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The Afterlife

December 15, 2016

We are all aware of that consuming gripping distress that envelops our being when any bad news hits us, be it with anyone. We sigh, we mull, we sympathize, and inadvertently end up asking ourselves (and others) oft repeated questions like ‘What has the world come to?’ or ‘Where are we heading?’

With the ecological imbalance, global warming, mass killings, political turmoil, economic recession, racism and mostly the interminable thirst for power and money that drives people to do the most brutal crimes without sparing a single moment to consider their collateral damage, we can only pray to not be sent away by coming in the way of some unnamed untargeted bullet or explosion.

Is this all new to us though? The world has always been like this, hasn’t it? World history is replete with examples of massacres, both within and outside the magnificent palaces of many a kings, that have lived on in the eyes and blood of thousands of unfortunate ones who endured it all only to be tormented by their ghosts and reliving the disastrous experience with any soul that wants an earful of it.

I’m not a firm-believer of life after death, but I’m not the one to refute it either. We can all ponder and bicker about it, but the fact remains that we are as clueless about afterlife as we are of the time before we are brought to life. Science might defy it with logical elucidations, but paranormal forces aren’t a myth.

It is a different world out there; terrifying, disorderly, untamed, unguarded and merciless. The people, who stopped at nothing in this world to send a whole lot of their enemies in that world, now co-exist with them there. Can Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Stalin, Mahatma Gandhi, Princess Diana, Cleopatra, Alexander, and now Fiedel Castro etc reside together in peace? How?

This question has always haunted me. Whether it is this life or the next, the tussle between good and bad never ends, does it? It is so easy to commit a crime and put a person away, but we often forget that in the afterlife we have to face our fate and retribution. It’s not a choice.

Are one person’s foolish desires more important than a bunch of lives? We are all travellers here, and one person criminally manages to shorten others’ journeys. Does that mean his own journey will never end? Why don’t we learn something from what we’ve seen and witnessed? Are we equipped to face its consequences, wherever and whenever we have to?

27 thoughts on “The Afterlife”

  1. Gm Varsha! Quite a complex thought to start the day. Well, i do believe in the Karmic cycle and rebirth. Each soul takes birth to undergo certain experiences based on his karmic deeds. Till such time the soul is totally cleansed of such karmas, or has any unfulfilled desires left, it keeps taking birth into this world. Only when the souls slate is clean does it attain moksha. My two cents, with my limited knowledge on the subject 🙂

    1. Gm Radhi. I have been thinking about this for a long time. Finally jotted it down now.
      I believe in the karmic cycle too. We all have our jobs to perform here and until and unless we finish them we cannot free ourselves from the ties here, or attain moksha like you said,
      That’s what actually raises my point. What do these so-called people with unfulfilled desires go through? How is their existence in the afterlife different from here? Does death change them?
      I have limited knowledge in this regard too, guess that makes me ask more questions than answer them.

      1. There are many books on life after death by eminent authors which should be able to throw some light on it. I have recently bought a book called The Fakir by Ruzbeh N Bharucha which is a journey into the higher realms of the spirit world. Yet to start reading it though.

        1. There has been a lot of research and debate over it, but it probably cannot put everything in black and white. Nothing can be decisive.
          Do read the book and let me know Radhi. A says thinking of such things messes with our thoughts, but this is a real question. Is it not?

  3. I strongly believe in After Life. I don’t know why, but maybe, because I’ve seen many articles of this myth. Of Babies being able to shoot the basketballs, into a basket placed on the ground, with perfect precision !! And where else would the souls go !!!!!!!!!!! Maybe to another Universe !!!!!!!!! Or maybe, they just take birth again and the cycle continues !!!!!!!!!!!!! God Knows !! I’ll have to Die and then write a Post !!!!!!!!!!!!! ha ha ha ha ha ha.

    1. Hahaha! Exactly, where do they go? Assuming that some of them do get to be reborn to complete something or as a reward for being good, what about the other not-so-good ones? Do they wreak havoc there? How can anyone make hell worse than what it is? Phew!! So many questions!! ????????????

  4. But but if we don’t know and if we can’t change it or if we can’t do anything about it Then why worry about it….

    How do you know this world is NOT hell..we may already be the soul .. this may be the after life everyone keeps talking of . ????????

    SO maybe we can say hell is not bad after all..

    1. It isn’t worrying, just simple curiosity. Like we see some animal in a zoo and wonder what it thinks about us from the other side of the cage.
      Oh well, we could be in the matrix too and never know of it! Anything can happen na! 😀
      Hell isn’t bad. It is the reason why people are put there that is bad. Like prisons.

          1. They probably did worse things..how do we know what we were in the life gone..or will be in the next one..

            Yeah human is good.. but blessing would be if I was born a king ????????????

          2. Haha…and what if your janta revolts and assasinates you?? ????
            That’s what Bikram. We don’t know the past or future life. It is a mystery. Why such terrible things to do then.

          3. Well I wud die rich atleast ????????

            You are right why do bad things but then that’s why we are human if we did not do anything wrong everyone would be God..????

  6. A serious intriguing morning read.
    Though I am not a firm-believer of afterlife, but again, not the one too who not at all believes in it. This made me ponder over to all those paranormal movies I had watched.

    1. In this regard your thoughts are similar to mine. I haven’t had any such paranormal experience and many a times the ones who do confuse them with simple hallucinations. The possibility of its truth cannot be ruled out though.
      Thanks for reading Aditi. 🙂

  7. Good morning, Varsha!
    Just read the newspapers with all those harrowing stories about innocents in Syria and now I read this. You have raised a valid point, Varsha! Even in our own lives, we in our own humanity want to prove our worth and make our point by crushing another person’s or pulling them down, does that mean we have won over life’s battles?
    What goes comes around and we have to face our Karma in this life or afterlife!
    A very interesting and thoughtful read, Varsha!

    1. Good morning, Perfy!
      When I saw movies like Constantine, earlier I felt it was all nonsense. But come to think of it, we do carry the burden of our misdeeds or karma in this life and the next, don’t we?
      It scares me to think how chaotic that world would be. Like the killing of innocents in Syria, there are people who are sent there for no fault of theirs. Would their afterlife be just as frightful and discontent as this, or worse?
      Thanks Perfy. I wish we could get an answer to these questions. Sigh!

      1. Well said, Varsha! Just the day before I saw a video of a UN Envoy accusing Al Assad and Russia on the attacks on Aleppo! Is it not simply easy to play the blame game. Not sure what is UN contribution to this amongst these talks too.
        Only time can give us answer to these painful questions.
        But great thinking, Varsha!

        1. If UN was actually doing something such things would probably not happen for such a long time. Elitist nations don’t dirty their hands in saving people.
          Thanks, Perfy.

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