The Deathless Self: Death and Immortality in the Discourse of Vedanta

Abstract

Death is the inevitable culmination of a life. It waits patiently as we go about our business in careless or deliberate forgetfulness. But the fact that one day we will cease to be looms over our entire waking life However, the Upanishads, ancient Indian philosophical texts, present to us a vision, according to which, the self, being of the nature of existence-consciousness, sat-cit, is immortal and does not perish at the time of death. In fact, our belief in the reality of death, according to the Upanishads, is avicara-siddham, that is, a belief formed without careful deliberation or reflection on the matter. Here, the teaching of Vedanta, which is the philosophy present in the Upanishads, will be unfolded in order to analyse our current understanding of death and, if possible, arrive at a more authentic conception of it, one that may also guide us towards a more authentic way to live. This is mediated through a juxtaposition of two ancient streams of thought - Vedanta and Buddhism (themselves representative of more general philosophical positions about the nature and reality of the self). In the process, we arrive at something that is capable of fundamentally altering our understanding of ourselves and of death. By unfolding a single vision behind the apparently opposed viewpoints, the analysis seeks to change our current relationship with death, asking it to come to our very doorstep, our present, instead of fearing it and relegating it to the future. This, it is argued, is only possible when one learns to die to oneself and becomes aware of the presence of death in the midst of life and activity.