Immediate Return After Death
CASES OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY
It is common to find the newspapers' report of cases of persons who return to life two or three hours after death. These persons are those whose identity has been mistaken by the Yama-Dutas or the Messengers of the Lord of Death. Two persons bearing the same name, answering to the same description, and living probably in the same village or town or city, are mistaken by the Messengers of Death, one for the other, and the wrong person is taken to the Lord of Death, only to be returned to life soon on discovery, and the right person conducted, at the same time, to the halls of Yama.
Here I present the case of Sri C. Reddy of Andhra Pradesh, in his own words. He writes, "It is common knowledge as gathered from scriptures that after a human being casts off his mortal coil, the messengers of the Lord of Death descend down to escort the astral body of the dead person, to the Loka ordained for him in accordance with his Karmas, Prarabdha or Purushartha. Those teachings of the Hindu scriptures have to be believed in before one may understand or accept the truthfulness of experience. I am going to relate my own personal case. But the reader, be he a believer or a non-believer in these teachings, is nevertheless going to experience sooner or later the same phenomena when his Prana, or the last breath stops to function, i.e., when he dies.
"I was born in an Indian princely family of South India. After the advent of the Independence of India and the rule of the Congress Government, the rulers and princes of my kind became ordinary citizens of India, devoid of the previous rights, privileges and way of living, but are given only a scanty pension. Having always pursued the religious life, now at the age of 73, I am a recluse and have taken shelter at the feet of my Guru Swami Sivananda Sarasvati of Rishikesh, a realised Sage. The truth of my experience is as follows:
"In 1948, suffering from severe malaria, I became anaemic, and my doctor, a relative, gave me certain injections of insulin, which sent me into unconsciousness or coma, and forthwith I was removed to the Nursing Home nearby where I was given injection after injection to get heat into my body, but inwardly the doctor had concluded that I was dead and he had caused the news of my demise to be wired to my daughter.
"What was really meant to be the death-state, I did really experience. The doctor's judgment was not far wrong though he had not expected my death. When I had stopped breathing physically, my astral body or soul was caught hold of by two tall black Yama-Dutas who escorted me to the Yama-Loka with great speed. It was 11 a.m. and we reached our destination within 20 minutes. I saw the God of Death, Yama seated on a golden pedestal. En route I was instructed and warned by the Messengers to maintain complete silence before the Dharmaraja unless directly questioned. Unto Dharmaraja I reverentially prostrated. He asked in whispers the man seated on the ground in front of Him to refer to my life-record-book, and he began to turn over pages one way and the other. Their conversation I could not follow, except at the end when Dharmaraja ordered the same Yama-Dutas to take me back to the mortal world, from which I concluded that I was the wrong man brought by the messengers, and perhaps somebody else answering to my name and description was destined to die at that moment."
Many people have had the curious experience of visiting some place which by all available evidence they could never have seen previously but where they felt at once the conviction: "I have been here before."
Sometimes the impression is stronger so that one can say with confidence that around the next corner there will be a shop with windows containing a clearly-perceived arrangement of goods or a house with strongly individual configurations; and one is only mildly surprised when the corner is turned and the impression is confirmed.
I remember, during the war, inviting an explanation of this not unusual phenomenon from a professor who had come to talk about psychology to an extremely sceptical gathering of troops. The best answer he could offer was a kind of synthesis of associated ideas, for instance, that in one place you had subconsciously registered the arrangement of a picture and an ornament, in another way a vase was placed on a table, in a third the gleam of brass from trophies ranged above the hearth, and that suddenly, for no very clear reason, some particular room reminded you of all these things at the same time, and established a sensation of familiarity.
The explanation was a good attempt, but so obviously unsatisfactory that I did not press one of the classic instances of "recollections" which seems to support the claims of those who believe in the ancient theory of reincarnation.
Dead Wife Came Back As A Child
It is a strange and pathetic case of a Hindu girl, about eight years old, who was being taken by her parents on a pilgrimage to Mathura, a town many miles from her birthplace to which she could not possibly have been before.
On arrival, the child cried out that she recognised the town, that it was there that she had lived with her husband in her previous life, and that she must return at once to him–and her son!
That was not all. To her parents' astonishment, she led them rapidly and surely through the town to a remote street where she entered the house of the widower with one son, who, it appeared, had lost his wife about three years before this girl was born.
She was so sure in her knowledge of the surrounding streets of the widower's home and his life with his past wife (as she claimed herself as such) and all the intimate details of the birth of their son and of their life together, that the man and the boy became convinced that this child of eight was indeed the reborn wife and mother.
It is said that when her parents refused to allow her to stay with her "husband" and "son" as she begged, and took her back home with them she became seriously ill and raved in delirium calling incessantly for her two beloved ones that she had left behind in Mathura! A strange story, but vouched for by several responsible Europeans precisely in these terms.
* * *
For the story of the ghost with the bunch of violets, which in its way is no less unusual, I am indebted to the beautiful and talented Miss Margery Lawrence, whose own words can scarcely be improved.
I started life, as a very young girl by wanting to be an artist (says Miss Lawrence) and for sometime had a top-floor studio in a tall old house in a well-known London street. The old man who owned the house had his shop on the ground floor.
On the first floor, directly above the shop, were his offices, and the upper floors were let off, room by room, to various people; a masseuse, a maker of wax model-heads, a man who did handloom weaving, and one or two others, including myself, the proud possessor of the attic!
I had left my studio about five minutes to six one wet November night and shortly afterwards remembered something I wanted, so I ran back.
As I stood waiting for a chance to cross the road, I saw the slender figure of a young girl dressed all in grey, and wearing long fair hair streaming down her back, cross swiftly before me, somehow escaping the traffic, and vanish into the entrance of the shop.
I started–surprised, at the sight of a real old-fashioned "mane" of long hair in London filled with bobbed heads, and also at the fact that as she entered the doorway of the shop she turned and seemed to smile at me, and I saw that she clutched a gigantic bunch of Parma violets. Fresh violets–in November!
When I managed at last to get across the road I said to the shop assistant who was just putting up the shutters: "Who was that pretty girl with long hair and the bunch of violets who just came in and went up the stairs to Mr. X's office?"
The girl turned white, looked at me and said in a hushed voice: 'Oh that miss! Did you see her? We often smell the violets, but none of us in the shop has ever seen her.'
It's Mr. X's only daughter. She died at sixteen, years and years ago, and they say she had long fair hair below her waist, and loved violets the best of any flowers!
Sometime later I found that the old man had his beloved child's body cremated, and kept the ashes in a special casket in a niche in his office; so I suppose that he thus provided a sort of 'focus' for the loving little ghost.
"That I saw her in, is certain", says Miss Lawrence, "and that I had never either heard or known of Mr. X having ever had a daughter is equally certain."
* * *
As an interesting post-script to the legend of the "Abominable Snowman" of the Himalayas, I found recently an account authenticated by Commander Rupert Gould of a series of incidents which certainly suggest the possibility that at least one of the "Mi-Go" or "Yeti" may have wandered from its native haunts as far as southern England.
In Devonshire a sensation was caused by the discovery of a series of mysterious footmarks unlike anything ever seen before. It was snowy weather and the prints were clearly to be seen.
The impressions were oval in shape, rather like a horseshoe, but more pointed in the front. They were made one after another in a straight line, each step about eight inches in advance of the next–and what known animal makes only a single line track of footprints one immediately after another?
The prints were seen in all sorts of peculiar places not only on the ground, but across roofs, along tops of narrow walls, in gardens and enclosed courtyards as if the creature who made the prints took no account of obstacles.
In one instance, the prints marched straight up to a haystack and began again in a direct line on the further side (though there were no prints round the side of the stack or on the top) as though the creature had walked straight through the stack!
Prints were also found leading directly through dense thickets and shrubberies (the prints were clearly to be seen on the ground below the bushes) but there was no breaking of twigs or boughs as might have been expected.
The prints were seen at Topsham, Lympstone, Exmouth, Teighmouth and Sawlish in South Devon in vast numbers, apparently following a definite route they vanished on the melting of the snow and have never recurred, but they have never been satisfactorily explained.
Experts on animal tracks were called in, the prints (carefully drawn at the time) were analysed but no living creature has been found which makes a track in the least resembling these.
–J.D. Ewing
A Statement Of Faith
I believe in God-nature as understood by Goethe, and not in any established religion. The conceptions 'atheist' or 'agnostic', even the words themselves, are foreign to me. I am linked to Judaism by its magnificent principles, but I am alienated from it by its unembellished severity. I am linked to Evangelism by its idea of mercy, but I am removed from it by its instruction of a mediator between God and myself. I am bound to India by the belief in the eternity of the world but I am separated from her by Nirvana. How people can quarrel or even wage wars for the sake of religion is as incomprehensible to me as any mission in spiritual things.
Propaganda is good for the masses and such subaltern institutions as the State and national economy. Just as little as we try to persuade anybody to fall in love, so we should refrain from doing so in matters of belief of metaphysics.
I lift my hat before every image of God for the sake of the human beings, who are kneeling before it. But I do not know a house of God to pray in; the fact that the finest of all temples, the Parthenon in Athens is without a roof signifies to me a relief for the God who was once imprisoned in it.
Morality is something apart: It has nothing whatsoever to do with God or religion. The two greatest terrestrial gifts–beauty and health–are for me nothing but the acts of grace of some unknown power. When, however, I wish to visualise my fancies, they always take the name or shape of a Greek God.
I am only able to find faith in an immediate perception of the works of God without approaching Him by any system. Goethe said: "Do not look for anything at the back of phenomena; they are themselves the doctrine." As to the question of existence after death, I can only sum up my ideas in words, which Goethe after having expressed the thought a dozen times formulated in his old age thus: "The conviction of my subsequent existence arises in me from the conception of activity, for if I work without intermission till my end, Nature is obliged to give me another form of existence when that present one is no longer to support my mind."
I recognised God in the logical construction of a crystal no less than in that of a Bach fugue. I see God in the pleading look of a dog as well as in the lovely bosom of a woman. I find Him in the iridescent wings of a butterfly, and in the early morning frost which means its death. He appears to me in the hairy covering of the magnolia bud, and in the hand of the child who plucks it before it can blossom. I see Him in the revolution of our times which seeks to wipe out old injustice. I see Him in the smouldering eyes of a man who vows revenge upon his rival in love, and in the poised hand of the surgeon who removes a bullet from the eye after the duel. I see Him in the master-hand of Leonardo, as he fixed an unearthly smile upon the lips of his divine creation, and in the caricatures which he made of men's features. I see Him in a playful kitten, which seeks its playfellow in the mirror and in the murderous eyes with which it follows the movements of a robin. I recognise God in the inspiration which He sends me as in a dream, and in the long labour by which I must carry it out.
–Emil Ludwig (The famous German Biographer)
What Do Westerners Say On Death
I am, for personal purposes, convinced of the persistence of human existence beyond bodily death; and though I am unable to justify that belief in a full and complete manner, it is a belief which has been produced by scientific evidence; that is, it is based upon facts and experience….I assert emphatically that there is evidence for survival, and that some of the evidences are thoroughly good. It can no more be treated superficially than any other of scientific experience.
–Sir Oliver Lodge
The whole centre of gravity lies, even on the level of Psychology, in the affirmation and not in the negation of the continuity of life after death. Our death is our birth to a life beyond.
–W. Tudor Jones
The seeming end is not really the end, for it cannot touch the true real essence of the individual….It destroys only a semblance, a temporary representation.
–Geley
The soul must be a thing both uncreated and immortal. And then it is that a human soul passes into the life of a beast, and from a beast who was once a man the soul comes back into a man again.
—Plato
"Cast into this life, as it were into an alembic, where after a previous existence which we have forgotten, we are condemned to be remade, renewed, tempered by suffering, by strife, by passion, by doubt, by disease, by death. All these evils we endure for our good, for our purification, and so to speak, to make us perfect. From age to age, from race to race, we accomplish a tardy progress, tardy but certain, an advance of which, in spite of what all the sceptics say, the proofs are manifest. If all the imperfections of our being and all the woes of our estate drive at discouraging and terrifying us, on the other hand all the more noble faculties, which have been bestowed on us that we might seek after perfection, do make for our salvation and deliver us from fear, misery and even death. Yet, a divine instinct that always grows in light and in strength helps us to comprehend that nothing in the whole world wholly dies, and that we only vanish from the things that lie about us in our earthly life, to reappear among conditions more favourable to our eternal growth in good."
–George Sand
The doctrine of metempsychosis may almost claim to be a natural or innate belief in the human mind, if we may judge from its wide diffusion among the nations of the Earth and its prevalence throughout the historical ages.
–Professor Francis Bowen
"Although unfamiliar to Western mentality, Reincarnation is unreservedly accepted by the majority of mankind, and has been so even from the very dawn of history. There are seven popular arguments in favour of Reincarnation which are more conclusive and logical than those put forward for many theological doctrines.
1. That the utmost universal idea of Immortality demands it.
2. That analogy makes it the most probable.
3. That in many respects it harmonises with science.
4. That the nature of the soul requires it.
5. That it most completely answers the theological questions of 'Original Sin' and 'Future Punishment'.
6. That it explains many mysterious experiences and extraordinary memories.
7. That it alone solves the problem of injustice and misery which seems to dominate physical existence.
The Christian teaching that 'Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap,' is fully endorsed by the oriental teaching of Reincarnation and Karma.
As there is no royal road to great attainments, the presence of youthful prodigies and genius in the world is therefore a fact on the side of reincarnation. Everyone has lived before through many lives and previous experiences and so everyone has different characteristics."
–Arthur E. Massey
Certain Superphysical Experiences
As the daughter of a clergyman I was taken to Sunday-school two years old and to school five years old, and at the age of seven years I read the Bible and also philosophical books which I took from my father's library, and already at that time I decided to live single all my life, only interested in pondering about the mysteries of life and death. In the Bible I read Paul's words: "Pray unceasingly", this I did, and as an answer to my prayer, angels came to me in the night and my room was filled with light. This was to me a proof of the existence of an unseen but more real world to which we were going after death.
Having grown up I once experienced a physical elevation. During prayer my body was lifted up in the air and held there for some moments, while strong forces rushed through it, and my whole being was filled with indescribable rapture. The power was so immense that I feared to be crushed, and I had to pray for getting no more of the divine power. Then the spiritual tempest lessened, and I was gently taken to the ground. Later on I had a spiritual elevation. During meditation I was lifted up in an ocean of dazzling light where nothing else was seen or heard. It was as if I had no body at all but pure existence, as if I had melted into God's aura of immense power, majesty and abundant love and bliss. Similar experiences followed, and I felt them as a kind of initiation, as my nature seemed to some degree to be changed and purified; it was as if a fragrance of the holy atmosphere in which I had merged remained with me in my daily life.
Some time later I got the courage to pray for getting the same experience as Paul had, when he was lifted up in the spheres, and one night an angel, or bright spirit, came to me, lifted me out of the body and carried me out in space. My first thought was that I had passed over, but the spirit told me that it was only the answer to my prayer and that I would be taken back to my body again after my visit in the spheres, which also happened. I saw my body lying in my bed, and I was indeed not very glad to enter this heavy shell again. My spirit-friend came often and took me to various places in the astral world and also to higher planes. But once I discovered that I was able myself to separate my astral body from my physical body and to go alone up in the spheres, and then I did so almost every night.
When for the first time I came to the astral plane I was astonished to see that it appeared rather similar to our physical world, although, of course, it was of a higher vibratory nature. I found that the Lord's words: "In my father's house are many mansions" were literally true, as there seemed to be a mansion or habitation for every discarnated soul. Some of the mansions were very modest, some rather pretty and others magnificent, according to the spiritual state of the inhabitants, and in the higher spheres I have seen mansions surpassing in magnificence any mansion on earth. In the astral world there are lower and higher spheres, but everywhere the spirits enjoy a pleasant life, as there is no decay, no sickness, no decline into the vale of years, but eternal youth and beauty. I have been told that no one is forced to work, but that generally the spirits are delighted to do some work, often the same as they have done on earth. Painters, sculptors, musicians, composers, authors and scientists are carrying on with their work and are developing thereby, and they are joining in various societies according to mutual interests, just as on earth. There are learning institutions for science, art and music, and many are working there as teachers; I have visited some universities and have attended highly interesting lectures. The different religions are also represented and have their churches and lodges, and our Lord is worshipped there just as on earth, and nobody can doubt His existence, as He often speaks to the various groups. His presence alone is a blessing to all. So His words to the disciples: "Where I am, there ye may be also", is a wonderful reality.
Generally the spirits are using their own language, but there is a universal language which all educated spirits understand, and which everybody has an opportunity to learn.
Perhaps I should not omit to mention that every discarnated soul, when entering the astral world, has to go through a period of retrospection and introspection that corresponds to our idea of the purgatory, as all his deeds both his good and bad actions and his good and bad words have been recorded by invisible supervisors who have followed him during all his life on earth. So it has come true that "men shall give account of every idle word that they have spoken, and that by their words they shall be justified, and by their words they shall be condemned"; and our Lord's words: "There is nothing concealed that shall not be revealed, and nothing hid that shall not be made known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light, and what ye have spoken into the ear in the inner chambers shall be proclaimed upon the housetops", are indeed a reality. For many it is an agony to go through these records and be confronted with their own bad actions and words, but for others it is rather a joy to see the fruits of their idealistic endeavours.
In the higher spheres I have met many highly developed spirits, and some of them told me that we had lived together in what they call: "the great incarnation", when our Lord wandered on earth. I did not remember that incarnation, whereas I have had various visions from other incarnations. Some of them great, some rather common, and I might mention that it was an astonishing experience, when for the first time I found myself in a man's body, but then I understood why I had always felt my own being more as a man than as a woman.
On looking back into my earlier incarnations it became evident to me that our present being, in reality, is but a fragment of our real being, and that our consciousness is but a part of our total consciousness, which will not appear until we have gone through the sum of all incarnations. In each incarnation we have to develop certain qualities, and to serve in special environments, and therefore it has been necessary to shut off the memory of earlier incarnations, as this would only be a burden to us. In each incarnation we are also given a new opportunity to choose between the difficult way that leads unto life, and the broad way that leads to perdition.
By the so-called "second-sight" I have seen the most important events in my life, before they happened in reality. I shall only state one example. Before I had got my B.A. degree at the University of Copenhagen, I once, during meditation, suddenly found myself sitting in a lecture room at the university, giving a lecture to a large audience. When the vision had faded away, I thought that it might signify that some day I would be sitting in that lecture room as a professor. Unfortunately this interpretation was wrong, but still the vision came true, as some time later my professor invited me to give a series of lectures on medieval mysticism which took place in just the same lecture room that I had seen in my vision.
Once I decided to try if I should be able, by an act of will, to break through the barrier of time and space, and to project my consciousness back into the past and also out into the future, to a certain place and time, and to watch the events that had once taken place, respectively were going to take place there. These experiments proved successful, and in every case I got a verification.
I have examined the nature of the astral body and its relation to the physical body, and I have found that our consciousness is by no means dependent on the physical brain, whereas our physical body is throughout dependent on the astral body. It simply cannot move a single muscle, when the astral body is withdrawn.
In my astral body I have been walking in the streets of Copenhagen, trying in vain to influence people, and I have visited places where I had not been before, in order to get a verification, when later I went there in my physical body. In every case I got a verification, and twice I have been seen by persons who were present and who afterwards told me about my peculiar appearance. As I was able to tell them what they had been doing during my astral visit, they were obliged to believe that I had really been present.
I might also mention that I have once, together with a spirit-friend, visited a subterranean city. It was indeed a peculiar experience to go downwards into the earth and find a bright and beautiful city. My spirit-friend took me to a great temple in Greek style with columns of marble, where I met the leader of the city who told me about the work which took place there.
Once I discovered that I was able, through intense concentration, to dematerialise and rematerialise physical matter, and of course it was both astonishing and interesting; I have, however, made no further experiments in that direction, as I am more interested in taking time to meditate on the mysterious regions in the inner world, whose sublime and glorious beauty and fineness cannot be described, as our language has no words to cover those extraordinary experiences.
I have often been asked about my Sadhanas, and first of all I might mention, that I have found that, more than any exercise, it is the burning desire that opens the door for the influx from on high.
It is the complete surrender, the opening of mind and soul to the eternal Spirit, that opens the centres. I have heard about aspirants who cannot understand why they have had no results, although they have practised Yoga-exercises during a long period of years, and I feel convinced that it is the fervent yearning for union with the supreme Spirit that is lacking. It is, however, of great importance to pray or meditate before going to sleep, and thereby to cleanse the mind from earthly thoughts, before entering the subconscious state during sleep. I always try both to deepen and to expand my consciousness before sleeping, in order to get in connection with the Great within, which is always in close touch with the heavenly spheres. I dare say, that the deepening of the consciousness before sleeping is one of the most important exercises. I also meditate in the morning and thereby get the necessary strength for my daily work, and when resting during the day I try to place my consciousness in touch with the divine Spirit and to forget my personal self. When feeling the higher power mysteriously moving in the depths of our mind, we should not be afraid but keep quiet and thoroughly receptive then we are anointed by the spirit.
–K.M., Copenhagen (Denmark)
Glossary
A
Achara: Right conduct.
Acharyas: Teachers; preceptors.
Adharma: Averse to religion; unrighteousness.
Aditya: Sun.
Agni: Fire.
Ahamkara: Egoism; pride.
Amanava Purusha: Superman.
Apana: A kind of breath circulating in the human body; the down-going breath.
Apsaras: Dancers in Heaven–girl dancers.
Apurva: Extraordinary; the hidden power or force of a Karma which brings its fruits in the future.
Asana: Posture; Seat.
Asramas: Hermitages; orders of life.
Atman: Soul; Self.
Atma Purana: A sacred book of Self-knowledge.
Avidya: Ignorance.
Avir: Red smear.
Ayurveda: Ancient Indian system of medicine.
B
Bauddhas: Followers of the Buddha.
Bhagavata(m): A sacred book of the Hindus.
Bhaktas: Devotees.
Bhakti: Devotion.
Bharata: Son of king Dushyanta.
Bhashya: Translation; commentary.
Bhava: Feeling.
Bhayanaka Sabda: Horrible sound.
Bhoga: Enjoyment.
Brahman: Supreme Lord.
Brahma-Jnana: Knowledge of the Supreme Lord.
Brahma Sutras: Fundamental principles of religion; a sacred book.
Brahma-Vidya: Knowledge of Brahman.
Brahmacharya: Celibacy.
Brahmin: The highest of the four Hindu castes.
Buddhi: Intellect.
Bundehesh: A name of a book.
C
Chaitanya: Consciousness.
Chakras: Spiritual centres in astral tubes.
Chandala: The meanest person.
Chhandogya Upanishad: A sacred book.
Chandraloka: One of the planes of Heaven.
Chit; Chitta: Consciousness.
Chitragupta: Minister of Lord Yama.
Chitraketu: Name of an artist.
D
Daivic: Concerning gods.
Dama: Control of the senses.
Devarchana: Worship of gods.
Devayana: Path which leads to the gods.
Dharana: Faith; belief; concentration of mind.
Dharmaraja: The god who decides the fate of souls after death.
Dharmasala: Free rest-house.
Dhritarashtra: Blind father of Kauravas–a ruling prince.
Dhyana: Meditation.
Digambara Jains: A Jain religious sect in India.
Dola Mancha: Swinging bed.
Dola Yatra: Procession of the God in the swing.
Doshas: Faults; impurities.
Drishti: Sight.
Dhruva: Name of a boy ascetic.
Durga: Consort of Lord Siva.
G
Gayatri Japa: Repetition of Gayatri hymn.
Gita: A sacred book; a universal Gospel.
Gopis: Female playmates of Lord Krishna.
Grihastha: Married period of one's life.
Gunas: Virtues; qualities.
Guru: Spiritual preceptor.
Guru Granth Sahib: Holy book of the Sikhs.
Guru Mantra: Mantra in which one has been initiated by the Guru.
Guru Nanak: A holy sage who founded the Sikh religion.
H
Hari: Name of God.
Hatha Yoga: A kind of Yoga.
I
Iccha Mrityu: Dying at will.
Indra: King of heavenly people.
Indriyas: Senses.
Isvara: God.
J
Jains: A religious body in India.
Japa: Repetition of Mantras (hymns).
Jiva: Individual soul.
Jnana Indriyas: Astral tubes pertaining to knowledge in a human body–Five senses.
Jnana: Knowledge.
Jnani: Wise man.
Jnanesvari: A book written by saint Jnanesvar.
K
Kaivalya: Final Spiritual Beatitude.
Kalala: First stage in the evolution of human body in the womb.
Kama: Passion; desire.
Karma: Action; deed.
Karma Kanda: A chapter on human actions and practices.
Karmasthana: A place of action.
Kathas: Recitation of holy scriptures.
Kathopanishad: A sacred book.
Kaunteya: Arjuna–a warrior and devotee of Lord Krishna.
Kirtan: Recitation of holy hymns.
Krishna: Name of God.
Kshatriya: Second of the four Hindu castes.
Kubera: God of Wealth.
Kumbhipaka: One of the hells.
Kundalini Sakti: The inner spiritual power in the human body.
Kurus: A warrior clan who fought in the famous Mahabharata war.
L
Linga Sarira: The subtle body.
Lokayatikas: A name of a clan.
M
Maduli: Like a bracelet.
Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra: A hymn dedicated to Lord Siva with a view to overpower death.
Mahabharata: The great epic of Hindus.
Manes: One of the heavenly beings; pitris or forefathers.
Mantras: Hymns.
Manusmriti: A sacred book–Hindu Code of Law.
Maya: Illusive power; veiling power.
Moha: Attachment.
Moksha: Liberation; ultimate release from the cycle of birth and death.
Mother Kali: Name of a goddess of destruction.
Mouna: Silence.
Muktas: Emancipated souls.
Mukti: Emancipation.
Mutter Mala: A bracelet which is worn by ladies.
N
Nadis: Astral tubes; nerves.
Nama Smarana: Remembering the name of God.
Narada: Name of an ascetic mentioned in Hindu Scriptures.
Narayana: Name of God.
Naradiya Purana: A sacred book.
Nirvana: Emancipation; Moksha.
Nirvikalpa: Without the modifications of the mind.
Niyama: Religious rules–second step in Raja Yoga.
O
Om: Name of Supreme Lord.
P
Padodaka: Water in which feet of a Deity have been washed.
Panchagni Vidya: Knowledge relating to fires, described in the Upanishads.
Pandits; Pundits: Learned persons.
Parijata: The name of a tree.
Parikshit: The name of a king.
Paramatman: Supreme Self.
Parisishta: Appendix to a book.
Partha: Name of Arjuna.
Patanjali Maharshi: The name of a sage.
Pinda: Offering of rice-balls which a son does for the departed soul of his ancestors.
Pitris: Ancestors.
Prajapati: Name of God–creator of this Universe.
Prakriti: Nature.
Prana: Vital energy.
Pranayama: Regulation of breath; science of breathing.
Prasnottari: Questions and answers.
Prema: Divine love.
Prithvi: Earth plane.
Puja: Worship.
Puranas: Name of Hindu sacred books.
Purusha: Man.
R
Raja Yoga: A form of Yoga.
Raja Yogic Samyama: Perfect restraint stated in Raja Yoga.
Rajas: Passion.
Rakshasas: Wicked people.
Ramayana: The name of an epic.
Raurava: One of the stages in hell.
Rishis: Sages; seers of the secrets of life.
Rudra: God of destruction–another name of Lord Siva.
S
Sadhaka: Spiritual practitioner.
Sadhana: Spiritual practice.
Sadhu: A good person.
Sakti: Power.
Sama: Equal; balanced state of mind.
Samadhi: Superconscious state.
Samsara: The process of worldly life.
Samskaras: Impressions.
Samyama: Restraint.
Sandhya: Junction of time.
Sankara: Name of God.
Sankaracharya: A Hindu holy sage.
Sankhya: A school of philosophy.
Sannyasa: Stage of life when a person is supposed to renounce the world.
Sannyasi(n): One who has embraced the life of complete renunciation.
Sapinda: One who deserves Pinda-Dana.
Sarvavidya: All-pervading knowledge.
Sat-Chit-Ananda Svarupa: God who is Truth, Consciousness and Bliss.
Satsanga: Spiritual assembly.
Sattva: Purity.
Sraaddha: A ceremony which the eldest son must perform after the death of his father.
Sudra: Fourth of the Hindu castes.
Siddha: Perfected and devoted to Yoga.
Sisupala: Name of a wicked king.
Slokas: Verses.
Smriti: Holy scripture.
Srimad Bhagavata: A holy book of Hindus.
Sruti: Holy scripture.
Suryaloka: One of the planes in heaven.
Sutradhara: A person who introduces actors in the opening of a show.
Swamis: Learned persons who have renounced the world.
T
Takshaka: One kind of snake.
Tamas: Darkness.
Tapas: Penance.
Tarpana: Offering.
Tattva: Element.
Tejas: Aura.
Taijasa: A person with aura.
Thakurji: God.
Thana: A police station.
Tirthas: Holy places.
Tittiris: A species of birds.
Tonga: A horse-carriage.
Tulasi: Holy Basil.
U
Udana Vayu: One of the five vital airs, functioning in the throat.
Upanishads: Dialogues of spiritual wisdom between Rishis or seers and Brahmachari-students, i.e., the seekers who sought spiritual instruction, on the basis of strict continence and reverence for the teachers or Gurus.
V
Vaikuntha: Abode of God.
Vairagya: Renunciation; dispassion.
Vaiseshikas: One of the religious sects of India.
Vaisya: Third of the Hindu castes.
Vaitarani: A stage in hell.
Vanaprastha: A period of life which begins after one has finished the household period of life, i.e., after 50 years of age and up to 75 years of age.
Vahni: Fire.
Varuna: God of water.
Vasanas: Impressions of actions that remain in the mind.
Vasudeva: Name of God.
Vedanta: Philosophy.
Vedantins: Those who study and practise spiritual philosophy.
Vedas: Holy books of Hindus.
Vichara: Thoughts.
Videhamukti: Emancipation.
Vidya: Knowledge; learning.
Vimanas: Carriers which fly in the air–like modern aeroplanes.
Virochana: Name of a philosopher of flesh.
Vishnu: One of the names of God.
Visvanatha: Name of God.
Viveka: Awakening; discrimination.
Vyana: One of the five vital airs that pervades the whole body.
Y
Yajur Veda: Holy book of Hindus.
Yaksha: One of the heavenly bodies.
Yama: God of Death.
Yoga: Superconscious state; union with God.
Yoga Sadhana: Practice of Yoga.
Yogi: One who practises Yoga.
Yojanas: Schemes.
Yonis: Different forms of life in the universe.
Yudhishthira: Name of a king who fought in Mahabharata war.
Note: Chapter VI deals with various planes of the Heaven, including Supra-physical planes. Most of the names appearing in this chapter relate to various names of gods, their attendants–male and female, mountains, rivers, trees, etc., so definition of such words has been omitted here.