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Indian Philosophy v2.c26.s35: XLIV Future Life

Indian Philosophy v2.c26.s35

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XLIV Future Life

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Only the knower of truth attains eternal life as distinct from survival, which is the lot of every other soul.³ Until eternal life is gained, our lives are bound up with saṃsāra, or the weary wheel of endless becoming. Saṃsāra is the expression of the time process, and the jīvas are guaranteed future existence in this endless circuit, until they rise from time to eternal life by means of spiritual insight. The presence of the eternal shows itself in time as endless continuance. In the well-known words of Plato’s Timaeus, “Time is the moving image of eternity.” No new arguments are advanced by Śaṃkara to prove the truth of future life. It is assumed that, when the physical body is annihilated, there is left behind a seed which brings forth a new organism according to its kind. Śaṃkara repudiates the materialist view that the individual soul is just the body, and with the dissolution of the latter, the soul perishes.⁴ The soul is independent of the body, and its identity makes possible recollection etc.¹ Though our bodies may be shattered to dust, still there is something in us which survives; and it is this which determines our future life. The knowledge we have gained, the character we have formed will pursue us into other lives.² The moral and the pious rise, while the immoral and impious sink in the scale. The nature of the future life depends on the moral quality of the past life. Birth and death merely refer to the union of the individual soul with body and separation from it.³

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³ S.B., Bṛh. Up., i. i. 1. Sarvajñātmamuni does not accept mukti while on earth, though almost all other Advaitins support the conception of jīvanmukti.

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⁴ If from the fact that the qualities of the self persist as long as the body does, it is inferred that they are qualities of the body, it may be argued that they are not the qualities of the body, since they do not persist after death, even though the body does. We cannot say that, since perception in the dark requires a lamp for its existence, therefore it is a quality of the lamp. The body, like the lamp, is only a means. Moreover, the co-operation of the body is not always necessary, since we perceive many things even when the body is still in sleep. There is a difference between qualities of

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¹ S.B., iii. 3. 54.

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² S.B., iii. 4. 11, and Bṛh. Up., iv. 4. 2. See also S.B., iii. 1. 5-6.

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³ S.B., ii 3. 16-17.

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Even the Vedic gods, according to Śaṁkara, are not immortal, for "the immortality of the gods means only existence for a long time, just as their lordship is not self-dependent but is the gift of Īśvara."⁴

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⁴ S.B., i. 2. 17.

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Śaṁkara sketches in detail the departure of the soul after death. In the Ṛg-Veda the souls of the good pass after death into Yama's heaven of light, where they lead a blissful life in the company of the Fathers (pitaraḥ),⁵ and the wicked who are shut out from it pass into the lower darkness.⁶ In the Upaniṣads we read that the wise are carried higher and higher on the path of the gods (devayāna), onwards into Brahman, whence there is no return. The doers of works go upwards by the path of the Fathers (pitṛyāna) into the luminous region of the moon, enjoying there the fruit of their works, and then descend into a new birth determined by the character of the past life. Those who adhere neither to wisdom nor to works are assigned to a third place, and are born as lower animals and plants, which do not taste the bliss of the moon.⁷ Śaṁkara recognises these three as different stages in the wheel of saṁsāra, while mokṣa is something by itself, different from all of them. While the path of the Fathers leads back to an earthly existence, that of the gods leads to brahmaloka, from which there is no return. In the account of the Chāndogya

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⁵ x. 14. 10.

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⁶ x. 152. 4.

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⁷ Bṛh., vi. 2; Kaṭha Up.

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the body like shape, etc., which are perceived by all, and those of the self, which are not so perceived. While it is true that from the existence of the body the presence of conscious qualities can be proved, nothing can be said about consciousness from the non-existence of the body. It may enter into another body and persist. If consciousness is a quality of the physical elements and their products, the latter cannot be objects of consciousness. Since the existence of the elements and their products is inferred from the fact that they are perceived, we must conclude that perception is different from them.

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*Upaniṣad*,¹ there are only two paths, devayāna and pitṛyana, and all those who are devoid of wisdom, good as well as bad, are destined to the latter. Śaṃkara adopts the theory of double retribution in the beyond and in the new existence, so as to reconcile the Vedic and the Upaniṣadic views.² There was some attempt to distinguish between Vedic ritual, as entitling to a reward in the beyond, and moral life to an experience on earth.³ Those who follow customary morality, perform sacrifices, etc., without any true knowledge, follow the way of the Fathers through the smoky regions to the moon, and, after enjoying some fruit of their karma, return to a new existence in the world; while others who worship the personal God and perform acts with knowledge, are led along the way of the gods higher and higher through the sun to the brahmaloka.⁴ The worshipper of the personal God partakes of his powers and lordship, though “his darkness is not yet driven away,” and his avidyā is not yet destroyed. Those who worship lower gods also receive their recompense, though it does not put them on the way to the highest mokṣa.⁵ Those who lead immoral lives have a fall downwards,⁶ but none of these is expelled from God’s embrace and cast out into the desolate nothingness.⁷

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¹ v. 3. 10. See S.B., iii. 1. 12–21.

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² S.B., iii. 1. 8.

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³ S.B., iii. 1. 9–11.

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⁴ S.B., iv. 3. 1–6.

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⁵ S.B., iv. 1. 4; iv. 3. 15–16.

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⁶ S.B. on Chān. Up., Introduction. See also iii. 1–7, 18.

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⁷ An interesting question is raised about the condition of those who have entered into the brahmaloka through the path of the gods. Bādari holds that they have no bodies, while Jaimini maintains that they have; and Bādarāyaṇa reconciles the two by declaring that those possessed of lordship can subsist at pleasure either in bodily or bodiless form (S.B., iv. 4. 8–22).

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At death the senses are absorbed in the manas, which merges into the vital spirit (mukhyaprāṇa), which in its turn is absorbed by the moral vehicle of the soul in the subtle body. The soul, which has for its limiting adjuncts avidyā, karma and previous experience with its sūkṣmaśarīra, leaves the body.⁸ This subtle body is called subtle because it is said to depart through the veins. It has extension (tanutvam), renders possible locomotion (saṃcāra) and transparency (svacchatva), by which it meets with no obstacle in its way and is not seen by any.⁹ This subtle body is not dissolved until liberation.

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⁸ ii. 2. 1–5.

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⁹ iv. 2. 9–11.

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