Life is a paradox that human minds seldom find the strength to define. Life and its varied secrets are not for the human mind to understand. However, we may well muse upon life and its secrets and philosophise upon this seemingly inscrutable paradigm. Let us go back to the times when we were children- remember those childhood games? Yes, we were happy without reason and were content with the lot that was given to us. Being toddlers and children was easy, easier than what we are now. What happened in the interim years that led us to stop and question life itself? Perhaps foreknowledge that life would end one day, perhaps the realisation that we only grow older and not younger by any means or measure.
The truth is that one day we die! The moment we realise that is the moment we stop being children. I personally, had grown up amongst the hills of Shillong. We had hills to climb and streams to explore. The moment we became aware that life is a downhill climb from childhood to teenage and then to adulthood and seniority; we stopped being children. Dr. Brian L. Weiss, in his research work; 'Many Lives, Many Masters' talks of instances (that he discovered) in his patients when they were being 'regressed' back in time. Regression therapy is a form of hypnotism where a patient is hypnotised and taken back in his/her timeline. By timeline, it is inferred that the patient is taken backwards in his/her life chart. He/she goes back in time, basically. What surprised and held the attention of Dr. Weiss was that things did not fall into place. His patients would recall memories from their timeline that could not happen in this lifetime, even historical events that happened decades or centuries before the person in question was born. This led him to some questions and the answers he discovered astonished him!
It seems that his patients actually had memories of events that happened before their lifetimes. This brought up the question; do we possess memories of events that happened before our lifetime? If so, do we have lives more than the lifetime we have lived? That seemed to be the only answer that could explain the observations of Dr. Weiss. Hindu philosophy and to an extent, Buddhist spirituality believes in rebirth. Infact, the Buddhists have a word for freedom from the cycle of rebirth; they call it Nirvana, a word many would associate with the Kurt Cobain cult some of us had witnessed! The Jains have a similar concept of 'Moksha'.
Freedom from the cycle of rebirth...This brings up the very question of why we have this birth again in the human form. Perhaps a little exploration would bring us to some definite answers. Could we treat the human life that we live on this planet as a school? If we are born in this plane, could it be that the reason is to learn some lessons? Let us explore this further...we are born as human to go through the various stages of life to one day come in contact with death. The moment we cross over from life to death, some questions are asked. The questions may be; did we learn from the experience of life on this planet? Did we gather some knowledge that would stand us in good stead after our lives here? Did we become whole in our spirituality on this planet? Did we transcend life to reach immortality? The answers to these questions perhaps would bring us to the doorway of freedom. Freedom from rebirth, freedom from learning the lessons again and again and freedom to come back into the human form to be taught again. Once we have earned freedom from the necessity to learn again, we reach Nirvana, or Moksha or whatever word you may choose to call it!
One day, we may find the answers that we have been looking for. We may be able to answer the 'whys' and the 'how's' of afterlife, but till then we have to wait. We have the option of questioning though. We may wonder about the light at the end of the tunnel that some Near-Death patients encounter. Yes, there have been records and experiences of Near-Death where the patients (who have been dead for a few seconds or minutes), recall that they see a light, a bright light at the end of a tunnel, where they see their loved ones, the ones dear to them, wait. This is a hope that we might have a life after life...that perhaps, there is indeed hope at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps we meet all who had gone before us. We can never be sure but yes, as humans, we have the option of searching, of trying to find an answer to the question of life after death. If there ever is a death!
Arunav Barua
Arunav Barua is an assistant professor in NERIM Group of Institutions. He can be reached at arunav_barua@yahoo.com.
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