LIFE AFTER DEATH: Quest for Meaning of Life before Death

Abstract

Life after death is the concern of all reflective human beings, even though the contemporary culture dominated by science and technology seems to deny or avoid the topic. As we raise the question regarding the meaning of life, we also ask the question on what follows death. The various answers to the question given by philosophy, religion, mythology, and fiction maintain that an essential element of human beings survives death and the kind of existence depends on the life before death. From this perspective, death is not the end of life; rather a birth into a new form of life. There is a break as well as continuity of life; the continuity is in the moral and spiritual realm rather than at the physical level. Immortality of the soul, rebirth and resurrection are different answers provided by various cultures and belief systems.  The Semitic traditions speak of continued existence in a spiritual realm; the Indian traditions in general speak of cycles of birth and death until final liberation. Christianity seems to present a unique view with the doctrine on the resurrection of the body. The Semitic views include a judgement by God whereas the result is entirely the fruit of one’s actions in the Indian traditions.