Page 1 of 2 Terrorist Kasab and the journey of death
By Raja Murthy
"All beings tremble before violence.
All fear death.
All love life.
See yourself in others.
Then whom can you hurt?
What harm can you do?"
- The Dhammapada Buddhist scripture
Ajmal Amir "Kasab", the terrorist captured alive in the November 26 attacks in
Mumbai, has begged his "hosts" to hang him. While creating a rare legal tangle,
his request for death seems to show how a terrorist can be terrorized by his
own crimes - particularly if held in solitary confinement.
Kasab confessed to his guilt on July 20 for his part in the death of more than
150 people during the attacks. On July 22, he asked to
be put to death. "I want to be punished for my crimes here in this world, not
by the almighty," he told the court.
The Mumbai Mirror reported last week that he had told doctors he has been
unable to sleep because every time he shuts his eyes, the terrified faces of
the men, women and children he randomly killed float up to haunt him.
The torment won't surprise anyone aware of the law of cause and effect.
Nature's justice system works instantly, unlike courts more slowly rendering
human laws. His solitary confinement in the Anda (egg) jail in the
high-security Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai ensured that he had to face himself
and what he has done.
His realization and repentance came too late, but better late than never. Even
more helpful would be a terrorist knowing what happens at death. Then there
won't be any terrorist training camps. The law of cause and effect ensures that
virgins in heaven are not part of nature's reward for terrorists, as Kasab is
likely to discover when he dies.
When I saw pictures of the terror-stricken expression in Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam chief Vellupillai Prabhakaran's face at the moment of his death
this year, I had no doubt he had seen what was coming to him.
It's the same with some people we see dying with a look of utter peace,
tranquility, even a half-smile of happiness on their face. At the point of
death, have they seen the happy abode where they are heading next?
It's an answer known and accepted by many millions in Myanmar, India, Sri
Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia and anywhere else in the world where they
practice the teachings of Gotama the Buddha, a super-scientist mistaken by
history as a founder of a religion. What happens at death is why earning of
"merits", or good karma, through wholesome deeds such as giving donations and
serving others, is an important part of lives of people in these countries.
From directly experiencing the fundamental laws of nature at the sub-atomic
level, and with an ultra-pure mind, the Buddha said he could see his own
countless past lives in the night before he attained full enlightenment. He
said life continues after death in one of 31 planes of existence.
The transition from death to the next life is seamless for every living being,
the Buddha said, into any of these planes of existence. These planes are the 11 kama
lokas (realms of sensuality: the four lower realms of existence, the
human and six celestial realms); the sixteen rupa-brahma lokas (where
fine material body remains), and the four arupa-brahma lokas (non-material
realms, where only mind remains).
The most miserable and avoidable are the four lower realms of existence: the
realm of the asuras (demons or titans), ghosts, animals (including
birds, reptiles, insects) and hell. Like a magnetic pull, the kind of bodily
sensation that may arise in a terrorist at the moment of death would instantly
connect him to any of the lower realms.
Existence in no plane is permanent, according to the Buddha and those who have
deeply experienced the laws of nature. A living being journeys from one plane
to the other - highest to lowest - according to the kind of mental volitional
action, or sankhara, that surfaces at the moment of death.
In the past 16 years, whatever baby steps I have taken in practicing Vipassana
- the practical quintessence of the Buddha's teaching - and experiencing
related subtler realities, is enough for me to accept with absolute conviction
that death is not the end of the story. The law of cause and effect cannot just
fall off the edge.
Since school days, I have been keenly interested in quantum physics and the
works of scientists like Richard Feynman. For me Vipassana is applied,
experiential quantum physics. The difference is that Vipassana leads to
directly experiencing far subtler and more beneficial truths pertaining to
suffering of beings, and the universal, non-sectarian way out of it.
Death continues a journey of countless lives that ends with the last life of an arahant,
or one who has attained total purification of the mind. All life-pushing sankharas
have been eradicated. There is nothing more that can give another life. He or
she is then liberated from all miseries of life after life of birth, decay and
death. The final goal of full liberation has been attained, to a state beyond
the impermanent, constantly changing state of mind and matter.
A Sammasam Buddha or a Fully Enlightened One, such as Gotama the Buddha, has a
much longer journey to being an arahant. There have been many Buddhas
before him, Gotama the Buddha said and mentioned their names. He said there
will be many more Sammasam Buddhas arising in future. They take human life at a
time when the knowledge of Vipassana is totally lost to the world.
Such beings resolve to serve others in countless lives through countless aeons.
They will sacrifice their lives for it. Their resolution naturally surfaces in
life after life. They increase their purity, compassion, wisdom and strength
through hardships in each life, before their final life as a human being in
which they rediscover and teach the lost Dhamma for the welfare and liberation
of all beings.
A good life increases the chance of wholesome thought arising at the point of
death. A life full of unwholesome actions increases the risk of the memory of
one or more of these unwholesome actions arising at the moment of death.
Unrepentant, murderous terrorists are doomed, such as Kasab's nine dead fellow
terrorists. Kasab being alive gives him hope of meeting a better death, if his
repentance is genuine.
Myanmar-born, principal Vipassana teacher Sayagyi U S N Goenka explains in a
landmark article [1] in the Sayagyi U Ba Khin Journal published by the
Vipassana Research Institute, Igatpuri, a town 150 kilometers from Mumbai:
To
understand what happens at death, let us first understand what death is. Death
is like a bend in a continuous river of becoming. It appears that death is the
end of a process of becoming, and certainly it may be so in the case of an arahant
(a fully liberated being) or a Buddha; but with an ordinary person this flow of
becoming continues even after death.
Death puts an end to the activities of one life, and the very next moment
starts the play of a new life. On the one side is the last moment of this life
and on the other side is the first moment of the next life. It is as though the
sun rises as soon as it sets with no interval of darkness in between, or as if
the moment of death is the end of one chapter in the book of becoming, and
another chapter of life begins the very next moment.
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