Author: Alok Pandey
Publisher: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 327
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8170602378
Description
The one thing that is at once the most predictable and unpredictable about life is death. And yet man lives forgetting death as if he were immortal and, between these two, an outer, visible fact of death and an inner innate sense of immortality hangs the balance of life, -a paradox to which we do not easily find the key.
What if Death was not an end but a passage and a stage to another life? What if man was more than chemistry and heredity, a soul donning the garb of matter? What if rebirth was not about retribution but an evolution? What if life and death were not opposites but co-workers both conspiring towards a common goal? What if the stories told to us by the learned scientists and the wise sages alike were but half-truths and partial reflections?
What is that larger picture, the missing piece of puzzle that would complete the story and make it whole? Is it possible to find that key which would open the doors of a greater light, so far closed and denied to man? How would our inner psychological and outer, practical existence be seen and reshaped in that Light, so far as death is concerned? How would we deal with trauma and loss, suffering and pain, and all other ethical and existential issues with that Light, so far as death is concerned? How would we deal with trauma and loss, suffering and pain, and all other ethical and existential issues with that Light as our support and guide?
This book is an attempt to find answers to these and many other related issues, not just theoretically but practically, supported by anecdotes and experiences arising from our brush with death.
Even if Science, -physical Science or occult Science, were to discover the necessary conditions or means for an indefinite survival of the body, still, if the body could not adapt itself so as to become a fit instrument of expression for the inner growth, the soul would find some way to abandon it and pass on to a new incarnation. The material or physical causes of death are not its sole or its true cause; its true inmost reason is the spiritual necessity for the evolution of a new being.
-Sri Aurobindo
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
DR ALOK PANDEY is a seeker on the path of Integral Yoga. A psychiatrist by profession he has had several encounters with death during the course of his medical practice. He is presently associated with the Sri Aurobindo International Institute of Integral Health and Research, Pondicherry, -an institution dedicated to the work and vision of Sri Aurobindo in the field of health.
Contents
PREFACE
BEHIND THE IRON MASK-INTRODUCTION
What is Death?
The Why of Death
The Shroud of Death
Beyond Death
The Ancient Debate
The Inflexible iron law of death and the dilemmas of Human law
Towards a vision of the future
The Many Faces of Death
Ancient Texts