Sunday, May 9, 2010
The great fear in front of death, the processes of death and birth are discussed in great detail in the Puranas; they begin with death and then proceed to birth.
The sages asked Vyasa, "Who is the companion of a dying man, his father or mother or son or teacher, his crowd of friends and relations? When he leaves the body that has been his house as if it were a house of wood or mud, and goes into the world beyond, who follows him?" The sage vyasa replied, "Alone he is born, and alone he dies; alone he crosses the dangerous thresholds, without the companionship of father, mother, brother, son or teacher, without his crowd of friends and relations. When he leaves the dead body, for a brief moment he weeps, and then he turns his face away and departs. When he leaves the body, dharma alone follows him; if he has dharma he goes to heaven, but if he has adharma he goes to hell. Earth, wind, space, water, light, mind, intelligence, and the self (atman) - these are the witnesses that watch constantly over the dharma of creatures that breath on earth; together with them, dharma follows the jiva. Skin, bone, flesh, semen and blood leave the body when it is lifeless; but the jiva that has dharma prospers happily in this world and the world beyond."35
Another version of this text is rendered as follows: "his relatives turn away and depart, but dharma follows him...The body is burnt by fire, but the karma he has done goes with him".36 If dharma is one's karma, then the jive (subtle body) goes to heaven and realizes to be atman. If, instead, his karma is adharma, then he goes to hell.
At death the atman takes on the subtle body (diva) in order to experience the fruits of karma. Jiva is the carrier of the karmic deposit; it does not get destroyed in the blazing fire of hell nor does it get destroyed by any created instrument or by the elements of nature 37. [Jiva is at times identified with the linga-sarira and is also called the ativahika body, the body "swifter than wind".38 But the ativahika body is impure and eats on the pinda offered by his relatives, after which the jiva abandons the ativahika body and assumes a preta body. Then after the sapindikarana rite has been performed, the jiva abandons his preta body and gets an experience body (hhoga-deha). The experience body has two forms: one good, which experience the fruit of its good acts and the other bad, which experiences the evil fruit accumulated according to his karma and then he transmigrates39.]
Thus the man of mixed karma has one experience body in heaven and another one in hell; if evil predominates, apparently he goes first to hell, then to heaven, and then from hell to an animal womb; if good predominates, he goes first to heaven, then to hell, and then from heaven again to a good birth among humans.
