A Timeless Quest For An Eternal Life

By Christopher Rezel –JUNE 4, 2018

Christopher Rezel

We all accept we will die. We cannot change that. 

However many of us believe in an afterlife.

There are contesting claims about the nature of this afterlife. 

Some say it is a paradise through which we will float in bliss forever.

Others see it as a world presided by an all-powerful god who will grant us the indescribable pleasure of venerating him for eternity.

There are those who claim a “heaven” and a “hell”, the former for those who lived virtuously and the latter for sinners, virtue and sin being decided by a priestly caste who claim to represent an almighty god.

Some say we will be drawn up to be part of “the great spirit”.

Others that we will be successively reborn into the present world. 

Yet others that at death we go into nothingness.

On and off in the Sri Lanka media writers expose us to their version of what happens after death.

All the claim and counter claims may derive from our inability to let go of our unique identity – the “I” nurtured and held precious in our lifetime. 

We wish it to continue indefinitely as soul or spirit in another realm?

Belief in an afterlife paradise is a persuasive option. It comforts those who have lost a loved one. 

The question of gods and an afterlife may have arisen after man first learned to think, going by ancient burial rituals.

Sometime during our 200,000 history, we are known to have venerated spirits of nature and ancestors. 

It was a primitive approach to understanding the universe, a lack of knowledge that science is gradually filling in, and in doing so, telling us that our atoms were all forged in the stars.

As humans advanced into modern times, more complex gods took form, together with elaborate cults, creeds and rituals.

We believed gods controlled the elements essential to crops, food, illness and death. They could be benevolent or malicious; a bad-tempered god could bring about calamities through flood, earthquake, famine and disease. 

Appeasing the gods assured a peaceful life and forestalled their anger and destructive natures.

It also assured us a favoured place in an afterlife following death.

Some gods were placated only by human sacrifice. 

Gods of the South American Aztecs were not alone in such demands. 

Fortunately those religions passed into history, along with their concepts of afterlife. 

Demise of these religions, and often a good many of their worshippers, was usually the result of foreign invasions and the imposition of new gods.

Today in lieu of human blood, some gods are placated with animal blood. Others get money or agricultural produce, such as coconuts. 

To the list that went into oblivion were the ancient pantheons of Egyptian, Greek, Nordic, Celtic, and numerous Asian and African gods, many of whom were vested with various attributes.

Worshipping god

The mood of a god depended on how believers interceded and propitiated them.

Because of this, powerful priestly castes arose, claiming nearness to god and influence in all supernatural matters. 

They set down rules and rituals, often secret or in an obscure language. The more cryptic a religion, the more people were beguiled into accepting it, believing they lacked the intellect to understand. 

People were kept in thrall and fear so they wouldn’t neglect upkeep of both gods and priests, a burden turned into their sacred responsibility.

This has resulted in many religions becoming the richest institutions globally.

Fear of death may have played a major role in our search for god because a definite end to life has always been unacceptable.

Consequently, yet more doctrines were created, according to time and place. In some the dead would rise up to a blissful paradise, or descend into a fiery hell. Some had an alternate place where the dead would linger before attaining paradise.

Most religions placed the afterlife in the “heavens above”. But ancient Romans believed a person’s spirit went to the “underworld” after crossing the River Styx. Therefore it was necessary for the dead person’s family to leave a coin on the body for payment to Charon, the ferryman.

Ancient Egyptians viewed death as a temporary interruption. So in order to ensure identity was retained in an “afterlife”, they mummified the corpse and entombed it with items to ensure a comfortable existence. Also buried were gifts the dead would need to appease gods of the spiritual world. 

One’s wealth and social status determined extravagance in such matter. Naturally pharos received the most lavish burials. 

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