To lead a meaningful life requires the understanding of its lofty purpose and our little place in the vast scheme of things. The messages from near death experiences (NDEs) go a long way in helping us perceive the sacredness of life – and the sacredness of death too!
Much of humanity on this planet is sunk in what may be called ‘The Limited Awareness Syndrome’. The child, as it grows in an environment of self-centered activities, gets caught up in the momentum and allows its life to be straitjacketed by them. The parents and the society also support the child in its ego-build-up and rarely help it step out of the rut into which they themselves have fallen. However, some people understand that life has a lofty purpose than just chasing ego-satisfaction through their religious and other activities. They help the child grow from its young days to appreciate the sacredness of life while also preparing the child to face the hard realities of life. Those are the people who do not fall a prey to the conventional mindset and help the child free itself from such entanglements. They would surely find the messages from NDEs very helpful in purifying themselves with a well-ordered and meaningful life.
The chief messages from NDEs bring out clearly the profundity of life that we overlook due to our narrow-minded approach to religion and spirituality and due to our noisy minds with its conventional thoughts. As soon as we get up in the morning, we can see how quickly thought captures our mental state and tries to submerge us in our self-centered activities. This continuous neuron movement controlled by self-importance wears out the mind. Clarity on that slavery can make us come to grips with the situation and do something about it. This movement is initially arduous because one has to sail on an uncharted sea and be a guide unto oneself. Here again, NDEs can be of great help. The following excerpt of a NDE episode from the International Association for Near Death Studies (iands.org) brings out the enthusiasm to live vibrantly, guided by the lofty purpose of life.
“I was drifting in and out of consciousness during this time [chemotherapy] and I could feel my spirit actually leaving my body. I saw and heard the conversations between my husband and the doctors taking place outside my room, about 40 feet away and down a hallway. I was later able to verify this conversation to my shocked husband. Then I actually crossed over to another dimension where I was engulfed in a total feeling of love. I also experienced extreme clarity of why I had the cancer, why I had come into this life in the first place, what role everyone in my family played in my life in the grand scheme of things, and generally how life works. The clarity and understanding I obtained in this state is almost indescribable. Words seem to limit the experience - I was at a place where I understood how much more there is than what we are able to conceive in our 3-dimensional world. I realized what a gift life is and that I was surrounded by loving spiritual beings who were always around me even when I did not know it.
“The amount of love I felt was overwhelming, and from this perspective I knew my powerful nature and saw the amazing possibilities we as humans are capable of achieving during a physical life. I found out that my purpose now would be to live heaven on earth using this new understanding and also to share this knowledge with other people.”
Those who feel drawn to such issues will find some strange inner surge in them help them sustain themselves on the track of pure spirituality, away from beliefs and disbeliefs. The website http://spirituality.yolasite.com will be of interest to them.
Author: Gopalakrishnan TC - Graduated in 1963 from the then Engineering College, Madras University (now Anna University) in Civil Engineering. Received the Master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, while being on the teaching and research faculty there in the Hydraulic Engineering Dept. The doctoral degree was in the field of Coastal Engineering from the North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA, in 1978. Served as Asst. Professor in that university for about two years and then worked as a Research Scientist at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research for eight years. Professional involvements were primarily with computer simulation of coastal physics for harbor and power plant location. Is a member of the International Association for Near Death Studies, Connecticut, USA, from 2003.
Blog: http://nde-thedeeperself.blogspot.com