Sunday, June 1, 2003		Books

Death and After
by Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer. Konark Publishers, Delhi. Pages 185. Rs 300.

Any talk of life after death or survival of the human being after death or the world of spirits is generally dismissed as a lot of superstition, blind faith or even some kind of hocus-pocus. But when such assertions are made by a person as eminent as Justice Krishna Iyer, one has to sit up and take notice.

Matters concerning the spirit and soul have for a long time been considered outside the scope of science, but lately several things that had so far been left untouched by science have come within the ambit of scientific enquiry. So it will not be a surprise if one day science comes out with a proven explanation of life after death, of a world unknown to ordinary humans.

When Justice Krishna Iyer who has been awarded the Padma Vibhushan, who has delivered prestigious Tagore Law Lectures, on whom doctoral theses have been written by scholars of three different universities and who has been honoured with several other distinctions, gathers evidence to show that you do live after death, he obviously discards blind faith and accepts research and authentic testimony on the theme of survival after death. Yet he refrains from committing himself to any finality and describes his book as an enquiry. But he does come down hard upon those whom he calls rationalist bigots and presents enough evidence to demonstrate that there is human survival after death.

He is not afraid of where his investigations may lead, and calls upon the readers to interrogate the pages, critique the stories, but always remember that he is not sold on any preconceived hypothesis but earnestly seeks light on what lies beyond. His most anxious question is "what happens to us when we die". And he is honest enough to accept that he has no explanation about the other universe, which perhaps exists in a different dimension.

Justice Iyer’s enquiry began when he lost his wife after her heart surgery. He wants to know what is meant by death and a million questions arise in his mind about the world into which a person passes when the physical body remains no more.

His wife’s death set him on a quest to unravel the mystery of the phenomenon called death and life after death. He goes about his search with the thoroughness of a meticulous researcher, ignoring no evidence, and taking nothing for granted.

He concludes that death is an event in a chain, no doubt an extraordinary event, and he answers a few questions, but many more remain unanswered. He accepts life after death not on the basis of faith alone but through the analytical process helped by new evidence. "I spread no superstition, invent no fiction, but dare to print facts without shying away from them for fear of unpopularity or rationalist wrath," he says at the very outset.

Here is a book that is controversial by the very nature of its theme and will attract those interested in finding a code to the enigma of death. The common reader will find it interesting because of its hypotheses and conclusions, more so because of all the questions that it leaves unanswered.