Nancy in her reply to my comment wrote: “one thing I continually notice about living in India is that it's very easy to get into a conversation about - literally - matters of life and death. It's a topic of interest, not one to be avoided”. I believe, looking inward is in the blood of every Indian. He or she never gets tired of pondering over one’s true identity. (Some are of the opinion that it is this precise trait -looking inward - of India is the cause of her down fall, which I do not believe, because even after the disappearance of so many great world civilizations India still stands. Ofcourse she had her share of ups and downs, but she still stands. Somehow she have this innate ability to withstand, survive and bounce back).
I could not found a reason not to believe that I would not exist after death. Precisely because of the fact, in the very absolute sense, that existence cannot rise from non-existence. What exists can never cease to exist. What is non-existent can never come to existence. So far I have not come across anyone who can disprove this. I had to be existed in some form before I was born (could be as sub-atomic particles or energy or as awareness absolute). Therefore I can reasonably conclude that I would exist even after this body disappear.
I recently came across two books that beautifully portrayed birth and death. First one is Yaticharitham - autobiography of the late Nitya Chaitanya Yati (I believe it is available in the English also). This is the story of an extraordinary person who led quiet an ordinary life. And the second one is Graceful Exits by Sushila Blackman. Both these books had greatly contributed to my understanding that we are truly timeless.
അതു ശരിയാണ് മധു.
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteyour thoughts about existence before and after life have a flaw. No question about the matter you are made of, that has existed before your birth and will exist after you're gone. But that has not necessarily to be the case with your intelligence, your memories, your self awareness, with all what makes you the character you are (for simplicity let's call it your soul). There's no physical evidence that your soul will survive your body, there's no plausible reason why it should.
In the perspective of science intelligence and consciousness is only based on biochemical reactions in our brain.
If you belief there is more to it than biochemical reactions, then that's religion.
What I want to say is, you try to prove that you will exist after death with a logical argument, based on physical observations. I belief that's not possible, it can't be proved like a physical experiment (after all for the time being there's no instrument to measure spirituality). So all you can do is either to relay on the teachings of a religion, or to invent your own religion (although I would not trust too much on a religion I invented...)
This is just my humble opinion, I hope you are not offended by my speaking it out loud
Cheers, Daniel
Daniel: thank you for your thoughful comments.
ReplyDeleteYou talk about physical eveidence which I assume you mean the experience you have through your five senses. What about those things that cannot be experienced through five senses ? If a thing cannot be experienced through your five senses means it does not exist ? For you, probably yes, but in reality ? There are things lies beyond your realm of five senses and even beyond time, space and causation in this universe.This Universe itself is an example for that. Only because current scienctific observations have not prove it does not mean that it is the end of story. Remember science is evolving not static.