History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.4

v5.c72.4

Death has been generally looked upon with feelings of awe and terror, though there were men (often philosophically minded) who looked upon it as a blessing and as a release of the spirit from the shackles imposed upon the latter by the body. The terror of death was in many cases due not so much to the pain caused at the time of death but rather to the mystery that surrounds what happens after death and to the thoughts about what the survivors would have to undergo. It is said by C E. Vulliamy in his work 'Immortal man' (p. 2): 'although the idea of that life (ghostly life) ranges from the most dismal and horrible fantasies to the most sublime imaginations, the fundamental thought is always the same, the body dies but not the spirit'. There were several attitudes adopted by primitive as well as civilized people towards death. In the Kathopaniṣad we read (I. 1.20) 'When a man dies there is a doubt, some saying that there is survival after the death of the body and some denying any survival' and Naciketas requests the dreaded God Yama to solve this doubt. There are several beliefs422a even among those who hold that there is survival after death. Some say that there is a world of the dead to which whatever survives goes after death Others believe that the surviving part goes to Heaven or Hell according as the man has been virtuous or sinful in his life on earth. Others believe in transmigration and re-incarnation. Several of the great writers in ancient Greece believed in this last doctrine, as Pindar (in second Olympian Ode), Plato (in Phaedrus and Timaeus) and Herodotus (II. 123) indicate.