The Future After Death

Well, it's notoriously difficult to get people to be far-sighted. But one thing that psychologists have tried that seems to work is to get people to imagine the future more vividly. 

From Dan Gilbert's Ted Talk on 'Why we make bad decisions'

Perhaps this observation from the professor of psychology at Harvard University hits the root of the question that has been hovering in my mind for some time now. The question is pretty simple one and been around since the mankind began exploring his or her mind. 'What happens after Death’? No, this isn't the question that's been bugging me. Although this is a significant question that can draw emotions ranging from pleasantness to worry.

When Yuddhishtra was asked 'what is the biggest wonder' by a disguised Yaksha, he answered that people are aware that thousands of their kind die every day yet somehow the 'alive' feel they will live forever. Death is the most certain of all the certainties. Yet if I am asked to consider my certain death brings slight grim but it is over-weighed by a rather cold nonchalantness. 'We'll see' or 'I know its certain why worry about it now'. 

Also foolishly we believe that the cessation of this biological self would be the end of all the sorrows. Somehow similar to the shut-down of a Windows PC all the suffering and ache would disappear. But our Hindu scriptures tell us that we've been born infinite times to only die infinite times. We've been in this cycle of birth-death-rebirth not knowing that such a cycle exists.

I remember the first time I looked at Bhagavad Gita As It Is by Srila Prabhupad I was particularly intrigued by the drawings at the beginning which among many things showed the 'after' after-effects of how we lead our lives. The different lifestyles we may lead or the different outcomes of those lifestyles. It was the pictorial representation of some of the basic things any Hindu (or any person) has to ponder before venturing into the teachings of Shri Krishna.

I had forgotten about those drawings for a while now. But the last few minutes of Dan Gilbert's talk struck a loosened cord in my mind. He was talking about asking people to vividly imagine how they would be when 65 instead of asking would you like to have an extra 100,000 dollars when 65. The key here is vividly imagining the future. As a human being our planning doesn't end at death. Isn't it a gross under-representation of our planning process?

The belief that death, although a harsh reality, is somehow a cure is misrepresenting the phenomenon and apparently denying the core of Hinduism. I believe we have to go beyond death to understand that we're a soul and the death is just the cessation of biological activity in the material realm. A reality in the spiritual realm still exists, and that reality could bring shrills down the spine. So to identify the problem and work on the true realization 'after' after is the key somehow. So planning needs some rework to ensure a blissful life in spiritual realm after D.E.A.T.H.