52 / 822
Eternal India
encyclopedia
PERCEPTIONS
MUKTHI-MOKSHA
(RELEASE OF COSMIC BLISS)
'Contact of saints gives detachment,
which in turn brings freedom from delusion.
Freedom from delusion results in perfect
stillness of mind which grants
Mukthi
or lib-
eration-in-life'.
Practice preparation for death. .
Before thou art carried away dead to
the Destroyer, by the royal command of
Yama, by his dreadful messengers, strive
after rectitude. Before the impassive lord
Yama, whom none can oppose, snatches
away thy life with its roots and kinships;
before the wind which preceedes his
blows, before thou art carried away, prac-
tice preparation for death/ Before Death,
conveyed by his charioteer, Disease, vio-
lently dissolves thy body, and ends thy
life, practise great austerity.' Before the
fearful wolves which dwell in men's bod-
ies rush on thee from every side, strive af-
ter holiness. Before all alone, thou be-
holdest the darkness, make haste; before
thou seest the golden trees on the moun-
tain, submit. Before evil associates and
foes that look like friends, pervert thy
views, seek what is highest. Amass that
wealth which has nothing to fear from
kings or thieves, and which does not des-
ert thee in death. Neither mother, nor
children, nor kinsmen, nor dear familiar
friends follow a man in his straits; he de-
parts alone. The deeds alone, good or bad,
which he has formerly done, are his fel-
low-travellers when he goes to the next
world. The collections of gold and gems
which he has made, by good or evil means,
do not help him when his body is dis-
solved, When thou goest thither, there is
no witness of the deeds which thou hast or
hast not done, equal to thine own self.
Amass righteousness, for, thy life is
passing away.
-Mahabharatha
“On the occasion of a death some per-
sons lament and bewail very violently; while
there are others who make it a point to
dislike food and drink. But such men should
think deeply on the text of the Vendidad,
and should bear in mind that no one in this
world has brought with him a document
exempting him from death. Sooner or later
every one has to die.”
-Zoroastrian Dharmaniti
“The soul is never born nor dies; nor
does it become only after being born. For it
is unborn, eternal, everlasting and ancient;
even though the body is slain, the soul is
not.”
“As a man shedding worn-out gar-
ments, takes other new ones, likewise the
embodied soul, casting off worn-out bodies,
enters into others which are new.”
“Weapons cannot cut it nor can fire bum
it; water cannot wet it nor can wind dry it.”
“For this soul is incapable of being cut;
it is proof against fire, impervious to water
and undriable as well. This soul is eternal,
omnipresent, immovable, constant and ev-
erlasting.”
“This soul is unmanifest; it is unthink-
able; and it is spoken of as immutable.
Therefore, knowing this as such, you should
not grieve.”
“And, Arjuna, if you should suppose
this soul to be subject to constant birth and
death, even then you should not grieve like
this.”
“For in that case death is certain for the
born, and rebirth is inevitable for the dead.
You should not, therefore, grieve over the
inevitable.”
—
“Bhagavad Gita”
“Death is only a change that gives the
soul a partial liberation, releasing him from
the heaviest of his chains. It is but a birth
into a wider life, a return after brief exile on
earth to the soul's true home, a passing from
a prison into the freedom of the upper air.
Death is the greatest of earth's illusions;
there is no death, but only changes in life-
conditions.
Life is continuous, unbroken,
unbreakable',,
"unborn, eternal, ancient,
con-
stant," it perishes not with the perishing of
the bodies that clothe it.”
—
Annie Besant
“Uttering the one-syllabled 'OM' —
the (symbol of) BRAHMAN — and re-
membering Me, he who departs, leaving
the body, attains the Supreme Goal.”
-
VIII/13
“And whosoever, leaving the body,
goes forth remembering Me alone, at
the time of his death, he attains My
being; there is no doubt about this.”
-
VIII/5
—Swami Chinmayananda
“The Holy Geeta”
Who am I?
I am the witness of inner light,
I am the witness of higher flights,
I am the inward illumination,
I am tested by logic of tradition,
I am perfection, I am spirit, .
I am a revolutionary spirit,
I am convergence, I am divergence,
I am the source of all resurgence,
I am infinity, I am diversity,
I am a manifestation of divinity.
—
"Trikenu"
“As a man acts, so does he become. A
man of good deeds becomes good, a man of
evil deeds becomes evil. A man becomes
pure through pure deeds, impure through
impure deeds.”
“As a man's desire is, so is his destiny.
For as his desire is, so is his will; as his will
is, so is his deed; and as his deed is, so is his
reward, whether good or bad.”
“A man acts according to the desires to
which he clings. After death he goes to the
next world, bearing in his mind the subtle
impressions of his deeds; and after reaping
there the harvest of his deeds, he returns
again to this world of action. Thus he who
has desire continues subject to rebirth.”
“But he in whom desire is stilled no
rebirth. After death having attained to the
highest, desiring only the Self, he goes to no
other world. Realizing
Brahman
,
he be-
comes
Brahman.
”
“When all the desires which once en-
tered into his heart have been driven out by
divine knowledge, the mortal, attaining to
Brahman
,
becomes immortal.”
“As the slough of a snake lies cast off
on an anthill, so lies the body of a man at
death; while he, freed from the body, be-
comes one with the immortal spirit,
Brah-
man,
the Light Eternal.”
—
“Bhagavad Gita”
“The individuality consists of the
Thinker himself, the immortal tree that puts
out all these personalities as leaves, to last
through the spring, summer, and autumn of
human life. All that the leaves take in and
assimilate enriches the sap that courses
through their veins, and in the autumn this is
withdrawn into the parent trunk, and the dry
leaf falls and perishes.
The Thinker alone
lives forever; he is the man for whom
"the
hour never strikes.”
—
Annie Besant