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After
Death - IV
Page
1
"The
human being is at home and safe in the material body; the
body is his protection. There are some who are full of contempt
for their bodies and think that things will be much better
and easier after death without them. But in fact the body
is your fortress and your shelter. While you are lodged
in it the forces of the hostile world find it difficult
to have a direct hold upon you... Directly you enter any
realm of this [vital] world, its beings gather round you
to get out of you all you have, to draw what they can and
make it a food and a prey. If you have no strong light and
force radiating from within you, you move there without
your body as if you had no coat to protect you against a
chill and bleak atmosphere, no house to shield you, even
no skin covering you, your nerves exposed and bare. There
are men who say, `How unhappy I am in this body', and think
of death as an escape! But after death you have the same
vital surroundings and are in danger from the same forces
that are the cause of your misery in this life...
"It is here upon earth, in the body itself, that you
must acquire a complete knowledge and learn to use a full
and complete power. Only when you have done that will you
be free to move about with entire security in all the worlds.''
12
May 1929
-The Mother
(A
child) After death people enter the vital world, but those
who do good go to paradise?
Where
is your paradise? Who has taught you that? They have spoken
to you of heaven and hell and purgatory?... No? Not of all
that? From where did you gather your idea of paradise? From
which book?
I
have heard about it.
But
from whom?
I do not remember now.
It
is generally what religious priests say to the faithful to
encourage them to do good. For it is a notorious fact that
life is not more easy for the good than for the wicked; usually
it is the contrary: the wicked succeed better than the good!
So people who are not very spiritual say to themselves: "Why
should I take the trouble of being good? It is better to be
wicked and have an easy life.'' It is very difficult to make
them understand that there are many kinds of good and that
sometimes it is worth the trouble perhaps to make an effort
to be good. So to make this intelligible to the least intelligent,
they are told: "There, it is very simple. If you are
quite obedient, quite nice, quite unselfish, if you always
do good deeds, and if you believe in the dogmas we teach,
well, when you die, God will send you to Paradise. If you
have sometimes good will, sometimes bad, if, sometimes you
do good, sometimes you don't and if you think very much of
yourself and very little of others, then when you die, you
will be sent to Purgatory for another experience. And then
if you are thoroughly wicked, if you are always doing harm
to others, doing all kinds of bad things and you do not care
about the good of anyone and particularly if you do not believe
in the dogma that we teach you, then you will go straight
to Hell and for eternity.''
This
is one of the prettiest inventions I have ever heard of: they
have invented eternal hell. That is to say, once you are in
hell, it is for eternity You understand what that means, for
eternity? You will be tortured and burnt (in the hot countries
you are burnt, in the cold countries you are frozen), and
that for eternity. That is it. So I do not know who taught
you those pretty things; but they are simply inventions to
make people obey, to keep them under control.
There
are teachings which are not like that. There are religions
which are not like that. But still one can, in a poetic, picturesque,
descriptive manner speak of a paradise; because this paradise
means a wonderful place where there is utmost joy and happiness
and comfort... And yet that depends upon the religion to which
you belong. For there are heavens where you pass your time
singing praises to God, you do nothing else—but in the
end that must be somewhat wearisome; however, there you pass
your time playing music and singing the praises of God. There
are other heavens, on the contrary, where you enjoy all possible
pleasures, all that you desired to have during your life,
you have in heaven. There are heavens where you are constantly
in blissful meditation—but for people who are not keen
on meditating, that must be rather tiresome. However, that
depends, you know: they have invented all kinds of things
so that people may really want to be wise and obey the laws
given to them.
And
man's imagination is so creative, such a form-maker, that
there really are in the world places like these heavens. There
are places also like these hells and there are places like
these purgatories. Man creates out of nothing the things he
imagines. If your consciousness is enlightened, then you can
be pulled out of these places; otherwise you are shut up,
imprisoned there by the very belief you had when alive. You
will tell me that it is equal to a life, but it is an altogether
illusory and extremely limited existence. It is real only
for those who think like that. As soon as you think differently,
it does not exist for you any longer; you can come out of
it. You can pull a person out of these places, and immediately
he perceives that he was imprisoned in his own formation
1
July 1953
- The Mother
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