Hey there Hivers, any sober person will, at some point in life, become self-reflective and wonder about their existence. Who am I? Why am I alive? What happens at death? These existential questions enter the mind of all of us, particularly at times of crisis or the loss of a loved one to death. Seeing another person die only reminds us more urgently of our own mortality. I have asked these questions regarding consciousness and I have found some answers in the Vedas, ancient Sanskrit texts originating in what is today called India.
It’s not only the elderly – who face imminent death – that question their identity. As a teenager I was already searching for answers to the meaning of life and consciousness. You may not be a philosophically minded person but you cannot deny that there are mysteries to life that we need to have answered, like what happens when we die?
No one has any proof, of course, and yet death has always existed, and still we don’t know what the bigger picture entails for sure. This mystery has, however, been discussed since ancient times. And the discussions with their answers have been recorded. In my search, as a teenager over 30 years ago, I came across numerous sources of information on the subject of life, consciousness and death. And the most profound and informative for me is the Bhagavad Gita, an ancient Sanskrit text of poetry, comprising of 700 verses, discussing these philosophical questions.
I am no expert, and there may be numerous sources of information from all the various cultures on earth that have existed over time, but the Gita certainly stands as the top role model and example to follow. Allegedly spoken 5000 years ago at the start of a world war – when death is imminent – the military general Arjuna asks his friend and teacher Krishna for answers. And Krishna provides them.
For example, in chapter 2:12 Krishna says:
देहिनोऽस्मिन्यथा देहे कौमारं यौवनं जरा ।
तथा देहान्तरप्राप्तिर्धीरस्तत्र न मुह्यति ॥ १३ ॥
dehino ’smin yathā dehe
kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati
“As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from childhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.”
Translation by Swami A. C. Bhaktivedanta
In this one sentence volumes of information are provided and the mystery of life and consciousness is clarified. Whether you take it to be true or not is up to you. Do you have a better understanding? And what is that understanding based on? What is your source of information? Is it your mental concoction or speculation? Well, I can’t claim to be able to see through the veil, to see beyond birth and death, so I simply receive such information humbly and respectfully from authoritative sources.
And the information satisfies my desire for knowledge of who I am, and what happens at death. This Gita has provided the best answer yet. If you know of any other references and their quotes, I am always happy to hear them, as I have been researching the topic all my life. In this one sentence our existence is described in a way that’s easy to understand. We have all been in a child’s body, and then grown to adulthood and some to old age already. But in each instance, we feel ourselves to be the same person, despite the major shifts in body.
This example is used to describe the bigger picture because our perception is so limited. If we simply try to speculate or determine such truths based on our senses and mind, we will be deluded. Yet if we can comprehend the shift in bodies which we undergo in this lifetime, then we can extrapolate about the great shift out of this body at death and into another one.
This is the topic of reincarnation, or transmigration of the soul. This has been taught for millennia in past cultures on this planet, before the time of the Christian dogma, to millions of people. We may have been raised in a culture lacking much depth and so buy into shallow philosophical opinions with no understanding of our eternal identity. So it may sound foreign to us to consider transmigration of the soul, or “metempsychosis” as the ancient Greeks also called it, way before the Christian doctrine was constructed.
You can look up the word in Webster’s dictionary here https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/metempsychosis.
So the concepts mentioned in the current Church doctrine are relatively new. Even Christ mentions the concept when he asks his disciples “Who do they say I am?” They answer that some say he is one of the old testament prophets returned. His clearly alludes to reincarnation, and this philosophical understanding or conclusion was originally part of Christianity before the church edited it out at the Council of Nicea in the 5th century after Christ taught it. This is how institutionalized religion performs politically advantageous moves to claim more power for themselves.
Nevertheless, reincarnation obliges us to conclude that we are not this body. As the Sanskrit verse explains, we are embodied spirit souls. When the body dies, we leave it to take another. With this understanding, we perceive ourselves from a less limited perspective. We realize that we’re not bound by time or this physical vehicle. We are transcendental to both. That is the mystery of consciousness revealed to you right there.
This insight alone is enough to cause any sober person to re-evaluate their existence in the present, with a view to the future. This insight – once comprehended or realized – can change your life. With it we no longer feel limited or fearful of death. It provides a sense of liberation from fear, from old age, and from the temporary distresses of the present. There is so much more to us. These insights are massive. Now that you are aware of the original source of these insights, fell free to research more and have your mind expanded still further at https://vedabase.io/en/.
(image pixabay)