Hinduism…Contemporary India

Hinduism…Contemporary India

The ancient wisdom is still alive in contemporary India, for instance in the work of the philosopher Swami Rama. He is known as the first yogi to submit to tests by Western scientists at the Menninger Institute in the United States. Swami Rama was found to be capable of controlling or altering automatic and unconscious bodily processes through willpower. For example, he could induce a seventeen-second arrhythmia of over three hundred beats per minute without losing consciousness; he could change his blood pressure  and body temperature; he could manipulate the brain waves on his EEG into a pattern matching deep sleep; and he could perform feats of telekinesis (moving objects through mind power), Swami Rama writes:

It is not possible to understand what exists after death by intellectual arguments or discussions. The absolute Truth cannot be scientifically proven because it cannot be observed, verified, or demonstrated by sense perception…That is why scientists cannot reach any concrete conclusions on the immortality of the soul and life hereafter, and nothing can convince them either…The objective world is only one half of the universe. What we perceive with our senses is not a complete world. The other half, which includes the mind, thoughts, and emotions, cannot be explained by the sense perceptions of external objects…

The soul has not been created. It is essentially consciousness and is perfect. After the dissolution of the gross body, everything remains latent. The soul survives. Our souls remain perfect and are not annihilated, dissolved, or destroyed after death…Life and death are only different names for the same fact – two sides of one coin…Much of the fear associated with death is the fear that death may be painful. The process of death itself is not painful; it merely changes conditions. Lack of preparation and attachment are the cause of the pain experienced at the time of death.

According to this doctrine (Vedanta), pure consciousness has a primary presence in the universe while our mind (our thoughts and waking consciousness) is merely a spark or a reflection of this consciousness. The absolute or supreme consciousness is the source and foundation of the complete Self and of the universe.

Consciousness Beyond Life,

Pim van Lommel, M.D.