What Survives Death? | Michael James

Added: 2026-05-08

[00:00:08]Michael, when the body dies, what survives?

[00:00:14]Literally, what is it in Advaita Vedanta philosophy in general and Sri Ramana's specific way of thinking?

[00:00:25]Death is for the body.

[00:00:27]What we actually are is untouched by birth and death. So, what we actually are, that means the ultimate reality, our being, our the pure being that we actually have, the pure being awareness, is untouched by all these things.

[00:00:44]But, what on a on a more mundane level, what is now aware of itself as I am this body, I am this person, that doesn't die with the death of a body.

[00:00:59]So, when the body dies, that we can call it ego or soul or mind, that survives.

[00:01:08]What it takes with it is only its vasanas. Vasanas is a term Vasanas or samskaras, these are terms that mean the volitional inclinations. They are the seeds of our likes, dislikes, desires, attachments.

[00:01:29]That is what we take with us.

[00:01:32]And from the perspective of Advaita philosophy, this life is a dream.

[00:01:41]So, the death of a body is the ending of one dream.

[00:01:45]But, the dream ego is the dreamer. So, ego remains in spite of uh um of uh uh of death of the body. So, ego, the dreamer, then dreams another body, another life.

[00:02:02]So, what is called reincarnation, which some people conceive of the soul going from one body to the other, from the perspective of Advaita, it is the end it death is the ending of one dream and [clears throat] the rebirth is a is the beginning of another dream. It's not actually where you're moving from one place to another.

[00:02:25]It is one dream comes to an end, another dream starts. In that next dream, you have a completely different identity.

[00:02:32]So, you're not the same person.

[00:02:34]So, what is reborn is not Robert or Michael.

[00:02:38]Once Michael is dead, Michael is finished. There's nothing but a memory of that.

[00:02:44]But, the I that is aware of itself as I am Michael or I am Robert, that I uh doesn't come to an end, so it dreams another identity for itself.

[00:02:58]And there's no cross memory involved. Well, sometimes I mean, there there is it is a phenomenon. Some people do have, particularly children, do have a certain degree, not all children, obviously, but there's there are cases where of quite well-documented cases of people having recollection of past life and often that can be corroborated. So, perhaps it's not a >> [clears throat] >> total cutting off of all memory, but more or less we forget. I mean, I don't I certainly don't ever remember ever having had a recollection of a previous life. And I think most of us would say the same.

[00:03:44]Right. So, for all for all intents and purposes, we we we we lose our memories, we lose our whole identity.

[00:03:55]Yeah, so there are some researchers who claim that there are past lives, very controversial. Most don't don't accept that or false memories Yeah, and there's some people who say under hypnosis you can have past life regression and things.

[00:04:08]This may or may not be true. It's um Yeah, and there are a lot of false memories or memories implanted >> Yeah, yeah, even in this even many many of our memories in this lifetime are not so reliable. Exactly, exactly. Yeah. Uh okay, so I understand what happens, but I is it fair to ask how it happens? What what is it that makes it happen? It is it it's it it happens, it's sort of automatic, but um it's not everything all at once.

[00:04:40]I mean, there is this progression that this I has one existence in one body, then it has another. It doesn't go from one to another, but then it has another.

[00:04:49]How does that happen? Is there is there a spiritual mechanisms involved? We we have attachment to our present identity.

[00:05:00]But, at the time of death, we are forcibly separated from this identity.

[00:05:06]If you've ever watched a person dying, you can see you can see from the breathing pattern Yeah. how slowly slow the breathing calms down and then suddenly um it revives again because the the the the the dying the dying uh ego is not willing to give up that identity, so there's a struggle. That is in the case of most I mean, if people are dying a natural death, that is the usual pattern.

[00:05:41]>> [snorts] >> But, whether we like it or not, we are forcibly separated from this body.

[00:05:46]>> [clears throat] >> But, we still have the the the desire Well, we have as I say, we we have what are called vasanas. Vasanas are the desires and attachments in their seed form.

[00:06:00]So, we still have a liking to experience phenomena.

[00:06:05]We still have a liking to experience ourself as an individual uh in the world. So, we it's very much easier to understand from the Advaitic point of view because from the Advaitic point of view, our present life is just a dream.

[00:06:25]And the dreams we have at night are dreams that that is this our whole of our life is one dream.

[00:06:32]And um that dream is interrupted every day by periods of sleep. The sleep is interrupted by dreams. But, in the dreams we have, in almost all cases, we dream that we are still the same person.

[00:06:49]We can we have in dream we have memories. We remember our childhood, we remember what school we went to, we remember who our parents were, we remember uh husband or wife or children or everything. So, we we carry on the same identity throughout the whole life.

[00:07:05]That identity is comes to an end with the death of the body.

[00:07:11]But, the the one who has that identity, the one that is now aware of itself as I am Robert or I am Michael, that one still has its has has that liking to experience this embodied existence.

[00:07:28]So, we we then dream another dream.

[00:07:32]So, every life is just a dream within a long sleep of self-ignorance.

[00:07:38]Okay, so the I am that Robert is or the I am that Michael is, which is part of the the universal um uh awareness, this ultimate reality of awareness, uh then has a new identity. But, why that's >> [clears throat] >> there is a separation between my I am and the ultimate I am because I'm walled off in this way. Why is my individual walled off or bubbled off identity the one that goes from identity to identity rather than just another part of the ultimate pure awareness? It it seem it seems like it's extra work because there's no there's no there's no memory that goes along with it. There's no benefit. Um but, it's it's however my identity is bubbled off or walled off from the ultimate reality, why doesn't that just occur to a new body? Why does it have to be the same one that goes because nothing goes along with it?

[00:08:44]And it's no different than anyone else's. Okay, a little bit of clarification.

[00:08:49]The term I am refers to our being.

[00:08:52]It is not our being that is born or reborn.

[00:08:56]It is it is ego. Ego is the is the adjunct inflated awareness, I am this person.

[00:09:05]So, ego cannot exist without without a a person to identify with. So, the the the as I say, according to Advaita philosophy, this present state is a dream.

[00:09:24]So, the person we now take ourself to be is a mental fabrication. It's a projection of ego.

[00:09:31]So, when when this when this dream comes to an end, ego still remains with its desires as its its vasanas, its inclination to experience all these things. So, it projects another identity and has another dream.

[00:09:53]So, it's not the I am. A pure I am is remains untouched by all this. It is that I that is that has this inclination to identify itself as I am this person or that person.

[00:10:10]And although there are no memories in general or maybe all that that are transferred in the reincarnation mode, what's called reincarnation.

[00:10:21]>> Yeah. Um but there is karma that comes along with it. So, there's some something that is uh attached to this um the the this walled off uh personal ex- personal experience or >> Yeah. It's not an I am. The I am is everything, but the Yeah. Right.

[00:10:45]>> So, something comes along >> is what is Something comes along with it. Well, what the the what What essentially is is the ego, which is also what is called soul or or mind.

[00:10:58]That takes with it its vasanas, its inclinations, its desires in seed form.

[00:11:05]So, it's it it projects another body.

[00:11:09]That other body that that the other body it is um that is whatever we Whatever we are given to experience in our dreams, though we are a dreamer, though we are a creator of this dream.

[00:11:25]In a dream, we experience ourself as a creature in the dream. We don't experience ourself as the creator.

[00:11:33]Though the dream is our own, it it it's a mental fabrication. But we because we experience ourself as a person in the dream, we we we can't just dream what we want to dream. If we're being chased by a monster, we can't just decide uh the to will the monster out of existence. I still comes chasing us. So, that is because we have limited ourself within that dream. We In a dream, we always experience ourself as a dream person.

[00:12:04]So, the dream person is not the dreamer.

[00:12:07]The I that experiences itself as I am this dream person is the dreamer.

[00:12:12]So, uh what we are given to experience in our life isn't out of our control.

[00:12:19]That is the fruit of our past actions.

[00:12:23]Um so uh essentially what we take with us is our vasanas, our inclinations. Those inclinations are the seeds that give rise to karma. It's under the That is vasanas of our will in its most basic form.

[00:12:43]And the actions we do under the sway of our will are the are what bears fruit, which is what we experience as um as the the content of our dream.

[00:12:56]And that would create the karma that is that that does go along >> Yeah. Well, no. It it perpetuates the karma. That is as we experience the fruit of past karmas, we are generating new karmas. Because we have likes and dislikes. We We're constantly reacting to things. Sure.

[00:13:16]>> to experience something, something we like to experience, something we don't like to experience. So, So, I'm just I'm just trying to see what is the the substance or the thing or the that comes along with the new um the the reincarnated person or the development of the new person. What What is it that comes along? It's We We say karma, but you know, what is that? That's an inclination. Right. That is the result of of what you've done. And you know, if you've been good or bad, I mean that it has to be judged by some standard. Yes.

[00:13:48]>> I mean just to say it you know, sounds good, but you know, then you look at it and how does this happen?

[00:13:55]Okay. The doer of karma, the doer of action, and the experiencer of the fruit of action is ego.

[00:14:04]So, um and ego does action under the sway of its will, under the sway of its vasanas.

[00:14:13]So, but if we if we have um in this lifetime, if we if we are always doing bad actions, we are we are cultivating bad vasanas.

[00:14:28]Supposing I'm always cheating and lying and uh doing I I I I am uh I'm doing those under the sway of certain selfish inclinations.

[00:14:41]But I'm also perpetuating, I'm also um building on more selfish inclinations. Whereas if I uh cultivate uh kindness, uh compassion, consideration, um caring, if I cultivate these type of inclinations, um I will the actions I do will tend to be not they they they'll be less selfish actions. They'll be more selfless. So, those are good called good karmas. Good karmas bear good fruit. Bad karmas bear bad fruit. So, if you if we act selfishly, not caring for others, we're going to experience the consequences.

[00:15:25]Whereas if we're kind and caring, we will experience those.

[00:15:30]Um they will experience the fruit of that. Not in this lifetime. It comes to fruition.

[00:15:34]>> this literally happen? If I've been, you know, lying and cheating is one. If I've been kind and compassionate is another.

[00:15:41]And this carries on with me.

[00:15:43]Uh how does how does that affect my next life? I mean, what what is in there that that changes it? Does it change the environment I'm in? Does it change my mind? I mean, how does it actually work?

[00:15:55]Yeah. Well, it's This is This is the problem with the law of karma. How to explain the connection between the action which is done in one life and the fruit of the action which is experienced in some other life. Exactly. The the answer in Vedanta is that God is the ordainer of the fruit of action. It's God who allots the fruit of action. Once we've done an action, the fruit is out of our hands. It's in the hands of God.

[00:16:25]But that's automatic. That's not something that God has to make a decision of because everything with God is is is settled. Yeah. Well, it it From our point of view, it seems that God is making a decision. God has decided to So, but that's from our limited point of view. Okay. Actually, God is deciding everything without doing anything, just by being as he is.

[00:16:48]Because God is not only infinite being, infinite awareness, he's also infinite love.

[00:16:57]So, that that's why he's called omnibenevolent.

[00:17:01]That when we all these omnis, omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, these are our view of the infinite nature of God. It's a limited view. So, um people ask all sorts of questions. If you If God is omnipotent, can he make a square circle or what things like that?

[00:17:22]It That's misunderstanding the point.

[00:17:25]It's just All these omnis are how God appears from our perspective, from our limited perspective. So, because God is infinite love, he appears to us to be omnibenevolent.

[00:17:39]So, he allots the People sometimes think of karma as a sort of reward and punishment uh system, but it's actually more than that.

[00:17:50]God wants what is ultimately good for us.

[00:17:54]And what is ultimately good for us is to experience the infinite happiness that we actually are.

[00:18:01]So, the ultimate aim is the dissolution of ego. That's God's ultimate aim. But God will never force the dissolution of ego on us until we're ready for it.

[00:18:14]So, God will allot the fruit of actions in such a way that will be most conducive to our spiritual development.

[00:18:22]Our spiritual development means the purification of our mind. The We we Certain situations will if if we're born in a certain type of family, in a certain type of environment, it'll uh um bring out our our better tendencies. And so, we'll So, for each individual, God allots those the fruit of those actions that are most beneficial for that individual. How significant is the law of karma in the overarching philosophy?

[00:18:59]It is not It is not a central part of the It's It's a a supplementary thing. But whereas the core philosophy of um Advaita can be argued rationally by an analyzing our experience, there's no karma is something we we we either believe it or we don't believe it. It fits in with the overall philosophy, and it it is it's understanding it and accepting it has practical significance. But from a strictly philosophical point of view, there's no um there's no we can't rationally it makes sense, but we can't uh we can't prove that the law of karma is is there.

[00:19:53]We have to certain things we have to take on um accept it as a a sort of as a background philosophy, but not not an essential one.

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