Death is as close to being universal as anything we know. Sooner or later, whether you like it or not everyone dies. This is the inescapable fact of human existence.
There is widespread belief in afterlife that life continues in some form after the death of the physical body.
The death of the physical body, biological or physiologic death is universal which can be seen by every single person. What is the the meaning of this death depend upon whether the person is more than just a body. The death of the physical body does not completely describe what happens at the moment of death. The resolution of this is is the possible clue to afterlife which is a matter of belief and faith but not observation as what it that ' more than the body' is cannot be seen and it can never be confirmed by those still living. Life and afterlife represent a continuum. Debates emerged early over the nature of human existence. Whether there is a permanent component of an individual person, whether and how it survives death and what happens to it afterwards.
Life after death and spirit or soul of a dead human being is there in every culture.
In ancient Mesopotamia, ghosts were known as etemmu which suggests a certain connection between humans and god. The Akkadian word etemmu is translated as 'ghost' and not 'spirit' or 'soul'. The word is used only in context of the dead. The origin of this ghost is described in a myth. When gods set out to create man, Enki, god of wisdom, ordered that a god be slaughtered, and clay be mixed from his flesh and blood. These ghosts are dangerous if the deceased were not properly buried. The effects of the unburied ghosts were truly catastrophic. Apart from haunting the living they could cause of numerous physical and psychological maladies. But if they were properly appeased, they could be invoked for protection.
They are imagined to be having human shape and lead a shadowy life in the netherworld.
In the case of ancient Egyptians, akh is the spirit separated from the body after burial, thus they are the equivalent of ghosts. In ancient Egypt, the dead were regularly included in the celebrations of the living. The implication is that the family transcends the boundary of death. Tombs were equipped as alternative dwellings of the dead who were expected to be at home whenever their families sought them out there. It was Ka who dwelt in the tomb owner’s statue. It was to Ka that the offerings were made. Ba symbolized the deceased’s capacity to move in the world beyond the tomb. The realm of the dead oscillated between the tomb and other places that were not of this earth.
The Hebrew term ‘ob refers to the ghost of ancestors but not the spirit of demons or animals.
Greeks used a number of terms to refer to the condition of the deceased, among them eidōlon (image), psychē (soul) and phasma (manifestation). Each of these terms refers to certain aspect of the person, yet their common character is the lack of wit and life power, or phrenes. In the classical period, phasma were referred to “evil ghosts”. In Homer, the psyche seems to be the “breath-soul” or the life-source” that leaves the body at the moment of death. Another term is the post-Homeric daimon (“spirit”), associated with Pythagoreanism. The realm of the dead is ruled by a brother of Zeus called Hades which is known as House of Hades. Funeral rites are necessary if the person is to enter the land of the dead, otherwise the gods are offended and punish those responsible. If the soul lingers in the tomb, the living can communicate with it and may appease it with offerings of food, drink or a lock of hair and gain its assistance to prevent it from doing any harm to them
For Romans there are different categories of the dead: anima (soul), umbra (shade) manes/lemures (ghost in general), lares familiares (ancestral ghosts), and larvae (threatening ghost).
In the Old Testament it is stated that the humans are created by God from the earth and is brought to life by ‘breath of life’ nefes hayyimand the body returns to dust from where it came. The dust returns to the earth and the spirit, ruh returns to God who gave it. There is the concept that the quality of life after death depends on the quality of life led while on earth. The New Testament believes that to understand life, we also must understand death and the afterlife. In Hebrew Bible, popularly known as the Old Testament the dead go to an underworld called Sheol, which the Greeks called Hades. Gehenna is the Hebrew word for a place of punishment. It is a fiery place of torture. The English call it Hell and in traditional Roman vocabulary the word is ‘purgatory’., the place where the dead are purified of their sins before going to heaven. There is a unique idea in the New Testament,” the whole person will be immortal by resurrection.” Jesus desired that the righteous would be resurrected at the end of history. Resurrection was considered real transformation not simply resuscitation. The Final Judgement that will end current history replacing it with the new reign of the Messiah, they believed, would happen in their own lifetimes. When the final end began to be conceived as far away, they were forced to rethink about death and afterlife as independent issues from the end of times,
In the sacred Hindu book “The Gita” it is stated that, in the battlefield of Kurukshetra before the battle between The Pandavas and the Kauravas, as Arjuna viewed the opposing armies of Kauravas he felt weak and his hand trembled and he told Krishna that he cannot slay his kinsmen. Krishna said everyone depending on his place in life has a ‘dharma’ to perform. For him it is to fight for a righteous cause because he is a warrior. Whatever work one is called upon to do, by virtue of one’s place in life, one must fulfill it. Failing to do so is setting a bad example and bringing chaos in the society. “It is only the body of man that is subjected to changes like birth, childhood, youth, old age and death. The soul in man is neither born nor does it die. Weapons cannot cut it. Fire cannot burn it. Water cannot wet it. Wind cannot dry it. Just as a man discards old clothes and wears new ones, the immortal soul shed a dead body and enters another. The soul is not subject to any change.
Chinese term gui 鬼 could be considered as the equivalent of the English term ghost, that is, the spirit of the dead person. In ancient times the Chinese had an idea of two souls, the hun soul, which might reside in a spirit in tablet to receive homage of descendant, but which eventually is reverted to 'heaven' or the 'spirit' in heaven and the p'o soul which at death and with the decomposition to the body is reverted back to the earth. Residing in the grave, if angered, disturbed or maltreated it could become a kuei--a ghost, demon, or revnant. These souls inhabit the body and were the consciousness. During death or death-like experiences like sleep or coma the hun soul would leave the body through the breath and wander around freely. Dreams were believed to be experiences of the soul during its travels. The death occurred when the hun soul left the body permanently. Chao-hun was a ceremony performed to distinguish between death and temporary forms of soul's absence. The Great thinker Chuang Tzu believed in the midst of the jumble and wonder of nature a change took place and you had a spirt, then with another change you got a body, yet another change and you were born. Now there is another change and you are dead, just like the four seasons.
The Tantric demon ghosts are named Vetala which inhabits a corpse and talks to the living. Tibetan Tantric Buddhism maximizes the potential of beneficial habitual tendencies like compassion, patience and transcendental wisdom and minimize potentially harmful tendencies like hatred, envy and ignorance.
The major monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam - all put forward the view of one life and a permanent afterlife in either heaven or hell. Buddhist believe that we are born countless times— birth, death, intermediate state and rebirth. We are not reborn always as humans but may be reborn in any of the realms of cyclic existence—gods, demigods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts and hell realms. Existence in any realm is because of one's karma—actions through motivation and behavior and subtle inclinations.
If people in every culture imagine, create or inherit their own ideas of afterlife and ghosts then it follows that these ideas could haunt, terrify, preach or entertain in distinct ways. The phenomenon of death, afterlife and ghosts had a profound influence on human history and religion in particular.
‘The dead by their nature are not able to involve themselves in the affairs of the living’— is a statement by St Augustine, one of the fathers of the Christian Church. According to him it was the task of the faithful Christian simply to pray for the souls of the departed and to leave their fate in the afterlife to the merciful wisdom and justice of God.
Yet it is believed that those who had not been properly buried or those, for instance criminals or suicide or accidents— who had died in exceptional or dishonorable circumstances wander restlessly at the margins of the living world. Stories of restless spirits of the departed, of ghostly violations of the boundaries between the living and dead are also recorded. Sagas demonstrating requirement of atonement in the afterlife were used for propaganda purposes. Stories where the apparition of a dead person seeking help from the living to lessen its suffering in the afterlife indicated the final journey of a departed soul. There are also anecdotes about sprites, phantoms and ghostly nocturnal visions which the intellectuals indulged in their leisure hours to amuse and amaze rather than to edify.
In French the common term for a ghost is the word “revenant’, which is derived from the verb revenir which means “to return”. Therefore, revenants are dead people who come back in a recognizable physical form. There are exemplary accounts of apparitions like the Icelandic draugr in heroic family sagas where the corporeal ghosts are encountered looming out of the darkness which are but affirmations of physical strength and courage. In literature the nightstalker Grendel from the eight-century Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf and Glam, the sinister draugr in the Icelandic Grettis Saga of the fourteenth century are worth mentioning. In Latin it is described a sanguisuga, a vampire or a blood-sucking ghost are those who leave their tombs and stagger around on the margins of life. There is often something elemental about the ghosts’ behavior like they associate with and madden cattle and like the winter storms batter the roof of houses.
Thus, we know that various religious cultures have ghosts and there are types of ghosts also. Evil ghosts who are harmful to humans, benevolent ghosts who might help particular people of their choosing, vengeful ghosts who feel mistreated by the living and seek for justice, distressed ghosts who need help from the living, playful ghosts who might have a certain message to convey to the living and so on.
I have shared with you my research notes on ghosts thus far but when all is said and done, I want to tell you the true story of my encounter with a ghost seeking justice.
What? You believe in hypnosis, fire walking, table tipping, preservation of youth, crime but not ghosts, fairies, witches, vampires? Let me see if you choose to believe in me and in the fantastic or weird things of life after you hear my story.
Ghosts are spirits or the ‘undead’ corporeal presences who have crossed the border between this world and a parallel existence. You must have read frission-laden entertaining stories of the modern genre which chill your blood, however my story is rather complex.
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