The Life Beyond Death E-Book

Yogi Ramacharaka

• Herausgeber: Andura Publishing
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Experience the life-changing power of Yogi Ramacharaka with this unforgettable book.

Leseprobe

The Life Beyond Death

Yogi Ramacharaka

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

“THE OTHER SIDE”

One of the questions most frequently asked the teachers of the Wisdom of the East is this: “What do you teach regarding ‘the other side’ of the river of death? To the trained and developed occultist, this ques­tion never seems to lose its strangeness. To such, it would seem as the question: “What do you teach regarding the ‘other side’ of the street would seem to the ordinary man on the street. The latter would naturally feel surprised that there should be any question of  teaching on the subject, for the inquirer would have but to use his own eyes to obtain the answer to his query.

The Oriental teacher never fails to wonder at the many evidences of the result of mere theory and dogmatic teaching on the part of the majority of the teachers and preachers of the Western world. These so-called teachers are like the “blind leading the blind,” for they have no means of verifying their statements, and merely pass on what they have blindly received from others, who, in turn, have received their own instruction in the same way. In the Orient, on the contrary, one meets with so many persons of devel­oped higher psychic and spiritual sense, to whom the phenomena of “the other side” is as familiar as is the phenomena of “this side,” that the “other side” seems as real and actual as does the ordinary environment of earth-life. Among developed Orientals “the other side” is no uncharted sea, but has its currents, depths, islands, and general facts as clearly stated and understood as is the Atlantic Ocean by the Western mariner. Moreover, every educated Oriental is taught from youth that the phenomena of “the other side ” need not be taken on faith, but may be actually known to those who will expend the time and study required for developing the higher senses which are possessed by all of the race.

But, from the same reasons, the developed Oriental occultist finds himself confronted with a most perplexing, not to say discour­aging task when he attempts to convey his knowledge on this subject to Western stu­dents. The Western mind instinctively re­fuses to accept truth in the manner of the mind of the Oriental student. Not having realized by actual experience certain funda­mental psychic and spiritual facts, which serve as a basis for the detailed teaching, the Western mind naturally demands “actual proof ” of these basic facts before being will­ing to proceed further. Inasmuch as these facts must first be experienced to be known, no amount of argument ever serves to bring that conviction of truth which should serve as the fundamental basis for the detailed teach­ing. Consequently by the Western student, the general basic statements of the teacher are accepted either purely on faith, or else re­garded as mere guesses or speculation on the part of the teacher. And, as there are thou­sands of such guesses and speculative theories advanced in the Western world, the student may well be excused from refusing to accept any of them as truth, for, as he often argues, “one guess is as good as another.’’ In the presentation of the facts of “the other side” to which the present volume is devoted, the student must realize from the beginning that there can be no actual physi­cal proof afforded him, in the absence of a highly developed state of his higher psychic and spiritual senses. In his case, the proof demanded is akin to that asked of the blind man, who demands proof of scarlet or any other color of the article; or like that asked by the deaf man, who demands proof of the existence of harmony in music. From the very nature of things, the proof cannot be afforded in such case. Imagine the attempt to explain the sensation of the taste of sugar to one who had never experienced the taste of anything sweet. How and where could one begin? How and where could one proceed?

So let us understand each other thoroughly, teacher, and students. Let us understand that the teachings of this book are not offered as proof of the phenomena of “the other side,” but merely in the spirit of the traveler returned from some new and strange country, and who tells the tales of his journeying and the sights seen therein. As we said to the students of our first lessons, given to the Western world nine years ago: “We do not mean that the Eastern teachers insist upon the pupil blindly accepting every truth that is presented to him. On the contrary, they instruct the pupil to accept as truth only that which he can prove for himself, as no truth is truth to one until he can prove it by his own experiments. But the student is taught that before many truths may be so proven, he must develop and unfold. The teacher asks only that the student have confidence in him as a pointer-out of the way, and he says, in effect, to the student: “This is the way; enter upon it, and on the path you will find the things of which I have taught you; handle them, weigh them, measure them, taste them, and know for yourself. When you reach any point of the path you will know as much of it as did I or any other soul at that particular stage of the journey; but until you reach a particular point, you must either accept the statements of those who have gone before or reject the whole subject at that particular point. Accept nothing as final until you have proven it; but if you are wise, you will profit by the advice and experience of those who have gone before. Every man must learn by experi­ence, but men may serve others as pointers of the way. At each stage of the journey it will be found that those who have progressed a little farther on the way, have left signs and marks and guide-posts for those who follow. The wise man will take advantage of these signs. I do not ask for blind faith, but only for confidence until you are able to demonstrate for yourselves the truths I am passing on to you, as they were passed on to me by those who went before”

The skeptical Western student may object that we offer no “scientific proofs” of the phenomena of “the other side.” If by “scientific” he means the proofs of physi­cal science, we agree with him. But to the advanced occultist, the term “scientific” has a much broader and wider meaning. The person who expects to weigh, measure and register spiritual things by physical stand­ards has nothing but disappointment and failure before him, for he will never receive the proof he seeks. Physical apparatus is intended for physical objects only—the world of spirit has its own set of apparatus, which alone is capable of registering its phenomena. Therefore we wish the matter clearly under­stood by the reader who is undertaking the study of this book. No physical proofs are offered. There are none such, strictly speak­ing, to be found anywhere. Moreover, there is no attempt at argument—for there is no basis for argument between the seers of “the other side ’ ’ and those whose vision is limited to the earth-plane.

But this does not mean that we are offering you a mass of irrational statements, and in­sisting that you take them on faith. Far from this is our intent. For while the reason alone can never hope to pierce the veil separating the two sides of Life-Death, nevertheless the reason, if allowed to follow its own reports divested of prejudice and blind adherence to teaching, will perceive a certain reasonable­ness in a true statement of the facts of the unknown—it will seem that the teachings square with other accepted facts, and that they explain in a reasonable way phenomena otherwise unexplainable. In short, the reason will seem that the teachings of truth reconcile apparently opposing sets of facts, and join together many obscure bits of truth which one finds accepted by his reason, but which, heretofore, he has not been able to place to­gether and join in a connected structure of mental concept.

The student is urged to suspend judgment until he has read carefully, and then as care­fully considered, what we have to say. Then let him re-read, and re-consider the book as a whole. Then let him ask himself the honest question: “Does not this seem reasonable and probable. ’’ If he, can do no more than to accept it all as a “working hypotheses,” by all means let him rest satisfied with that position—although to us the term may evoke a smile when we realize that the teaching is built upon the experience and testimony of the wise of the ages. But, if the teaching is carefully read and considered, it will prove to be regarded as more and more reasonable as the years pass by with the individual. Fact after fact will be seen to fit into the general teaching, and, as older conceptions are dis­carded from time to time, these teachings will be found to take their place. It is not easy to escape from a truth, once it has been presented to you. It has a way of itching your mental ear, once it has lodged there. For behind that ear is a part of you, hidden though it may be, by many sheaths, which knows—which KNOWS! Deny it though you may, you cannot escape from Truth once its seed has been lodged within your conscious­ness, for it will draw sustenance from your subconscionsness, and will in time sprout and put forth leaf and blossom.

So, after all, it matters little whether or not the student can fully grasp the teaching at this time. For Time is long, and one has all the time there is in which to master the lesson. All teachings, at the last* is but a process of seed-sowing.

CHAPTER II

“THERE IS NO DEATH”

The race has been hypnotized with the idea of Death. The common usage of the term reflects the illusion. We hear those who should know better speaking of persons being “cut down by the grim reaper;” “cut off in his prime;” “his activities terminated;” “a busy life brought to an end;” etc., the idea expressed being that the individual had been wiped out of existence and reduced to noth­ingness. In the Western world this is partic­ularly true. Although the dominant religion of the West teaches the joys of the “here­after” in such strong terms that it would seem that every believer would welcome the transition; although it might well be sup­posed that relatives and friends would don gay robes and deck themselves with bright flowers in token of the passage of the loved one to a happier and brighter sphere of ex­istence—we see just the opposite manifesta­tion. The average person, in spite of his faith and creed, seems to dread the approach of “the grim reaper,’’ and his friends drape themselves in black robes and give every other outward token of having forever lost the beloved one. In spite of their beliefs, or expression of belief, Death has a terror which they seemingly cannot overcome.

To those who have acquired that sense of consciousness of the illusion of death, these frightful emotions have faded away. To them, while they naturally feel the sorrow of temporary separation and the loss of companionship, the loved one is seen to have simply passed on to another phase of life, and nothing has been lost—nothing has perished. There is a centuries’-old Hindu fable, in which is told the tale of a caterpillar, who feeling the approach of the langour which betokened the end of the crawling stage of existence and the beginning of the long sleep of the chrysalis stage, called his friends around him. “It is sad,” he said, “to think that I must abandon my life, filled with so many bright promises of future achievement. Cut off by the grim reaper, in my very prime, I am an example of the heartlessness of Nature. Farewell, good friends, farewell forever. Tomorrow I shall be no more.” And, accompanied by the tears and lamenta­tions of the friends surrounded his death-bed, he passed away. An old caterpillar remarked sadly: “Our brother has left us. His fate is also ours. One by one we shall be cut down by the scythe of the destroyer, like unto the grass of the field. By faith we hope to rise again, but perhaps this is but the voice in­spired by a vain hope. None of us knows any­thing positively of another life. Let us mourn the common fate of our race.” Whereupon, sadly, they departed.

The grim irony of this little fable is clearly perceived by all of us, and we smile at the thought of the ignorance which attended the first stage of the transformation of the lowly crawling thing into the glorious-hued crea­ture, which in time will emerge from the sleep of death into a higher form of life. But, smile not, friends, at the illusion of the cater­pillars—they were but even as you and I. For the Hindu story-teller of centuries ago has pictured human ignorance and illusion in this little fable of the lower forms of life. All occultists recognize in the transformation stages of the caterpillar-chrysalis-butterfly a picture of the transformation which awaits every mortal man and woman. For death to the human being is no more a termination or cessation than is the death-sleep of the cater­pillar. In neither case does life cease for even a single instant—life persists while Nature works her changes. We advise every student to carry with him the lesson of this little fable, told centuries ago to the children of the Hindu race, and passed on by them from generation to generation.

Strictly speaking, from the Oriental point of view, there is no such thing as Death. The name is a lie—the idea an illusion growing from ignorance. There is no death—there is nothing but Life. Life has many phases and forms, and some of the phases are called “death” by ignorant men. Nothing really dies—though everything experiences a change of form and activity. As Edwin Arnold so beautifully expressed it in his translation of the “Bhagavaad Gita”:

“Never the spirit was born;

The spirit shall cease to be never.

Never was time it was not;

End and beginning are dreams.

Birthless and deathless, and changeless,

Remaineth the spirit forever;

Death hath not touched it at all,

Dead though the house of it seems.,,

Materialists frequently urge as an argu­ment against the persistence of life beyond the stage of death, the assumed fact that everything in nature suffers death, dissolu­tion, and destruction. If such were really the fact, then indeed would it be reasonable to argue the death of the soul as a logical con­clusion. But, in truth, nothing of this kind happens in nature. . Nothing really dies. What is called death, even of the smallest and apparently most inanimate thing, is merely a change of form and condition of the energy and activities which constitute it. Even the body does not die, in the strict sense of the word. The body is not an entity, for it is merely an aggregation of cells, and these :cells are merely material vehicles for a certain form of energy which animates and vitalizes them. When the soul passes from the body, the units composing the body manifest re­pulsion for each other, in place of the attraction which formerly held them together.

The unifying force which has held them to­gether withdraws its power, and the reverse activity is manifested. As a writer has well said: “The body is never more alive than when it is dead.” As another writer has said: “Death is but an aspect of Life, and the destruction of one material form is but a prelude to the building up of another.” So the argument of the materialist really lacks its major premise, and all reasoning based thereon must be faulty and leading to a false {conclusion.

But the advanced occultist, or other spirit­ually developed person, does not require to seriously consider the argument of the mate­rialists, nor would he even though these argu­ments were a hundred times more logical. For such a person has awakened within him­self the higher psychic and spiritual faculties whereby he may actually know that the soul perishes not when the body dissolves. When one is able to leave the physical body behind, and actually travel in the regions of “the other side,” as in the case of many advanced individuals, any purely speculative discus­sions or arguments on the realty of “life after death” take on the appearance of absurdity and futility.