What is the first thing that comes up in your head when you hear the word-“Afterlife”? Is it eerie? Is it intriguing? Does thinking about it make a chill run down your spine? In our busy lives we often forget to even ponder over topics like these, specially the youngsters who may find this absurd and too philosophical a topic to give a thought to. But isn’t this something worth thinking about? Something that has been debated over thousands of years of our existence which might actually help us find answers to many unanswered questions in our lives, which might give a new direction to our lives adding ore meaning and a definite purpose to it. Many religions believe in the soul’s existence in another world like Christianity, Islam and many pagan belief systems, or in reincarnation like in many forms of Hinduism and Buddhism they believe that one’s status in the afterlife is a reward or punishment for their conduct during life. This is the very first thing that comes across the internet when researching about it, but when you start thinking and talking about it to people there are so many different views, ideas, concepts, beliefs and logics on afterlife. That’s when one realizes that the story and the whole concept of fterlife is so complicated and a lot can be discussed about it.
But how did the question of after life arise? Is it because one is always scared of death or how things are going to be once they die or the suffering faced when one is going to die. This question does not ever have a concrete answer to it. Each and everyone is scared of death because when one grows up and starts getting to understand things around and starts enjoying life so much, they dread death. One is petrified of death also because of the rituals that take place after one is dead, that is either burning the body or the funeral that takes place, one starts hinking that what if this happens with them.
Though the last rites performed is a practice that has been happening since ages but other rituals like small prayer meet, 4 days of death,12 days of death and one month mass are performed so that the soul of the dead person rests in peace and has a better afterlife. These things are just followed since years but there is no clear reason as to why these rituals are performed, but people start assuming that it makes the soul of the dead feel better.
According to various ideas about afterlife, the essential aspect of the individual that lives on after death may be some partial lement, or the entire soul or spirit, of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity. Belief in an afterlife, which may be naturalistic or supernatural, is in contrast to the belief in oblivion after death. This continued existence often takes place in a spiritual realm, and in other popular views, the individual may be reborn into this world and begin the life cycle over again, likely with no memory of what they have done in the past.
In this latter view, such rebirths and deaths may take place over and over again continuously until the individual gains entry o a spiritual realm or otherworld. Major views on the afterlife derive from religion, esotericism and metaphysics. Afterlife is such a topic that there has been so much research already put into it, People have tried proving afterlife through various religious facts, science, basic logics and quantum physics. There has always been a conjecture about afterlife all over the world and across all the religions. All cultures have different meaning and values of afterlife.
Nearly all the religions believe in afterlife, reincarnation, heaven and hell, or soul. Religion is a major part of life and death. The concept of afterlife has diversified so much across the cultures as they try to tame it according to their faith and belief. Most of the religions have a strong view point regarding life and death. For instance, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism have discrete opinions about death and what comes after. They question our beliefs, such as what is a Soul? Do we really have souls? Is it the same as spirit?
Is it separate from the body or a part of it? Is it mortal or immortal? Who all posses a soul? So many questions like these pop up in our mind when we try to ponder over this extremely interesting topic. Soul” is the spiritual or immaterial part of a living being which is considered to give “life” to the otherwise lifeless, material body. Without the soul, the dy is like a light bulb without electricity. Soul is not only the engine of life but also answers one of the most debated questions in philosophy- the “why” of our existence and helps us find meaning and purpose in our life.
Most of the people also believe that not only humans but also animals, plants, insects, in fact every living being has a soul. It is a things “inner identity”, its raison d’etre. But lets not forget, there is an entire sect of people, specially the ard-core science geeks, who are incredulous with regards to the mind-body dualism, thus denying believing in the immaterial existence of soul. They claim that our minds, souls, spirit and consciousness are all physical in nature. This rests on the premise that thousands of years of research and investigation prove that brains comprise and produce our true selves.
We have falsely inferred that we have souls and this idea has infused our folklore, cultures, myths and most importantly, the religions. Depending on the philosophical system a soul can either be mortal or immortal or there also can be a concept of no self”-“no soul” as in Buddhism. Re-incarnation or re-birth is the philosophical or religious concept which states that “an aspect” of living being starts a new life in a different physical body or form after each biological death. This “aspect” is nothing but the soul, which remains even after the physical body decays.
It explains the doctrine of cyclic existence. It is the central tenet of all major Indian religions, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and Buddhism. The belief in re-birth was also held high by such historic figures as Pythagoras, Socrates and Plato. Totally contradicting this view is the sect of Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam who do not believe that individuals reincarnate. They teach that there is a linear concept of life wherein human being has only one life and upon death is judged by God, and then rewarded in heaven or hell.
Thus, it is clear that there are various schools of thought when it comes to discussing the question-“What actually happens after- life? ” To summaries, while some believe that souls enter another body and have multiple lives and death until they liberate themselves to attain Nirvana or Moksha at the same time there others who believe in one life-one death concept rejecting the iew of any form of rebirth or re-incarnation. Belief in afterlife is a very ambiguous subject and it might be difficult to agree to it strongly until and unless it is proven.
There are proofs claimed and the presence of afterlife is felt through these proofs. It is said that nowadays there are ways to get in touch with the spirit world through hypnotherapist, ghost hunters, automatic writing and through other mediums. Hypnosis can make a person’s subconscious work and know what’s running in their subconscious mind. So when a person is hypnotized they behave different from a non-hypnosis person. Similarly ghost hunters are the people who gather in dark room with a very little light and they call the soul of the dead and try connecting to them through prayers.
On the other side Automatic writing is the process, or product, of writing material that does not come from the conscious thoughts of the writer. The writer’s hand forms the message, and the person is unaware of what will be written. It is sometimes done in a trance state. Other times the writer is aware (not in a trance) of their surroundings, but the actions of their writing hand. It is believed that while performing his act the writing is completely a soul’s thoughts and it is what they want to say. There is a story that describes how automatic writing changed someone’s life.
Laws of the spirit world , is a book written by Khorshed and it talks about the most basic things in life and tells one how to improve their current life so that they have a better afterlife. Khorshed and Rumi Bhavnagri, were a couple who lived in Bombay, India. They lost their two sons, named Ratoo and Vispi to motor racing. In 1980, the boys were to enter a mile across country motor rally. Just the night before the rally the brothers thought of taking their carout for a est run. They bid goodbye to their parents and left the house but unfortunately never came back.
The worried parents soon found out that their kids met with an accident, and both the sons had lost their lives. Khorshed slowly started entering depression and began losing faith in the Almighty. A month after the death, their neighbor overheard someone talk about how two boys who recently died in a car accident and wanted to convey a message to their parents. Rumi and Khorshed contacted this lady, and found out that using her as a medium, she would be able to connect them to their sons, who then sked their parents to write this book and help million others who are trying to find answers.
The most basic things can make a great difference to your current life and life later. It explains how one should analyze not just their surroundings but themselves and try and bring in some improvement through this process of self-reflection. Ratoo and Vispi have also mentioned many stories in the book that showed how a soul can try and improve and get good results in the afterlife later on. They also explain that every person on earth is here for a reason but they do not know what it is, however their subconscious ind does.
Earth is a school for every individual and they have been born on it because they want to try and improve themselves and go to higher realms in the spirit world. In one of the aspects in the book it is mentioned that there are seven realms and that heaven is above them. Realm 1, 2 and 3 are very dark places. Realm 4 is very close to earth and experiences both day and night. To reach a better level they try and improve themselves so that they can at least try and enter the 5th realm. Realm 5, 6 and 7 are gradual footsteps to heaven. It is full of light and it is always daytime there.
Everything is very beautiful about these realms. There is a lot of explanation regarding the conscious and the subconscious mind throughout. Subconscious mind is the real you and it knows it all. There are many other simple and basic elements covered in the book like why one should not commit suicide, how to try and be positive and what are the factors that lead to negativity. Having faith is the solution to negativity. The book gives up a lot of basic concepts that can help us in our day to day life, but more importantly it says that if we implement these, it will make a difference because God helps those who help themselves.
