Hinduism...Ancient India

Hinduism...Ancient India

The Upanishads are based on the Vedas, ancient Hindu stories that were passed down orally for thousands of years and documented around 800 B.C.E. In ancient Indian culture it was unthinkable that the human soul began with conception or birth. The ultimate aim of this belief was the realization that we are, in essence, immortal. This concept of immortality has no bearing on the physical body but rather involves the “Self,” And the Self does not become immortal but is immortal already. As soon as a person becomes fully aware of this, the Self can unite with the Supreme (Brahman). Without this realization, self-regard evokes the illusion that we equal our mortal body. In this state, we remain caught in the cycle of birth and death.

Below are a few quotations from various texts from the Upanishads, The Katha Upanishad features an exchange between Naciketas, who offers himself as a sacrifice so that his poor father can keep his few worldly possessions, and Death tells him:

The all-knowing Self was never born,

Nor will it die. Beyond cause and effect,

This Self is eternal and immutable.

When the body dies, the Self does not die.

If the slayer believes that he can kill

Or the slain believes that he can be killed,

Neither knows the truth. The eternal Self

Slays not, nor is ever slain.

Hidden in the heart of every creature

Exists the Self, subtler than the subtlest,

Greater than the greatest. They go beyond

All sorrow who extinguish their self-will

And behold the glory of the Self

Through the grace of the Lord of Love.

.....

The immature run after sense pleasures

And fall into the widespread net of death.

But the wise, knowing the Self as deathless,

Seek not the changeless in the world of change.

.....

The supreme Self is beyond name and form,

Beyond the senses, inexhaustible,

Without beginning, without end, beyond

Time, space, and causality, eternal,

Immutable. Those who realise the Self

Are forever free from the jaws of death.

.....

When the ties that bind the Spirit to the body are unloosed

And the Spirit is set free, what remains then?

…..

What is here is also there; what is there,

Also here. Who sees multiplicity

But not the one indivisible Self

Must wander on and on from death to death.

The Isha Upanishad features an almost literal description of endless consciousness:

The Self seems to move, but is ever still.

He seems far away, but is ever near.

He is within all, and he transcends all.

Those who see all creatures in themselves

And themselves in all creatures know no fear,

Those who see all creatures in themselves

And themselves in all creatures know no grief.

How can the multiplicity of life

Delude the one who sees its unity?

The Self is everywhere. Bright is the Self,

Indivisible, untouched by sin, wise,

Immanent and transcendent. He it is

Who holds the cosmos together.

Consciousness Beyond Life,

Pim van Lommel, M.D.