Part 1: Understanding Death – Death is For the Body, Not the Soul (VIDEO)
What happens when we die? Is there life after death? Does memory persist after death? What about individuality? In this video we visit the Vedantic answers to these questions as explained by the God-realized sages: Swami Vivekananda, Swami Abhedananda, Swami Sivananda and Sri Aurobindo. This video is the first of a 3 part series which […]
Do the Bodies of Some Saints Transform Into Flowers After Death? (VIDEO)
Did the body of Saint Kabir transform into a heap of roses after death? Did Meerabai actually merge into the idol of Lord Krishna at the time of her Samadhi? This video outlines the rational Vedantic response to these questions, as detailed by the two God-realized sages, Mother Mirra (of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram) and […]
Help! I’m Scared of Ghosts | Top 10 Questions About Ghosts Answered (VIDEO)
After the watching the last 2 videos on the topic of ghosts (see here and here), a few readers got quite frightened and some others emailed me questions about ghosts that they wanted addressed. So in this video I have attempted to answer the bulk of questions about ghosts and life after death that I […]
5 Reasons Why Some People Become Ghosts After Death (VIDEO)
How do we avoid getting trapped as a ghost after death? In the following video we take a look at some thought-provoking lessons from the Rishis of Vedanta, who detail the correct manner in which we must live life, so as to avoid the “preta yoni” or the ghost state after death. Recall from the […]
Cremation or Burial | Which is Better for the Departed Soul? (VIDEO)
It is a well-known fact that Hindus cremate the dead. But what is perhaps lesser known, is that in ancient Vedic times, the Hindu people not only cremated the dead but also buried them. The 10th Mandala (Chapter) of the Rig Veda documents both the customs of burial and cremation as practiced by the Vedic […]
Reincarnation | MIND Accompanies the Soul After Death (VIDEO)
“Every soul is a circle whose circumference is nowhere, but whose centre is located in the body, and death means the change of this centre from body to body.” – Swami Vivekananda We are all familiar with the saying – “Empty handed we are born into this world, and empty handed we shall return.” The […]
Part 5: The Mysterious Pelting of Stones Which Disturbed Swami Brahmananda
The following incidents occurred in the life of Swami Brahmananda, one of the 16 monastic disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. Fondly called as “Maharaj” by others, he was a divine soul, who had attained to the highest state of spiritual realization (Nirvikalpa Samadhi, or complete union with God), just as his brother disciple, Swami Vivekananda had […]
Part 4: The Ghost Tamer Whom Swami Vivekananda Transformed With a Mere Touch
In the first story of this ghosts series, we saw how certain distressed spirits, who had committed suicide, had succeeded in greatly perturbing Swami Vivekananda (Swamiji) by wrongly informing him of his mother’s demise. At the time of occurrence of this incident, in the year 1893, Swamiji was away from his home in Calcutta, residing […]
Part 2: Do Ghosts Exist or is Seeing Ghosts a Sign of Delusion?
The goal of this post is to clear the doubts that one of our fellow Spiritual Bee readers was having. After reading the earlier article Conversation with Ghosts, he was wondering whether seeing ghosts is actually a sign of delusion. Could it not be that Swami Vivekananda was merely hallucinating talking to spirits of people […]
Part 3: Do Ghosts Exist? Swami Vivekananda Sheds More Light On This Mystery
The following exchange between Vivekananda and his disciple occurred two or three days after Swamiji returned back to Calcutta after visiting Kashmir, in the year 1898. Disciple: “Sir, these ghosts and departed spirits we hear about, which the Shastras (scriptures) also amply corroborate, are all these true or not?” Swami Vivekananda: “Certainly they are true. […]
Part 1: Conversation With Ghosts – Stories from the Life of Swami Vivekananda
The following incident took place in Madras in 1893, just before Swami Vivekananda set sail for his historic journey to America. In those days Swamiji had taken the monastic vow of Agyatvas – during which, he, for a few years, had severed all contact with his family, friends and brother disciples (of his guru Sri […]
The Hidden Reason Behind the Early Death of Swami Vivekananda (VIDEO)
Swami Vivekananda, one of India’s greatest teachers of Vedanta Philosophy, left his physical body on July 4th, 1902. He was just 39 years of age. Many people have wondered – what caused an evolved soul like Swami Vivekananda to die at such a young age? Aren’t yogi’s able to extend their own life-span and live […]