. Nothing more. The cells decay over time and you die.
The first theory seem to drive a purpose. It has a goal to explain things like desires etc. that happen within you. Everything in the universe is pre-determined and it goes by that. Or in another way, if you do good things, you are at peace with yourself and so you end up not being in a limbo when you die. Your desires are something that happens when you are in the gross body and it can be accomplished only with the help of this body and the mind. So, being born is a important thing and you should be trying to get rid of desires and go into a state of non-doing/no-desire. That is probably the point where you are not born again, the subtle body probably goes into a more superior state. Or probably a next higher level state of Godliness. Thus this theory of life has a broader purpose, a goal to fulfil for the birth you take. Until you understand that goal, get it done, you wont escape from the cycle of birth and death.
The other theory of 'you are a matter with a life energy in all your cells' does not advocate any purpose to this life. It is aimless. Irrespective of you have a purpose or not, you die and when you die, there is nothing that follows. You procreate without any reason and it just happens because you had desires. A offspring is born with the sperm and egg which carry the DNA imprint and nothing more. You do not have anything to fulfil here in this world unless you decide to do so. And why you procreate, probably because of some urge or tendency part of your DNA that makes you not to break the replication or recycling...Even that behaviour is in the DNA. So, you or the so called conscience etc. do not find any place in this. It all happened without any purpose. Big bang happened without any reason. And you are here because Big bang happened. And you don't have any purpose here because there is no YOU. It is just a bunch of cells screaming here and there with some life.
Which is correct ? I feel if you take this life as is without questioning or trying to understand the mysteries of it, you are just left with living and nothing else. It simplifies the problem to a great extent. You can focus on your life. You can look whether you are breathing or not, whether you are seeing or not. Your mind is not mired by the Goodness and sins that are professed by pundits. It is clean, simple and you can raise your kids , family , be happy with your wife, friends, enjoy a good meal, watch a good movie etc. Or even write a article like this. Essentially do what gives you joy. Whichever of the above theories are right, it will at least not come in your way when you live. Ultimately by the same theory if you had lived a fulfilled life, you will escape the cycle of birth and death :-)
It was not very different from what you would have heard if you are born in a Hindu family. Though it was told by Jaggi with lot of conviction as if he knew them all (Note - I am in no way saying here that he does not know) unlike the elders in your family who would have not told with that much of a conviction or it would have been hazy. Jaggi was quite clear.
If I have understood him correctly, I can summarize that 'Life and Body are two different things'.
What this means is, you have this body and after you die, the life in the body is no longer there. This can be interpreted in two different ways. One, your body had something called a life in it when you were alive. When you died, that life thingy left. What I mean here is the life itself is something that is independent of your body. If I go back to Jaggi, this body is a gross body and the body in which life resides is a subtle body which may or may not appear for your eyes or some people would be able to see such subtle bodies. The subtle body leaves the gross body when you die. The subtle body also enters a womb sometimes within 48 hours if it had a very gradual and death by ageing (normal death). Such people who die naturally , peacefully may get a womb to enter immediately to get rid of their karmic desires if any remaining. While a person who had an unnatural death goes through a state of limbo for even centuries as the death is violent and the subtle body is probably not in a steady state. The subtle body itself has tendencies (which I understood as desires to accomplish this or that) only. It does not have any discerning mind to differentiate good vs. bad or control itself. It is in a uncontrollable state. Pain or pleasure, it is amplified 1000s of times than it would have otherwise happened when the subtle body was a life form in a gross body. As in a gross body it has the discerning mind to control itself. Thus if the person was not in a state of peace or calmness at the time of dying, it take a while for the subtle body to find a womb. At the same time irrespective of whether a subtle body finds a womb or not immediately, it has to be born again to fulfil its karma. Thus a person with a calm state has a better chance of cycling back again than a person with lots of disturbance even in the gross body and this means when he dies his subtle body goes through HELL truly until probably some good deeds show its way to take birth again.
There is probably not much difference above in what you would have heard if you are a hindu where I have seen personally people doing rituals at homes after death for 10 days and the whole year every month and then every year once to the passed away soul. There is also cases where if there are unnatural deaths, they do variety of homams (rituals) to probably show way to the soul in limbo to calm it down and probably guide it to take birth.
While I have also been a reader of science, big bang etc. If you go by that we are a evolution from the star dust. Our body is a product of nature and thus it goes back to nature when you die. There is nothing like a Life independent of body. When a body lives it has life. When it dies, the life in the cells of the body also perished. There is no separate subtle body hanging around after you die to find a womb. You come to life with the cells fusing - the sperm and egg. The characteristics are in the DNA carried over generations. Some are OFF and some are ON. That explains the different behaviours we exhibit. Also during this life some characteristics get imbibed in you for new situations that you encounter. You are a life form made of cells, DNA and the molecular fabric. And nothing else. Period. You die, You die. Nothing more. The cells decay over time and you die.
The first theory seem to drive a purpose. It has a goal to explain things like desires etc. that happen within you. Everything in the universe is pre-determined and it goes by that. Or in another way, if you do good things, you are at peace with yourself and so you end up not being in a limbo when you die. Your desires are something that happens when you are in the gross body and it can be accomplished only with the help of this body and the mind. So, being born is a important thing and you should be trying to get rid of desires and go into a state of non-doing/no-desire. That is probably the point where you are not born again, the subtle body probably goes into a more superior state. Or probably a next higher level state of Godliness. Thus this theory of life has a broader purpose, a goal to fulfil for the birth you take. Until you understand that goal, get it done, you wont escape from the cycle of birth and death.
The other theory of 'you are a matter with a life energy in all your cells' does not advocate any purpose to this life. It is aimless. Irrespective of you have a purpose or not, you die and when you die, there is nothing that follows. You procreate without any reason and it just happens because you had desires. A offspring is born with the sperm and egg which carry the DNA imprint and nothing more. You do not have anything to fulfil here in this world unless you decide to do so. And why you procreate, probably because of some urge or tendency part of your DNA that makes you not to break the replication or recycling...Even that behaviour is in the DNA. So, you or the so called conscience etc. do not find any place in this. It all happened without any purpose. Big bang happened without any reason. And you are here because Big bang happened. And you don't have any purpose here because there is no YOU. It is just a bunch of cells screaming here and there with some life.
Which is correct ? I feel if you take this life as is without questioning or trying to understand the mysteries of it, you are just left with living and nothing else. It simplifies the problem to a great extent. You can focus on your life. You can look whether you are breathing or not, whether you are seeing or not. Your mind is not mired by the Goodness and sins that are professed by pundits. It is clean, simple and you can raise your kids , family , be happy with your wife, friends, enjoy a good meal, watch a good movie etc. Or even write a article like this. Essentially do what gives you joy. Whichever of the above theories are right, it will at least not come in your way when you live. Ultimately by the same theory if you had lived a fulfilled life, you will escape the cycle of birth and death :-)
