Where does the soul go after Death?

[P.J.]

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Where does the soul go after Death?




Different religions give different views about life after death.

The Eighth Chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita deals with the subject of life after death. The Puranas, the Upanishads, the Yoga Vasishtha and the Gita contain many varieties of descriptions of the condition of the soul after it leaves this body.

The stories in the Garuda Purana and such other scriptures, even in the Bhagavata, are really frightening. When the soul departs from the body in the case of these lower, unpurified and negligibly religious souls, it is taken away by the messengers of Yama and placed before the Lord of Death for judgment.

To reply to this question, I think, one must also refer to resources which are written by people who go through their near death experiences ; it is possible to get these resources through Google search in
related sites; this related link might show some light on the ‘life after death’ or journey of the Soul after death.


Hindu near-death experiences


Please share your views on this.

Thanks.



Where Does the Soul Go After Death? (Paradise or Soul Sleep)?
What are the beliefs about life and death in Hinduism
The Journey of the Soul After Death; Rajavidya - Commentary on the Bhagavadgita - Discourse 26

 

[biswa]

Should we accept the notion of soul as gospel (sorry, Gita) truth?

As the population of the world is increasing, are souls being manufactured rapidly in the soul factory?

If there is a calamitous event and half the world's human population is wiped out by an asteroid hit, how will those poor souls get recycled if there are no bodies to inhabit?

 

[renuka]

Should we accept the notion of soul as gospel (sorry, Gita) truth?

As the population of the world is increasing, are souls being manufactured rapidly in the soul factory?

If there is a calamitous event and half the world's human population is wiped out by an asteroid hit, how will those poor souls get recycled if there are no bodies to inhabit?

Dear Biswa,

Souls are recycled..we are having more humans but lesser animals, plants etc.

Now coming to your

If there is a calamitous event and half the world's human population is wiped out by an asteroid hit, how will those poor souls get recycled if there are no bodies to inhabit?

See the other half of the world is still hanging around and reproduction still takes place..so the souls will have a chance to get a new body after sometime of hovering in some Loka.

Unless it is a situation where all the females of the world get wiped out by some astroid and only guys remain in the world!

Then I have no idea how these souls will get a physical body?

But going by Darwin's theory of evolution....may be some male might undergo metamorphosis and develop some uterine like structure for propagation of species!LOL
Just imagine??

 

[tks]

There is no soul, only sole which is a similar sounding word

Movie Ghost Ghost (1990 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia portrays that a good soul goes to heaven in a portal with hundreds of angels and a bad soul is dragged to hell by daemons ..

 

[thebigthinkg]

Where does the soul go after Death?




Different religions give different views about life after death.

The Eighth Chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita deals with the subject of life after death. The Puranas, the Upanishads, the Yoga Vasishtha and the Gita contain many varieties of descriptions of the condition of the soul after it leaves this body.

The stories in the Garuda Purana and such other scriptures, even in the Bhagavata, are really frightening. When the soul departs from the body in the case of these lower, unpurified and negligibly religious souls, it is taken away by the messengers of Yama and placed before the Lord of Death for judgment.

To reply to this question, I think, one must also refer to resources which are written by people who go through their near death experiences ; it is possible to get these resources through Google search in
related sites; this related link might show some light on the ‘life after death’ or journey of the Soul after death.


Hindu near-death experiences


Please share your views on this.

Thanks.



Where Does the Soul Go After Death? (Paradise or Soul Sleep)?
What are the beliefs about life and death in Hinduism
The Journey of the Soul After Death; Rajavidya - Commentary on the Bhagavadgita - Discourse 26

Read this story here:
TheBigThinkg Short Stories: The Eleventh Dimension...

-TBT

 

[sangom]

Where does the soul go after Death?




Different religions give different views about life after death.

The Eighth Chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita deals with the subject of life after death. The Puranas, the Upanishads, the Yoga Vasishtha and the Gita contain many varieties of descriptions of the condition of the soul after it leaves this body.

The stories in the Garuda Purana and such other scriptures, even in the Bhagavata, are really frightening. When the soul departs from the body in the case of these lower, unpurified and negligibly religious souls, it is taken away by the messengers of Yama and placed before the Lord of Death for judgment.

To reply to this question, I think, one must also refer to resources which are written by people who go through their near death experiences ; it is possible to get these resources through Google search in
related sites; this related link might show some light on the ‘life after death’ or journey of the Soul after death.


Hindu near-death experiences


Please share your views on this.

Thanks.



Where Does the Soul Go After Death? (Paradise or Soul Sleep)?
What are the beliefs about life and death in Hinduism
The Journey of the Soul After Death; Rajavidya - Commentary on the Bhagavadgita - Discourse 26

I believe that there is no soul as is usually imagined, nor are there separate hell or heaven other than this world.

When a person dies, his physical body is completely left here in this physical world and the Life Force which is identical to the classic Paramatma, mingles back into/with the Universal Life force. What is the remainder? The Karmic Layer which has the potentialities for developing mind, buddhi (intellect) and ahamkaara (not ego but the feeling of "I, mine, etc.") lingers around in an in-between dimension — between this earth and the next, may be the fourth dimensional world/universe. During such sojourn, the KL has a rudimentary mind and is capable of imagining that it is now "dead" and whatever details have been strongly imprinted in the mind about after-death experience. The near-death experiences are not actual after-death experiences and it is erroneous to come to conclusions about the latter from the former.

Because the KL has this seed of mind, it usually haunts places to which it has had overwhelming attraction in the previous physical body. Some people with a certain favourable predisposition of the nervous system may sometimes be able to experience these "ghosts"; if the ghost has very great compatibility with such a person, then the said ghost may take up residence in that body also by overpowering the already residing KL. This is when we say a person is haunted by ghost (பேய் பிடிச்சிருக்கு).

 

[P.J.]

Sri Sangom Sir

Here you say that "I believe that there is no soul as is usually imagined,"

How come you talk about Intelligent soul, IdoticX soul ect in your earlier posts in 'where does the soul live in Human beings?
Where does the Soul live in Human Being.
Your post no 17
Soul, thus lives everywhere in the body - of humans, animals, birds or snakes.

Your post no 25
It, nevertheless, seems to me that the "soul" or "Atma" cannot be like a quantized packet but should be more like a universal field, present everywhere, all the time
Post no 55
SOUL, then yes, there can be idiotix souls and intelligent souls

Post no 62
From the Karmic Layer point, the Jiva/individual/soul are all individuals and not alike, just as the physical bodies are.
as the soul, we can have idiotic, intelligent, etc., souls.

Here in your post no 73, you clearly accept that Soul exists in Human body

I consider the soul to be something like air or oxygen which is spread through out the body without any definite shape of its own; it is a Field of energy. So, even if an arm or leg is amputated in the physical body, the only change that may be happening to the soul (according to my thinking) is that it will have that much less area to work in.

You did not maintain you view consistently that you did not believe in the existence of Soul or Atma; now suddenly you say " "I believe that there is no soul as is usually imagined,"

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

Majority of the world's population today
does NOT know where its next meal is coming from
or whether it will be coming at all!!!

We are doing research on whether there is a soul?
If it is, where it is concentrated when we live?
What happens to it after we die?

The destination for all the souls is the Universal Consciousness
which we call as Brahman in Hindu philosophy.

Instead of wondering where the soul goes after death,
let us ponder and wonder as to how to get to our destination.

 

[sangom]

Sri Sangom Sir

Here you say that "I believe that there is no soul as is usually imagined,"

How come you talk about Intelligent soul, IdoticX soul ect in your earlier posts in 'where does the soul live in Human beings?
Where does the Soul live in Human Being.
Your post no 17
Soul, thus lives everywhere in the body - of humans, animals, birds or snakes.

Your post no 25
It, nevertheless, seems to me that the "soul" or "Atma" cannot be like a quantized packet but should be more like a universal field, present everywhere, all the time
Post no 55
SOUL, then yes, there can be idiotix souls and intelligent souls

Post no 62
From the Karmic Layer point, the Jiva/individual/soul are all individuals and not alike, just as the physical bodies are.
as the soul, we can have idiotic, intelligent, etc., souls.

Here in your post no 73, you clearly accept that Soul exists in Human body

I consider the soul to be something like air or oxygen which is spread through out the body without any definite shape of its own; it is a Field of energy. So, even if an arm or leg is amputated in the physical body, the only change that may be happening to the soul (according to my thinking) is that it will have that much less area to work in.

You did not maintain you view consistently that you did not believe in the existence of Soul or Atma; now suddenly you say " "I believe that there is no soul as is usually imagined,"

Shri PJ,

I feel you have not tried to read my posts under the thread "Where does the soul live in Human being" and that is the cause for this doubt, allegation of inconsistency, imo.

My belief is that there is no soul as is ordinarily imagined viz., like a doll-inside-doll. I believe that the human being has the physical body as we see, and a Life Force which is universally present and is eternal for all human considerations, functions within and throughout this body. But this universal Life Force gets covered by a layer which I choose to name as the Karmic Layer which gives the individual unique identity to each physical body. For more details kindly read my post #70 under that thread.(see here) and a few subsequent posts by ozone, zebra and myself.

Soul which departs is imo, the Karmic Layer (KL, for short) which was covering the Life Force all through the present lifetime and causing the physical body to manifest its unique identity in all aspects of a human being (from A to Z) including how the path of life unfolded before that individual. This KL lingers around this world for some time after the death of a person and it may enter yet another living person under certain circumstances. This will result in that person being possessed by a ghost, as understood in common talk.

So, kindly go through the discussions once again and then if you have still some comments to make, by all means please post those comments.

 

[biswa]

Dear Renuka,

Your post raises lot of questions. Are you saying that there are always a fixed number of souls in the world, including those of plants and animals? What about other planets in distant stars if they have life? Can a soul come from that planet to our planet?

If plants have souls, and you cut a branch from one plant and manage to grow it separately, does it somehow get a new soul, or is the old soul divided into two (like twins)? After this I will ask a question about seeds.

 

[Visalakshi Ramani]

One of the classmates of my elder son while he was in school,

was frantically searching for something in the assembly ground.

When asked what he he was looking for he said in a very sad tone,

"I lost my sole!" meaning he had lost the sole of his shoe.

I am sure he stood a better chance of finding what he was looking for!

 

[P.J.]

This post is Part 2 to my earlier post “Where does the human soul live in the body”

As many, including me, have strong belief that ‘Humans have Soul’, I continue with that belief irrespective of some others who believe in the theory that there no such thing as Soul or Atman.

 

[P.J.]

Advancement of Science can not prove the existence or non existence of Soul; one can not accept the existence of Soul only from Vedic Authority alone, agreed; the soul’s presence can simply be accepted on circumstantial understanding. Modern scientists use circumstantial data to back up all sorts of theories about things they can’t directly perceive (take atomic and subatomic particles, for instance). So why don’t they accept the circumstantial evidence for the existence of the soul?

We are not the body


Suppose now you are aged 35 years and if some one asks you will tell your age because you are AWARE of your BODY. Now go back to 20 years. You were alive then as 15 years old and had a BODY which you were AWARE at that time. But now you know that your body structure was different 20 years back; now it is quite different and 20 years from now you will have a different

BODY, but it will not be as young as now. 20 years later you will tell, “I am 55 years old " and at that time also you will be AWARE of your BODY. What this indicates? It indicates that you were always AWARE of your BODY 20 years ago also, now you are AWARE of your BODY, and 20 years later also you will be AWARE of your BODY. But, Your AWARENESS remains the SAME; but your BODY has been subjected to changes continuously. What this confirms? This confirms that YOU ARE NOT THE BODY; YOU ARE AWARENESS. This Awareness comes from the INNER BEING, your SOUL. The body is subjected to changes, SOUL is CHANGELESS. ----remembering this theory will help you to establish in the Atman principles.

Human body is equivalent a TOY (or Robot) ---lifeless one. The body is also like a toy / Robot is powerless, they can not move of their own. With the help of battery or electricity a toy/ Robot walks, runs, dances, jumps etc. The toy/Robot does all the acts as per the programmed incorporated in them. ----Therefore if the toy or robot thinks that they are responsible for all their acts (karmas by human body), it is meaningless. The toy / robot functions so long the battery has the charge or till power circulates. If the battery is removed or the power is switched off the toy / Robot stop all their functions and become dead.

Similarly the Body, like a toy or Robot, is lifeless. And GOD / SOUL are like a powerful battery or power causing the body to do various acts by activating all the senses. The moment Soul leaves the body, the later falls dead.

The human body is made of perishable elements and so impermanent in nature; but the Soul that dwells in the body is imperishable; it is Eternal.
The body is ours, but we are not the body. We are soul and inseparable part of the supreme. We as soul are Eternal whereas the body has 5 states and is perishable. Embryo, Infant, Youth, old age and death are different states of our body but not the state of our Soul.

Where dors the Soul reside inside the body?

As long as one is alive the energy of the soul is spread all over the body, and this is known as consciousness. “Death is the absence of life.” from Bhagavad-Gita we get a clear understanding just what that means: “LIFE is the eternal soul. And when the soul leaves the body ... DEATH—the absence of life.”

In the Bhagavad-Gita Sri Krishna says that the person's last thought determines the course of the individual after death, and the departed take one of two routes, one that leads to liberation and the other that leads back to incarnation in another body on some earth-like planet. Sri Krishna says that the last thought at death will be the thought that most occupied the individual in life. For this reason it is recommended to think of God as much as possible so that the last thought will be of God. Krishna says that jivas discard worn out bodies like worn out clothing and don new bodies in the same fashion.

Rebirth

Bhaja Govindam:

'Punarapi jananam punarapi maranam,
Punarapi janani jatare sayanam,
Iha samsaare khalu dusthare,
Krupayaa pare pahi murare'

'Again and again one is born,
And again and again one dies,
And again and again one sleeps in the mother’s womb,
Help me to cross,
This limitless sea of Life,
Which is un crossable, my Lord'

As per Hinduism, the life on earth is not a discrete one time event. It is just one episode in the play. There would be multiple appearances (births) before the soul finally takes leave from the cycle

The True Story of the Reincarnation of Shanti Devi
http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/I_Have_Lived_Before.html?id=MrWESD6CsmAC&redir_esc=y
There are many such actual rebirth instances recoded, one can easily get them searching Google

Here are some links:

http://www.india-forum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/2353-karma-rebirth-the-only-logical-choice-proof/
http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Rebirth/id/9771
http://reluctant-messenger.com/reincarnation-proof.htm
http://www.reversespins.com/proofofreincarnation.html
http://www.viewonbuddhism.org/rebirth_reincarnation.html
http://paranormal.about.com/od/reincarnation/a/The-Mystery-Of-Past-Life-Recall.htm
http://paranormal.about.com/od/reincarnation/qt/soul-survivor.htm
http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=1457
http://www.circlesoflight.com/past-life/shanti-devi.html


Past Life

Forgetting one’s previous birth upon taking the next appears to be a law of nature (though a law that apparently has exceptions.
I will explain it in other parts about this aspect also.

Please refer my previous post where I have given many links)
Here is another link:
A New Zealand woman was reported Tuesday to be suffering from the rare foreign accent syndrome with her Kiwi tones turning into a mix of Welsh, Scottish and North London accents. Bronwyn Fox, a multiple sclerosis sufferer from the southern New Zealand city of Invercargill, told the Southland Times she woke one morning to find her voice had changed and an MRI scan showed two lesions on the back of her brain. Her doctor believed the change in her speech was related to the lesions but had not been able to offer much further help
Kiwi woman has rare foreign accent syndrome

Is this anyway related to rebirth theory advocated by our great Sages?


What happens to a soul after it leaves the mortal body?

A simple explanation would be to say that there is no soul and the body is a mere organism that lives for a prescribed period of time and then perishes. That is the end and there is no more. This view leaves no room for any other speculation and thought process. If one is of this rigid belief, read no further.

However, if one agrees with all religions of the world that claim that the soul is eternal and is released from the body after death, then we can go further on this topic.


To be continued in my next post,

I am not going to answer any question posted on this, please wait till I finish my entire write up.

Thanks

Source: Many sites.

 

[P.J.]

My Answer continues ..Part 2

If you are reading this, you basically agree that Humans have Soul.

Where Does the Soul go after Death
Eastern religions seem to be more attuned to science.

The laws of karma and rebirth are easier to accept scientifically, if one has an open mind.
If soul is considered as a form of energy, it cannot be destroyed when the body ceases to function. Energy is neither created nor destroyed but only transformed. One form of energy changes to another. Karma helps to imprint a code on the soul, similar to the genetic code on the genes.

When the body dies and the soul (energy) is released, it carries the acquired chemical code with it. As the unseen soul rises upwards, the number of positive or negative charges that are on its map determines its future course. A soul heavy with negative charge (bad karma) drifts down to the earth to be recycled (and reborn). The soul full of positive charge (good karma) ascends into the cosmos to be eternally released.
Is this nirvana or moksha?



Hindu sages, at the dawn of civilization, thought of this remarkable possibility of rebirth of the soul and explained it in the Upanishads.

Is the Eastern religious belief of reincarnation more scientifically feasible? Can the soul carry the 'memory' of its deeds with it when released from the body just like the brain carries the memory of our experiences and learning?

These are profound questions but may one day be scientifically proven and accepted. The chances of such proof are more likely with the Hindu theory of rebirth and recycling of energy

To be continued.
Source: Many sites

 

[P.J.]

Where does the Soul go after Death?
Part 3

Contacting with Dead person’s Soul

Some people attempt to contact their dead relatives through the use of mediums and it may be possible to contact them. But there is no way of proving that these communications are genuine and one could become a prey for fraudulent mediums.
But Communication with the dead person’s Soul or Spirit may bring solace to people who are grieving for their loved ones to know that they still alive after death in some form. Also it will remove the fear of death from people still living on earth to know that life does not end in death. We are eternal beings and our soul continues to exist even after death.

As I am sure that this may lead to further arguments regarding the Topic, so I am not elaborating on it further.

Why do we forget previous birth?

The Hinduism believes that the baby in the womb is covered with "Sadam" in the form of a wrapper: this Sadam creates a screen in mind to hide the memory of previous birth. Atma inside the baby always tries to tear this wrapper and sometime ends in making holes and glimpses of the past are known to it. That's how we get stories of recollection of previous birth


There are physical proofs of persons doing things he never learnt, or telling with vivid description a place, a house, its occupants, even names of those persons, about which we discussed earlier.

Rebirth and Karma

Hinduism believes in previous birth and in the 'Law of Karma'. Based on the pious or impure activities performed by the atma on the body that it assumes, the birth of it would be determined. In other words, per Srimad Bagavat Gita [Song by the Lord], the destiny of each person is determined by him/her.
The soul/spirit carries its holographic images through its memory of all it has experienced through its many incarnations.
Just as a calf finds out its mother among a thousand cows, so also an action that was performed in a previous birth follows the doer.


The purpose of these rebirth experiences is to achieve perfection or enlightenment through life experiences. The circumstances of the person after reincarnation is decided by the all knowing divine soul depending on the karma the person has in store, what experiences the person needs to achieve enlightenment and pay all the karma eventually.

To be continued

 

[P.J.]

Where Does the Soul go after Death Part 4

After Death
Life after death is the most curious question on the minds of every one. Why? Why the subject life after death carries so much curiosity? Is it because the death of a loved one makes the basic instinct in every human being come alive? Firstly, we desire to establish a contact with the departed soul. Secondly, there always remains a query as to what will happen to us after our death!’ We cannot get a glimpse of our past or future life, as an impenetrable iron curtain seems to hang down at birth and death, separating the past life, and future life after death. However, the fact is that ‘no life comes into being suddenly out of void nor disappears at the death into nothing; life is an endless cycle of births.
Next Birth
The Law of Karma is inexorable and acts automatically whether we wish or not.
Accordingly, the departed soul, carrying the Karmic burden along with it, takes rebirth and thus a new chapter is opened for it on this very earth either to experience and to learn more.
The greatest reward that God has given to Humans is - MIND!! And the greatest reward that can be given to humanity (and god) is the rightful use of the mind so as to be a cause of happiness to the people around us. Mind gives happiness when one dreams something very interesting to them.
When we see the departed person appear in our dream, we feel happy Sometime due to our repeated thinking about the departed person, our subconscious or super conscious mind sees them in dreams

I wish to give you my experiences with my past life.
I was going to Samayapuram Temple near Trichy for the first time, while crossing a particular strip of Road, I had a feeling of familiarity with those roads, houses, huts as if I was born and brought up there. If you happen to visit Sayapuram, you will notice in one Road, coconut trees lined up on the one side... and the other side you will find small houses, huts etc. I am referring to this particular stretch... Something inside me was coming out. When I was going through this particular road but it soon subsided… and I was really sweating...

Conclusion:

No one knows how long it takes for soul to get Rebirth?
We learn every thing by our life experiences, from our scriptures, Teachings etc.
Some we believe, some we do not; it all depends on each individual’s conviction, Belief and Faith, this topic falls in to this category.
CONCLUDED

Sources: Many sites