Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
25th April 2019
Death (2)
“Transformation”
Life is eternal since God is the source of life and God is eternal. Nobody knows when death started, for nobody knows when life started. Death has no barriers: it happens to the young and old in every religion, culture and tradition. Transformation is a process of life, which includes death. Man tries to prevent death, but it spares no-one. If the grief were real, why would God create it, if God is compassionate and loving? Man prays that death should not occur, but why has God still maintained death in life?
If death has to happen, it would require birth to be present in the very moment death happens, because only the birth of something can die and nothing else. Furthermore, the birth of something would require life to keep it alive. Therefore, life has to be present when death occurs, otherwise death just cannot happen. Since death contains life, it cannot be an end; it has to be life that is transforming into its next form!
Birth would require death to be present in the very moment birth happens, because only the death of something can lead to birth and nothing else. And the death of something would require life to keep it dying. Life has to be present when birth occurs, otherwise birth just cannot happen. Birth and death are present in every moment as life, for life is eternal. Death, therefore, is life that is transforming.
Life is a journey of energy or light and sound and, on this journey, there is death and rebirth of the dead in a transformed form. Death and rebirth of the dead is the sophistication of life. So understand that death is the end and the beginning too. Death is needed for life to survive - this is the paradox. Life cannot be eternal if death is absent - this is the paradox. God or life cannot manifest an eternal life without death - this is the paradox. Eternity has to include death if it is to be eternal. The entire universe dies every moment only to be born every moment. Such is the intelligence of life.
Embrace life as well as death for life is fresh and death is an invitation to the transformed. There is nothing to grieve for in life as life maintains itself eternally. Life was here before you came into it and will be here even after you leave it. Life and death are together and never separate. You cannot find life alone or death alone: they live together and die together, and this is what makes life and death a mystery!
Everything in life is maintained as a reflection of light. Life is light or soul, and this soul is everywhere and appears as everything, including the dead. The soul needs to be present for the dead to be present. The dead cannot be present if the soul is absent. The soul transforms the dead into other forms of life. So even in the dead the soul is present: the dead cannot be without the soul. The belief that the soul leaves the body after it is dead is a fairy-story. If soul is everywhere, where will the soul go after the body is dead? The dead too is alive because the soul is within it. It is just that the mind cannot think aliveness in the form of the dead. The soul does not go anywhere for it is everywhere. In understanding this one lives in peace ever after. Enlightenment is the realisation that the soul is eternal – meaning light is everywhere!
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2019
Editor’s Note:
This article evokes a revered, ancient text that asks rhetorically: ‘’O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?’’ In knowledge, there is life and there is death. Man grieves at the death of a person – when the body seems lifeless; man is joyous at the birth of a person – when a new body appears that is full of life. Thus, every being’s span of life is framed by grief and joy, for such is the unshakeable belief that controls man’s behaviour.
In wisdom, however, revealed by the deep understanding gifted in this article and elsewhere, there is no separation of life from death. In the understanding of this lies eternal peace.
Julian Capper
German Translator‘s Note:
“The whole Earth is the Sepulchre of famous men; and their story is not graven only on Stone over their native earth, but lives on far away, without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men's lives", said the Greek statesman Pericles in ancient Athens. The commemoration of the dead is traditionally bound to one place, in this case a local tomb extends to the whole world, but is nevertheless limited. The wisdom about death in this article by Dr. Shankar, on the other hand, is boundless. The action of the individual is not to be understood causally in a smaller or larger radius, but the entire life is a singular movement of light and sound. The dead is life that transforms. A view that transcends the boundaries of the mind.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.