Hitting The "Pause" Button

We indulge in many activities in our daily lives. Some are just routine activities, some are downright unnecessary and could be dispensed with altogether, while some others are really very important indeed. At least considered important at that time, though we may laugh at them ourselves sometime later. Some of these activities are the ones that should be done at a stretch and completed once a beginning has been made. Or else, we may have to do them all over again from the beginning. Then there are some other activities that can be stopped at any stage, or some identifiable stage, and then can be continued later on from where they were left off. There may be many a trivial things that  may be found unnecessary later on and could be totally dispensed with or abandoned altogether on a review. 

The practice of stopping activities at some point and resuming from there later on has existed for a long long time, probably from the times man has started thinking rationally. However, advent of computers and watching recorded programs on television appears to have given a definite term for this. "To hit the "Pause" button" is a very popular usage in today's world. It is clearer than the term "To put on the back burner", since things put on the back burner continue to simmer, albeit low, and need to be attended to within a definite time frame, unless they are taken off once and for all. 

While all this is applicable for various activities in our lives, what about life itself? Can it be "paused" and restarted after sometime? It is a very interesting question indeed. We know about certain medical terms like "CPR". Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is an emergency procedure that is used when someone's breathing or heartbeat stops. Definite steps are taken for chest compressions and rescue breaths to revive the person. But there are many examples when a person who is declared dead comes back to life and lives for quite sometime, and many times for several years. There are reports of dead bodies being carried for burial or cremation coming to life and making the people around run away in fear. Is it indeed a possibility of hitting a "pause button" for life itself? 

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The use of anaesthesia during surgical procedures cannot be called as hitting a pause button, as in such cases there is no real pause in the patient's life. The only result is that the patient on the operation table has a pause in his own knowledge of things that are happening to him as well as to others around him. A real pause is one where the person is actually certified as dead and yet resumes living after some time span. For the same reason, persons in coma for several months and years as well are not on a pause. 

There was a report of a brain surgery conducted in 2019 in Texas, USA where a patient was administered anaesthesia for a brain surgery. She was brought back to consciousness once the surgeons cut through her skull and reached the brain. She was given an iPad on which she could identify a number of colours, numbers, animals and other objects and answer the questions of the surgeons. Depending on the answers and if she made a mistake, surgeons would decide which areas of the brain are to be attended to during the surgery. This could be a hair raising experience for the readers, but it was live streamed on Facebook. Now there are many more reports of similar surgical interventions. But all these cannot be called as examples of hitting a "pause" button.

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The real hitting of "Pause" button in life are of those where the soul leaves the body, and being able to see things from a vantage point above, then travelling down a tunnel or a canyon undergoing a review of life sometimes, and sometimes accompanied by a guide. Such living or reliving of events from points of feeling both pain and joy they brought for others. Then the soul reenters the body and continues the journey of life in the same body from which it had moved away for a short span of time. 

Tales of such experiences are accepted by people who believe in the separation of soul and body, and also that soul is eternal, and it changes bodies from time to time. There have been many such stories we all have heard from time to time. There are indeed many examples where young boy or girl have claimed that their house is elsewhere, and when taken to those places as per description given by him, even recognised the relatives from the past lives. "Sonar Kella" (Golden Fort) is a 1971 mystery novel by noted Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray on such a subject. He also made a film based on this in 1974. The story revolves around a boy born in Bengal who claims his real house is in a place surrounded by Peacocks, Forts, and Camels. Finally the place he describes is identified as Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. "Reincarnation of Peter Proud" is a Hollywood movie made in 1975 on a similar theme of reincarnation. There are many Hindi films on the theme of reincarnation starting from "Madhumati" and "Karz", among others. 

Reincarnation is certainly different from hitting a "Pause", but is mentioned here as examples of believing in soul being eternal and taking many births. This is only to supplement the fact that during a "Pause" the soul leaves the body and reenters the same body after sometime. 

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Dr Raymond A Moody Jr is an American philosopher, psychiatrist and Physician who has done a lot of work on cases of "Pause" in life. His learning accomplishments are indeed remarkable. He got a PhD in Philosophy in 1969, studied Psychology later on and obtained a PhD in that subject as well. To add to these, he studied medicine and has a MS degree in medicine. His website lifeafterlife.com gives volumes of information about "Life after Life" or hitting a "Pause" in life. 

Dr Moody names such experiences as "NDE" or "Near Death Experience". He has visited a number of persons who had such experiences, interviewed them, made extensive notes and published many books, starting from "Life After Life" in 1975. It is said that he himself had such an experience in 1991. He is presently 80 years old and continues his work in this field. There are, of course, some controversies about his work.

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Life, Life after a pause in Life, and Life after Life are all very exciting subjeccts for those who are indeed interested in Life! 

The Passenger and the Train

He is standing anxiously on the platform for the arrival of the train. He is aware of the long journey ahead. He is checking his luggage and is satisfied that things are in order. He is verifying the ticket and making a mental note of his coach and berth. He wants to make sure that he gets into the proper coach and reaches the right berth. He rushes towards the coach even before the train comes to a full stop on the platform. With luggage in both hands, he jumps into the coach and moves fast towards his berth. He heaves a sigh of relief after placing all the luggage items below the berth. He checks the items and is now satisfied that arrangements are proper. There are others around him who are doing the same thing, may be a little differently and according to their own taste and liking. He is now seated and looks forward to the long haul with expectation and anxiety on the one side and excitement and hope on the other.

He makes every effort to keep his berth and its surroundings neat and clean during the journey. All waste items are immediately removed from his presence. Proper care is taken of the berth and the surroundings. He makes friendship with the people around him. All have their own stories and plans. Many of these are shared. Bonds develop between the co-passengers. Some invite others to visit their places and assure that all arrangements will be made by them for a pleasant trip, when their place is visited. Addresses and phone numbers are exchanged. The journey goes on. Some co-passengers get off from the train when their stations come. Other co-passengers come in and the journey continues.

All good things have to come to an end. Entire life cannot be lived and spent on the train. His station is about to come in a few minutes. He is no longer interested in making new friendships now. He is not that worried about keeping the berth and surroundings clean. He is aware that he has to move away from the train to further destinations. He picks his luggage items and prepares to get down. Waste material is thrown on the berth and near it. This berth has no use for him now. He is now concerned about the next berth in the next train. He moves to the door of the coach even before the train comes to a full stop on the platform of his destination. He gets down and moves away towards the next train and the berth in it. He does not spare a minute to look back at the berth that carried him this far and for so long. He does not look back at the train standing on the platform, that helped him come this far. His eyesight is now firmly set on the next lap of journey..... 

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Indian philosophy revolves around the concepts of Body (Deha), Soul (Atma) and the Supreme being (Paramatma). A concept is often defined as "an idea of something formed by mentally combining all its characteristics or particulars". There are many schools of thought that explain the relation between these three concepts. They base their arguments on the same texts but the same texts are interpreted differently by each school. But each of the schools of thought swear by the same sources! Each of these interpretation makes interesting reading and appears to be the best when you are reading it. Ekavada (Monoism), Adwaita (Non-dualism) and Dwaita (Dualism) base their theories on the premise of the Atma and Paramatma being one, not-two and two separate entities. Much of it stands on different logical interpretations. The difference lies in the secret that all schools of thinking do not accept the same yardsticks and the force of their arguments depends on their postulates. A postulate is something that is assumed without proof or taken for granted. It is generally believed, save for rare and exceptional schools of arguments, that soul is eternal while body is not permanent. Soul changes bodies from time to time and continues its eternal journey.....

One question that crops up during such discussions is about the relationship between the body and soul. A soul lives in a body for a certain length of time. In the case of human beings such time span stretches to several years and decades. What is the bonding between the body and soul? Does not the soul feel the pain of separation from the body when it finally leaves the body forever, in which it stayed for such long periods? The above example of the Passenger and the Train is given to explain the relationship between the body and soul. Just as the passenger does not look back at the berth and the train when his destination arrives, the soul does not feel the pain of separation from the body and the surroundings. In other words, the soul does not feel attached to the body and hence there is no pain of separation.

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There are many interesting questions on such topics and they are wonderfully answered through similar simple and yet satisfactory examples. Many scholars have given us gifts of such interpretations and explanations. One may not agree with some of them and may not agree entirely with many of them. But a reading and contemplation on these voluminous literature widens our own horizons. Vinoba Bahve is one such thinker who has contributed through his discourses.

Vinayak Narahari Bhave (1895-1982), popularly known as Vinoba Bhave was a Gandhian and freedom fighter. He is well known for his contributions through "Bhoodaan" movement. Many consider him as a spiritual successor of Mahatma Gandhi. He lost some popularity when he called the period of Emergency (1975-77) as "Anushasana Parva". 

Vinoba was jailed for participation in freedom movement and held in Dhule Jail in Maharashtra between January and July 1932. While in jail, he gave discourses on "Bhagavadgita" every sunday. Many jail inmates and even prison officials attended his discourses. Jamanalal Bajaj, noted industrialist and philanthropist was one of the regular participants. Sane Guruji, Marathi writer and freedom fighter kept notes of the discourses. A small book titled "Geeta Pravachan" was brought out later on which contains the summary of the discourses of Vinoba in Dhule jail. This book contains many interesting and apt examples that convey answers to questions of seekers, given in simple language and logic. Original book in Marathi language, published in 1950s with a cost of one rupee, has been translated to many indian languages as well as English. A reading of this book is indeed useful and interesting.

She will go as She was

It was one of the saddest days in our lives.  Our dear mother showered her love on us for a long time and had just left for her heavenly abode that day.  We were waiting for the arrival of her elder sister from Bangalore before the final step of consigning her mortal remains to eternity. All her sons and daughters and grandchildren were engulfed by sorrow and not many words were spoken around.  Our father had lost his wife of nearly six decades.  They had seen difficult days, good days and very happy days along these years.  He was sitting on a chair lost in deep thoughts.  The years they spent together was probably unfolding in his memory like a film.  He was not actually crying but one could feel the sadness by just looking at him.

The body was readied by my sisters for the final journey. The last offering called "Baagina" was kept ready for the husband to offer to the departed wife.  A well meaning neighbor asked for a piece of turmeric.  She wanted the piece of turmeric for tying around the neck of the body and removing the golden "Maangalya".  It is common practice to remove all the gold items from the body before consigning it to flames.  She was only reminding this trend.  All such gold items are material wealth and valuable for the living.  But it has no value for the dead.  Why destroy it?  Wiser people remove these items much before the end comes so that there is no embarrassment or delicate issues to be sorted out when the final moment arrives.

"She will go as She was", my father all but shouted in a clear voice and continued, "Nothing will be removed.  Whatever she was wearing will go with her. When I see her for the one last time, she should be the same as she was".  The neighbor was taken aback but she was not the one to give up an issue without some more argument.  "I have only suggested what is generally done. That is the common practice.", she replied mildly.  "What you suggested is right and fine. But that will not be done with my wife today", he replied her in a soothing tone.  "She will go with her ear studs, nose stud, Maangalya, bangles and the silver rings on the fingers of her feet. These five were the ornaments she wore as Muttaide, the five beautification aids or whatever you may call them.  When she is herself gone what to do with those things?", were his words of finality.  "Those people in the crematorium will take the gold pieces from the ashes", she said.  "What somebody does after she is consigned to flames does not bother me" he replied as the final verdict.  The issue ended there.

A week later things had calmed down a bit.  My father was telling all of us about the highlights of their long journey in life. I seized the opportunity and raised the issue.  "People take out all valuable items and the gold items are generally given to the daughters or daughters-in-law.  Is it a wrong practice?", I asked him.  "It is not at all a wrong practice and I did not suggest anything like that.  It is one's personal choice.  Many people remove these gold items and give it to the unmarried daughters. Those who are economically weak should better take the ornaments out and use them as it makes more sense for them.  All our daughters are married and even some grand daughters.  We do not need it. People also say that an unmarried daughter should be got married within a year so that the departed soul gets the punya, benefit of that action.  What punya you can you give to a departed soul?  Each soul has to carry its burden on its own shoulders.  This getting the unmarried daughter within a year also has a reason.  It is probably more for some fast action and ensure that the daughter is married that year itself rather than passing on the punya to the departed soul.  As the mother is no longer around to press for it, such a system may ensure the required action.  All this kriya or karma that is done is only for our satisfaction and peace of mind.  No one knows whether the soul will know of this or cares about it.  We all join together and remember the departed person and his or her contribution to our lives. That appears to be the basic purpose of these karmas. Rest of it is pure Tarka (Logic) or belief", he said.

"Then why should we do all this kriya karma? Why waste resources on these things?", I asked.  "Where is the wastage? You invite all relatives and friends and have a feast remembering the departed member of the family and society.  it is an occasion just like birthday. Only difference is that we do not respect the laws of nature when it comes to death.  During kriya karma you bring many items and distribute them among the needy in memory of the departed soul. Those items are used by the receivers in their daily lives. Nothing is a waste. When you give a set of footwear to someone walking barefoot it is not a waste.  But when you give it to a person having four pairs already, then it is a waste. So also with a bed.  It is to be given to a person sleeping on a floor and not to someone who has four cots in his house.  As far as performing kriya karma is concerned, it is one's choice. It is like two brothers going out of the house and arguing about whether it will rain that day.  One believes it rains and carries an umbrella with him.  The other brother does not believe it rains and goes without an umbrella.  If it rains, the one with umbrella is protected and the one without it will get drenched in the rain. If it does not rain the one who took it out  has only the problem of carrying the piece with him. I suggest you do the kriya karma as per the tradition of your family, just like keeping  the umbrella for no one knows for sure what happens after death or whether there is another world or not. Just like whether it will rain or not", he concluded.

Opinions may differ on arguments, logic and philosophy part.  But he was right about one thing.  When he saw his wife for the one last time in front of the electric furnace, she was as she was all her life, for him.  Just as I saw my mother for that one last time, as she was since my birth.