Death and Beyond - Hinduism's take
So after reading about the Yogi philosophy’s take on the life beyond, I decided to read on what some of the religions and it great saints. sage etc have to say about the same.
My first stop was Hinduism cause for one I do know something about this already being a Hindu myself and I didn’t want to feel stupid when someone asks me about my own religion and I don’t know the answer.
Basically it’s real simple. Hinduism believes are almost similar to the Yogi philosophy, and I would guess most religions would have similar beliefs as well except for a few differences which I intend to find out. So we Hindus believe greatly in achieving Moksha, the central theme of the Hindu religion is this word "Moksha" - in other words it means liberation from samsara, i.e. freeing oneself from the cycle of life and death and reincarnation. Liberation is achieved by the giving up or freeing oneself from all desires - also known as Nirvana. Hindus believe that on achieving Moksha one truly becomes a Brahman and that is goal that a Hindu should strive for.
And the way to achieve this is only through Karma, i.e. deeds. and this is where Hindu philosophy is so different. Hindus give more importance to life before death since that is when we can shape our Karma. Every person is responsible for his only Karma. and only the Karma decides on your afterlife state. Only through your Karma can you achieve Moksha.
The yogi philosophy on the other hand gives more importance to life after death where the soul is given a chance to get rid of the sheaths of desires and more far away from the earthly desires.
But there are also similarities between the two beliefs. Like the yogi philosophy believes in the astral plane where a soul resides, so does Hinduism. In Hinduism there are 7 such "loks" or states where a soul resides... again based on it Karma. Some of these are the Patallok, the Bramhan ... Unfortuinalt i do not recollect the names of the all the states, but the central idea is the same. Based on your Karma you move up the ladder until to become a true Brahman and achieve Moksha.
Hinduism teaches a person to face the question of death with courage, death after all is inevitable. One can face death only by being grounded on the deathless self. Self knowledge alone can conquer the fear of death. I have to quote here the line from the Upanishad
"I know the great Purusha (Brahman, the supreme person), who is luminous like the sun, and beyond darkness. only by knowing him does one pass over death, there is no other way to the supreme goal."
Jul 16, 2008
Jun 20, 2008
Whats in a BRAND name ?
There is a reason why I am writing this post. A while back Apple announced that there were going to launch the "iphone" .. And that’s when the frenzy started... people were waiting outside the Apple store a week prior to the phone's release date... ya thats right... a Week ... now i do agree the phone did have some cool features (touch screen, ease to zoom in and out of photos, listen to music apple style, etc) ... but it also had a lot of and i mean a lot of blemishes , for one it wasnt a 3G phone so it accessing internet or steaming video would be extremely slow , there wasnt good GPS service, plus you could not download ring tones over the air. Now I do not want to get into the argument of its pros and cons, that’s for another post ... but the point I am trying to make here is how crazy people go over brand names ... just because it is Apple doesn’t mean there is nothing out there better than it or that being Apple it can justify the price tag ... but why wouldn’t they .. If there are people out there who would but an Apply irrespective of its cost, features, looks, etc. All that matters is that it is an Apply Brand electronic.
And now Sprint is launching its phone Samsung Instinct "iphone killer" with all the features that iphone lacked, at a price that’s one-third the cost of iphone, but still there is no media buzz about it. No people queuing for hours to get the phone. The Phone did sell out first day but there wasn’t any hype created by the media about it.
The same was the case when Apple launched its iPod. Once again the player was rocking no doubt with good features and good controls but again there were a lot of media files it could not play ( did not .. the Microsoft format ) .. And at the same time there were a number of other good players from good trust worthy companies like creative, iriver , etc
What I do not understand is this fascination with Brands... if it was Apple ipod again some Chinese make, unheard company, i can understand that... but when there are other equally good companies then why would someone still stick to a more expensive brand with obvious problems ... i fail to understand it ... do people do this just for Bragging rights or there is something here that i am missing here? or are these people taking loyalty to another level, i do not know ?
And it’s not just with Apple, but with a lot of other accessories in life ... apparels, handbags, sunglasses, you name it and it there. Once again some of you may argue that the fitting is different and the designers brands last longer and u can tell one from the other.... but frankly i cant. Just to give u an example, I was looking for a branded t-shirt.... i saw an Aeropostle white t shirt with AERO written on it for $20, walked into another shop saw an Abercrombie white tshirt with "A and F" written on it for $30, walked into a Hollister and saw the same white tshirt with "Hollister" written for $40 ..... my point if except for the brand name how are these different ... and why are Brand names so important , if its fits well and looks decent why not buy a regular decent brand ... My Newport and Wrangler jeans bought at the same time still fit me perfectly and are in excellent condition in spite of my rugged use and one costs ten times the other , ya believe that .....
Newport had cost me like 400 odd Rs while wrangler was like 4000, and when you don't tuck you tshirt no one can tell if its a wrangler or a Newport.
and if it were not for these words on the thirsts’ how could we tell the difference ... One of my friends in Boston who is big time into these branded stuff once saw my glasses and asked me "these look branded , how much did u get them for ". The truth being I had got them at a local store in my village, not even in Bombay. Point being that’s its not easy to identify a Brand unless its blatantly written on the apparel ... think about it ... other wise why else would the brands do that...
My Newport and Wrangler jeans bought at the same time still fit me perfectly and are in excellent condition in spite of my rugged use and one costs ten times the other , ya believe that .....
Newport had cost me like 400 odd Rs while wrangler was like 4000, and when you don't tuck you tshirt no one can tell if its a wrangler or a Newport.
That’s my $0.02...
And now Sprint is launching its phone Samsung Instinct "iphone killer" with all the features that iphone lacked, at a price that’s one-third the cost of iphone, but still there is no media buzz about it. No people queuing for hours to get the phone. The Phone did sell out first day but there wasn’t any hype created by the media about it.
The same was the case when Apple launched its iPod. Once again the player was rocking no doubt with good features and good controls but again there were a lot of media files it could not play ( did not .. the Microsoft format ) .. And at the same time there were a number of other good players from good trust worthy companies like creative, iriver , etc
What I do not understand is this fascination with Brands... if it was Apple ipod again some Chinese make, unheard company, i can understand that... but when there are other equally good companies then why would someone still stick to a more expensive brand with obvious problems ... i fail to understand it ... do people do this just for Bragging rights or there is something here that i am missing here? or are these people taking loyalty to another level, i do not know ?
And it’s not just with Apple, but with a lot of other accessories in life ... apparels, handbags, sunglasses, you name it and it there. Once again some of you may argue that the fitting is different and the designers brands last longer and u can tell one from the other.... but frankly i cant. Just to give u an example, I was looking for a branded t-shirt.... i saw an Aeropostle white t shirt with AERO written on it for $20, walked into another shop saw an Abercrombie white tshirt with "A and F" written on it for $30, walked into a Hollister and saw the same white tshirt with "Hollister" written for $40 ..... my point if except for the brand name how are these different ... and why are Brand names so important , if its fits well and looks decent why not buy a regular decent brand ... My Newport and Wrangler jeans bought at the same time still fit me perfectly and are in excellent condition in spite of my rugged use and one costs ten times the other , ya believe that .....
Newport had cost me like 400 odd Rs while wrangler was like 4000, and when you don't tuck you tshirt no one can tell if its a wrangler or a Newport.
and if it were not for these words on the thirsts’ how could we tell the difference ... One of my friends in Boston who is big time into these branded stuff once saw my glasses and asked me "these look branded , how much did u get them for ". The truth being I had got them at a local store in my village, not even in Bombay. Point being that’s its not easy to identify a Brand unless its blatantly written on the apparel ... think about it ... other wise why else would the brands do that...
My Newport and Wrangler jeans bought at the same time still fit me perfectly and are in excellent condition in spite of my rugged use and one costs ten times the other , ya believe that .....
Newport had cost me like 400 odd Rs while wrangler was like 4000, and when you don't tuck you tshirt no one can tell if its a wrangler or a Newport.
That’s my $0.02...
May 29, 2008
Life Beyond Death - Yogi Philosophy
Yet another excellent book I read on the subject of death and from a perspective of the yogi philosophy. I am trying to put down what I understood because frankly I have never read a book which talks to you at such a high level.
The main premise is that there is no death. That which we call death is nothing but the "other side" of life.
Death is nothing but the destruction of one form of life to building of a new one. What I found interesting and it was something I always thought about all along - the concept of heaven and hell - I always questioned the existence of heaven as a place where u go if u were righteous otherwise u land up in hell ... but I never really had a chance to explore this further until I read this book. Think about it, how can you be punished forever for such a small amount of time spent on earth. The yogi philosophers almost mock at this concept.
Anyways don’t want to criticize any faith or their beliefs, after all they are just beliefs right?
So these oriental occultist mentions about the idea of several planes of existence. A plane is not a place but instead it is a state. These astral planes are the most important element in understanding their take on life beyond death. So like I was saying the astral planes have several levels, the lower level beings ones which are still connected to earth and all its desires and wants , while the highest one being when u have completed removed all the sheaths of these desires and have attained pure spiritualism. After a person dies on earth so to speak his soul goes into a slumber. this is akin to a child resting in his mother’s stomach for 9 months before he starts his new life. So while the soul is in its slumber it tried to distance itself to the earthly desires. these maybe his loved ones, some duty which remained unfulfilled or anything. When the soul finally wakes up depending on how much away he is from his desires he wakes up on one of the astral planes. And as and when he becomes spiritually more active he moves upwards in the astral plane. A soul can move down on an astral plane to help other souls achieve spiritualism but a soul on a lower plane can never move upwards unless it has achieved a higher level of spiritualism.
That is the reason these occultist say that you should never call a soul down on earth because all you are doing is hurting the soul by getting it closer to earthly desires. All that he has achieved is almost lost and he back on a lower astral plane.
Another aspect of this philosophy that struck me really well is that after death you most likely meet the people you love. you might not get up from your slumber and meet that person but since the beliefs, ideas, state of mind of people who love each other are akin ... you would most certainly land up on the same astral plane. Moreover that person can always come down to a lower plane to help you achieve the desirable.
There are a lot of other concepts which were interesting when they talk about the astral religious expressions, the occupation, the companionship, the communication on the astral plane. Finally it talks about rebirth.
in spite of removing many of the sheaths of earthly desires, if there still persists some hint of these desires the soul then goes into its second slumber and when it wakes up finds itself in a new body, it reincarnates.
Such is the take of death - sorry "other side" of life by the oriental occultist and I found this philosophy very interesting.
The main premise is that there is no death. That which we call death is nothing but the "other side" of life.
Death is nothing but the destruction of one form of life to building of a new one. What I found interesting and it was something I always thought about all along - the concept of heaven and hell - I always questioned the existence of heaven as a place where u go if u were righteous otherwise u land up in hell ... but I never really had a chance to explore this further until I read this book. Think about it, how can you be punished forever for such a small amount of time spent on earth. The yogi philosophers almost mock at this concept.
Anyways don’t want to criticize any faith or their beliefs, after all they are just beliefs right?
So these oriental occultist mentions about the idea of several planes of existence. A plane is not a place but instead it is a state. These astral planes are the most important element in understanding their take on life beyond death. So like I was saying the astral planes have several levels, the lower level beings ones which are still connected to earth and all its desires and wants , while the highest one being when u have completed removed all the sheaths of these desires and have attained pure spiritualism. After a person dies on earth so to speak his soul goes into a slumber. this is akin to a child resting in his mother’s stomach for 9 months before he starts his new life. So while the soul is in its slumber it tried to distance itself to the earthly desires. these maybe his loved ones, some duty which remained unfulfilled or anything. When the soul finally wakes up depending on how much away he is from his desires he wakes up on one of the astral planes. And as and when he becomes spiritually more active he moves upwards in the astral plane. A soul can move down on an astral plane to help other souls achieve spiritualism but a soul on a lower plane can never move upwards unless it has achieved a higher level of spiritualism.
That is the reason these occultist say that you should never call a soul down on earth because all you are doing is hurting the soul by getting it closer to earthly desires. All that he has achieved is almost lost and he back on a lower astral plane.
Another aspect of this philosophy that struck me really well is that after death you most likely meet the people you love. you might not get up from your slumber and meet that person but since the beliefs, ideas, state of mind of people who love each other are akin ... you would most certainly land up on the same astral plane. Moreover that person can always come down to a lower plane to help you achieve the desirable.
There are a lot of other concepts which were interesting when they talk about the astral religious expressions, the occupation, the companionship, the communication on the astral plane. Finally it talks about rebirth.
in spite of removing many of the sheaths of earthly desires, if there still persists some hint of these desires the soul then goes into its second slumber and when it wakes up finds itself in a new body, it reincarnates.
Such is the take of death - sorry "other side" of life by the oriental occultist and I found this philosophy very interesting.
May 8, 2008
Death of Ivan Llyich - Tolstoy
Yep I read Tolstoy.... believe that ..
Just finished reading my first book that requires you to deeply understand what the author is implying, not just grasp it but relate it as well. It’s a book that will probably be at the back of my mind for a while, and the best part was that it’s not a difficult book to read, the language is very lucid and so are the thoughts.
The book I am referring to is "death of Ivan Llyich" which was originally written by Leo Tolstoy and then translated by Nadine Gordimer.
This book basically deals with Ivan Llyich who has always lived his life trying to move up professionally and tried to fit in with the rich and famous. It starts out with everyone’s outlook after hearing that Ivan Llyich just died, his colleagues and friends think about who would now get his position of power, how they would find a new partner to play cards with them, the wife is more concerned about how she would manage to conduct all the rituals and if there was some way she could get money from the government, the daughter and the son in law are more concerned about his wealth. The only real person who was with Ivan all the time was his loyal servant Gerasim.
The book then tells us how Ivan lived all his life and finally comes to the most interesting part, where he knows his health is desecrating and death is inevitable. It starts off with Ivan denying the fact that he would indeed die, trying to believe that the doctors would indeed be able to cure him and reduce the pain that he is suffering. He wants to belie that he would get better soon and life would be as happy as always. It then goes on to show that Ivan’s health is degrading and that he begins to believe that the doctors are just fooling him and that he would probably not get better. That’s when he begins questioning as to why God is punishing him with this pain, he always believed that the life he led was right and true, and he begins questioning the existence of God. Finally it dawns him that indeed the life he lived wasn’t true, it was full of materialistic gain, and there was no spiritual awakening ever. And he realizes this after he looks at the way his wife, his kids; his friends are behaving with him. He realizes that these people are infact himself. Finally he acknowledges that death is here and the only thing he can do right is to go in peace and not trouble his family anymore with his unbearable pain.
I guess the reason this books hit me so hard is cause I believe this realistic fiction is after all our life. Ivan Llyich is nothing but us. We live all our life running behind things that are materialistic, unreal, that have no value when we ultimately look at death in its face. I am not sure how I would react if I knew death was near, but what I do know is I wouldn’t be able to open my arms to it. I haven’t lived a meaningful life to acknowledge death. But then again how do we become spiritually active , lead a more real life ... I don’t have an answer to that yet, but it does begin with knowing what is important to you, whom you would want to be on your side when u r on your death bed , how do want to look back at life .... Would you have any good memories, anything that is infact worthwhile? That is my take on it; everyone has a different outlook towards life but it all boils down to understanding not life but death, the experience of dying, understanding the meaning of death.
I would really advice everyone to check the book out, like I said it’s an easy read and very worthwhile indeed.
Just finished reading my first book that requires you to deeply understand what the author is implying, not just grasp it but relate it as well. It’s a book that will probably be at the back of my mind for a while, and the best part was that it’s not a difficult book to read, the language is very lucid and so are the thoughts.
The book I am referring to is "death of Ivan Llyich" which was originally written by Leo Tolstoy and then translated by Nadine Gordimer.
This book basically deals with Ivan Llyich who has always lived his life trying to move up professionally and tried to fit in with the rich and famous. It starts out with everyone’s outlook after hearing that Ivan Llyich just died, his colleagues and friends think about who would now get his position of power, how they would find a new partner to play cards with them, the wife is more concerned about how she would manage to conduct all the rituals and if there was some way she could get money from the government, the daughter and the son in law are more concerned about his wealth. The only real person who was with Ivan all the time was his loyal servant Gerasim.
The book then tells us how Ivan lived all his life and finally comes to the most interesting part, where he knows his health is desecrating and death is inevitable. It starts off with Ivan denying the fact that he would indeed die, trying to believe that the doctors would indeed be able to cure him and reduce the pain that he is suffering. He wants to belie that he would get better soon and life would be as happy as always. It then goes on to show that Ivan’s health is degrading and that he begins to believe that the doctors are just fooling him and that he would probably not get better. That’s when he begins questioning as to why God is punishing him with this pain, he always believed that the life he led was right and true, and he begins questioning the existence of God. Finally it dawns him that indeed the life he lived wasn’t true, it was full of materialistic gain, and there was no spiritual awakening ever. And he realizes this after he looks at the way his wife, his kids; his friends are behaving with him. He realizes that these people are infact himself. Finally he acknowledges that death is here and the only thing he can do right is to go in peace and not trouble his family anymore with his unbearable pain.
I guess the reason this books hit me so hard is cause I believe this realistic fiction is after all our life. Ivan Llyich is nothing but us. We live all our life running behind things that are materialistic, unreal, that have no value when we ultimately look at death in its face. I am not sure how I would react if I knew death was near, but what I do know is I wouldn’t be able to open my arms to it. I haven’t lived a meaningful life to acknowledge death. But then again how do we become spiritually active , lead a more real life ... I don’t have an answer to that yet, but it does begin with knowing what is important to you, whom you would want to be on your side when u r on your death bed , how do want to look back at life .... Would you have any good memories, anything that is infact worthwhile? That is my take on it; everyone has a different outlook towards life but it all boils down to understanding not life but death, the experience of dying, understanding the meaning of death.
I would really advice everyone to check the book out, like I said it’s an easy read and very worthwhile indeed.
May 5, 2008
My First 5K Run
None the less, I haven’t lost hopes of seeing the scale dip down in my favour someday. I have been brave enough to face the taunts that my jiza showers me with whenever I tell her "jiza aapne Portland ke snaps dekhe ya jiza aapne Boston ke naye snaps dekhe" ... and jiza always has the same answer... "haan dekhe and tu pehele se mota lag raha hai" , "u are now looking like your age or more than your age" . I know jiza you mean well and I hope you know that I am making every effort to lose weight to look good in the snaps when the time comes :) , but I am after all a Panpalia ... our dna is such that love for food and heart disorders are engraved in it (sorry jiza I know I could have used better words and better language). Anyways I always thank jiza and Neha for motivating me to at least try to be in shape in their respective ways. Ooh that reminds me, jiza I lost 1 pound the last time I was on the weighing scale... though i now realize that it must be water loss after the workout.
Coming back to the topic at hand, I decided to give my fitness a go and enroll myself in my first ever 5k competitive run. For those who are not familiar 5k run is as the name suggests a 5 kilometer or a 3.1 mile run. After enrolling for the run, I had about 2 weeks to prepare for the run, though I can run continuously for about 40 minutes or so, I wanted to concentrate on increasing my stamina and developing my speed ... but alas 2 weeks is a short time to do so and at the end of the 2 weeks I was clocking at about 35 min for the 3 miles run.. So finally the day or the race arrives, thanks to a heavy buffet and a afternoon nap the day before, I did not get much sleep at night ... but got a chance to catch up on a French movie I was dying to see for a long time. The weather wasn’t great either, it was a little cold and was raining and to top it off I forgot my nylon running tracks ... Neha was kind enough to offer to go back and get it for me, but I didn’t let her. We arrived early and I was given the number 55 for my race, the number does not mean anything, it was just a random number. So we were just hanging around watching the other racers, some were warming up, others were jogging and some were like me just hanging around. I did some stretching myself and then went out with Neha for a small run around the parking lot.
Finally the time for race came and all the racers including me arrived at the start line ready to make a dash, the quick runners were at the start, the slower ones at the end. I was somewhere in the middle. The racers were a good mix of athletes, men and women in good shape, teenagers, young children and some elderly folks as well. My sole aim was to complete the race within 35 min, which was my target, and of course finish before the elderly :)
The gun was fired and everyone started running , I ran fast and was initially among the first 15 racers , but soon I realized my mistake , I didn’t have the stamina to ran that fast and I was soon running out of gas. Then people started overtaking me, and that’s when I was telling myself that I should have paced the race. Nonetheless I finished my first mile in 8 minutes, which was the quickest I ever ran. Also I must remind you guys that it was raining and unfortunately my specs did not have wipers on them... i did take nehas advice and wore my "Superman" Cap straight to keep water from coming onto my glasses. So I was then running and all the time was thinking that should have carried my music with me. I was so used to running listening to music that now that was all I could think of ... Tupac, NWA, Bhootnath, Krazzy4 ... etc ... running through my mind as I see racers ran past me. In spite of this I finished my second mile in 10 minutes , I was very pleased with myself for the speed but I knew that the last mile was going to be extremely tough since I was already running out of gas and to make matters difficult the terrain was all upslope , and my lower back was killing me.
I kept on going telling myself that I have to do this, and more importantly I knew I could do it. Running outside in the pen is so much more different than running on the treadmill. No Matter how many inclines you add in your routine on the treadmill you can never simulate actual outside terrain and I was witnessing it first hand. I was finally running my last leg, and I could hear Neha and some other people cheering me on, though obviously Neha was the loudest... urging me to complete the race.. and as I ran the finish like I saw the timing 30.12 minutes, which was much better than my target rate ... so I was happy ... Neha hugged me and told me that I had a good race ... Later I found out that the quickest guy ran the race in like 17 minutes, but I wasn’t competing, I was doing it for myself.. to see if I was indeed fit enough to compete the simplest of all races.. the 5k
And now as I continue to train myself, I got a book on the running which explains the how, what of running. My next aim in a couple of months is to run the 10K, obviously will keep yall posted on the developments.
May 3, 2008
The Beginning
DEATH - usually defined as the end of life , but is it really? Or is it just the end of this life and the beginning of another, isn't it just the other side of life. I have always wondered what is it about death that fascinates me so much. Why is it that we are so afraid of death? Is it because what lies afterwards is unknown or because in spite of how fulfilling our life was its always not enough. The sole truth about life is Death, the only thing that is inevitable is death. And that is where the quest for understanding Death begins, the meaning of death, what it holds and what lies on this side of life .
and thats where the name of my blog comes from. Shinigami is the Death God in japenese culture, similar to the Yamraj for us Hindus. Why Japense ? Maybe it is because of my liking towards the japenese culture - their wicked movies, mangas, culture. Something about the Asian culture always impresses me.
I was just reading an article the other day, where they were taking about a suicide website in Korea. The site is said to demonstrate methods of committing suicide and contains advertisements for "partners in suicide" and this particular website as per the media has received well over 50k hits. Sorry for digressing, but such instances always catch my attention and gets me thinking on how easy it is for someone to take his life thinking that he would be happier in death.
Anyways I have started on my quest to find out what lies on the other side, it not about spirituality but i just want to understand death and read about what great thinkers , philosophers, saints have to say about it. Maybe i could arrive at some conclusion.
and thats where the name of my blog comes from. Shinigami is the Death God in japenese culture, similar to the Yamraj for us Hindus. Why Japense ? Maybe it is because of my liking towards the japenese culture - their wicked movies, mangas, culture. Something about the Asian culture always impresses me.
I was just reading an article the other day, where they were taking about a suicide website in Korea. The site is said to demonstrate methods of committing suicide and contains advertisements for "partners in suicide" and this particular website as per the media has received well over 50k hits. Sorry for digressing, but such instances always catch my attention and gets me thinking on how easy it is for someone to take his life thinking that he would be happier in death.
Anyways I have started on my quest to find out what lies on the other side, it not about spirituality but i just want to understand death and read about what great thinkers , philosophers, saints have to say about it. Maybe i could arrive at some conclusion.
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