Question:
Why life exists after death? What happens in that life after death? How does ‘life after death’ help change the ‘nature’ of man?
(or)
Why ‘sufferings’ are predominant in hell and ‘pleasures’ in heaven? What happens when those experiences end? What exactly happens in “heaven” & “hell” states?
(or)
Why “suffering” in hell & “pleasures” in heaven are INTENSE compared to those in earthly life?
(or)
How many days after death can the soul retain its connections with the physical world?
(or)
How does opposite experiences like “good” and “bad” oscillate between incarnations?
(or)
Why does an individual takes birth again, after experiencing heaven or hell states?
Answer:
(Extracted from Meher Baba’s literature, a copyright of Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust[©AMBPPCT], Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, Bharat/India)
‘Death’ is like throwing away clothes which have become useless through wear and tear. Just as a traveler may stop at different places, and at each halt may change clothes according to his needs, so the individual goes on changing his bodies according to the needs of his sanskaras.
‘Death’ may also be compared to ‘sleep’. When a man goes to sleep, he wakes up in the SAME physical body. When he drops his physical body at death, he wakes up in ANOTHER physical body.
For most persons, the period between death and birth is one of absorption in SUBJECTIVITY.
After death, the ‘ego-mind’ of the individual normally retains its tie with the remnants of the physical body for THREE or FOUR days. After this period the connection is completely severed, and the individual then exists entirely in the ‘subjectivity’ of his mental states.
This ‘subjective phase’ is brought about by the resurrection of all the sanskaras which the ego-mind has brought along with it, after death
The sudden transplanting of the ‘ego-mind’ from one sphere to another does wear out the scars of the sanskaras to some extent, but for the greater part they remain intact.
If ‘death’ had resulted in the complete wiping out of all the sanskaric scars on the mind, it would have resulted in emancipation of the individual from all limitation. But this does not happen! Not only are the ‘sanskaric imprints’ retained after death, but they may unroll unhampered in the life after death.
As the sanskaric sheet is unwound, the individual experiences in the hell- or heaven- state the sufferings or pleasures embodied in the bad and good sanskaras. Every individual has both classes in his store and his ‘mental state’ in the life after death is determined by which of these preponderates.
The INTENSITY of the sufferings or pleasures which the individual experiences through these revived sanskaras is so great that– a greater exhaustion of these sanskaras is brought about during a relatively short period than is possible in hundreds of years of suffering or pleasure in earthly life.
It is these posthumous mental states of intense ‘suffering’ and ‘pleasure’ which are respectively known in religious literature as ‘hell’ and ‘heaven. In popular belief, they are incorrectly regarded as places or spheres. It is more appropriate to speak of a HELL-STATE or HEAVEN-STATE, rather than places.
When there is a preponderance of ‘evil sanskaras’ at death, the individual gradually exhausts the bad sanskaras through suffering in the hell-state. The result is that the ‘evil sanskaras’ eventually tend to strike a balance with the ‘good sanskaras’.
It is as if a huge block of ice were placed on one pan of a balance, causing it to sink because of its excess over a smaller weight contained on the counterbalance pan. As the great block of ice is gradually melted and the water spills, there is a tendency for the two pans to come into balance.
Similarly, as the mass of ‘evil sanskaras‘ becomes attenuated through suffering, their preponderance begins to vanish and they almost come into balance with the ‘good sanskaras’.
This moment, when the two opposite types of sanskaras are almost in a state of balance is the moment when the after-life of the individual terminates and he finds himself precipitating into a new physical incarnation on earth.
He is precipitated into a new physical body because, no further purpose is served by continuation of his ‘subjective absorption’ in the discarnate life. He is ripe to accumulate fresh experience in another gross body, and for this purpose he must adopt a vehicle which is suitable for the working out of his unexhausted sanskaras.
If the ‘individual soul’ has been exhausting an excess of ‘evil sanskaras’ and has therefore been undergoing a hell-state, he may jump into a new incarnation in which ‘good sanskaras’ tend to dominate. The cause of this unexpected reversal is to be found in the strength of flow of the sanskaric currents.
At the time he incarnates, the individual had already been relieved of the excess of his evil sanskaras and the strong tide of good sanskaras was about to predominate. Consequently, it is the vigorous current of the good sanskaras which motivates him in his new incarnation. Thus a man who had been a profligate in his last life, might begin his new incarnation with a marked inclination towards asceticism.
Conversely, a swing over can occur from ‘good’ to ‘bad’ when one jumps into an incarnation from a ‘heaven-state’ in which the preponderance of ‘good sanskaras’ had been exhausted through intense imaginative pleasure.
The moment of incarnation into a new physical body is precipitated when the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ sanskaras have almost balanced each other, and the tide of the ‘bad sanskaras’ is about to predominate.
A change over at incarnation from good-to-bad or bad-to-good should not be taken as a universal law. Reversal of ‘individual nature’ is frequent, but cases are also quite common in which the individual remains persistently good or bad for several incarnations.
In such cases, incarnation occurs before the opposite type of sanskara has built up a sufficient current of flow to result in its predominance.
– Meher Baba
Source ::
Listen Humanity, Pg :: 105-107
© AMBPPCT, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India.
