From jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca Sat Aug 14 22:11:43 1999
Newsgroups: alt.meditation.shabda
Subject: The Mystery of Death (2/6)
From: jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca (James Shannon)
Date: 15 Aug 1999 05:11:43 GMT





                            MYSTERY OF DEATH

                                   by

                              Kirpal Singh 

                              [Part 2 of 6] 


                I died as mineral and became a plant,
                I died as plant and rose to animal,
                I died as animal and I was a man.
                Why should I fear ? when was I less by dying ?
                Yet, once more, I shall die as man, to soar -
                With angels blessed, but even from angelhood
                I must pass on; all except God doth perish.
                When I have sacrificed my angel soul,
                I shall become what no mind e'er conceived.
                Oh! let me not exist, for non-existence
                Proclaims in organ-tones, "To Him we shall return."

                                                Maulana Rumi

                                    

				    I

                         NOTHING DIES IN NATURE

            Death and deathlessness both inhere in the
        nature of all that is - all that combines in itself both
        matter and spirit. Matter is but a projecting screen
        for the spirit - the all-pervading spirit that attracts
        matter in varying degrees of densities and vibrations
        to manifest itself in various patterns of forms and
        colours, at different levels of existence. Spirit by
        itself without material mantle to manifest itself on the
        earth-plane is a void; for spirit without the covering
        of matter cannot be seen with the eyes of flesh just
        as the power of spring makes itself felt only when it
        acts on flowers and fruits making them bloom and
        blossom with juicy fragrance and luscious flavour.

            Man represents in him the doctrine of trinity on
        earth, as he combines in himself body, mind and
        soul, the last being of the essence of God, the life-
        breath enlivening both the body and the mind making
        one a living man, with the breath of God surging
        in him from top to toe.

            The human body is individualised matter inasmuch
        as spirit enshrouded therein seems to be an
        individualised spirit like the sun reflected in so many
        water pots. At death, the body, composed as it is
        of different elements, dissolves and returns to the
        cosmic reservoir of substances, ultimately merging in
        one primal substance; and the soul returns to God:

        "As soon as the silver cord is loosened, the golden
        bowl is broken like a pitcher at the fountain or the
        wheel at the cistern. Then the dust returns unto the
        earth as it Was and the spirit returns unto God who
        gave it." (Eccl. 12: 6-7).

            A living man is not something independent of,
        and apart from the Supreme Power, that flows in
        him. He is a product of the Supreme Power acting
        on material plane through an organised body of
        waves which produce a state of consciousness in him.
        Man exists when the Supreme Power runs in and
        through his bodily mould, but when that Power
        withdraws unto Itself, he is no more a living entity
        for all functional activity in him ceases and what
        remains? - nothing but a mass of inert matter the
        same as before in shape and substance, but without
        the living life-impulse that was pulsating in him
        moments before.

            Like man, the entire universe is a manifestation
        of the one life-principle, the principle of living
        consciousness in varying degrees, right from Logos
        down to the atoms of the material elements perpetually
        moving in rhythmic motion, forming and reforming
        in quick succession many patterns by the Supreme
        Power acting in and upon them. In short, the
        intelligence of the universe abides, and abides forever
        and anon, in the heart of each atom which is dancing
        to its tune like the eternal dance of Siva, the living
        embodiment of Shakti, the Mother of the universe.
        In the esoteric cosmogony, the theory of 'dead' matter
        does not find any place whatsoever for matter cannot
        exist by itself without the cohesive power inherent
        therein. Matter in fact is energy in congealed form.

            In ancient philosophy, a sharp distinction was
        drawn between 'being' and 'existence.' The Logos,
        the Archetypal world is that of true being, changeless
        and eternal; while 'existence' is an expression and
        expansion or a moving forward and outward into the
        world of becoming, a world of ceaseless change and
        transformation from moment to moment.

            Physiologists and physicians like botanists, horti-
        culturists, floriculturists, tell us a lot of the
        mechanical and chemical processes going on in the human
        metabolism or in fact in any living organism, be it a
        tree, a flower, a fruit, an ant or an elephant; but
        cannot tell us why they live, how they live, what for
        they live, what is life itself, and above all what is
        consciousness that characterises the life-impulse on any
        and every plane of existence.

            The cosmic cycle proves that life is eternal. It is
        an endless process. It continues on and on, assuming
        one form after another in endless series, appearing,
        disappearing and reappearing like waves and bubbles
        on the stream of time - time rolling down from eternity
        to eternity. Nature is but one vast reservoir of life
        and matter in which nothing is lost and nothing dies,
        no matter how forms may change, and change
        kaleidoscopically in less than the twinkling of an eye.
        It is this changing process that is commonly called
        death - death of one form at one place and birth in
        another form at another place or on another plane.
        Invisible vapour arising from the sea dies so as to
        change into visible solid snow on the mountain-top
        and the visible snow in its turn taking once again the
        reverse process-the process of death, melts into
        liquid water and water changes back into invisible
        gaseous aeriform or vapour again, making a continuous
        chain of cause and effect. Similarly, man becomes
        visible entity when spirit puts on a human form and
        then in course of time that very man of so many parts
        on the stage of life (at once son, brother, husband
        and father; now an infant, then a young man and
        lastly a dotard), ultimately becomes invisible when
        the spirit in him withdraws causing to the consternation
        of those around, a void in the vast web of relationships
        that he wove around him during his existence on the
        earth-plane. This is what actually happens at the time
        of the final change when the physical body disintegrates
        and resolves into the cosmic order of things, and life
        currents merge into the great cosmic life-principle
        which is vitally organic in nature; and not chemically
        inorganic and mechanical.

            Death is not what it seems to be, and what it is
        taken for in common parlance. Death and life are
        correlative terms on the earth-plane only, but in reality
        there is no difference between the two, and in fact
        one cannot be contradistinguished from the other; for
        death cannot swallow life nor can death put an end
        to life. It is just an interchangeable process as two
        sides of a coin rotating on its axis. Do we not see
        day and night, light and darkness, alternately coming
        and going, as the rotating earth spins and revolves
        round the sun casting shadows of varying lengths at
        different places while the sun itself continues to
        shine all the time. Death does not mean total extinction
        or annihilation as, at times, it is believed to be.
        It is nothing but a change of consciousness from one
        place of existence to another place of existence. Life,
        on the contrary, is one continuous process which
        knows no end for the so-called death that follows life
        is not lifelessness but life in another form at another
        place, here on earth or elsewhere and in a different
        form, with a different name, and under different set
        of circumstances as is adjudged by Divine Dispensation
        working on the inexorable law of action 'as ye sow, so
        shall ye reap.' Life being a positive expression of the
        Supreme Being, is not subject to the negativity of death,
        and the latter cannot, therefore, extinguish the former
        - the eternal flame of life.

            We have the testimony of an unbroken line of
        Masters who taught that life and death are mere
        words in the world of duality, meant to describe the
        surface effect or the circumferential shifting of the
        state of consciousness of the Inner Being dwelling at
        the centre. These are merely visible and invisible
        stages in the cosmic cycle through which the inner
        man passes. The lamentable, horrifying and much-dreaded
        death is, in reality, a rebirth (being born again of
        the inner man) into a life which may be more joyous and
        more beautiful than known hitherto. "Death the awe-
        inspiring and heart-rending death," says Kabir, is to
        me a harbinger of joyous life, and I welcome it fully."
        The Gospels also tell of the Kingdom of God that awaits
        one beyond the death-door:

            Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
              Kingdom of God ......
            Except a man be born of water and of spirit, he
              cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
            That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that
              which is born of the spirit is spirit ......
            The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou
              hearest the sound thereof, but cans't not tell
              whence it cometh and whither it goeth: so is
              everyone that is born of the spirit.
                                                (-John 3:3-8)

            Thus with each successive death or dissolution
        of form, the spirit freed from the solid mould, renews
        from strength to strength and from power to power,
        growing in greater and wider consciousness than ever
        before. In this context Maulana Rumi tells us:


            I died as mineral and became a plant,
            I died as plant and rose to animal,
            I died as animal and I was a man.
            Why should I fear ? when was I less by dying ?
            Yet, once more, I shall die as man, to soar--
            With angels blessed, but even from angelhood
            I must pass on; all except God doth perish.
            When I have sacrificed my angel soul,
            I shall become what no mind e'er conceived.
            Oh! let me not exist, for non-existence
            Proclaims in organ-tones, "To Him we shall return."

            Death then is another name for a change in the
        central life-principle, the pivot round which organised
        life-monad moves and functions. It is a change from
        one set of circumstances to another set of circumstances,
        in different forms and under different conditions as
        most suited to the ultimate unfoldment into full
        efflorescence of the Self or the living-monad, leading
        to greater and greater awareness of, and arising into
        the higher, spiritual values of life:

            Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not
            sleep (in death), but we shall all be changed,
            in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye......
            raised incorruptible....putting on incorruption
            ......and immortality.... swallowing Death in
            victory (defying) the sting (both) of death
            and (the fear of) grace.
                                            -(Cor. 15:51-55)

            In 'Man the Unknown' Alex Carel says: "Man is
        made up of a procession of phantoms, in the midst of
        which strides the unknowable Reality." Nanak,
        likewise, speaks of himself, in much the same strain:
        "In the midst of the outer physical mould, called
        Nanak, plays the invisible Power of the Supreme
        Being."

            In Bhagwad Gita, the Song of the Adorable One,
        Bhagwan Krishna, the seventh avtar of Vishnu, one
        of the famous triad in the Hindu mythology, tells us:

            Know thou, O Prince of Pandu, that there was
              never a time, when I, nor thou, nor any of these
              princes of earth was not; nor shall there ever
              come a time, hereafter, when any of us shall
              cease to be. As the soul, wearing this material
              body, experienceth the stages of infancy, youth,
              manhood and old age, even so shall it, in due
              course of time, pass on to another body, and
              in other incarnations shall it again live, and
              move and play its part. Those who have
              attained the wisdom of the Inner Doctrine,
              know these things, and fail to be moved by
              aught that cometh to pass in this world of
              change - to such Life and Death are but
              words, and both are but surface aspects of the
              deeper Being (within).

            Thus it is clear that under the cosmic cyclic law,
        all things move in a circle and all things are eternal.
        The dance of Siva, at once the god of death, and
        death leading to rebirth, not unoften at a higher
        level of existence, goes on forever and forever.
        Under this ever-revolving wheel of life, man, by a
        process of evolution or growth, keeps changing from
        a mere physical to an astral, then to causal and
        finally to a spiritual being on various planes of
        existence until he rightly comes to his own; knows and
        realises the ever-evolving principle of consciousness
        in him in its fullness which he potentially is and
        embraces the totality of his being. "All the same,
        we live, move and have our individual being in God
        (the Universal Being), for we are His offspring and
        He is the very being of our being and without His
        Power working in us, we cannot exist and function."
        (Acts 17:23-24).

            'Like begets like.' Each thing, be it a plant, an
        animal or a man, grows from the seed after its own
        kind, though according to a set pattern of life
        determined by the quality inherent in the seed. "God
        giveth it (the seed) a body as it hath pleased Him
        and to every seed his own body." (1 Cor. 15:38-40).
        Man at the highest rung in the ladder of life on
        earth is not fragmented from his Maker. The Father
        is in the son in a potential form and the son is firmly
        rooted in the Father, though he may, circumstanced
        as he is, not know it owing to limitations of the
        fleshly raiments in which he lives all the time
        functioning on the earth-plane. Because of the Power of
        God working him, he verily but unwittingly lives in
        the temple of God: "Know ye not that ye are the
        temple of the holy God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth
        in you" (and therefore is you). The term 'man' is
        merely a name applied to the incarnated God-spirit on
        the earth-plane. This then is the famous doctrine of
        holy trinity: A whole consisting of three parts -
        the Father (the Universal Spirit), the son (the
        individualised spirit clothed in body, mind and
        intellect) and the Holy Ghost (the saving links or
        life-lines between the two by following which the
        human-spirit transhumanises the human trappings)
        - all combined in man. Hence the exhortation of
        the Prophet of Galilee: "Be ye Perfect as your
        Father in heaven is Perfect." Perfection comes from
        the Perfect One.

            'Perfection' then is the goal of human life which
        consists in self-unfoldment or evolution of the
        individual spirit by transcending the limitations of body,
        mind and intellect and by tapping the deep-rooted
        latencies in the depths of the great sea of unconsciousness
        yet unexplored and unknown. It is indeed a difficult task
        but not impossible to achieve, if one is lucky enough
        to contact a Master-soul, well-versed both in the science
        and art of Pra Vidya or the knowledge of the worlds that
        are heavenly and lie beyond the senses which help us only
        in the realm of Apra Vidya or the knowledge of the
        empirical world of observation and experimentation.
        "The Kingdom of God cometh not by observation - the
        Kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:2 1). The
        Kingdom of God is not to descend from the clouds above.
        It is already there in man and one can witness its glory
        by the process of inversion (akin to death), a voluntary
        process of course while living, as was taught by
        the Masters to their chosen disciples, from times
        immemorial. What a man has done, man can do if
        there is proper help and guidance from some Godman.
        Every Saint had a past and every sinner has a future.


                          [End of Part 2 of 6]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------


