Life after Death and Rebirth

What is death?
Death is ending a human being's life on earth.Scientiically speaking, death occurs on the collapse of all the functions of the organs of a human being.

At the world's current population, about 57 million people die each year.

Is there life after death?
Is there life after death? Theologians can debate all they want, but radiation oncologist Dr. Jeffrey Long says if you look at the scientific evidence, the answer is unequivocally yes. Drawing on a decade's worth of research on near-death experiences - work that includes cataloguing the stories of some 1,600 people who have gone through them - he makes the case for that controversial conclusion in a new book, Evidence of the Afterlife. Medicine, Long says, cannot account for the consistencies in the accounts reported by people all over the world. He talked to TIME about the nature of near-death experience, the intersection between religion and science and the Oprah effect.

When a man's life on earth ends:

When a man's life on earth ends, according to the Hindu Mythology "Garuda Purana",the messengers of God YAMA take the soul of the man in a body created out of air, to the God YAMA.There,all his activities during the tenure of his life on earth will be taken into account and is reconciled.Thereafter,the soul will be sent to the place on earth where he died, within seconds. After the completion of 12 days when the obsequies and other last rites are over, the messengers of God YAMA will take the soul of the man to the YAMA World. During the course of the 12 days when last rites are performed, the soul shall cry and weep by seeing the body in which it lived. Unable to go inside the dead body, the soul will become restless. It accompanies the dead body to the cemetery or burial ground. To whom does the body relate to? is it related to the mother?father?son?to the Master? to the Fire? to the earth? to the man eating animals? When the dead body is destroyed, the soul bursts into tears and becomes uncontrollable. The soul if it had not committed any sins and had done benign acts and charitable acts, becomes happy to get rid of the dead body in which it lived.

The soul now realizes the existence of a life after death and regrets for its evil acts committed during the tenure of life in earth. It desperately craves for a union with its family and relatives. Unable to talk to them, it is suffers lonely. It eats the food given by the son on the 11th day rites performed for the soul and satiates the hunger and thirst.Thereafter,it will be taken to its destination by the messengers of God YAMA.

Existence of a life after death

The spirits wander from one place to another and fulfill their desires through mortal bodies. A departed Soul having taste for a particular kind of food, selects his medium and induces him to eat more than usual and thus gets satisfied. The Souls enter into the minds of living people and induce them to do a particular work. There are different planes and those who are in heaven send their thoughts through highly cultured Souls on a lower level or plane.

Souls which have committed malefic acts

An Hindu epic namely the "Garuda Purana" says the departed Souls which had committed malefic acts, sins which are virulent in nature viz.capturing another's wife, taking another's property willfully, treacherous and traitorous offences.etc; are not settled in the astral planes. These souls do not reach the YAMA world so easily but undergo lot of sufferings. Such a soul continues to roam in the air with its dead body structure till the performance of specific rituals by its heirs in earth for relieving it from the ordeal. Such a soul thwarts the relationship of its family with that of its relatives in earth. It disturbs his family members and causes damages to them. It prevents or places hurdles in the birth of children, especially male children who become heirs to the family. It causes disastrous results to the family and their relatives. It diverts the mind of family members willing to undergo yatras or fasts in temples to tread on the wrong path. It threatens the family members and the relatives. It prevents the family to enjoy the fruits of past actions and fortunes. It terrifies the family and the relatives with dangerous appearances. It continues all sorts of troubles.However,it cannot affect those who conduct themselves as per the Principles of Dharma(Charitable),those who are philanthropic, those who perform the rituals for their ancestors regularly, those who conduct yatras to temples and those who undergo fasts in reverence of Gods.

Ghosts in earth:

Sensing the events occurring in the family and the evils effects encountered by the family, specific rituals may be performed to get rid of this problem.Sometimes, such a soul also appears in the dreams of the near and dear ones indicating thereby its predicament situation and its pitiable condition. These types of souls are termed as ghosts in earth.

Faces in the window

This picture was taken by the husband of the woman in the picture on a sunny afternoon with ordinary print film. They had just moved into their new home in Chicago, Illinois. In the window to the left of them clearly shows a older woman with her hair put up in a bun and a bulldog next to her. There was no one in the house at the time of the picture taking.

Girl on the gravestone

This photograph appeared in both the Chicago Sun-Times and the National Examiner. It was taken during an investigation in Bachelor's Grove Cemetery on August 10, 1991 with a group of GRS members. The picture is an enlarged black and white infrared shot taken of an area where many of the group noticed something unusual with some of the equipment they used. It shows a young woman sitting on a tombstone with parts of her lower and upper body being somewhat semi-transparent. The dress she is wearing is also out-of-date. It was taken by member, Jude Huff-Felz.

Figure in the background

Not too much is known about the specifics of this photograph except the couple are now both deceased. To the right of the tree in the upper right-hand corner is a definite misty shape in the form of a human being.

Old Lady In the Window

This is a photograph that was taken by a friends son. Adam was working for a roofing outfit from Tremont, Illinois Koch Construction. He snapped this photograph with his camera phone. The story he told me was that they were hired to roof the house by the new owners. According to him, the lady who lived there had passed away nearly three months before. They had been working on the house for two days and had seen no one there. I know the picture looks suspicious but Adam isn't one to lie to me.

Similarities between the departed Souls and the Planets Rahu and Ketu.

There is some sort of similarities between the departed Souls and the Planets Rahu and Ketu.They resemble each other in attitude, character, conduct and profession.The departed Soul lie between the Sun and the Moon and just as the Earth turns, their plane also changes accordingly. Higher spirits who are in full control of the entire atmospheric world controls the departed Souls. The Souls are engaged in different works like human beings. The only difference is that they cannot enjoy the happiness of the five 'indriyas' namely seeing, hearing, speaking, smelling and touching.

Re-Birth

Transmigration of Soul to earth by way of Re-birth

Every creation of God however small it may be, has to fall the path of evolution.i.e.one day or the other, he will have to be born as a man. The departed soul on transmigration to earth by way of rebirth, experiences the effects for the actions performed in previous lives. Living things are pushed on to earth to do certain duties and on completing the same; they are not allowed to stay. Living things themselves cannot choose birth and death. Rebirth is for reaping the fruits of the past actions and not for fulfilling a desire. The fruits of the past actions of a man determine the course of events in a sequence in rebirth, which we call them as fate or Destiny.The Sumerians believed that the departed soul of a human being takes the birth of a crow,till once again it took the birth of a human being.

A Scientific Illustration:

Salt melts in a glass of water. The crystal form disappears but the characteristic features of the pancha tatwas with which the salt was formed do not disappear.i.e.the outside appearance of the crystal form of salt is lost but the salt has changed into salt water. If the salt water is heated, once again we can get salt in a purer form. So also, the human body is discarded and the soul enters the astral plane and again enters the rebirth as per the dictations of God

What Buddhists say about Rebirth?

One question that is often asked is, "What happens to us after death?" According to the Buddhists, rebirth takes place at the end of this life. Buddhists regard rebirth as a fact. There is evidence that each person has lived many lives in the past and will continue to lives more in the future.

Rebirth is a reality although one may not be aware of it. The existence of past lives has been confirmed by those who have developed their minds through meditation. Meditators who has attained powers of concentration have been able to recall their previous lives in great detail. The Buddha and His prominent disciples in many countries and at different times have been able to prove the existence of past lives. The Buddha, on the night of His Enlightenment, developed the ability to see His past lives. He also saw beings dying in one state of existence and being reborn in another, according to their actions. Thus it was from personal experience that the Buddha taught His followers the truth of rebirth.

The Evidence for Rebirth

In recent years, evidence has been collected and documented, which confirm that rebirth is a fact. There have been cases of people who have been able to recollect their experience of previous lives. Their description of places and persons of the past were confirmed after thorough investigations.

The best known example of this is the case of Bridey Murphy. Mrs. Ruth Simmons of the United States recollected a previous life in Ireland, more than 100 years ago. She said she has been Bridey Murphy in the year 1789 and gave full details of Bridey's life. The details were later checked and found to be quite accurate although in the present life, Mrs. Simmons had never been outside America.

In another case in England, a woman called Mrs. Naomi Henry recollected two previous lives. In the first instance, she recalled her life as an Irishwoman living in a village called Greehalgh in the seventeenth century. Research into her case was carried out and this revealed that such a village did exist then. In the second instance, she remembered that in one of her previous lives, she was a Englishwoman who became a nurse to several children in an English town called Downham in 1902. A search into the official records kept in Downham proved that such a woman did exist.

Professor Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia, USA, has researched and published his finding on over twenty cases of rebirth. These cases, which have been well documented and verified, are form various countries including France, Italy, India, Sri Lanka and Burma.

Reincarnation

Reincarnation is believed to occur when the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, comes back to Earth in a newborn body. This phenomenon is also known as transmigration of the soul.

This doctrine is a central tenet within the majority of Indian religious traditions, such as Hinduism,Jainism, and Sikhism; the Buddhist concept of rebirth is also often referred to as reincarnation.The idea was also fundamental to some Greek philosophers and religions as well as other religions, such as Druidism and later on, Spiritism, and Eckankar. It is also found in many small-scale societies around the world, in places such as Siberia, West Africa, North America, and Australia.