Perceptions on Death in India

 The Sacred Art of Dying

by

Kenneth Kramer

"...when we look beneath the outer surface of India and into her sacred texts and stories, we find a preoccupation with death and what happens after death."(as cited in Kramer 28)

              With everything that India has to deal with, it is little wonder that it is preoccupied with death. India's perspective on death, however, gives her people hope. It is interesting to compare India who excepts death to the United Stated who tries to pretend that death does not exist. 

"What is the purpose of life given the certainty of death" (28)? 

              What indeed? In India the purpose of life seems to be to become one with Brahman and in order to do that one must know "the Supreme Self hidden in the heart" (30). Only by realizing the Supreme Self is one able to escape the repeating cycle of "samsara (the endless round of birth, death, and rebirth)" (30) and is liberated from karma. 


             The two stories presented in this chapter leave the reader with some of the key principles held sacred in the beautiful country of India.


From the story of Nachiketas and Yama:


"1.   that death is ever-present within the body and in the world at every moment;


2.    that while the gross and the subtle bodies change and die, the True Self of each person is undying; 


3.    that in order to realize the True Self one must die to fears about living and dying;


4.    that the only teacher about death is Death itself;


5.    that through the art of wholehearted and disciplined surrender, one attains immortality while yet alive"    
       (31).


From the story Arjuna and Krishna:


"1.   the death of one's physical body is inevitable and is not to cause prolonged grief;


2.    the subtle dimension of the person (jiva) does not die at death, rather takes on a new body;


3.    the Eternal Self (Atman) is birthless and deathless, and cannot be destroyed;


4.    one who realizes the Eternal Self while yet alive, will not be reborn but, at death, will merge with Brahman" (33).