The Vedic Times

Whats the mystery of death?

12th March 1984*, Seattle
Maria died of cardiac arrest and then came back. This happened at the
University of Washington Hospital, here at Seattle.
She later described her out-of-body experiences
(OBEs) when she was dead, to Kimberly Clark
a professor at the School of Medicine at the
University of Washington and a critical care
social worker at the Harborview Medical Center
in Seattle.
Clark remained doubtful of Marias experience
until she verified one particular detail given by
Mariathe description of the tennis shoe. Maria
had related how she had thought herself
outside the hospital building and floated up its side to another floor. There she had
come face-to-face with a tennis shoe on a window ledge. Clark first went outside
the hospital, looked up at the ledges, but could not clearly see anything from so far
down. How could Maria have seen anything from the ground, at either night or day
especially in her immobile, deathly condition. Clark then went inside the building
again and up to the third floor. Room after room she investigated, having to press
her nose against the narrow windows to see out of them. Finally she saw the shoe
and retrieved it. She was shocked to note that the minute details Maria had
given about the shoe were, first, completely correct and, second,
impossible to see unless someone could float outside at close rangeon
the shoes other side. How could Maria float while her body was lying on a
sickly bed?1
[This is one of the many cases of Near-death experiences (NDEs) that have been
reported; and this in particular has stood the test of time and inquiry. How can we
possibly explain such phenomena from the modern-scientific paradigm?!! A perfect
understanding of NDEs, however, is found in the ancient Vedic texts.
To begin with, the Vedic self consists of the soul, the spiritual spark within,
covered by two layers of matter. The outer layerconsisting of earth, water, fire,
air and etheris called the gross body. The inner layerconsisting of mind,
intelligence and false egois called the subtle body. The Gross body is the physical
body thats visible, while the subtle body is invisible.
This is explained in the Srimad Bhagavatam 7.7.23: There are two kinds of bodies
for every individual soula gross body made of five gross elements and a subtle
body made of three subtle elements. Within these bodies, however, is the spirit
soul. One must find the soul by analysis, saying, This is not it. This is not it. Thus
one must separate spirit from matter.
A NDE is a special case of the souls temporarily wandering off the
physical body in only the subtle body, which has its own set of subtle
senses. Such wandering can also happen with training. At death, however, the
soul carried by the subtle body, permanently vacates one physical body and
occupies another.]