WHAT BECOMES OF THE SOUL AFTER DEATH
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Paraloka-Vidya or the science about the departed souls and their planes of living is a subject
of absorbing interest. It is a Mysterious Science which contains many secrets or hidden wonders. It
has intimate connection with Panchagni-Vidya or the science of transmigration propounded in the
Chhandogya Upanishad. The doctrine of reincarnation or metempsychosis, transmigration of the
soul and spiritualism come under the Paraloka-Vidya. Everybody is curious and anxious to know
this science.
Great scientists, the inventors of many marvellous things, mighty Emperors who have done
stupendous works, inspired poets, wonderful artists, many Brahmins, Rishis, Yogins have come
and gone. You are all extremely anxious to know what has become to them. Do they still exist?
What is there at the other side of death? Have they become non-existent or have they dwindled into
an airy nothing? Such questions do arise spontaneously in the hearts of all. The same question arises
today as it arose thousands of years ago. No one can stop it, because it is inseparably connected with
our nature.
CONTENTS
PUBLISHERS’ NOTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv
PRAYER OF A DYING MAN …………………………….v
ODE TO DEATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
WHAT IS REAL LIFE? ………………………………. viii
WHAT IS REAL DEATH? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
BIRTH AND DEATH …………………………………x
REBIRTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Chapter One
WHAT IS DEATH? ………………………………….1
Rebirth And Evolution Of Man …………………………….1
The Phenomenon Of Death……………………………….3
Death Is Not The End Of Life ……………………………..4
Process Of Death ……………………………………5
Signs Of Death …………………………………….6
Dissolution Of Elements At Death ……………………………6
Function Of Udana Vayu………………………………..7
What Is Soul? …………………………………….8
Philosophy Of Flesh ………………………………….9
Swoon, Sleep, Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Chapter Two
SOUL’S JOURNEY AFTER DEATH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Third Place . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Karma And Reincarnation (i) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
How Soul Departs After Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
The Departing Soul Compared To A King . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Process Of Detachment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
How The Self Departs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Soul’s Journey After Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
The Two Paths—Devayana And Pitriyana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Chapter Three
RESURRECTION AND JUDGEMENT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Resurrection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
The Day Of Judgement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Chapter Four
SOUL AFTER DEATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Soul After Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
What Does The Gita Say On Life After Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Death And After . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
xiii
Schopenhauer’s Views On The ‘After-Death State’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Last Thought Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Personality And Individuality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Belief Of The Ancient Egyptians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Chapter Five
DOCTRINE OF REINCARNATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Karma And Reincarnation (ii) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Reincarnation Is Quite True (i) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Transmigration Of Souls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Theory Of Rebirth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Reincarnation Is Quite True (ii). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Reincarnation In Lower Births . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Development Of The Child . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Chapter Six
LOKAS OR PLANES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Preta Loka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Experience Of Pretas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Pitri Loka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Heaven Or Svarga. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Hell Or Naraka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Karmas And Hells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Asurya Loka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
The Way To Yama Loka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
The City Of Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Yama Sabha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Indra Loka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Varuna Loka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Kubera Loka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Goloka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Vaikuntha Loka. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
The Seven Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
The Stay In Supra-Physical Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Chapter Seven
SPIRITUALISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Chapter Eight
SRAADDHA AND PRAYER FOR THE DEAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Importance Of Sraaddha Ceremony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Prayer And Kirtan For The Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Why Scriptures Are Read To A Dying Man? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Chapter Nine
CONQUEST OF DEATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Related Products
“Secret of power lies in unity and organization. Bringing out life-giving
common principles, we have to build upon the common ground of
Dharma.” — SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
“Later generations will take care of what they need to take care of. But
in our lifetime, we need to make sure that this Dharma is protected; not
only it is protected; it is handed over intact without any damage to the
generations to come…. Faced with militant missionaries, Hinduism has
to show that its plurality and all-encompassing acceptance are not signs
of disparateness or disunity. For that, a collective voice is needed.”
— SWAMI DAYANANDA SARASWATI
There is a remarkable agreement as well as divergence between various ideals of life
evolved by various peoples. Ethical systems of the world may be grouped in various
ways. There are systems like the Greek ethics, for example, which look upon the
material perfection as the goal of life. There are other systems like the ethics of early
Christianity, which look upon life-beyond as the main purpose of our life here. Thus
there is naturalistic ethics and there is supra-natural ethics; the former reveling in the
affirmation of our worldly life, the latter glorying in its denial. Now here the Hindu is
peculiar. The perfection of material life is a valuable Hindu ideal, an end in itself.
But eternal life is not allowed to swallow up our sojourn here. Marriage, pursuit of
wealth, acquisition of fame, success in war and peace, family prosperity: those are
held up as highly desirable things, when they are enjoyed in a righteous spirit. No one
can repose in peace as long as one has not made a personal contribution to the
building up and furthering of the secular civilization. But while it is enjoined on all
persons to fulfill to the best of their capacity their worldly ambitions summed up in
vittaiṣaṇā (desire for wealth), lokaiṣaṇā (desire for recognition), and putraiṣaṇā
(desire for progeny), it was clearly perceived that these were highly important ends,
but mere means for gratification of selfish desires. If one wants to save oneself, one
must rise to a high level and transcend altogether the attraction of these earthly
desires.
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