COTTONED NOSTRILS
- N Reghunatha Panicker
Why do you fear when I am here? — consoles Bhagvan Satya Sai of Shirdi. His realization of the Self gives this benign assurance. His transcendence of illusion of Time and Space exhorts man to shed all types of fear. In spite of this, the man of the world still takes on the earthly journeys with all sorts of fear. The complex of fear was with him right from the period of his animal existence. We know that both the predator animal and its prey shoot themselves on their feet, the former for fear of loss of food for survival and the latter for fear of life for survival.
Among all types of fear such as loss of authority, assets, relations, etc. man is being haunted by the highest fear of his own death. At the same time we see man turning devoid of fear to commit suicide or to make himself an exploding bomb for the sake of evading liabilities or ending strained relations or executing revengeful plots. All these types of perpetrations are born out of lack of knowledge of his life after destruction of the Divine boon, the physical body. For most men, after-death-experience is as unfamiliar as the taste of cyanide and for some others it is panacea for their unsolved problems.
Death signifies a Destined End And Total Halt to one physical life. This happens when the silver cord connecting the etheric body is permanently severed from the physical body. Holy Bible says: “Before the silver cord is severed, the golden bowl shattered, the pitcher broken at the fountain and the wheel broken at the cistern; then the dust returns to the earth as it was and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes, 12:6, 7) In natural death the deceased yields to his destiny. In suicide the self murderer goes against his destiny and in accident the victim obeys his karmic dictates.
Refreshing our understanding about our physical, astral and mental worlds as well as our physical, astral, mental and causal bodies is inevitable to conceive human life before and after the incidence of death. No world has dearth of death and each world is a berth for birth. Worlds are made of seven sub planes of matter. Solid, liquid, gaseous, etheric, super etheric, sub atomic and atomic states of matter in an interpenetrated condition make the physical world. Physical body is of these physical matter. All other worlds are of similar formations. The astral body is of astral matter. The mental body is of mental matter of the bottom four sub planes. Causal body is of mental matter of the top three sub planes.
Death in physical world, leaving only the physical body, is to take birth in the astral world in his other three bodies. After realising his incapability for fulfilling the desires, the astral body is cast aside and he takes birth in the Heaven World (lower mental world). A stage will come when all his thoughts are satiated. The mental body also will then be foresaken in the lower mental world (svar loka). In his causal body he is born now in the higher sub planes of the mental world (higher heaven). Taken over by the karmic instincts, he moves downwards for the next incarnation, after acquiring enroute, new and improved mental and astral bodies.
The physical body before death was made using the elements as loaned from the universe and it is only just and proper to return after their prolonged use in that life time. World religions adopt different methods for the disposal of the deceased body according to respective belief. Cremation, burial, throwing to vultures, pouring to flowing water, embalming, etc are some of them. Of these, consigning to flames is the best method resulting in immediate breaking up into constituent elements for appropriate disposal. Grilling in electric crematorium does not form a proper offering to Agni Element, because heat and light are only the emmisions of it (thirst will be quenched only by water and not by its ingredients oxygen and hydrogen). The venerable ashes consigned to sacred rivers or sea enable ‘The Late’ join with the Ap element.
Now let us follow the man who is born in the astral world after his physical death. All physical births are for working out the assigned portion of the cumulative karma of the “real man” in a specified terrene life period. The throwing off of the physical vesture after such a specified period is called “natural death” and prior to that period is called “unnatural death”.
There is no travel involved to reach the astral world. World means particular state of Consciousness. Consciousness is the vibratory response to the stimulus by the surrounding matter. Upon death, the astral body of the physical man will get modified with its coarser particles forming its outer sheath. Communication there will be in colours of astral body changing with varying emotions. Prana will enable movements.
After-death-experi- ences in astral world
A. Natural death: 1. Virtuous persons — short astral life. 2. Ordinary persons — comparatively long astral life; physical world communications will be received by them. Homages, remembrances, yajnas and rituals in holy places etc. will reach them, but with no return acknowledgments. Indefinite Observances of death anniversary will block their onward journey to the heaven world. RIP (rest in peace) shall be MIP (march in peace). 3. Cruel persons —longer astral life. Unfulfilled desires in earth life will haunt them; can influence Mediums in the physical world (Medium is a living person of little will power and easy vulnerability)
B. Suicides : 1. Virtuous but ignorant persons — will happily sleep till the time of normal death on earth. 2. Others — will be entrapped in a narrow strait till the time of normal death. They will take indifferent and defying attitudes; can communicate with earth to their own detriment. Their life is picturised as the fine sand spraying out through the broken neck of the primitive hour-glass.
C. Accident death: 1. Virtuous persons — good dreamy life till the destined physical life period (eg. : destined life 60 yrs, accident at 35 yrs, then astral life for 25 yrs). 2. Immoral persons — deplorable, wandering life upto normal death time. Can appear as ghosts through living Mediums on earth. After the time of normal death, they get into the outside of earth’s aura for the inevitable doom.
D. Sacrificial death: Venturers into sea for fishing in spite of weather warnings, brain exertions through over study, martyrs dying on the news of their ideal personalities, etc. come under this category. Their astral life will depend upon their motives. Since died under hallucination, they indulge in a long sleep.
The second death of man happens when his astral body is cast aside to take new birth in the heaven world. While here, his very thought creates immediately such happiness as he longs for. Apart from developing his Will, he transforms all his experiences into eternal concepts and faculties. The period in heaven depends on the strength of his aspirations. Heaven life of children will be comparatively short.
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The exit and entry gates of life-breath to the tabernacle of man are now closed with cotton as the indweller has gone for a long holiday to astral and mental worlds. He will once return in exalted splendour to show his Will, skill and thrill, till he becomes still with COTTONED NOSTRILS again!
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