Fear of Death-(Response Of Vedanta) (Contd)

Sri Ramakrishna

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By Super Admin

Wednesday, July 20, 2011, 13:16

The second body is the mind with its thoughts and memories, and the third body is made of I-consciousness. A human being uses his gross body in the wakeful state, his subtle mental body in the dream state, and his third body in dreamless sleep. The ignorant identify themselves completely with the body. The book-learned consider themselves a combination of the body, the mind, and the self. But the seers realize that the soul, or self, is distinct from the body and mind. This self, which is the focus of the deathless Universal Self, is our true identity.

Death Is Never the End

Death is disintegration of the physical body and is never the end of the story. When the physical body becomes broken due to illness, old age, or accident, the soul, along with the other two bodies, leaves the gross body and looks for another gross body to inhabit. The consciousness of the three bodies is consciousness borrowed from the soul. Deep identification with the body is the cause of the fear of death. The body, being material, is time-bound, and subject to six changes—birth, subsistence, growth, maturity, decline, and death-that are common to all material entities. Being identified with the body, a person follows the destiny of the body. When the body dies he thinks he is dying. But this is not so. The deathless soul only appears to die when the body dies.

Even as the embodied Self passes, in this body, through the stages of childhood, youth, and old age, so does it pass into another body. The Vedic seers speak of the soul's rebirth. This rebirth is governed by the law of karma that says that our thoughts, actions, and desires determine our destiny. The Bhagavad Gita describes death as one of the series of changes: 'Even as the embodied Self passes, in this body, through the stages of childhood, youth, and old age, so does it pass into another body. Calm souls are not bewildered by this. 'Rebirth gives the soul an opportunity to make things better in the next life. The very fact that life is ever changing indicates that there is some entity within us that is changeless. This changeless entity is our true Self, the constant witness to the changing phenomena of life. There is no escape from the cycles of birth and death until the Self is discovered.

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