The concept of death has always been associated with the mystery of life: an enigmatic cause, an unknown purpose, and countless paths that can lead a person to that purpose. Throughout history, people have questioned the meaning of their own existence, and the inevitable phenomenon of parting with life has represented an important unknown in that regard.
Observing the history of high civilizations, we can identify one common element, and that is a carefully defined relationship with death. India, Egypt, Sumer, China, Greece, Rome, ancient American cultures, all connect the concept of death with the concept of immortality. Death represented an opportunity for humans, a chance to establish a conscious and lasting relationship with eternity. Therefore, teachings about death were part of everyday individual upbringing, and “knowing how to die” was a virtue of those who had learned how to live, a characteristic of the wise. Furthermore, life itself was understood as preparation for death. This preparation for life was based on a series of teachings, with a central place being occupied by teachings about reincarnation.
These ideas were expressed in their unique way. Even well-known civilizations, not only in the East but also in the West, until the beginning of the early Middle Ages, embraced the idea of reincarnation. To this day, the concept of reincarnation is accepted within the cultural circle of the Far East, with India being its cradle. At the same time, this region has preserved the most comprehensive explanations of this concept, which is part of a very complex teaching about the life of the entire universe in India. Therefore, we will try to briefly present its key principles:
In the universe, nothing dies; everything is renewed in a certain rhythm; life does not cease but manifests itself in transformed cycles.
Ancient Indians symbolically describe the life of the universe as the “inhale and exhale of Brahma.” This symbol signifies immense periods of activity in the universe known as manvantaras, as well as vast periods of “sleep” or pralayas. Like a great living being, the universe experiences its grand “days” and “nights,” cycles of activity and inactivity. During these cycles, everything that exists in the universe incarnates and lives in the period of activity or… and then reincarnates and lives in a period of sleep or inactivity. This process is constantly renewed. Every entity is subjected to the law of cycles, and the human being is no exception, except that humans refer to their cycles of day and night as life and death.
Everything has its own dharma.
The concept of duration and eternity for Indians is not static, it is not the permanent retention of a certain state, but rather a constant change that has a specific goal. Each new stage, or new cycle, is a transition to a more perfect form of existence. They called this path of perfection sadhana, and the universal law that causes every being to have a specific purpose of existence is called dharma.
Therefore, by going through countless cycles in which life and death alternate as two faces of the same process, humans go through the path of perfection until they fulfill their own human dharma or the potentials of their own being.
Everything has its own karma.
The invisible spiritual impulse that drives everything in the universe towards its ultimate goal is called the law He speaks of cause and effect, the law of action and reaction, or the law of karma. Everything that happens is a consequence of what happened before and the cause of something that will happen later. In human life, every action, thought, or feeling is a reaction or consequence of a previous action, thought, or feeling, and at the same time, it is the cause of a new action that will provoke subsequent reactions…
by constantly providing them with new opportunities in reincarnations until the Law or dharma is fulfilled.”
“The visible appearance of a person is not the entirety of a human being.”
“This is a premise that is perhaps most directly connected to the concept of reincarnation.”
“A human being is a complex being, their nature is twofold, composed of a spiritual and material aspect. Both of these aspects operate through their complex transmitters or ‘sheaths’ whose vibrations and subtlety differ. The material transmitters of a human being (Indians say that this includes the physical body, energy, feelings, and thoughts) are part of the person that is subject to decay. This perishable part dies and disappears after death. It is like a mask that ‘covers’ the identity of a person, that is, their spiritual aspect.”
“The spiritual dimension of a person is also complex (Indians speak of a trinity principle) and constitutes the imperishable, immortal part of a person, a reflection of the divine. The spiritual part of a human being is precisely the one that reincarnates, embodies itself in different forms.” The human being wears a perishable “mask” based on accumulated karma. The reason for this is the realization of a person’s dharma, which means becoming aware of and expressing the characteristics of their own spiritual identity. For Indians, this means the realization of the entire human being.
In the pursuit of self-realization, the spiritual aspect of the human being travels through eternity, gathering experiences in different dimensions of existence. Like the entire universe, the human spirit goes through its “days” and “nights”, cycles of life that humans have called “life” and “death”, which constantly alternate. The cycle of “day” begins with birth into the material world, an attachment to the perishable, material aspect of the human being that dies when it is exhausted. Then follows the cycle of “night” or a stay in another dimension, until accumulated karma binds the individual again to a new material foundation and continues a new cycle of life. Each death and each new birth signify a transition from one state of consciousness to another, and each new The thinner consciousness is the possibility of realizing the human potential that is contained in the spiritual aspect of a person.
A complete human being is therefore what a person still needs to achieve. When this perfection is fully achieved, then the need for incarnation in the material world disappears (Indians say that karma then becomes dharma), and eternal bliss awaits the person.
Nothing that truly exists can cease to exist.
According to the Indian tradition, life and death are just two sides of the same life that does not stop. The whole universe follows an infinite process of development, transformation, and perfection. As part of the larger whole, a person goes through their days and nights, cycles in which life continues, and with each stay in “this” or “another” world, their immortal essence enriches itself with new experiences, new knowledge, and new states of consciousness.
For the spiritual part of the human being, or for the true person, life and death are only different forms of perceiving the same reality, and they The moment of birth and the moment of death represent doorways that lead further, into a new stage of the journey.