Yoga Philosophy Part I: Is there life after death?
Is There Life After Death?
What makes us think there is life after death? Did people simply make it up so death doesn’t feel so scary?
God and afterlife are concepts in many religions and traditions. God exists as the creator of the universe and decides our fate. Religions like Christianity and Islam see this fate as either eternal happiness or doom. But the afterlife has had many other meanings. For example, in Finnish paganism, people believed the souls of the dead were taken by a bird (Soul bird, Sielulintu) to travel to Tuonela, the land of death.
Today, atheism is common in many western countries. Life is a straight line: we are born, we live and we die. No god exists and there is no afterlife — end of the story.
Stephen Hawking, who defined himself as an atheist, didn’t believe in god but in physics. He said: “God is the name people give to the reason we are here. But I think that reason is the laws of physics rather than someone with whom one can have a personal relationship. An impersonal God.”
In eastern countries, where Hindu and Buddhist beliefs are common, life is seen as a cycle. We are born, we live, we die — and then we are born again. Samsara is the name of this cycle of life and death in Sanksrit. You can break the chain of Samsara through gaining enlightenment. In Buddhism, no god exists, only oneness, the pure consciousness. Similarly, in the Samkhya Philosophy of Yoga, god is not recognized as someone or something outside of us.
Impermanence of the physical body
Human beings are a complex formation of a physical body, emotional body, mental body, mind, spirit, soul and consciousness. Hindu tradition divides the body into five sub-bodies, or koshas. These koshas create a part of the constitution for our existence. When we die, all bodily functions slowly stop working. As the life disappears from organs, the body starts rotting and slowly transforming into compost. But we are much more than just the physical body. Physics proves all matter is energy.
Humans are made of energy.
Where does our energy go after death?
In many religious traditions the soul travels to a realm of the dead. However, in Hinduism, the soul energy is reborn into a new body. Past actions from the previous life determine conditions for the new life. Therefore, if we live a life which creates suffering for ourselves and others, our next life will be more challenging. However, if we live life with good intentions and actions, our next life will be one of happiness and peace. In other words, our personal karma determines our future lives.
Buddhism has a similar concept for energy circulating from life to life, but a different process. There are no individual souls, no permanent personalities or characters, but oneness as an ocean of energy. After the body has died, we merge together into the universal consciousness. We are drops of water, blending back into that ocean, then separating again to be born into new life.
Tibetan Buddhist monks study and practice dying and death as part of their spiritual practice. If you asked one of these wise monks about death, they would likely tell you pleasant and beautiful stories about dying, having experienced it many times. Their spiritual studies are to transcend the earthly mind and prepare the consciousness to be present throughout the whole process of death. Through that, they are able to experience death as the most beautiful and peaceful happening in their life.
Next time you are asked, “What makes you think there is life after death?”, why not ask back, ”What makes you think we live only once?” Questioning the afterlife is a limited assumption so many have! Even though we cannot be sure, as there are no people to tell us they’ve lived only one life. However, we have many stories, books and examples of people who have experienced death and many lives before this present one.
Yoga Philosophy series by Anni Rainio
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- Is there afterlife?
- What makes life suffering
- Reincarnation vs. Rebirth
- Do our present actions affect our future life?
- Transcending the fear of death
- How to find life purpose
- Acting from compassion
- Process of dying according to Tibetan Buddhism
- Process of dying – Perspectives from Hindu philosophies
- Breaking the cycle of samsara
- Enlightenment
Recommended readings on life, death, and the afterlife
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
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About the Author
This blog post is written by Anni Rainio, Doron Yoga Teacher -alumni, who is doing her 300h yoga teacher studies at Doron Yog
a & Zen Center. She wrote a thesis about process of dying and rebirth from the yogic and Buddhist perspectives. This series of Yoga Philosophy blog texts are giving tastes of her theoretical studies. Please feel free to comment and share your thoughts either here or to annirainio@gmail.com.
Check out Anni’s website: www.annirainio.com
what makes you think there’s only one life we have?
I’ve been asked this question a lot of times. There’s no proof, yet I believe we reincarnate, so next time I’ll ask back and try Anni’s question.
What makes you think we only live once?
You say “in the Samkhya Philosophy of Yoga, god is not recognized as someone or something outside of us.”
What about Sutra 1.24 – Ishvara is a special purusha?
https://www.yogapradipika.com/yoga-sutra-24
Surely it’s not the same as our purusha, it’s outside?
The issue with Life after Death is the vast amount of evidence of physical processes (such as alcohol and sugar levels in the blood, certain chemicals and hormones) being the foundation for our conscious experience. Thus it makes sense that when these processes end, consciousness extinguishes as well. You can see a similar pattern through mental illness and various parts of the brain malfunctioning.
Samkhya does not refer to Isvara but Patanjali does.
Some would argue that isvara is the great Purusha – the one where our individual one dissolves into.
However, when one is in samadhi, does the “individual” Purusha still exist? Or does it recognize it was no different than isvara all along, and only citta vrtti caused it to be confused.
As Krishna tells Arjuna in the Gita – surrender onto me. Similar of isvara pranidhana. What is this surrender? Letting go of ego? control of citta vrtti? Or is it the total absence of thought process and mind that allows one to be in the oneness and thus experience sunyata. Would this be the same as experiencing isvara, or is isvara always a separate energy / power / being / God?
As for your life after death comment – do you mean that the evidence proves that there is no such thing. That there is nothing that can exist beyond the body after death or even during life? That consciousness is the “soul” and is not separate than the body. Thus Prakriti is not separate from Purusha. And like a fish eaten by a bird, it become part of the bird’s body, but does not alter the birds ability to swim underwater?
The one unchangeable, the real Purusha or isvara, is not unique to any one body or soul. It is unlimited energy that constantly transforms, and so when we die, we are back to pool of compost potentiality?
Thank you Philippe for your comment.
I’ll give my further thoughts about Ishvara, based on different comments by Måns Broo and the commentators behind the link. What I have understood from these commentators, there are interpretations that can be understood as if the higher purusha is inside of us or if it is separate. For me this is one of the most interesting question in the Yoga Sutras.
According to Patanjali, Ishvara is one kind of purusha. As there are many different kinds and levels of purushas, Ishvara is a higher kind of purusha, a higher state of consciousness. Patanjali’s view is that Ishvara, the supreme God is in the same category, and not separate, from the purusha (dualism of prakriti and purusha). But it has a special quality where it is free from afflictions, actions, fruits of actions and impressions that the human mind is experiencing. It is different from each one’s individual purusha. According to Patanjali and different interpreters of yoga sutras, Ishvara has never been connected to prakriti; the body, the mind and the physical world.
As Osho says: “God is the supreme. He is an individual unit of divine consciousness. He is untouched by the afflictions of life, action and its result.”
Surrendering to God means that a practitioner doesn’t let his/her persona and ego (asmita) make decisions. Practitioner is connected to the higher consciousness through devotion. As if understanding that there is something greater beyond us. It is not a persona, not a white-bearded old dude or a snake-headed symbol of god. This something cannot be described by pictures and images. Ishvara is beyond our imagination for the reason that our mind is very limited as it likes to put things in categories and concepts. “God” is only a word that we have invented. In my opinion no word can describe the nature of it. Defining and understanding God is almost impossible as there are so many connotations and names from different religions and belief -systems.
“God is just a prop to help surrender.” (Sri Osho)
Devotion to god is like putting a seed and let it grow, as if it was a manifestation that starts living its own life. As Måns Broo comments: “When someone surrenders and put their trust to god, the god favors them, and readily helps them to achieve their goals.” That being said God of Patanjali seems to be an independent actor and not only an abstract idea.
For me personally it is an reminder for selfless actions and a practice to trust that everything will be as it should be.
I just recently I had a though about praying and meditation. Setting an intention or having a metta meditation is comparable to a prayer for God (such as in many religions). It is a selfless thought or wish that we send compassion, healing or love to someone we think of. It is an action of surrendering.
I myself try to see a god in each individual I encounter. I have put a task to myself to see the god, the higher purusha behind the mask (persona/ego/mind) of each individual. What ever we have been through in our life, whatever we are told about ourselves by other people and all things what we have learned through our senses are just ideas that have colored our understanding of other people, of society, of understanding what is “good and bad” or “right or wrong”. If I see that all these opinions and mindsets are caused by samskaras and ignorance (avidya), or that they are due to our personal karma, I can more easily be compassionate and understand that even those people who are very lost in their lives, have a god inside of them, a chance to find a connection to the higher consciousness.
“You can become a god right now because you are already that – just the thing has to be realized. You are already the case. It is not that you have to grow into a god. Really, you have to realize that you are already that. This happens through surrender.”
Sri Osho
Sources: Måns Broo (Joogan filosofia),Yoga Pradipika: https://www.yogapradipika.com/yoga-sutra-24
Thanks Anni and Doron for continuing the discussion and your insights which I broadly agree with. Lately I’ve come across a different take on isvara pranidhana by Shyam Ranganathan – “trending towards lordliness” which I think views isvara as an ideal to move towards in our practice and life as we become more independent of the samskaras that drive us. Here’s more on this (warning it’s a bit heavy):
https://blog.apaonline.org/2019/05/30/yoga-philosophy-part-1/
Responding to Doron about consciousness or life after death, as I mentioned earlier most of what we know of the conscious experience is predicated on physical/biological systems functioning well. As soon as these systems start to break down, so does the experience of consciousness – Alzheimers, schizophrenia, drunkenness etc… It seems to follow that without the systems (i.e. death) there is no more consciousness.
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