Does immortality exist? Many generations of scientists, including philosophers, have asked themselves this question. And if immortality exists - what is it like? Immortality of body or soul? After all, even about the nature of immortality, man had different ideas. The famous Russian philosopher N. Fedorov dreamed of the physical immortality, of the eternal existence of people within the physical plane, and not of the immortality of the soul in the other world. Fedorov even expressed the idea of resurrecting generations of deceased people with the help of the gene pool of their descendants living today. This idea, to some extent, turned out to be consonant with modern cloning experiments. Indeed, some of the scientists engaged in research in this area seriously believe that with the help of genetic engineering it will be possible to recreate not only individual organs of the human body,which can be used for transplantation to patients instead of donor ones, but also … the whole human being.
What is behind these ideas? Disbelief that the soul exists? Ignorance that a person is multidimensional by nature, and his consciousness exists not only within the boundaries of the physical plane? Most probably. Otherwise, hardly anyone would have had the idea to “recreate” Mozart or Einstein on the earthly plane by cloning. After all, a genius is not only a physical organism, it is primarily consciousness, a soul. Is it possible to "infuse" the soul of a genius by force into a physical case created for it by cloning? Moreover, not taking into account the terms and conditions of his subsequent incarnations on the earthly plane created by personal karma …
So how can immortality be? In Living Ethics, it is said that death is a great illusion of being. Death as the cessation of intelligent existence does not exist. The human spirit is immortal in its cosmic basis. However, the same teaching emphasizes that the immortality of the spirit does not mean yet the immortality of personal consciousness. Having fallen beyond the limits of three dimensions, the human consciousness, due to its spiritual imperfection, extinguishes for a while, in order to then wake up in an altered state.
What is immortality? This is clarity, continuity of consciousness. It can be by no means only during life in the physical world. For the adepts of higher knowledge, life in a close physical shell seems to be a real prison, since the three-dimensional plane largely limits the creative possibilities of consciousness. It is from here that the well-known thesis of esoteric teachings arose that death in the physical world means the true birth of a soul, freed from material fetters. And, conversely, the embodiment of a highly developed spirit on Earth represents a real conclusion for his soul. And people who have been in a state of clinical death talk about how beautiful the world of higher dimensions is and how they did not want to return.
Therefore, the goal of a person's spiritual development is to achieve the continuity of consciousness. It is precisely the continuity of consciousness that can be called true immortality - both during earthly life and when the physical body is thrown off. With the clouding of consciousness caused by spiritual squalor, existence on the physical plane is nothing more than a spiritual death. It is not for nothing that Vivekananda said: “It makes no difference whether you are alive or dead,” meaning the possibilities of spiritual self-improvement, which is equally accessible to consciousness in this world and the other.
On the continuity of consciousness: “Even when a person is asleep, his ordinary consciousness does not function. This is all the more inevitable when the body dies. The absence of consciousness does not at all mean the death of the spirit, because the spirit continues to live regardless of whether its consciousness is working or not. Many dead stand, like idols, in the Supermundane World, and nevertheless the spirit lives in them in order to incarnate again and, with the help of earthly consciousness, again accumulate experience and pass the lessons of life. It is quite clear that bodily consciousness cannot continue if the body dies. As a consequence, only consciousness of a higher order, that is, super-bodily, is capable of maintaining continuity. The personality dies along with the body, therefore, personal consciousness cannot be taken beyond the threshold of death.
Concern about how to rise above personal consciousness, short and limited, and establish yourself in consciousness that does not stop with the dying of the body. To do this, in our inner world, let us separate the elements of the imperishable from everything that accompanies us and is given only for this incarnation. For example, courage or fear, aspiration or passivity, devotion or unfaithfulness can be carried with oneself from previous incarnations and, having strengthened or weakened them, taken further into the future, into a new incarnation on the earthly plane. This means that the qualities of the spirit are elements of the eternal. Thus, in one's inner world it is possible to take away that which passes with a person from one body to another and that does not die with the body. Love or hate, friends and enemies do not disappear with the death of the physical body. These are all elements of the eternal.
In a word, a person's character is what he carries with him from the past and with what he will go into the future. It is possible to carefully and carefully note in oneself these undying properties of individuality in order to define in oneself and separate the temporal from the timeless in oneself. This difference between the two opposites becomes especially clear if you imagine how a fearless hero, strong in spirit, who knows no defeat, suddenly enters the mortal physical body of, say, a pitiful coward and worthlessness. How dramatically all actions and deeds of a person who have just appeared from themselves to be a complete insignificance change at once.
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With such comparisons and reflections on such topics, it is possible to establish in oneself what lives in a person, regardless of the shell that clothe him, but which vehemently depends on the essence of the inhabitant of this shell. Dismemberment in the consciousness of their guides, or rather, understanding the essence of each can advance a person to the realization of his enduring Individuality.
Undoubtedly, the continuity of consciousness is one of the highest and most difficult spiritual achievements available to man. But then, when it is achieved, humanity will forget the very concept of death. "The preservation of consciousness after the death of the physical body depends on the accumulations that a person can keep when the material world ceases to be obvious to him."
It is also necessary to remember the following pattern: immortality is different. There is light, evolutionary immortality, immortality of the Adepts of Light Forces, and there is dark immortality, characteristic of adepts of darkness. The first is beautiful and unlimited, the second is terrible and yet relative, because sooner or later, but all the same ends in non-existence. The immortality of Light is eternal, the immortality of darkness is not. Therefore, true immortality is associated with the need for spiritual self-improvement. Only spiritual, conscious immortality of consciousness can be considered the goal of human life.
Why is death necessary?
What is death from a philosophical and esoteric point of view?
It must be admitted that only one side of death is known to mankind - the negative side. For the overwhelming majority of people, death is a gloomy event, an end, a destruction that deprives a person of the joys of earthly life (even if for someone life it was not too joyful) or a loved one - if our neighbor leaves life, not us yourself. Almost none of us, brought up in the spirit of materialism, does not think that in nature there is no such thing as "the end." In nature, there is only the transformation of one energy or form into another, possibly invisible in the physical world, but still continuing its existence.
The notes given to BN Abramov by Helena Roerich say: “In essence, all earthly life is nothing more than preparation for the Supermundane stay. When this is not understood, then earthly existence loses its meaning and life becomes devoid of purpose and meaning. After all, it is not for the same that a person lives on Earth in order to disappear without a trace, and in a world where nothing ends, but everything continues into the future, to end the chain of causes and the chain of effects as if nothing had happened. It is difficult to imagine something absurd in this situation. The main axiom of materialistic science says: nothing in nature disappears and is not born again, but passes from one state to another."
Even in materialistic science, it is argued that matter and energy do not arise out of nothing and do not go anywhere. Man, that is, his spiritual essence, which has changed many incarnations, is born into this world from another world. And there, in another world, and not anywhere, he leaves after death in the material world. Death is just another form of life, the reverse side of earthly existence, just as sleep is the reverse side of wakefulness.
Everyone knows that a person cannot live without sleep. People die from sleep deprivation rather than from lack of food. But without death, that is, without another phase of being, a human being also cannot develop. In a dream, a person's consciousness analyzes, classifies, summarizes the impressions received by him in the waking state. In the afterlife, his higher "I" does the same with the experience of the entire earthly life of the individual. Death (if it is natural) is not an end and not a tragedy, but another phase of being, intended for processing and preserving the experience of earthly existence, analyzing and revising the karmic achievements of an individual.
None of us, parting with a loved one before bedtime, would not think to perceive this as a drama. But a person's departure from the physical world is the same dream, an equally necessary phase of his existence.
The true essence of a person is not in his biological body. Man is, first of all, mind, consciousness, soul. And for the evolution of this soul, its stay in the world of the highest reality is necessary, which is accessible to most of us only in the intervals between incarnations on earth.
Without that phase of our being, which we call death, our consciousness would not have been able to evolve - such is the conclusion of esoteric knowledge about the meaning of death.
The impact of the energies of the higher planes of existence on human consciousness is reflected in the impressions of people who have experienced clinical death. People who came into contact for some moments with the Highest Reality radically changed their ideas about life and death, about what this world is and how one should live in it in reality. Both adults and children, who looked beyond the line of death, became much more spiritual, moral, wiser. This cannot be explained solely by the deep stress experienced by them as a result of clinical death. It's just that it is the influence of the higher, spiritual energies of the invisible plane of being on the consciousness of a person.
One prominent American scientist, professor of psychology, president of IAIPS (International Association for the Study of Near Death) Kenneth Ring expressed the idea that the state of death is a kind of evolutionary mechanism that enables a person to make a leap to a higher stage of development due to the disclosure of his spiritual potential previously inactive. And people who have experienced this state and, as a result, turned to goodness and compassion, are the prototype of a new and more perfect evolutionary species of humanity, the scientist believes.
Perhaps the opinion expressed by Professor Ring somewhat exaggerates the importance of near-death states in the spiritual evolution of the individual, mainly because the near-death experience has such a clear ennobling effect on not everyone who has experienced it. But one cannot fail to note the fact that the majority of people, after coming into contact with another reality, received a powerful spiritual and moral impulse that lifted them to a higher level of development. And if even a short excursion to the Otherworld, which occurs at the time of clinical death, is able to give a person such a powerful evolutionary impetus, one can only guess how necessary for his spiritual development his longer stay in the Subtle World in the intervals between incarnations on earthly plane.
“Every person carries a secret within himself. The veil of the past is only rarely opened when subtle energy abounds in earthly existence. Only after crossing the edge of the Earth, a person becomes enlightened in the knowledge of part of his secret. The process is remarkable when subtle energy opens the bowl of accumulations. The memory suddenly lights up, and the past rises in all justice. One can be amazed at how much a person transforms at the moment when he leaves the earthly sphere. They call it death, but it is birth, so it is a pity when the subtle body is in a dream for a long time. Particularly remarkable is the transition with the preservation of consciousness, then you can clearly imagine how the earthly rags fall off and the incorruptible accumulation rises - it can turn out to be a true treasure. One can understand why such a subtle treasure cannot be revealed in the midst of gross conditions."
Of course, the posthumous state is only for those who deserve it with paradise bliss and a rich spiritual life. But this in no way diminishes the evolutionary significance of death and afterlife for people of middle and low levels of spiritual development. Life lessons are not always pleasant; At the same time, each of us will agree that sometimes a bitter experience teaches much better than a pleasant one, forcing once and for all to realize the perniciousness of moral mistakes in order to never commit them again.
The posthumous karmic reward received by each person in full accordance with his merits and moral qualities is the true evolutionary mechanism of Nature, one of the most important lessons of being necessary for the spiritual development of mankind.
N. Kovaleva