Consciousness during coma,death

Jagannath Chatterjee jagchat01 at YAHOO.COM
Sun Sep 1 23:54:18 CDT 2002


Dear Chandra,

Your limited understanding is right. It is the inner
consciousness which says, "I was asleep."

We do meet the inner self in deep sleep. That is why
we wake up refreshed and energised. The self does not
shine because we do not make the conscious effort to
know it in deep sleep.

Physically the mind is not dead during deep sleep, it
only withdraws itself. Otherwise there would be no
mind on waking up.

I have already written to you regarding after death
experiences. So I cannot agree that there is a void
after death which has to be activated by a mantra.
However kind souls can indeed guide the departed soul
to a favourable rebirth. I also agree that ordinarily
the person forgets his past on rebirth. But there are
also cases of persons remembering their past lives. we
have that wonderful quote in the Gita where the Lord
reminds Partha of his previous births.

There is a Buddhist text which deals in the
intermediary state between death and rebirth. However
the soul must be conscious in life itself to
successfully negotiate this interim state.

Regards
Jagannath



--- Venkatraman.Chandrasekaran at NOKIA.COM wrote:
> Dear Jagannath,
>    People I know, call me Chandra, anyways.. So no
> problem..
>
>    Reg. the subject matter: Mind is surely dead
> during deep-sleep
> and coma state. It is because of the inner
> consciousness (and not mind)
> which exists in all states of being, that we say "I
> slept peacefully"
> etc., in my limited understanding.
>
> But I am afraid you are mistaken about the intent of
> my question. My
> intent is not to question the existence of the Self
> during deep-sleep
> or during coma. But to know two things:
> 1. Why even when there is utter inner silence during
> deep-sleep
> or coma, the Self doesn't become effulgent as it
> would upon
> the Realisation. As there is nothing to veil it or
> taint it
> as during waking state or dreamy-sleep, it should
> become
> self-effulgent even in a naastikaa, right? What is
> obstructing
> the revelation here ?
>
> 2. How do we say that the subtle body eventually
> takes off
> and makes its trans-migratory travel upon death? The
> question
> arises because if the post-death state of the
> subtle-body is
> only an eternal void (just like coma state), I can't
> imagine
> how it would exist. The website that I sent in my
> previous mail
> on this subject gives a little explanation.. It does
> say that
> the subtle-body swoons upon death just like coma
> state. Thereupon
> the mantras wake it up.
>    I apologise to the members, if I am dragging into
> realms
> of discussion unrelated to this list.
>
>    Regards,
>    chandrasekaran.


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