Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 15. LIFE AFTER DEATH AND REBIRTH
Question 4
QUESTIONER: IS THERE A WAY, APART FROM OCCULTISM, TO KNOW INTELLECTUALLY
ABOUT THE SOUL AND ITS REBIRTH? IN OTHER WORDS, CAN THE EXISTENCE OF THE
SOUL AND THE FACT OF REBIRTH BE PROVED PHILOSOPHICALLY WITHOUT THE HELP
OF A PRACTICAL DISCIPLINE? HOW IS IT THAT A BODILESS SPIRIT KNOWS ALL ABOUT
ITS PREVIOUS LIFE? IS IT THAT ONLY A SOUL THAT LEAVES ITS BODY WITH AWARENESS
COMES TO REMEMBER ITS PAST LIFE?
Ordinarily when a person dies, it is only his physical body that dies, he and his mind do not die with
the body. Ordinarily the mind of the dying person goes with him, and for a little while after death he
retains all his memory of his previous life. It is like what happens with our dreams. After you wake
up from sleep you remember your dreams for a little while. Slowly the memory of dreams begins to
fade and by noontime it fades away completely. And by the even ing you cannot say even a word
about them.
Although you dream in your sleep, in your unconscious state, yet on waking you can clearly recall a
few fragments of your dreams, particularly the latter part of your last dream. It happens because in
the latter part of your sleep you begin to wake up and you are only half asleep. You can remember
the dreams fully or partly that visit you in your half-asleep and half-waking state. But even this
memory does not last long; as hours pass it disappears. In the same way a man’s bodiless soul
remembers its previous life, its friends and relatives for a little while after his death. And this memory
is rather painful, because he cannot relate with them any more.
It is for this reason that we do a few things. Soon after someone close to us meets his death, so that
he is relieved of the memories of his past associations and attachments. Now it is not good to carry
them, because they are very painful. Hindus cremate the dead bodies of their relatives soon after
their death; they try not to delay if it is avoidable. And it is significant. Cremation destroys all identity
and attachment of the dead with their bodies, because they remember their past only through the
medium of their dead bodies. The dead body serves as a bridge between the released soul and his
past life. So cremation is in the interest of the departed souls.
When somebody dies suddenly or in an accident, he doesn’t know he is dead. For a little while
he feels stunned and bewildered to see that he is separated from his body, maybe, something has
gone wrong somewhere. It happens because inside the body nothing really dies except that the
soul leaves the body. Not a few, but the majority of souls feel utterly confused and confounded soon
after their death. No one can figure out why his family members are weeping and crying, why there
is so much grief all around, because he feels as much alive as before, except that his body is a
little separate from him. It is the body that gives him a sense of continuity, because it is the medium
of all his associations with the past. Only meditative people, those who have experienced deep
meditation can escape being pulled and bewildered, because they know that they are separate from
their bodies.
Soon after cremation or burial of a dead body the soul is gradually freed from its past memories
and associations. It is like we gradually forget our dreams. It is on the reckoning of time taken by
different kinds of souls that we have different death rites for our dead. Some people, particularly
children take only three days to forget their past associations. Most others take thirteen days; so
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 291 Osho