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Have you ever seen a talking and walking toy that runs on battery? According to what it is fed, it says, ‘I am hungry, I am happy’, and so on. It works as long as there is a battery in it. And, when the battery is discharged, it is dead. Similarly, a dead body doesn’t have any energy or power to move because it has discharged all its karmas. There is no one to fly away in a toy when it is dead, whereas there is a Soul in a living being that leaves when all the karmas for this body are fully discharged.
What is Soul? What happens to the Soul during death? In which form does it go? Does the Soul leave the body alone, or is there anything else accompanying it? On what basis does it get a new body? How long does it take to get a new body? Will the new life be joyous or miserable? Will the new birth be a human life or anything else? Let us read on to know these interesting facts.
The Soul (Atma) means life energy (chetan). Wherever there is feeling, there is Soul. However, the Soul does not have feelings. The Soul is invisible. It is made up of knowledge; therefore the Soul is in the form of light (of knowledge).
After death, the Soul does not leave the body alone. The Soul is accompanied by the karmas, referred to as the causal body (karan sharira), and the electrical body goes with it too. The electrical body is the subtle body present in every living being. It is because of the electrical body that all the functions of our body take place. Even the causal body is created because of the electrical body. Just like without electricity nothing would work in home; similarly without an electrical body, nothing would work in the body. All the three entities - the Soul, the causal body and the electrical body - go together to form a new body.
Do you know how long it takes for the Soul to travel to the new body? rnThe Soul has a property of expansion and contraction like a rubber band. You cannot cut the Soul, split it or do anything. If one’s hand is cut, the Soul shrinks by that much due to the property of expansion and contraction. Thus during death, the Soul stretches itself. If the dying person is in India, and the womb is in England, then one end of the Soul is in the old body and the other end is in the new body. So there is no time lag in getting a new body.
The Soul (jiva) is not without a body even for a moment. That is because timing is involved when the sperm and the ovum unite. If the time is not yet suitable for it, over here, the dying will linger on, one will keep suffering, but will not die. The Soul leaves the body only when the union of the sperm and the ovum occurs over there. If not, what would it eat over there if it would depart from here? It consumes the sperm and ovum in the womb and develops into an embryo.
Is a person’s next birth based on the wishes of his life, before he dies? Yes, but the wishes are not something newly created by him. The balance sheet of whatever karma he did throughout his life draws up during the final hour of death. And it is this balance sheet that determines one’s next state of existence.
After death, not everyone is born again as a human being, some become dogs or cows even (could take birth in animal life-form). So one’s balance sheet is created by the intention he had throughout his life. If he takes that which is not rightfully his, he goes to animal life-form. If he has the intention to help others even if they hurt or harm him, he will go to the celestial realm or stay in the human form and live like a king. If he feels happy by hurting others and enjoys money or women that are not rightfully his, he will have to go to the hellish life form. Only in human life can one bind karmas, and the other three forms are to suffer or enjoy the fruits. It is only in the human form that one has the liberty to not bind any new karma and come out of the cycles of life and death and attain Ultimate Liberation.
It is in the presence of the Soul that the ego has arisen. While one is really a Soul, the wrong belief that, ‘I am John (please insert your name), I am an Engineer, I am her husband’, etc. is called ego. Due to these wrong beliefs, the ego charges karmas (like batteries), which in the next life discharge in the form of mind, speech and body. Death takes place when all the three batteries of mind, speech and body get completely discharged in this life. When Gnani (the Enlightened One) destroys our ego and gives us the right belief (conviction) of ‘I a pure Soul’, the core wrong belief of, ‘I am John’ dissolves. Hence thereafter, no new karma is charged. Thus, the Gnani gives us Self-realization. At the time of death, a Self-realized being remains in Samadhi (a blissful state even amidst all sufferings) as he becomes one with the Soul at the time of leaving the physical body. When the Soul is liberated from all karmas, the causal and electrical bodies do not remain then; it is only an Absolute Soul. The Absolute Soul leaves the physical body here and it goes to the Siddha Kshetra (location at the crest of the universe which is the permanent abode of the absolutely liberated Souls who have attained final/ultimate liberation) forever. There is no birth and death after that!!!