Ideas about the afterlife. Afterlife
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
CHELYABINSK STATE UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF JOURNALISM
BY DISCIPLINE: CULTURAL SCIENCE
ON THE TOPIC OF: « Ideas about death, the afterlife in the culture of the peoples of the world .
Funeral rites as a consequence of ideas about the afterlife »
Completed by: 1st year student
FZhZ groups – 101
Gomzyakova T.S.
Checked:
Alexandrov L.G.
1. Introduction
2. The idea of death in the main religions of the world
3. Funeral rites among primitive people
3.1. Mousterian cultural period
3.2. Aurignacian cultural period
4. Funeral rites in the culture of the peoples of the world
4.1. Jewish funeral rite
4.2. Korean funeral rite
4.3. Funeral rite of the Moscow lands
4.4. Muslim funeral rite
5. Conclusion
6. References
Introduction
“Death is a great, hidden mystery; it is the birth of man, the transition from temporary life to eternity. It is a mysterious process of decomposition and at the same time liberation from carnality - for the restoration of that new, subtle, spiritual, glorious, strong and immortal body that was given to the ancestors and lost by them for themselves and all their offspring - humanity."
monk Mitrofan "Afterlife"
The afterlife, the other world, in mythology the abode of the dead or their souls. Myths about the afterlife developed from ideas about the afterlife associated with the reaction of a collective to the death of one of its members and funerary customs. Death was perceived as a disruption of the normal functioning of the group as a result of the influence of supernatural causes (harmful magic, violation of taboos, etc.). The psychological fear of death, combined with the biological danger posed by a decaying corpse, was personified in the deceased himself. Therefore, funeral customs pursued the goal of isolating the deceased and with him the harmful effects of death; at the same time, however, there was an opposite tendency - to keep the deceased close to the living, so as not to violate the integrity of the collective. Hence the ancient customs of burial (isolation) in settlements, in dwellings or special houses of the dead, and later in necropolises (cities of the dead) near settlements. Accordingly, the attitude towards the deceased was also ambivalent: on the one hand, he was revered as a benefactor ancestor, on the other hand, he was feared as a harmful dead person or a spirit living near the living. Ideas about “living dead” endowed with supernatural powers, emerging from the grave, attacking people, bringing illness and death, are present in the mythology and folklore of many peoples. They tried to kill the “living dead” again, bind them, etc., scare away spirits with noise at funerals, and confuse the path to the world of the living. But the most effective way to eliminate the harmful properties of a deceased person while maintaining a connection with him as a patron spirit was to send him to the afterlife.
Some of the most backward tribes (Australians, Bushmen, Papuans) did not have differentiated mythological ideas about the afterlife: the dead could inhabit desert areas, forests or bushes, end up in the sea or in the sky; sometimes only the direction in which the dead went was known. The ideas about the occupations of the dead were vague and contradictory: they could lead the ordinary life of hunters and gatherers, turn into animals and birds, wander the earth, leave their shelters at night, and return to the camps of the living. Probably, this duality of the dead, who are in the world of the living, and in another - the afterlife, associated with the duality of ritual aspirations to preserve the deceased in the grave and remove him to another world, contributed to the mythological division of the deceased into a buried body and a soul (spirit) living in the afterlife. world. This dismemberment was not consistent - the soul was not deprived of bodily properties and attachment to the body; Many peoples (Indians, Roman and Siberian mythologies) have ideas about “grave souls”, like ka
in Egyptian mythology.
The most common idea was the temporary presence of the spirit near the body (grave). After completing the funeral rite and destroying the substrate of the soul - the body - during cremation or in some other way - the spirit went to the afterlife.
The afterlife journey was considered difficult and dangerous: the distant afterlife was separated from the world of the living by streams, mountains, and was located on an island, in the depths of the earth or in heaven. For such a journey, the deceased needed boats, horses, sledges, chariots, strong shoes, supplies for the road, etc., which were usually placed in the grave. On the way there were supernatural obstacles - lakes of fire, boiling streams and abysses through which narrow bridges led (a horsehair bridge in Altai myths, among the Quechua Indians, etc.): those who fell through faced secondary and final death. In overcoming these obstacles, the dead were helped by guides of souls - animals (usually a dog or a horse), shamans and gods. The entrance to the afterlife (sometimes a bridge) was guarded by guards: monstrous dogs among the Indo-European peoples, the very masters of the kingdom of the dead; they admitted only the souls of those who fulfilled tribal customs during life and were buried according to all the rules, those who could pay the guides and guards with the meat of animals sacrificed at the funeral, money, etc. The “wicked” were threatened with final death or the fate of a wanderer, deprived of the afterlife shelters.
The afterlife, despite the variety of ideas regarding its location, usually fit into the general mythological picture of the world as a distant other world, opposing “their” world of the living. Moreover, its placement in horizontal space was correlated with the vertical model of the world, dividing space into heaven, earth and the underworld.
Pictures of the afterlife can completely copy the real world with villages where the dead live in tribal communities, hunt, get married, sometimes even produce offspring, etc. - even the landscape surrounding the community in this world is reproduced in myths.
In some mythological traditions, the picture of the afterlife is painted in dull colors: the sun shines weakly there, there is no need, no joy, etc. Such, for example, are ideas about the ghostly existence of insensitive shadows in the darkness of Hades and Sheol . On the contrary, belief in a better afterlife was reflected in ideas about abundant hunting grounds, supernaturally fertile fields , pastures in the afterlife; the dead became young, did not know illness or worries, and indulged in fun and dancing (among some peoples of Melanesia and America).
The doctrine of metempsychosis (reincarnation) - the transmigration of souls - was most developed in Hindu mythology and Buddhism. Many peoples also had the idea of the rebirth of the deceased in the person of a descendant (usually a grandson): hence the transfer of the name of an ancestor to a newborn. In these cases, the afterlife is not the final refuge of the deceased, but a necessary phase in the cycle of rebirth through death. These cycles of human and collective life were correlated in the mythologies of primitive society and the ancient world with seasonal cycles, embodied in the images of the resurrecting gods of vegetation. Death, funeral and the descent into the underworld of God personified the winter dying of nature. The afterlife merged with the natural world, opposed to the social one: the other world combined the destructive forces of chaos with the benefit of fertility necessary for man. Therefore, the dead, removed through funeral rites from this world to another, also merged with the natural elements and were able to influence the life of the collective, sending drought or harvest, promoting the fertility of the human race and livestock, for which purpose with them and, therefore, with the afterlife peace, communication was maintained within the framework of the cult of ancestors. This ambivalent attitude towards the afterlife, combined with the predominant focus of community cults on the problems of this-worldly economic life, allowed the coexistence of different traditions in ideas about the afterlife.
2. Ideas about death in the main religions of the world
All religions agree that death requires deep reflection. The results of these reflections, however, do not coincide. Moreover, these conclusions are sometimes ambiguous. Buddhists learn from death - but also run from it. Ultimately, this escape is a release from endless rebirths. Rebirth is suffering. The native will face illness, old age and death. Therefore, Buddhists strive to put an end to the process of rebirth. Death reminds us that everything is perishable in the ever-changing flow of existence. The reason for each new birth is the thirst for future existence. It is possible, however, to free yourself from death once and for all. Paradoxically, this is achieved already in this life - with the help of death.
Life-affirming Judaism views death differently. He believes that its cause is sin, but death atones for sin, preparing a person for the Judgment and gaining a share in the life of the next century, the resurrection from the dead at the end of time. Individual human life does not end with death, just as the path of the Holy One of Israel does not end with exile. The Israelites will live in the coming age, all of Israel will live in the land of Israel, like Eden. At the same time, Israel will embrace all who come to know the One True God. This radical change in the world order, which will culminate in the manifestation of Divine justice, will cover both the lives of individual people and the life of the people as a whole - they will gain eternal life. To be Israel is to live. Every person will one day rise from the dead, appear at Judgment and gain the life of the next century. All Israelites will be resurrected—the resurrection will take place in the Land of Israel—and enter into Life. What will happen in the end can be learned from what happened in the beginning. In God's just plan, man was destined to live in Eden, and Israel was destined to live forever in the Land of Israel. Therefore, this fundamental change in the future can be spoken of as the implementation of God’s original plan for creation, the Restoration - the Restoration, which should have been tragically delayed and in which the justice of God’s plan for creation will finally become apparent. Resurrection from the dead, redeemed through death, people will be judged according to their deeds. Israel will repent, submit to the will of God, and regain their Eden. The consequences of disobedience and sin will be removed.
Islam and Christianity share the Jewish belief in Judgment after death and the resurrection of the dead. Everyone agrees that a particularly good fate awaits martyrs for the faith. All three religions teach about bodily resurrection. Although many particular points are admittedly unclear, there is a general statement: body and soul are united in the resurrection. Then all people appear at the Judgment, and those acquitted are admitted to heaven.
The specificity of the Christian position lies in the uniqueness of the role of Christ. Death is not a punishment, but an opportunity. A person dies and then is resurrected - following Christ, who rose from the dead. Like Jews and Muslims, Christians believe not simply in the immortality of the soul or spirit, but in the resurrection of the body.
Muslims know that they are not able to choose the day of their death, for it is known only to God, who calls to himself the souls he created. Life is God's gift, and the duration of a particular life is His blessing.
If monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) agree regarding the final Judgment, then Indian religions agree regarding the connection between the afterlife and life lived in this world.
Religions can be divided into monotheistic, on the one hand, and Hinduism and Buddhism, on the other hand. Monotheism affirms life and promises eternal life beyond the grave. Hinduism and Buddhism consider victory over this world and escape from it as their life goal.
All five religions agree that death, which befalls everyone, is something very important, a source of wisdom and moral consciousness. However, they conceptualize death differently.
3. Funeral rites in primitive society
The general model of the funeral rite of a primitive society was proposed by V. S. Bochkarev. Based on the research of ethnographers (A. Van Gennep, V. Ya. Petrukhin), he sees in the funeral rite, first of all, a manifestation of the conflict between nature and culture, that is, the contradiction between a person’s desire to cooperate with nature and the inevitability of death of each individual individual. “One of these, but the most dramatic and inevitable collisions is the death of a person, which means a direct and fatal invasion of nature into the sphere of culture, destroying social ties and threatening chaos to the entire team. The funeral rite is intended to overcome and resolve this conflict, this clash of culture and nature in a primitive society. This is his most important cult function. The problem is resolved ideologically, but in the spirit of mythological consciousness, due to the spread of the sphere of culture beyond its borders. If nature invades culture through death, then culture undertakes a counter-invasion. It consciously and purposefully carries out the transition, the crossing of a person from life to death, from this world to another, from culture to nature. Thus, the process seems to be taken under control by culture.”
3.1. The first burials in human history are those of Neanderthals dating back to the Mousterian cultural period. In 1908, the Swiss Otto Gauser made an interesting, surprising discovery near the village of Moustiers in the valley of the Vezere River (Southern France): he found the grave of a Neanderthal youth who lived several tens of thousands of years ago. In a shallow grave lay his skeleton in the position in which this young man was buried: on his right side, his right arm under his head, his legs bent. Near the skeleton lay flint tools and several burnt animal bones: they were given to the dead on the road to eternity.
Since this discovery, which convinced many that human compassion and respect for the dead goes back to the earliest times in human history, a number of other similar discoveries have been made. The most famous of them, perhaps, is the discovery by Soviet archaeologist Alexei Pavlovich Okladnikov in 1938 of the burial of a Neanderthal boy from the Moustier era in the Teshik-Tash grotto (Uzbekistan). His bones lay in a shallow depression. Around the skull, the horns of a Siberian goat were stuck into the ground, and they formed something like a fence around the boy’s skull. Not far from the grave there were traces of a small fire that burned for a very short time. Perhaps it was a ritual fire related to burial.
According to adherents of Okladnikov’s concept, a characteristic feature of the found Neanderthal burials is their identical location with their heads facing east or west, and not south or north, and everywhere: in Western Europe, in Crimea, in Palestine. A.P. Okladnikov believed that this could not have been accidental and pointed to the special attitude of the people of that era towards the dead and death and even suggested the existence of a kind of solar cult among the Neanderthals.
“One thing is essential,” wrote A.P. Okladnikov, “the Neanderthal was already convinced that the dead man was not just “sleeping”, that special care was needed in relation to him, qualitatively different than in relation to a living person. He did not just leave the dead man to surface of the earth in the position in which death overtook him, but gave him, while his body was not yet numb, a certain, strictly maintained pose; he laid him not at random, not as he had to, but in a certain direction - with his head to the east or west, finally , placed it in a hole and covered it with earth. It follows that the Neanderthal had already developed some ideas about a qualitatively different form of existence for the dead after death, i.e., the first ideas about “life after the grave.” In 1960, the famous American anthropologist and archaeologist R. Solecki discovered the fossils of nine Neanderthals in the Shanidar cave (in Iraq). A few years later, the French paleobotanist Arnette Leroy-Gourhan, examining in a Paris laboratory the soil taken from the excavation along with the fourth Shanidar skeleton, discovered a quantity of plant pollen "that exceeded every probability,” and in some places this pollen was in lumps, and next to some of them even the remains of parts of the flower were preserved. From this a striking conclusion was drawn that the grave was thrown with armfuls of flowers collected on the mountainside by representatives of the group to which the deceased hunter belonged.
Many ancient peoples placed flowers in the graves of their fellow tribesmen, whose healing properties were well known to them. At first, this ritual pursued a completely utilitarian goal: the deceased was given the opportunity to receive treatment and return to the bosom of his family, and therefore to the tribe. In addition, the strong aroma interrupted the smell of decay, neutralizing the unpleasant sensation of a dead body. But one day someone noticed that flowers were beautiful, and they became an object of gift. The utilitarian-religious function gave way to an aesthetic one. And to this day we bring flowers to graves as a tribute of love and respect.
For the ancients, flowers on the grave were supposed to symbolize the very process of life and death: fresh, they please the eye, evoking a complex range of aesthetic feelings; then their colors gradually fade, the petals begin to fade and fall off; Finally, the juices that nourish the life of the flower disappear and the flowers die. This whole process is like a model of human existence, and it is difficult to say what exactly gave rise to the cult of plants - medicinal functions or their symbolism.
3.2. With the first era of the Late Paleolithic, i.e. Associated with the Aurignacian cultural era are human skeletal remains, which are very different in physical type from Neanderthals in that they represent a higher level of development, more finely formed. Thus, with the Aurignacian era, a new stage in the history of human development begins, marked by the appearance of modern man, whom we designate as Homo sapiens fossilis. These "intelligent" people, also called new people, or neoanthropes, were much more widespread on earth than the Neanderthals, and left behind numerous evidence of high economic, social and cultural development.
From this period, indisputable funeral rites begin. There are many known burials related to the Aurignacian. In general, we can say about them that the dead were often buried in the same place where they had lived before, and the people themselves left this place. Sometimes they placed the corpse directly on the hearth; if there was still fire in it, the body would burn or turn into ash and ash. In other places, the dead were buried in specially dug graves, and sometimes their heads and feet were covered with stones. In some places stones were placed on the head, chest and legs of the dead man, as if they wanted to prevent the dead from getting up. This was probably caused by fear of the dead, whose return had to be prevented by all possible means. Therefore, the dead were sometimes tied up and buried in a very crouched position. The dead were sometimes left in the cave, and the entrance was blocked with a large stone. Often the corpse or just the head was sprinkled with red paint. Many different gifts were placed with the dead in the grave - jewelry, stone tools, food.
Late Paleolithic hunters buried not only adults, but also children. One of these most famous graves was discovered in Menton (France) in the very small Grotto of the Children. Two children were placed in the burial pit very close to each other, and therefore it seems that they died at the same time. The eldest was about ten years old. The children were laid on their backs, arms extended along the body. Shallowly under the grave of the children was the burial of a woman, and even deeper was buried an adult man, whose skeleton lay on his back, the skull and leg bones were protected from destruction by large stone slabs laid on the stones.
Another one was discovered under this grave. Right at the site of the fire lay the skeleton of a young man on his right side in a crouched position, so that his heels almost touched his pelvis. An elderly woman was later laid nearby, also in a crouched position, her knees almost touching her chin. All burials belonged to the Aurignacian era.
The concept of crossing into the other world allows not only to understand the meaning and essence of funeral rites, but also objectively presupposes that primitive man had ideas about the multidimensionality of space, the existence of other worlds, and life after death.
4. Funeral rites in the culture of the peoples of the world
For a long time, among representatives of various races, peoples, various beliefs and cultures, death has been associated with traditional funeral rites. A funeral rite is a whole circle or set of ritual and practical actions carried out during the preparation and burial of a deceased member of society in accordance with the religious and ideological norms existing in it. The basis of the funeral rite is customs - generally accepted norms for treating the deceased, a number of ideas and rules that prescribe a style of behavior in each specific situation. At the same time, the funeral rite pursues two goals: real and illusory. The real purpose of the funeral rite is the burial of the deceased, ridding society of him through the fulfillment of certain religious instructions. The illusory goal is to provide conditions for the “correct” and worthy transition of the deceased and his soul to another world, maintaining “balance” between the world of the living and the world of the dead through a series of actions.
4.1. In Jewish funeral rites, first of all, faith in God, in His mercy and love for His creation - man, hope for God's mercy and for a better afterlife with reward is expressed. When dying, a Jew usually made a will to the living, asking them to fulfill his last wish. After washing the body of the deceased, it was anointed with fragrant ointment or sprinkled with powder consisting of myrrh - the fragrant resin of the myrtle tree growing in Arabia. The body of the deceased was sprinkled with clean water with dissolved salt, pronouncing the words of the prophet Ezekiel: “And I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be cleansed from all your uncleanness,” thinking with such sprinkling to cleanse the soul of the deceased from sins. Crying for the deceased was necessary for relatives, acquaintances and, in general, for the living. Since at first those struck by such grief could not take care of themselves, relatives, friends and acquaintances who sympathized with their grief offered them food and a cup of drink in the confidence that grief did not allow them to take care of satisfying this necessary need. The tombs of the ancient Jews, like those of other eastern peoples, were built in caves or grottoes shaded by shady trees. These caves were either natural or artificial, deliberately carved into the rock. Among the ancient Jews, only kings and prophets were buried in cities; all the others are usually outside the city. Folk customs testified to the deep respect that the people had for their dead, and the general zeal that they showed for their worthy burial. When a Jew is seriously ill, a rabbi comes to him and reads a confession to him. The patient repeats after the rabbi and hits himself in the chest with each word. Then he reads other prayers after the rabbi, and between them the confessional prayer of Vida, where all human sins are listed. The angel of death does not leave the patient and his sight is terrible for the soul and makes his victim tremble, over whose head he holds his naked sword. Three drops of fatal liquid quietly flow from the sword: the first drop takes away life, the second gives the corpse pallor, and the third decomposes it. At the moment of separation of the soul from the body, when, according to the teachings of the ancient rabbis, “one should enter the house of the dying person and be present at the separation of the soul from the body, for then the spirit of a person is humbled” (op. R. Tam), two or three married men, with wax candles in their hands, they read prayers near the dying man’s bed. After death, the candles are immediately extinguished and the deceased is placed next to the bed on straw, face up, with his fingers straightened and his eyelids closed, a lamp with oil is placed above his head, and a vessel with water is placed next to him and a towel is hung so that the angel of death can wash and dry his sword, or, as other rabbis interpret it, so that the soul can be washed. All the water in the house is poured out onto the street so that the angel of death does not wash his sword in it and poison it. The deceased lies on the straw for about two hours. Then the burial men wash it with warm water and put the corpse on its feet; three burial men perform a cleansing ritual, that is, they pour clean water over the deceased, and say three times: “togor, togor, togor, i.e. clean, clean, clean.” After washing the corpse, the burials dress it in mortal clothing. Then, the deceased is wrapped in a large linen blanket, the ends of which are tied at the top and bottom and untied only when the body is placed in the coffin. When taking a body out of the house to the cemetery, they have the custom of throwing a pot out onto the street as a sign that with the removal of the body from the house, all sorrows are taken out of it, and they sing: “alms save the soul from death.” Every Jew they come across throws a coin in favor of the funeral workers. The deceased is carried to the cemetery on horseback, but the Jews considered it a special honor if the body was carried on a stretcher on the shoulders of four Jews. In those places where the bodies of the dead are carried on horseback, the ritual of cleansing and dressing is performed not at home, but in a special room set up for this purpose in the cemetery, since after performing these rituals it is no longer possible to transport the body on horseback, but must certainly be carried him on a stretcher on his shoulders.
In a cemetery, they place the lower part of the coffin in a dug grave or simply line it with boards, fill a bag with grave soil and place it under the head of the deceased. Two people lower the body into the coffin, then tie the blanket, close the coffin with a lid, and everyone who washed and dressed the deceased, as well as the gravediggers, hammer a nail into the lid, and the others each throw three shovels of earth onto the coffin. After the funeral, returning to the house of the deceased, they sit in the place where he lay and pray for him. Relatives, neighbors and friends visit and console the grieving every day. According to the teachings of the Talmudists, “everyone is obliged to console the mourning and mourn the dead.” Whoever mourns the death of an honest person, says the Talmud, is forgiven all his sins for the honor he showed to the deceased. (Shabbat l. 25).
4.2. Funeral rites of Korea. First, the body of the deceased is covered with a blanket over the head and left in one of the rooms of the house (or in a special “mourning” room in the hospital), fenced off with a screen. A sacrificial table with a large photograph of the deceased is placed in front of the screen. This is a relatively new custom; previously, instead of a portrait, simply a tablet with the name of the deceased was used. It is customary to attach one or two black mourning ribbons to the portrait, which are located diagonally in its upper corners. This is also a Western influence, because in old Korea the color of mourning was white, not black. On the table there is usually an incense burner, and sometimes also a couple of candles and dishes with sacrificial food. All funeral rites are led by the “senior in mourning” - the closest relative of the deceased (usually the eldest son) or a manager is appointed who has some experience in this sad matter. The day after death, the deceased is washed and placed in a coffin, which is again placed behind a screen. At the same time, the “myeonjeong” is also made, a kind of mourning banner that is carried before the funeral procession. It is a long red panel measuring approximately 2 by 0.7 meters. The surname and clan ("pon") of the deceased are written on it in white or yellow hieroglyphs. The body of the deceased remains in his home or hospital for three days, during which time friends, relatives and colleagues of the deceased can visit the house in mourning and express their condolences. As in the old days, you should definitely bring money to the funeral. In traditional Korea, a lot of time could pass from the moment of death to the funeral. In noble families, the day of burial was chosen with the help of a fortuneteller, and sometimes the funeral took place several months after death. In simpler families, funerals were held on the seventh or fifth day. Before leaving for the cemetery, an “eternal farewell ceremony” is held in the house, which is accompanied by the offering of sacrificial food - fruits and wine. After this, the funeral procession goes to the cemetery. A special funeral procession delivered the coffin to the grave. At the front of the procession they carried a sign with the name of the deceased (in recent decades it was replaced by a photograph), then a man walked with a mourning banner “myeonjeong”, on which the surname and clan of the deceased were written, then they carried a coffin mounted on a hearse stretcher, followed by a stretcher with a coffin. the eldest relative in mourning (usually the eldest son), then other relatives in order of degree of mourning (this degree reflected the closeness of the relationship with the deceased) and, finally, guests. The grave is located on a mountain slope, on which a small area has been previously cleared of forest and bushes. Then, in the cleared area, they dig a hole about one and a half meters deep. The coffin is lowered into a hole, and a mourning banner “myeongjeong” is placed on its lid, indicating the surname and clan of the deceased. After this, the grave is covered with earth. A low, no more than a meter, oval mound is installed on top of the grave. Burials of spouses are usually in pairs, with the woman buried on the right and the man on the left (a traditional Far Eastern belief that the left side is more honorable than the right). After the grave is covered with earth, a sacrifice is made in front of it. The funeral is followed by a period of mourning. During the entire period of mourning, special clothing made of simple unbleached canvas had to be worn. The color of this clothing is white, or rather grayish-white, so that for centuries it was white, and not black, that was the symbol of mourning in the Far East. In the old days, the duration of mourning was strictly determined by Confucian ritual prescriptions and depended on the degree of relationship with the deceased. The longest mourning was worn by the closest eldest descendant of the deceased - the eldest son or, if he was not there, the eldest grandson, who, together with his wife, was in mourning for 3 years.
4.3. In ancient times in Japan, it was customary for noble people to be buried together with one of the person's friends and his servants. Subsequently, when they were no longer buried alive, they ripped open their own stomachs. Sometimes clay images of people were buried instead of people. In Japan, it was customary to put a model of the objects in the grave instead of the objects themselves. So, for example, if a person during his lifetime had the right to carry a sword or several swords, then during burial a model of this sword was placed in his grave. Since the 19th century, it became customary not to bury the corpses of rich people, but to burn them, accompanying this action with a magnificent ceremony in front of a large crowd of people. The Japanese have a belief that the richer and more magnificent the funeral, the easier it will be for the deceased to live in the next world. The procedure for burning the corpse was as follows. An hour before the funeral procession, the relatives of the deceased leave the house and go to the burial place, and the men must be dressed in white traditional attire and colorful bedspreads. They are carried in a palanquin by a priest dressed in silk and brocade, and then followed by his assistants in black crepe robes. They are followed by a man in a gray robe with a torch in his hand, followed by a singer singing hymns. Behind the singers, two in a row, come everyone participating in the funeral procession, followed by servants with spears on which the name of the deceased is written. Behind everyone is a stretcher with the deceased, dressed in a white robe, and also in a cassock made of writing paper, which is covered with various sayings from the law. The body is given the appearance of a person praying with his head bowed and his hands folded. The body is usually burned on a mountain where a funeral pyre is prepared. Here the stretcher bearers stop and place the coffin on the fire. Even as the stretcher with the deceased approaches the fire, those present begin screaming and crying, accompanied by the sounds of tympanums. The fire, in the form of a pyramid, is made of dry wood and covered with a piece of silk fabric (moire). On one side of the fire there is a table with food, sweets and fruits, and on the other side there is a brazier with coals and a dish with pieces of aloe wood. The chief priest and all those present begin to sing hymns. After which the priest circles the torch three times around the head of the deceased and, having done this, passes the torch to the youngest son of the deceased, who lights the fire from the side of the head. Then everyone begins to throw pieces of aloe, fragrant resin into the fire and pour oil and so on. When the flames engulf the entire fire, everyone leaves with reverence, leaving the table with food for the poor, of which there is usually a lot at a rich funeral. The next day, relatives and friends of the deceased come to the place where the corpse was burned and collect ashes, charred bones, teeth and put them in a porcelain vessel, covered with silk or brocade fabric. This vessel is kept at home for seven days, after which it is transferred to the family crypt. The poor are buried in a common cemetery. Fragrant flowers and herbs were placed in the coffin. The grave itself is then planted with flowers, shrubs and trees. Relatives and friends maintain the grave in proper condition for several years, and some take care of it throughout their entire lives. Mourning made of white canvas should only be worn by close relatives of the deceased.
4.4. The following funeral rite was typical for the Moscow lands. If the patient does not recover but dies, they take him out of bed, lay him on a bench, wash him as thoroughly as possible, put on him a clean shirt, linen trousers, new red boots and wrap him in a white linen that covers the whole body and is made like a shirt with sleeves, they fold his arms crosswise on his chest, sew the cloth at the head of the bed, also on his arms and legs, and place him in a coffin, which is placed on a funeral bier until the next day. If it was a rich man or nobleman, then the stretcher is covered with velvet or expensive cloth. If he was a poor man, then the stretcher covers him with his own caftan and carries him to the cemetery. Ahead of him are four girls - mourners; next to the girls on both sides of the coffin, there are (in no particular order) priests and monks, relatives: father and mother, wife, children. Arriving at the church, they place the coffin in front of the altar and leave it standing for eight days, if the deceased is a noble person, the coffin is guarded day and night, candles are lit, priests and monks sing, they fumigate the coffin with incense and myrrh and sprinkle it with holy water once a day. During the procession, prayers are read and funeral hymns are sung. Before burial, a priest approaches the deceased, reads a prayer, asks him for forgiveness for what he sinned against him and places a paper for St. in his right hand. Peter, which says that the deceased lived well, honestly and in a Christian manner. After this, the coffin is closed and lowered under chanting. The deceased is placed in the grave with his face facing east. The priest prayerfully takes a shovel and throws earth onto the coffin three times, and everyone present does the same, crying and lamenting. A gravestone cross, a monument with a cross, is placed at the feet of the deceased, with its front side facing west, so that the face of the deceased is directed towards the holy cross. After the funeral, everyone goes home, has fun and rejoices in memory of the deceased, they do the same on the third day after the funeral, and also on the ninth and twentieth days. When forty days have passed, all the friends and relatives of the deceased will come together, call the monks, priests and everyone who was at the funeral and prepare a special dish of holy blessed bread (kutia and prosphora) for the soul of the deceased. Every year a mass is celebrated for him on the day of his death. The grief lasts no more than six weeks: after this, the widow can marry another husband, and the widower can marry another. According to Christian traditions, cremation must be avoided and the body must be buried.
4.5. Burial according to Muslim tradition. The dead person's eyes are closed and a prayer is said. Perform the last ablution; All martyrs are traditionally buried without washing, so as not to wash off the “blood of martyrdom” from them. The bodies of these dead are buried in clothes, without wearing a shroud. As usual, the body is covered with a shroud: for men - consisting of two pieces of material, for women - of five. A funeral prayer must be read. The funeral procession can be either on foot or on horseback. The main thing is to show maximum respect to the deceased. Women were allowed to participate in the funeral procession, but were not recommended. Excesses during burial are prohibited in Islam, since all the dead are equal before God. It is advisable to equip the grave with a niche and strictly orient it towards Mecca. The bodies of the deceased are lowered feet first and the dead are placed in the graves on the right side, facing the Kaaba. To prevent soil from getting on the body of the deceased, pebbles, reeds and leaves are placed on top, and only after that they are covered with earth, while praying at the same time. The surface of the grave is raised above ground level by the width of a palm and is marked with a gravestone. Mourning for a wife and husband lasts four months and ten days, for other dead - three days and three nights.
Conclusion
The emergence and existence of funeral rites is associated with the phenomenon of the existence of Homo sapiens in nature. One of the most important psychological factors in the emergence of funeral rituals was the formation of such a phenomenon of human spiritual life as morality. Caring for the deceased, the desire to protect his ashes from the destructive forces of nature are manifestations of an already emerging morality. On the other hand, the emergence of funeral rituals indicates the complication of the work of consciousness, the presence of already definite ideas about the nature of life and death.
The evolution of human consciousness and changes in social life have led to the development and complexity of funeral rites. Reflecting the emergence of property inequality, funeral structures and the volume of funeral equipment become exaggerated in size, changes in the worldview of archaic man, the emergence of religious rituals and cults contributed to the transformation of funeral rituals into a funeral cult.
The central ideas of funeral rituals were the idea of immortality and the closely related idea of reincarnation, i.e. the idea of a continuous flow of life, a wheel of transformations, the transition from one life to another. The fertile soil where the sprouts of the ideas of reincarnation sprouted powerful shoots was the cult of ancestors, with its ideas about the continuity of generations, the influence of legendary ancestors on the birth of a new life (images of ancestors - as a container for storing souls, embryos - the latter, according to archaic ideas, could to move, to be reborn in the body of a newborn human member of the clan).
The mythological ideas of ancient man were clothed in the form of totemism, with its global idea of the kinship of all forms of existence, when the circle of human blood relatives included animals, plants, stones, and even heavenly bodies. The archaic consciousness was dominated by the laws of identity and metamorphosis, when everything was adequate to each other and to the larger cosmos. It is not surprising to assume that the death of a person in the archaic world could be perceived as the death of a star, a light, and rebirth after death was seen as the formation of a new world, the creation of the world. Indeed, it is known that such funeral structures as a mound and a pyramid were original models of the Universe, symbols of the world mountain.
In all likelihood, the two main types of burials that existed among people—deposited corpses and cremated corpses—are associated with certain ideas about the posthumous existence of the soul. In one case (especially if it is mummification), this is a desire to preserve the body, the individual appearance of a person after death, in another, this is a clear desire to get rid of the bodily shell. Apparently, such features in the semantics of funeral rites are explained by the specific ideas of individual cultures and groups about metapsychosis.
Death, the rites of transition to a new state existed in the consciousness and worldview of the ancient man in the context of the myth, mythological images and ideas that were well known to him, life and death, birth, growing up, extinction - everything was regulated, marked by rites and rituals, adherence to which was the key to well-being, continuity of the flow of life, births. In this context, funeral rites should be considered as a staging of this part of the myth, which is dedicated to death and departure. The living and the dead were participants in this sacrament, this tragic mystery, where everything and everyone - the deceased, the funeral structure, objects in the grave - illustrated these sacramental actions.
The dead are inhabitants of a vast space where wise ancestors are located; This is not only the world of the past, but also of the future, which cannot be avoided. They are experts on the future, so sorcerers and predictors turned to them. The dead turned out to be intermediaries between their living descendants and the gods. Physical death was not an absolute end, life was considered to continue after death, and the connection between a person and his relatives was not broken in the grave. Moreover, the living and the dead depended on each other. The well-being of the dead is associated with the attention they received from the living, while the existence of the living was largely determined by the care with which they surrounded the departed.
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Over thousands of years of development of our civilization, different beliefs and religions have arisen. And every religion, in one form or another, has formulated the idea of life after death. Ideas about the afterlife differ greatly, however, there is one thing in common: death is not the absolute end of human existence, and life (soul, stream of consciousness) continues to exist after the death of the physical body. Here are 15 religions from different parts of the world and their ideas about life after death.
15. Ancient era
The most ancient ideas about the afterlife had no division: all dead people go to the same place, regardless of who they were on Earth. The first attempts to connect the afterlife with retribution are recorded in the Egyptian “Book of the Dead,” associated with the afterlife judgment of Osiris.
In ancient times there was no clear idea of heaven and hell. The ancient Greeks believed that after death the soul leaves the body and goes to the dark kingdom of Hades. There her existence continues, rather bleak. Souls wander along the shores of Lethe, they have no joy, they are sad and complain about the evil fate that deprived them of sunlight and the delights of earthly life. The gloomy kingdom of Hades was hated by all living things. Hades seemed to be a terrible, ferocious beast that never lets go of its prey. Only the bravest heroes and demigods could descend into the dark kingdom and return from there to the world of the living.
The ancient Greeks were as cheerful as children. But any mention of death caused sadness: after death, the soul will never know joy or see the life-giving light. She will only moan in despair from the joyless submission to fate and the unchanging order of things. Only initiates found bliss in communication with the celestials, and for everyone else after death only suffering awaited.
14. Epicureans
This religion is approximately 300 years older than Christianity and today has a number of followers in Greece and other parts of the world. Unlike most other religions on the planet, Epicureanism believes in many gods, but none of them pays attention to what human beings become after death. Believers believe that everything, including their gods and souls, is made of atoms. In addition, according to Epicureanism, there is no life after death, nothing like reincarnation, going to hell or heaven - nothing at all. When a person dies, in their opinion, the soul also dissolves and turns into nothing. Just the end!
13. Baha'is
The Baha'i religion has gathered approximately seven million people under its banner. Baha'is believe that the human soul is eternal and beautiful, and every person must work on himself to get closer to God. Unlike most other religions, which have their own god or prophet, Baha'is believe in one God for all religions in the world. According to Bahá'ís, there is no heaven and hell, and most other religions make the mistake of considering them to be physical places when they should be seen symbolically.
The Bahá'í attitude towards death is characterized by optimism. Bahá'u'lláh says: "O son of the Most High! I have made death a messenger of joy for you. Why are you sad? I commanded the light to pour out its radiance on you. Why are you hiding?"
12. Jainism
Approximately 4 million followers of Jainism believe in the existence of many gods and the reincarnation of souls. In Jainism, the main thing is not to harm all living things, the goal is to obtain the maximum amount of good karma, which is achieved through good deeds. Good karma will help the soul to free itself, and a person to become a deva (deity) in the next life.
People who do not achieve liberation continue to cycle through the cycle of rebirth, and with bad karma, some may even go through the eight circles of hell and suffering. The eight circles of hell become more severe with each successive stage, and the soul goes through trials and even torture before receiving another opportunity for reincarnation, and another chance to achieve liberation. Although it may take a very long time, the liberated souls are given a place among the gods.
11. Shintoism
Shintoism (神道 Shinto - “way of the gods”) is a traditional religion in Japan, based on the animistic beliefs of the ancient Japanese, the objects of worship are numerous deities and spirits of the dead.
The strange thing about Shinto is that believers cannot publicly admit that they are adherents of this religion. According to some old Japanese Shinto legends, the dead go to a dark underground place called Yomi, where a river separates the dead from the living. It's a lot like the Greek Hades, isn't it? Shintoists have an extremely negative attitude towards death and dead flesh. In Japanese, the verb "shinu" (to die) is considered obscene and is used only when absolutely necessary.
Followers of this religion believe in ancient gods and spirits called "kami". Shintoists believe that some people can become kami after they die. According to Shinto, people are pure by nature and can maintain their purity by staying away from evil and going through some purification rituals. The main spiritual principle of Shinto is living in harmony with nature and people. According to Shinto beliefs, the world is a single natural environment where kami, people and the souls of the dead live side by side. Shinto temples, by the way, are always organically integrated into the natural landscape (pictured is the “floating” torii of Itsukushima Temple in Miyajima).
10. Hinduism
In most Indian religions, it is a common idea that after death a person's soul is reborn into a new body. The transmigration of souls (reincarnation) occurs at the will of a higher world order and almost does not depend on a person. But everyone has the power to influence this order and improve the conditions of existence of the soul in the next life in a righteous way. One collection of sacred hymns describes how the soul enters the mother's womb only after traveling for a long time throughout the world. The eternal soul is reborn again and again - not only in the bodies of animals and people, but also in plants, water and everything that is created. Moreover, her choice of the physical body is determined by the desires of the soul. So every follower of Hinduism can “order” who he would like to be reincarnated as in his next life.
9. Chinese traditional religion
Everyone is familiar with the concepts of yin and yang, a very popular concept that all followers of Chinese traditional religion adhere to. Yin is negative, dark, feminine, while yang is positive, bright and masculine. The interaction of yin and yang greatly influences the fate of all entities and things. Those who live according to traditional Chinese religion believe in a peaceful life after death, however, one can achieve more by performing certain rituals and paying special honor to ancestors. After death, the god Cheng Huang determines whether a person was virtuous enough to go to the immortal gods and live in Buddhist heaven, or whether he is heading to hell, where immediate rebirth and a new incarnation follows.
8. Sikhs
Sikhism is one of the most popular religions in India (approximately 25 million followers). Sikhism (ਸਿੱਖੀ) is a monotheistic religion founded in Punjab by Guru Nanak in 1500. Sikhs believe in One God, the Almighty and All-pervading Creator. No one knows his real name. The form of worship of God in Sikhism is meditation. No other deities, demons, spirits, according to the Sikh religion, are worthy of worship.
The Sikhs resolve the question of what will happen to a person after death this way: they consider all ideas about heaven and hell, retribution and sins, karma and new rebirths to be incorrect. The doctrine of reward in the future life, the demands of repentance, cleansing from sins, fasting, chastity and “good deeds” - all this, from the point of view of Sikhism, is an attempt by some mortals to manipulate others. After death, a person’s soul does not go anywhere - it simply dissolves in nature and returns to the Creator. But it does not disappear, but remains, like everything that exists.
7. Juche
Juche is one of the newer doctrines on this list, and the state idea behind it makes it more of a socio-political ideology than a religion. Juche (주체, 主體) is a North Korean national communist state ideology developed personally by Kim Il Sung (the leader of the country in 1948-1994) as a counterweight to imported Marxism. Juche emphasizes the independence of the DPRK and fences itself off from the influence of Stalinism and Maoism, and also provides an ideological justification for the personal power of the dictator and his successors. The Constitution of the DPRK enshrines the leading role of Juche in state policy, defining it as “a worldview centered on man and revolutionary ideas aimed at realizing the independence of the masses.”
Juche adherents personally worship Comrade Kim Il Sung, the first dictator of North Korea, who rules the country as eternal president - now in the person of his son Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Soko, Il's wife. Juche followers believe that when they die, they go to a place where they will forever remain with their dictator-president. It is not clear whether this is heaven or hell.
6. Zoroastrians
Zoroastrianism (بهدین - good faith) is one of the oldest religions, originating in the revelation of the prophet Spitama Zarathustra (زرتشت, Ζωροάστρης), which he received from God - Ahura Mazda. The basis of Zarathustra's teachings is a person's free moral choice of good thoughts, good words and good deeds. They believe in Ahura Mazda - the “wise god”, a good creator, and in Zarathustra as the only prophet of Ahura Mazda, who showed humanity the path to righteousness and purity.
The teachings of Zarathustra were one of the first, ready to recognize the personal responsibility of the soul for the actions committed in earthly life. Those who choose Righteousness (Asha) will experience heavenly bliss; those who choose Lie will experience torment and self-destruction in hell. Zoroastrianism introduces the concept of posthumous judgment, which is a counting of deeds committed in life. If a person’s good deeds outweigh his bad ones by even a hair, the yazats lead the soul to the House of Songs. If evil deeds outweigh the soul, the soul is dragged to hell by the deva Vizaresha (the deva of death). The concept of the Chinwad Bridge leading to Garodmana over a hellish abyss is also common. For the righteous it becomes wide and comfortable; for sinners it turns into a sharp blade from which they fall into hell.
5. Islam
In Islam, earthly life is only a preparation for the eternal path, and after that the main part of it begins - Akhiret - or the afterlife. From the very moment of death, Akhiret is significantly influenced by a person’s lifetime deeds. If a person was a sinner during his lifetime, his death will be difficult, but a righteous person will die painlessly. Islam also has the idea of a posthumous judgment. Two angels - Munkar and Nakir - interrogate and punish the dead in their graves. After this, the soul begins to prepare for the last and main Fair Judgment - the Judgment of Allah, which will happen only after the end of the world.
“The Almighty made this world a habitat for man, a “laboratory” for testing the souls of people for loyalty to the Creator. He who believes in Allah and His Messenger Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) must also believe in the coming of the End of the World and the Day of Judgment, for this is about says the Almighty in the Koran."
4. Aztecs
The most famous aspect of Aztec religion is human sacrifice. The Aztecs revered the highest balance: in their opinion, life would not be possible without offering sacrificial blood to the forces of life and fertility. In their myths, the gods sacrificed themselves so that the sun they created could move along its path. The return of children to the gods of water and fertility (sacrifice of infants and sometimes children under 13 years of age) was considered payment for their gifts - abundant rains and harvests. In addition to the “blood sacrifice,” death itself was also a means of maintaining balance.
The rebirth of the body and the fate of the soul in the afterlife depend largely on the social role and cause of death of the deceased (unlike Western beliefs, where only a person’s personal behavior determines his life after death).
People who succumb to illness or old age end up in Mictlan, the dark underworld where the god of death, Mictlantecuhtli, and his wife Mictlancihuatl rule. In preparation for this journey, the dead man was swaddled and tied with a bundle containing various gifts to the god of death, and then cremated along with a dog, which was supposed to serve as a guide through the underworld. After passing through many dangers, the soul reached the gloomy, soot-filled Mictlan, from where there is no return. In addition to Mictlan, there was another afterlife - Tlaloc, which belonged to the god of rain and water. This place is reserved for those who have died from lightning, drowning or certain painful diseases. In addition, the Aztecs believed in heaven: only the most valiant warriors went there, who lived and died as heroes.
The main goal in Buddhism is to free yourself from the chain of suffering and the illusion of rebirth and go into metaphysical non-existence - nirvana. Unlike Hinduism or Jainism, Buddhism does not recognize the transmigration of souls as such. It only talks about the journey of various states of human consciousness through several worlds of samsara. And death in this sense is just a transition from one place to another, the outcome of which is influenced by deeds (karma).
1. Christianity
The two largest world religions (Christianity and Islam) have many similar views on life after death. Christianity completely rejected the idea of reincarnation, about which a special decree was issued at the Second Council of Constantinople.
Eternal life begins after death. The soul passes to another world on the third day after burial, where it then prepares for the Last Judgment. No sinner can escape God's punishment. After death he goes to hell.
In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church introduced a provision about purgatory - a temporary place of residence for sinners, through which the soul can be cleansed and then go to heaven.
The afterlife according to the ideas of ancient peoples
As has already been said, at first people did not consider the soul to be an incorporeal, divine being, but endowed it with material qualities and all human needs, believing that, having moved to another world, the soul would continue to lead the lifestyle of a living person. Therefore, in burial places, relatives provided the deceased with everything he used during life, burying with the deceased food, water and things that were needed or especially dear to him.
American Indians sang at funerals:
So let's start the funeral
Choir among the graves;
We will bring a farewell gift
Everything he loved:
Place the onion at the head of the room,
And the ax is on the chest,
At the feet - fur with bear blood
To a friend on a long journey...
Karelian burial grounds from the era of the decay of the primitive communal system, discovered at the end of the last century near the Vuoksa River, indicate that household utensils and things that the deceased most often used during life were placed in the grave of a Karelian. In the men's graves, axes, horse bits, spears and arrowheads were found, in the women's graves - a spindle whorl (from a spinning wheel), sickles, and sheep shearing shears. Consequently, according to the ideas of the Karelians, in the afterlife, men will cut down trees, hunt, fight enemies, and women will spin, reap bread, shear sheep, i.e. carry out work familiar to them in earthly life.
Initially, the afterlife seemed so material to people that they quite clearly imagined how a dead person eats, how he starves and dies, i.e. may simply disappear completely if not taken care of. All ancient peoples were firmly convinced that the deceased had the same needs as the living. They considered it necessary to feed the deceased so that his hungry spirit would not bother his relatives with his visits and cause them trouble. Thus, the Mexicans placed pieces of meat on sticks across the fields, doing this out of fear that the dead would not come to them to demand the cattle that belonged to him during his life. Belarusian peasants, along with the deceased, put some food and some of the deceased’s belongings into the coffin. In remote Russian villages it was the custom to place crumbs of pie on the shelf behind the icon. It was believed that the souls of ancestors were hiding there, and therefore they were “fed.” Christian funerals are also a relic of such ideas.
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC) described the funeral customs of the Scythians. The Greeks used this name to call numerous tribes that lived from the 8th century. BC. in the steppes from the Northern Black Sea region to Altai. They lived in tribal communities, but in the 5th century. BC. there was no longer equality between them. The clan nobility was distinguished, the power of tribal leaders was inherited, and slavery had already arisen, although the labor of slaves was not widespread and the state did not yet exist.
According to Herodotus, when the Scythian leader died, his corpse was embalmed. The funeral took place with special pomp and cruel sacrifices. On the day of burial, one of the wives, several slaves and servants: a cook, a cupbearer, a groom, and a messenger were killed at the leader’s grave and placed next to him. Weapons, jewelry, precious things made of gold and silver were placed in the grave, and with joint efforts they poured a huge mound over it, trying to make it higher.
A year later, a funeral service was held at the grave. They killed 50 of the deceased's most faithful servants and 50 of his best horses. The entrails were taken out of the horse carcasses, the stuffed animals were stuffed with straw and, mounted on poles, they were attached to the ground in a large semicircle; Killed servants were placed on dead horses. Having built this terrible cavalry around the grave, the Scythians left.
Excavations of the Chertomlytsky mound (20 km from Nikopol) and especially the latest interesting discoveries in the Pazyryk mounds of the Altai Mountains confirmed what Herodotus wrote 2500 years ago. Thus, recently an expedition of archaeologists from the USSR Academy of Sciences and the State Hermitage excavated a number of large mounds made of rock fragments and dating back to the 5th century in the Pazyryk tract of the Ulagan Highlands. BC. These were burial vaults of the ancient Saks (Scythians) with representatives of the tribal nobility buried in them. Despite the fact that the burial grounds were looted, they preserved many objects of art and everyday life that were interesting to scientists, the value of which was increased by their excellent preservation in permafrost conditions, although at least 2,500 years had passed since the burial. Some wooden items, leather, carpets and fabrics have not lost their original appearance, and even tattoos have survived on the embalmed bodies of buried men. The corpse of a Scythian warrior was discovered in one of the tombs. His wife and everything he needed during his life were buried with him: horses in full trim, clothes, furs, food - pieces of lamb in leather bags, cheese similar to feta cheese.
Not only among the Scythians, savage murders of people were committed on the graves of tribal elders and leaders. Many other nations also had a custom according to which, along with the deceased rich man, his wives and slaves were buried alive or killed. Here are some examples. In 1870 (!) after the death of Prince Marava (Brazil), his 47 wives were burned alive along with his corpse.
The leaders of African tribes, long before their own death, killed their slaves in order to prepare servants for themselves for the future afterlife. Even a hundred years ago, in front of the leader’s hut one could see sticking out poles with the whitened skulls of his “afterlife servants.” If it occurred to the leader to convey something to his ancestors in the afterlife, he called a slave, gave him the order, and then cut off his head. At the funeral of the mother of Chaka, the South African king of the Zulu tribe, 7 thousand people were killed, and 12 young girls were buried alive to serve the queen in the afterlife. After the death of King Guenzo in the monarchy of Dahomey (tropical Africa), his son Grere ordered the sacrifice of 1000 people. The killings of the unfortunates continued from July 13 to August 5, 1860. During the funeral of the Mongol prince, all people who came across on the road were killed with the words: “Go serve your master in another world.”
Hundreds of murdered slaves are found in the tombs of ancient China.
In ancient India, there was a custom of “sati”, according to which, after the death of her husband, the widow was burned at the grave of the deceased. This ferocious custom lasted until the middle of the 19th century. Religion taught a woman that her husband needed her in the afterlife just as much as during life. And if she does not immediately follow him, then in the end she will still die and appear in the “other world” for eternal and cruel reprisal to her embittered husband. That is why superstitious Hindu women preferred to experience the agony of death at the stake once rather than be tortured by an angry husband for an eternity in the future.
These same superstitious ideas destroyed many blacks when in the 16th century. colonialists began to export them from Africa to America. To get rid of the unbearable torment of slavery, they resorted to suicide, being confident that after death they would return to their homeland and be resurrected there as free people.
The custom of funeral honors and sacrifices, associated with the belief in the afterlife, was also among our ancestors - the Slavs.
Nations at a low stage of development not only killed people, they also “killed” things. Thus, many African blacks have a custom after the death of a king to make all his things worthless: tearing clothes, breaking swords, making holes in boats. These “killed” things are placed in the grave to be used by the dead.
Remnants of primitive ideas about the afterlife and associated customs appeared among the peoples of Western Europe in relatively recent times. So, 200 years ago in Austria, during the funeral of one count, his horse was buried with him. Later, horses were no longer killed, but it was generally accepted to lead the deceased’s horse behind the coffin. There were cases when a needle and thread were placed in graves so that the deceased could, when necessary, repair his dress.
Thus, belief in the afterlife arose in pre-class society and by the beginning of the collapse of the primitive communal system it was widely developed. With the advent of wealth inequality, ideas about the afterlife have changed dramatically. Private property has left its mark on the “other world.” Previously, when there was no difference between rich and poor, the afterlife of all the dead seemed the same. Since all people were equal, their souls had to live in the “other world” in the same conditions, i.e. ideas about the life of the dead beyond the grave corresponded to the social structure that existed among the peoples on earth. The ancient Jews and Greeks imagined the afterlife as a distant underground kingdom of shadows, where everyone is equal and everyone shares the same bleak fate, but without much torment.
With the division of society into classes, tales about the afterlife began to mention two compartments for the dead: the upper (heaven) for some, and the lower (hell) for others; and usually heaven is for masters, for the rich, hell is for slaves and the poor.
As was shown above, a noble person, a tribal leader, a prince or a king, when preparing for a “long journey,” took with him to the grave or funeral pyre everything that he owned during his lifetime. Contrary to the proverb: “If you die, you won’t take anything with you,” the rich man believed: “If I die, I’ll take everything with me.” Bulls and horses were slaughtered at his grave so that the dead prince would have something to eat and something to ride in the “other world.” His wives, slaves, and warriors were killed along with him. These are companions and servants who go with the deceased to protect him and please him in the afterlife. Finally, the dead man himself was placed in a coffin or on a pyre, fully armed and with the best jewelry. Rich relatives did not skimp on funeral feasts, feasting on the burial mound, performing abundant sacrifices and many other magical actions that provided the deceased with the opportunity to get to that happy area of the afterlife, which is called paradise.
And whoever is not rich enough to order the killing of women and servants at his grave, who does not have things to travel to the afterlife and be protected from all disasters there, who cannot finally pay the priests for prayers and spells, will not reach the blissful edge.
Thus, representatives of the ruling classes turned the colorless kingdom of shadows into a cheerful and rich place, resounding with laughter and the clinking of glasses, where earthly pleasures continue, where you can eat and drink without fail, caress as many of the most beautiful women as you like, etc. etc. This is how an imaginary paradise arose, access to which became the property of the rich.
Hell remained for the poor man, not yet a place of torture and torment, but simply a place of sadness and sorrow. If this was retribution, it was retribution for poverty, for the fact that the whole life of a poor man is filled with worries about his existence, and too little attention and resources were given to the gods and priests.
Of course, this general picture of the development of views on the afterlife from their origin to the emergence of the first class societies, inclusive, cannot be unconditionally applied to the history of any people, cannot reflect all the originality of ideas about the afterlife, which are rooted in the material conditions of life of a particular society. There may be deviations and exceptions here, as exemplified by the peoples of the most ancient culture of mankind - Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, whose ideas about the afterlife differ sharply both from each other and from the above diagram. The views of these peoples are all the more interesting to us because their literary monuments already contain the first glimpses of free-thinking, manifested in doubt and even denial of any belief in an afterlife.
The ancient Babylonians pictured the “future” life as an abode of suffering and sadness. They had an idea of the “world of the dead,” filled with disgusting spirits that tormented the souls of the dead. These spirits also come to earth, flying from the terrible desert in the west, to send illness and death to their victims. The gods sometimes descended into the underworld and emerged from there with great difficulty. But man does not have the salvation that exists for God. Death does not let him go free, cuts him down like a blade of grass, pierces him with a knife.
“The Poem of Gilgamesh,” the most remarkable work of Babylonian literature of the 2nd millennium BC, poses in a highly artistic form the eternal question about the meaning of life and the inevitability of death, about what awaits a person beyond the grave. Gilgamesh, the semi-legendary king of Uruk, “two-thirds god, one-third man,” having buried his beloved friend, tormented by sadness and fear of inevitable death, seeks the secret of immortality in difficult wanderings. His ancestor Ut-Napishtim, who received the great gift of immortality from the gods, is trying to get eternal life for the hero using various magical techniques. He advises Gilyamesh to at least overcome sleep - maybe then he will overcome death. But human nature takes its toll, and the hero, tired from the campaign, falls asleep while sitting and falls into a heavy sleep. Everything turns out to be in vain. Gilgamesh again feels the threat of imminent death. He is asking:
What should I do, Ut-Napishtim, where should I go?
Death lurks in my bedroom.
Finally, Ut-Napishtim reveals to him that, by diving to the bottom of the ocean, Gilgamesh will be able to find a plant that gives, however, not eternal life, but constant youth. Having obtained the grass of youth with great difficulty, Gilgamesh sets off for his homeland, deciding to share the grass with his people. But chance ruins everything. When Gilgamesh was bathing in a pond, a snake stole a wonderful plant. Since then, snakes have shed their skin and become younger, while people are destined to grow old without renewal.
The saddened hero asks the gods for one last favor: to call back from the other world at least the shadow of a deceased friend. The poem ends with a dialogue between friends, in which the shadow of the deceased in the darkest colors describes the world of the dead, who “do not see the light, live in darkness, their food is dust and clay.”
Look! The friend whom you hugged in the joy of your heart -
The worms devour him like a decayed shroud.
My body, which you touched in the joy of your heart,
Turned into dust and ashes
It turned into dust and decay, into dust.
Man is powerless against nature, which for the Babylonians was personified as the will of the gods.
The words of the ancient author are permeated with deep pessimism, for even the famous Gilgamesh, “mighty, great, wise,” despite his divine origin, cannot achieve immortality. It is given only to those who, like Ut-Napishtim, fulfill the commandments of religion and the demands of the priests. This thought reflected the later ideology of priesthood, although the roots of the poem undoubtedly go back to folk art. Babylonian literature developed under the influence of a religious worldview, but it was also filled with doubts about the truth of religious dogmas, which promised the righteous immortality as a reward. In the poem, for the first time, with utmost clarity and at the same time with great artistic power, the idea of the inevitability of death is expressed, to which all people are subject, even famous heroes who are ready for any feat in order to overcome inevitable death. In the end, Gilgamesh is consoled by the thought of the immortality of the glorious deeds of man, which will forever be preserved in the memory of posterity.
And the question of death and immortality, which so worried man in ancient times, is resolved courageously and essentially correctly: man is mortal, but his deeds are immortal.
The idea of the inevitability of death is also imbued with another work, which is usually called “Conversation between a Master and a Slave,” in which Babylonian religious and philosophical poetry reached its peak.
These are the final strong words of the dialogue, which express the author’s main idea. Disappointed in everything, the gentleman finally exclaims: “What’s good now?” The slave’s answer sounds insolent and mocking: “Breaking my neck and your neck and throwing them into the river - that’s good. Who is so high as to ascend to heaven, and who is so great as to fill the earth!” The angry master threateningly says to the slave: “O slave, I want to kill you and force you to walk in front of me.” But in response the slave’s warning is heard: “Truly, my master will live only three days after me.”
If in Babylonia they had little faith in the afterlife, knowing that, having died, a person turns into dust, into decay, into nothing, then in ancient Egypt the belief in the afterlife was very strong and had a special meaning there. No people ever cared so much about the dead and thought so much about the afterlife as the Egyptians. They did not seek immortality, like the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, because they believed that they possessed it, being confident that death is not the destruction of a person, but only his transition to another world. Such ideas were born under the influence of natural factors, primarily the geographical environment. On the western bank of the Nile, near the sands of the Libyan Desert, where Egyptian cemeteries were located, in a hot, dry climate, the body did not so much decompose as dry out, and the Egyptians managed to protect corpses from rotting.
The magnificent funeral cult of the dead in Egypt was associated with the veneration of the god Osiris, the idea of which, as a dying and resurrecting god, reflected the annual flowering and withering of nature.
From generation to generation, the Egyptians told an endlessly ancient tale about the struggle between life and death - the myth of Osiris. Its content is as follows. Egypt was once ruled by the god of the sun, moisture and vegetation, Osiris. But he was killed by his evil brother Set, who tore the body of Osiris into 14 pieces and scattered it throughout Egypt. Osiris's wife, the goddess Isis, after a long search, collected the remains of her husband, put them together and resurrected the god. But Osiris did not remain on earth, but became king and judge in the afterlife.
The myth of Osiris reflected the Egyptian ideas about the change of seasons and the eternity of constantly regenerating nature: when everything dried up and died from the sultry winds of the deserts, this meant that Osiris was killed; the revival of nature was associated with the resurrection of the deity. The Egyptians believed that just as nature comes to life, so can dead people come to life in the afterlife. Osiris defeated death and came to life. This means, the Egyptians thought, that people who believed in him could rise again and gain immortality. This idea is clearly expressed in the following religious text:
As Osiris truly lives, so do you live.
Just as he truly does not die, so you do not die.
Just as he is not truly destroyed, so you are not destroyed either.
Feeling their dependence on nature, they thought that their earthly and especially future afterlife depended entirely on Osiris, the god of dying and resurrecting nature, the god of “eternal” life and the ruler of the land of the dead. The kingdom of the dead - “Amenti”, where Osiris rules, according to some legends, was in the distant blissful country of the West, where the souls of the dead fly away with the sun, according to others - in the underworld.
The 125th chapter of the “Book of the Dead” - religious and magical collections of texts from ancient Egypt - describes the terrible posthumous judgment of the soul of the deceased, which reflected in a distorted form the earthly and formidable judgment of the pharaoh. Osiris sits on a royal throne under a canopy in the great hall of justice, decorated with tongues of fire and large feathers (a feather is a symbol of truth). Behind him sit 42 monster judges (one from each Egyptian region). In the middle are the scales of justice, on which the heart of the deceased is weighed in order to find out whether he led a righteous life. If a person did not violate the will of Pharaoh and generally committed few sins, his heart should have been light, no heavier than the feather (truth) placed on the other side of the scale. The heart, according to the Egyptians, was a symbol of the soul of the deceased, the focus of his moral life, the receptacle of virtues and vices. Having appeared before the court, the soul makes a negative confession, in which the deceased declares himself innocent of committing 42 cardinal sins.
“I did not speak ill of Pharaoh, did not rebel, did not reduce the sacrifices dedicated to the gods, did not reduce the bread in the temples, did not reduce the food of the gods... did not fish in the ponds dedicated to the gods... did not harm the livestock that belonged to the temple. ..”
The class essence of ideas about the afterlife court is clearly reflected in the nature of this confession. If a person did not stain himself with sins and crimes against the pharaoh and the priests, he was acquitted and his soul was allowed to live in the kingdom of Osiris. There was a lot of water there, which was not enough on earth, and in the paradise fields of Iaru wheat grew taller than a man. The Egyptians believed that the deceased would live there forever with the gods, ride in a solar boat along the underground Nile and eat the food of the gods. But if the heart of the deceased weighed a lot, if he was burdened with vices, the scales went down, and the heart and soul of the sinner were immediately devoured by the terrible monster Amamat (half-lion, half-hippopotamus with the head of a crocodile), and the deceased was forever deprived of the right to the afterlife. It is characteristic that the concept of hell did not exist among the ancient Egyptians: losing immortality was generally considered the most terrible thing.
In the class society of ancient Egypt, the funeral cult was a means of ideological influence of the ruling class on the consciousness of the working masses in order to subjugate them. Belief in the afterlife, in the Last Judgment of Osiris, helped the ruling classes intimidate the masses, dull the consciousness of the poor, convincing them to meekly endure earthly hardships and torments, promising them an imaginary heavenly bliss beyond the grave as a reward.
Belief in the afterlife was widespread and developed in Egypt. The living had to prepare for their afterlife, and the dead demanded a complex funeral cult from their descendants on earth.
The desire to ensure eternal life for the deceased was expressed in concern for the preservation of the corpse and the method of its burial. According to the religious beliefs of the Egyptians, posthumous existence depends on the degree of preservation of the body. The Egyptians believed that the soul of the deceased flies out of the body, but then constantly returns to it, bringing food and maintaining contact with the outside world.
Therefore, in order for the soul to find the body, it must be preserved from destruction. This explains the custom of mummifying corpses and building strong tombs. Since at first the embalming methods were imperfect and the body might not be preserved, a statue of the deceased was placed in the tomb, which was supposed to serve as a replacement for the body. Believing that real life begins behind the grave, every wealthy Egyptian, long before old age, due to his means and capabilities, began to build a tomb for himself.
The Egyptians imagined the afterlife as a fantastic reflection and a kind of continuation of the earthly world, where in the land of the dead the soul would lead the same existence as on earth. Relatives tried to provide the deceased with everything necessary, including furniture and musical instruments, in order to ensure his well-being in the afterlife.
At first, since the time of the clan system, genuine things and food were placed in the tomb - “bread, geese, bull meat and beer” - everything that, according to the concepts of the Egyptians, had to be fed to the soul so that it would not starve in the afterlife. The nobility bequeathed their cattle and lands to the priests and temples “for the sake of their souls.” Subsequently, the Egyptians replaced real food with images, all kinds of drawings of food and drinks on funeral tables and tomb walls, firmly believing that all this would turn into real food and drink and provide for the “afterlife needs” of the deceased.
When a slave state emerged in Egypt, the funeral cult strengthened the idea of the immutability and eternity of the existing class system. Pharaohs began to be buried in giant tombs - pyramids, the dimensions of which reflected the social distance between the king and the population under his control, instilled in his subjects fear of the greatness and power of the ancient Eastern despots and faith in their divinity, which was preached by the priests: during life, the pharaohs were considered earthly gods, and after death were equated with heaven. Wealthy officials and priests were buried in massive tombs that looked like huge benches (the so-called mastabas), where the body of the deceased (mummy), embalmed and swaddled in linen bandages, was lowered into several painted sarcophagi. A half-length portrait of the deceased drawn on the board was also placed there. The entrance to the tomb was walled up, but, according to the Egyptians, the deceased himself could go out invisibly or look out with large eyes painted on the wall of the coffin. On the walls of the interior of the tomb they painted the family of the deceased and in the foreground he himself, usually inspecting the possessions and wealth that belonged to him during his life - craft workshops, herds, fields where slaves worked. All this was supplied with inscriptions exalting the owner and was supposed to magically transfer the property of the deceased to the afterlife.
Taking into account the moods and desires of candidates for the afterlife, the priests composed special prayers and spells for them to the gods, which were supposed to protect the deceased from the dangers that threatened him in the next world and ensure “union with his family in the afterlife”, “eating bread in the afterlife ”, the opportunity “not to enter the courthouse of God.”
All these funeral texts made up the later already mentioned “Book of the Dead,” which was placed along with the deceased and where one could read, for example, “Chapter so as not to die a second time,” “A saying so as not to decay,” “A saying so as not to get caught.” on God’s block”, etc.
According to the Egyptians, everyone did the same work behind the grave as they did during life. And if the poor peasant dreamed of plowing, sowing and reaping in the fields of Osiris in the kingdom of the dead, then wealthy people were not going to do this. For this purpose, special funeral figurines were purchased and placed in the tombs of noble people, which were small figures of servants made of stone, wood or faience with bags of grain on their backs and hoes in their hands, called “ushebti”, which means “respondents”. It was they who had to do the work for their owners beyond the grave. Sometimes up to 365 of these twin dolls were found in tombs, corresponding to the number of days in a year. The Egyptians naively believed that these figurines would come to life one after another in the afterlife and turn into slaves and peasants who would work for the deceased, and the paintings would turn into estates that he would own.
But the rich slave owners, even in the “other world,” were afraid of the possible disobedience of the servants. For this purpose, warning inscriptions were often carved on the figures: “Oh, you, ushabti! If I am called and assigned to perform various works, you answer: “I am here.” Listen only to the one who made you, do not listen to his enemy.” Wooden and earthenware dolls often have their legs broken off; This was done so that the servants could not run away from the master.
It can be assumed that ushabti dolls replaced the more ancient, already mentioned ritual, when his slaves were killed at the grave of a slave owner.
The middle class of the urban population buried their dead in small tombs with modest decoration. The mummies were prepared using a cheap method, and the ushabti placed in the graves was poorly prepared. Sometimes only one “respondent” was placed with the number 365 written on it, and magic spells cast over it ensured that it would work for the deceased throughout the year.
The Egyptian poor simply buried their dead in the sand without any embalming. But at the same time, measures were still taken so that the poor could “resurrect.” Their bodies were wrapped in mats and tied to boards with funeral prayers. The board replaced both the coffin and the tomb for the deceased. The names of dishes and drinks were written on it, which, thanks to magical spells, were supposed to ensure the afterlife well-being of the poor. For example, a funeral prayer asking Osiris to give the deceased in the next world 1000 bulls, 1000 loaves of bread, 1000 glasses of beer, etc. The relatives of the deceased could not do more for him. Sometimes a figurine representing the deceased was buried near the grave of a nobleman, so that part of the gifts brought to him would go to the poor man, who, thus, had to depend on the rich man in the afterlife.
The dead slaves did not even have their own graves: they were buried in a common pit.
We have seen that the Egyptians transferred ideas about the relations of production that existed on earth to the afterlife, where people were located in accordance with their social position on earth. The afterlife cult imperceptibly introduced into the minds of believers the idea of justifying and affirming earthly inequality by the presence of heavenly inequality: for the ruler of the dead, Osiris, it was necessary to cultivate the field in the same way as for earthly masters. Although all the dead were declared equal before one master - Osiris, who could call anyone to “labor service”, the rich could get rid of work here too, replacing themselves with “defendants”.
Reduced to extreme poverty, suppressed by the severity of life, the broad masses of the population dreamed of posthumous bliss. Belief in an afterlife was at the same time an effective instrument of oppression in the hands of the ruling class: fearing the judgment of Osiris, believers patiently endured their hard life, hoping after death to receive a reward for humility.
Belief in the “other world” was strong in ancient Egypt, but even then religion could not suppress the glimmers of free-thinking and critical consciousness of people whose life experience inevitably sowed doubts about what the priests taught. Some poetic works contain notes of disbelief in the afterlife and calls for enjoying all the benefits of earthly life, which sharply contrast with the traditional religious worldview. In one feast song it is sung:
Spend your day joyfully, priest,
Inhale the smell of incense and anointings...
Leave all evil behind you.
Think only about joy until
Until the day comes when you land in the country,
loving silence.
Another papyrus describes the indignation of a pious Egyptian at hearing such songs during funeral feasts: “I heard songs in which the earthly is exalted and the afterlife is humiliated.”
In the famous “Harper's Song,” inscribed on the wall of the pyramid, the freethinking author most boldly denies the existence of an afterlife and doubts the benefits of funeral rites and magnificent tombs:
Crying will not bring anyone back from the grave...
And none of those who went there
Not back yet!
And therefore:
Multiply your pleasures even more,
Don't let your heart get sad
Follow his desire and your good,
Do your deeds on earth according to the dictates of your heart
And do not grieve until the day of mourning for you comes...
Everything will perish, the tombs will disappear, “as if it never happened,” the author concludes; only the deeds of people, the works and thoughts of the people are immortal.
In the poetic dialogue, which is usually called “The Disappointed Man’s Conversation with His Soul,” the author’s words convey the deep pessimism of a man disappointed in life and challenging the heavens. The doubt about the existence of eternal life is clearly felt in the following words: “If you remember burial, then this is grief... You will never go out to see the sun. Those who built from granite and erected chambers... they suffered the same fate as the tired ones who died on the rafts, leaving no offspring behind. The heat of the sun and the fish on the shore talk to them.”
Having lost faith in the afterlife, the author also treats funeral rites with contempt, not believing that they can provide a person with afterlife bliss, although they require great expenses. The author’s words sound confident that death will level everyone, both poor and rich, preparing for them the same fate - destruction under the rays of the scorching sun or the all-conquering power of water.
In the literary monuments of other peoples of the Ancient East there are also works that are skeptical about the belief in an afterlife. Such, for example, are the Hebrew parables attributed to King Solomon. The Talmud, a Jewish religious collection of Bible interpretations written more than two thousand years ago, mentions sages who argued that there is no afterlife. Even in the Bible itself, the “sacred” book of the ancient Jews, which was then accepted by Christians as the Old Testament, one repeatedly comes across certain naive materialistic views that deny the afterlife and express thoughts that with the death of a person everything is over for him, he will not be resurrected. and even God himself will not create such a miracle. Thus, the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes concludes that man does not live beyond the grave, “everything came from dust, and everything will return to dust” (chapter 3, v. 20). In the “Book of the Wisdom of Solomon” it is written: “We were born by chance, and afterward we will be like those who never were: the breath in our nostrils is smoke, and the word is a spark in the movement of our heart. When it fades away, the body will turn to dust, and the spirit will dissipate like liquid air” (chapter 2, vv. 2-3). But these “dangerous places” of the “sacred scriptures” have been and are so carefully hushed up by theologians and are so drowned in the sea of biblical teachings about the afterlife that believers usually do not even suspect their existence.
In the religion of the ancient Greeks, based on the deification of various forces of nature and admiration for the memory and exploits of ancestors - “god-like” heroes, there was no clearly expressed idea of the afterlife, of heaven and hell. In Ancient Greece, the priesthood did not develop into a special class, did not represent a strong, centralized organization and did not have much influence on the emerging views of people and folk art. It was, as Marx put it, “the childhood of human society where it developed most beautifully...” The freely developing Greek mythology left humanity with an amazing and beautiful world of wonderful tales that embodied the persistent struggle of man with nature, glorifying the exploits of the mighty and just heroes of the people.
According to ancient Greek myths, two brothers of the supreme deity of the thunderer Zeus (Jupiter among the Romans), lord of heaven and earth, shared the world with him: Poseidon (Neptune) received power over the seas, and Hades became the ruler of the afterlife, or the underworld (Orcus). Roman Pluto), or Hades, from whose name our word “hell” comes.
The ancient Hellenes imagined the afterlife as a misfortune, and they saw the whole tragedy of people in the fact that they are mortal. There is nothing better than earthly life for a happy person, but it is short. Beyond the grave, only the horrors of the underworld and the sad journey of a homeless soul await a person. The Greeks imagined Hades as inhabited by aimlessly wandering shadow-like, ghostly creatures, devoid of feeling, thought, or consciousness. They run around, moan, constantly tremble and cannot warm up. It is the souls of the dead who spend their sad and monotonous lives in the kingdom of shadows. The kingdom of Hades is terrible, and people hate it.
The heroic epic of the ancient Greeks tells how Odysseus once wanted to summon the souls of the dead in order to learn the future from them: he dug a hole, poured the blood of a sacrificial animal into it and began to utter mysterious words. With pitiful groans, the shadows of the dead, pitiful semblances of living people, flew down; they began to crowd towards the blood, since hot blood is life and warmth; only the soul that drinks blood can speak with the living. Among them was the shadow of the god-born hero Achilles. Odysseus asked: “What is it like for you in the underworld?” Achilles replied: “It is better to be the last farm laborer on earth than to reign here over the dead.” So hopeless, hopeless and gloomy was the existence of souls in the kingdom of shadows.
The god of death Tanat flew on huge black wings to the bed of the dying man, cut off a lock of hair from his head with a sword, tore out his soul and sent it to the king of the dead - Hades. Through bottomless abysses, abysses with a guide, the winged messenger of the gods Hermes, the soul descended - the “psyche” deep into the earth, where black, deadening rivers flow, among them the chilling Styx, separating the underworld from the real world. The terrible kingdom of the inexorable Hades is full of eternal darkness, where neither the light nor the joys of earthly life ever reach.
The deceased, according to the ideas of the ancient Greeks, had to cross the river of sadness and tears - Acheron, and the gloomy old ferryman Charon took him to the other side for a fee. To pay for the move, the Greeks placed a small copper coin in the dead person's mouth. This boatman did not transport a single soul of the deceased back to where the sun of life shines brightly. The three-headed hellish dog Cerberus, on which snakes wriggled, and the tail ended with the head of a dragon, and many other monsters guarded the exit, guarded the eternal joyless existence of the dead.
There is no return from the other world. Only once did the famous singer Orpheus, with his sweet-sounding music, manage to persuade the harsh Hades to mercy: to give him his tragically deceased young wife Eurydice. The condition was this: until they reached the surface of the earth, it was impossible to turn back. Orpheus could not stand it, looked at Eurydice, and immediately the god Hermes took her back to the underworld.
One of the rivers of the underworld in Greek mythology is Lethe, the river of oblivion, the waters of which made the souls of the dead forget all the earthly suffering they had endured. (This is where the expression “sink into oblivion” comes from, that is, to be forgotten forever, to disappear without a trace.) The gods of dreams, joyful and nightmare, also live here, over which the young god of sleep Hypnos reigns; silently he rises on his wings above the ground with poppy heads in his hands, pours a sleeping pill from the horn and puts people to sleep.
Using the example of ancient Greek religion, we see that at an early stage of social development, the idea of individual immortality did not contain something comforting among all peoples: to the Greeks it seemed like an “inevitable fate” and even a misfortune. It can be assumed that the rapid economic development of the Greek states, the class stratification of society and the struggle of classes did not have time to be reflected in religion in a relatively short historical period, and the views on the “future life” of the ancient Greeks had not yet fully developed. But the priests, who expressed the interests of the ruling classes, used and developed existing ideas, extracting income from them and frightening the masses. At the so-called Eleusinian sacraments, for example, an image of a sepulchral kingdom of shadows was shown, from where the sounds of sobs were heard and the ringing of chains was heard - these were the tormented souls of the dead, tormented by eternal suffering and remorse.
Other mysteries, called Orphic, consisted in the fact that the priests communicated to the “initiates” mysterious rituals and the doctrine of the afterlife, allegedly brought from the underworld by Orpheus himself. The priests taught that the performance of Orphic rites would ensure those initiated into these mysteries a blissful life beyond the grave.
Thus, in Greece, ideas about the afterlife as reward for earthly deeds were just beginning to take shape.
The inquisitive mind of the ancient Greeks persistently penetrated into the secrets of nature, which became increasingly difficult to explain by the “otherworldly” world. The development of trade, crafts, and navigation moved science forward, gave birth to brave scientists, great thinkers and atheists who, with their freethinking and materialistic teaching, destroyed faith in the supernatural. Greek historian and geographer Hecataeus of Miletus, who lived at the end of the 6th and beginning of the 5th century. BC, tried to critically reconsider ancient beliefs. So, he decided to explore the cave, which in myths was told that it led to the underworld to his terrible lord Hades and that it was from here that Hercules pulled the hellish dog Cerberus from the underworld to earth, with a dragon or snake instead of a tail. “I,” Hecataeus later wrote, “was in this place myself and descended underground. The cave is shallow. Most likely, it happened like this: a snake lived in this cave, and it bit people, like all poisonous snakes. In the darkness, people mistook the snake for the tail of a dog. And since the snake’s venom was fatal, it was called the hellish dog Cerberus. Hercules really descended, only not into hell, but into a cave. He saw a snake, caught it and brought this “dog” into the light. Then a legend arose that Hercules descended into hell and brought out Cerberus, who had a snake instead of a tail.”
The greatest materialist of antiquity, Democritus (460-370 BC), in his essay “On the Afterlife,” ridiculed belief in the afterlife as “false fables about what will happen after death,” arguing that “the soul is mortal, it is destroyed along with the body." “Many people do not know that the human body disintegrates into atoms,” Democritus taught, “but these people remember bad deeds behind them, and therefore spend their whole lives in anxiety, fear and torment, believing false fairy tales about the afterlife.”
There is a legend that when Democritus was in the cemetery, where he loved to spend time, some jokers decided to scare him by wrapping themselves in dark cloaks and posing as the dead emerging from their graves. “Stop fooling around,” said Democritus. “You will not frighten someone who knows for sure that if someone is dead, then he is dead and, therefore, cannot get up.”
With the division of society into antagonistic classes, other reasons for religious belief in an afterlife appear. In an exploitative society, in addition to the spontaneous forces of nature, people are also dominated by the forces of a given social system, they experience economic and social oppression. The vast majority of society is in an oppressed position. The feeling of helplessness and powerlessness before nature, although it remains, is now receding into the background; fear arises of the incomprehensible laws of spontaneously formed social relations, about which incorrect, fantastic ideas are created. The oppressed working masses feel defenseless before the blind, inevitable and as if established from above force of social development, which, acting inexorably and mercilessly, makes some slaves, others - slave owners, some - poor workers, others - rich parasites. The main root of religion in a class society and the main reason for belief in an afterlife, and better than earthly life in the “other world”, is social oppression, the unbearable, hopeless situation of the working classes, their seeming helplessness in the fight against the exploiters, hunger, poverty, lack of rights, uncertainty about the future.
Downtrodden and forced laborers, unable to throw off the oppression of the exploiters and rebuild social orders, despairing of finding a real path to salvation, sought illusory oblivion and consolation in anticipation of a future afterlife, hoping at least in the “other world” to receive a reward for their suffering.
“The powerlessness of the exploited classes in the fight against the exploiters just as inevitably gives rise to faith in a better afterlife, just as the powerlessness of the savage in the fight against nature gives rise to faith in gods, devils, miracles, etc.”
These Leninist lines from the wonderful article “Socialism and Religion” reveal the social roots of the working people’s dream of posthumous bliss and heavenly reward.
The developing slave system, supporting religious views on the “otherworldly” world, began to use them as a consolation for enslaved and suffering people, which is especially clearly seen in the example of Egypt. In an exploitative society, a belief in afterlife reward and retribution for earthly deeds begins to develop; concepts of afterlife reward and punishment are developed that are completely alien to people of pre-class society. The oppressors sought not only to suppress the slave, but also to “comfort” him with faith in happiness after death, distracting him from difficult thoughts about his fate on earth and attempts at class struggle. The deceived and robbed working masses were imposed with a cheap hope of “eternal life” and “heavenly bliss” in paradise, for the sake of which they had to put up with their share of being exploited, endure and expect rewards for submission and obedience. The reactionary belief in an afterlife was zealously propagated and developed by the church, which helped the ruling classes to oppress the people and stupefy their consciousness.
From the book God Speaks (Textbook of Religion) author Antonov Vladimir“THE CAVES OF ANCIENT PEOPLES” by Lobzang Rampa Westerners have only two questions: can you prove it? and what will I get from this? Listen to the voices of our souls. This world is a world of illusions; life on Earth is a test so that we can be cleansed of everything unclean. Listen
From the book Afterlife author Fomin A VPETTION OF THOSE ON EARTH FOR THOSE WHO HAVE PASSED ON TO THE AFTERWORLD Everything has its own custom, a reason; there is no action without a reason. If we are sure that they will not accept our offering, that they will resolutely refuse our request, then will we ask? No! It is truth. Hence,
From the book Instructions for Immortals or what to do if you still die... author Sysoev DaniilThe afterlife, ordeals, examples of saints. The Guardian Angel, of course, meets a person after death. The Christian is greeted by two Angels: the Guardian Angel and the Guide Angel. They lead a person to the afterlife. He is also greeted by at least two evil spirits:
From the book Kingdom of the Dead [Rites and Cults of the Ancient Egyptians] author Budge Ernest Alfred Wallis From the book Ancient Scandinavians. Sons of the northern gods author Davidson Hilda Ellis From the book The Illusion of Immortality by Lamont Corliss From the book The Afterlife According to Old Russian Concepts by Sokolov From the book Afterlife author Osipov Alexey IlyichUnderstanding of death among ancient peoples So, what is death? All nations have thought about this. All religions talk about this. True, each in its own way. If we turn to pre-Christian history, we will see many different options for describing the afterlife. But you need to immediately
From the book Magic, Occultism, Christianity: from books, lectures and conversations author Men AlexanderFATE AND THE AFTERWORLD OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS From the book “Magism and Monotheism”<…>The greatest world-historical significance of the Zeus religion lay primarily in the proclamation of the primacy of Light, Reason and Harmony over Darkness, Irrationality and Chaos. In this regard
From the book Evidence of the Existence of Hell. Testimonies from survivors author Fomin Alexey V.The afterlife messenger In 1831, on February 28, Infantry General Stepan Stepanovich Apraksin died in Moscow. In his young years, he briefly met Prince Vasily Vladimirovich Dolgorukov. Both of them served in the same regiment: the first with the rank of colonel, the second - major.
From the book of the Deities of the Ancient Slavs author Famintsyn Alexander SergeevichIII. Fundamentals of the religious worldview of the ancient Aryans of Iran and India, the ancient Greeks and Pelasgians, the ancient Italians and the peoples of the Lithuanian tribe The first, most important reason for the poetic and musical creativity of each people, especially in its infancy
From the book Difficult Pages of the Bible. Old Testament author Galbiati EnricoThe afterlife in the ancient books of the Old Testament 86. Researchers of the history of religions know that all nations knew that the soul survives the body after its death. Naturally, everyone speculated about the state of souls in the afterlife and believed that the conditions of the afterlife
From the book The Explanatory Bible. Old Testament and New Testament author Lopukhin Alexander PavlovichVI Descendants of Noah. Genealogy of peoples. Pandemonium of Babylon and the scattering of nations. The beginning of idolatry After the flood, everyday life began again, with its usual worries and labors. Noah was an example of piety, hard work and other virtues for his children. But
From the book General History of the World's Religions author Karamazov Voldemar DanilovichIn different cultures there are many quite different descriptions of the Other World, but they are all united by one fact - they exist. Differences in the description of the afterlife among different peoples are, as a rule, due to other factors such as the culturally isolated development of a specific group of people, because Social life leaves a rather large imprint on spiritual life.
First, let's look at the dying process itself. What happens to the soul after the death of the physical body.
If we take as a basis the theory of reincarnation, the rebirth of the soul after death, then the process of dying and subsequent rebirth does not have a clear time frame, it is extended in time (if in the conditions of multidimensional space one can somehow judge time at all).
After the break of the so-called “silver thread”, a conventional concept symbolizing a certain connecting link between human bodies, consciousness (the very true Self that we are) moves from the physical plane that is familiar to our perception to the etheric plane - into the world of ghosts, forms and " "rough" energies. On average, the soul can remain in this state for 9 days (if there are no other factors holding it back), and it is during this period that we can observe those same ghosts in the form of hazy figures, exactly repeating the features of deceased people.
Then, when the stock of accumulated energy runs out, consciousness moves “higher” - to the astral plane - into the world of images, dreams and energies of a higher “higher” frequency, where it stays for an average of 40 days. After which the soul (mental body) leaves the astral plane and “leaves” further - either transforms and goes to one of the parallel worlds (Heaven, Hell, etc., which we already talked about earlier), or is reborn on Earth in a new body and with new tasks. At the same time, option 1 is rather an exception to the rule; usually, almost all of us are waiting for a new birth.
But how then is it possible to evoke a spirit if a person has died a long time ago, and his soul has been reborn? This is where the very incident of multidimensionality lies: on the astral plane, where time is the same coordinate as latitude and longitude, the astral body of the deceased does not dissolve in space like the physical and etheric body, but is preserved in the form of a kind of imprint of consciousness - a backup copy of the consciousness of the deceased a person who has retained all the traits of his personality and the baggage of accumulated knowledge. It is with this astral cast - a phantom - that mediums come into contact.
While the soul reincarnates over and over again, gaining new experience and acquiring new karma (new characteristics of the mental body and new experience that allows it to leave the chain of reincarnations and move to a different qualitative level in the form of an angel or demon (relatively speaking)), it can retain dozens and hundreds of such phantoms, just as we can store discs on a shelf with films we have already watched.
That “shelf with disks” - the area of the astral plane, which is called the worlds of the afterlife, may differ for each phantom depending on how active the personality of the deceased was. Talented writers and scientists, for example, continue to create after death. This is also significantly influenced by how famous a person was during his lifetime, because... the memory of the living is a good source of energy for the dead (hence the commemoration rituals that exist in all religions, designed to improve the life of the deceased in the next world). Those who have not managed to distinguish themselves in anything (slaves, children, drunkards, etc.) simply fall into a kind of suspended animation, and bringing such a spirit into contact may not be so easy even for a qualified necromancer.
Speaking about the differences in the conditions of an astral phantom’s stay in the afterlife, I would also like to note that “comfort” largely depends on the lifetime preferences of the deceased. If, for example, he really loved to eat deliciously and have fun, then he is unlikely to be happy there if he cannot give up base desires. In the world of the dead there is no food or alcohol (except for those used in funeral rites). It is this fact that allows us to look at the 7 “deadly sins” from a slightly different angle: vanity, envy, anger, despondency, greed, gluttony, fornication - all this has no place in the world of the dead.
Over thousands of years of development of our civilization, different beliefs and religions have arisen. And every religion, in one form or another, has formulated the idea of life after death. Ideas about the afterlife differ greatly, however, there is one thing in common: death is not the absolute end of human existence, and life (soul, stream of consciousness) continues to exist after the death of the physical body. Here are 15 religions from different parts of the world and their ideas about life after death.
The most ancient ideas about the afterlife had no division: all dead people go to the same place, regardless of who they were on Earth. The first attempts to connect the afterlife with retribution are recorded in the Egyptian “Book of the Dead,” associated with the afterlife judgment of Osiris.
In ancient times there was no clear idea of heaven and hell. The ancient Greeks believed that after death the soul leaves the body and goes to the dark kingdom of Hades. There her existence continues, rather bleak. Souls wander along the shores of Lethe, they have no joy, they are sad and complain about the evil fate that deprived them of sunlight and the delights of earthly life. The gloomy kingdom of Hades was hated by all living things. Hades seemed to be a terrible, ferocious beast that never lets go of its prey. Only the bravest heroes and demigods could descend into the dark kingdom and return from there to the world of the living.
The ancient Greeks were as cheerful as children. But any mention of death caused sadness: after death, the soul will never know joy or see the life-giving light. She will only moan in despair from the joyless submission to fate and the unchanging order of things. Only initiates found bliss in communication with the celestials, and for everyone else after death only suffering awaited.
This religion is approximately 300 years older than Christianity and today has a number of followers in Greece and other parts of the world. Unlike most other religions on the planet, Epicureanism believes in many gods, but none of them pays attention to what human beings become after death. Believers believe that everything, including their gods and souls, is made of atoms. In addition, according to Epicureanism, there is no life after death, nothing like reincarnation, going to hell or heaven - nothing at all. When a person dies, in their opinion, the soul also dissolves and turns into nothing. Just the end!
The Baha'i religion has gathered approximately seven million people under its banner. Baha'is believe that the human soul is eternal and beautiful, and every person must work on himself to get closer to God. Unlike most other religions, which have their own god or prophet, Baha'is believe in one God for all religions in the world. According to Bahá'ís, there is no heaven and hell, and most other religions make the mistake of considering them to be physical places when they should be seen symbolically.
The Bahá'í attitude towards death is characterized by optimism. Bahá’u’lláh says: “O son of the Most High! I have made death a harbinger of joy for you. Why are you sad? I commanded the light to pour its radiance on you. Why are you hiding?”
Approximately 4 million followers of Jainism believe in the existence of many gods and the reincarnation of souls. In Jainism, the main thing is not to harm all living things, the goal is to obtain the maximum amount of good karma, which is achieved through good deeds. Good karma will help the soul to free itself, and a person to become a deva (deity) in the next life.
People who do not achieve liberation continue to cycle through the cycle of rebirth, and with bad karma, some may even go through the eight circles of hell and suffering. The eight circles of hell become more severe with each successive stage, and the soul goes through trials and even torture before receiving another opportunity for reincarnation, and another chance to achieve liberation. Although it may take a very long time, the liberated souls are given a place among the gods.
Shintoism (神道 Shinto - “way of the gods”) is a traditional religion in Japan, based on the animistic beliefs of the ancient Japanese, the objects of worship are numerous deities and spirits of the dead.
The strange thing about Shinto is that believers cannot publicly admit that they are adherents of this religion. According to some old Japanese Shinto legends, the dead go to a dark underground place called Yomi, where a river separates the dead from the living. It's a lot like the Greek Hades, isn't it? Shintoists have an extremely negative attitude towards death and dead flesh. In Japanese, the verb "shinu" (to die) is considered obscene and is used only when absolutely necessary.
Followers of this religion believe in ancient gods and spirits called "kami". Shintoists believe that some people can become kami after they die. According to Shinto, people are pure by nature and can maintain their purity by staying away from evil and going through some purification rituals. The main spiritual principle of Shinto is living in harmony with nature and people. According to Shinto beliefs, the world is a single natural environment where kami, people and the souls of the dead live side by side. Shinto temples, by the way, are always organically integrated into the natural landscape (pictured is the “floating” torii of Itsukushima Temple in Miyajima).
In most Indian religions, it is a common idea that after death a person's soul is reborn into a new body. The transmigration of souls (reincarnation) occurs at the will of a higher world order and almost does not depend on a person. But everyone has the power to influence this order and improve the conditions of existence of the soul in the next life in a righteous way. One collection of sacred hymns describes how the soul enters the mother's womb only after traveling for a long time throughout the world. The eternal soul is reborn again and again - not only in the bodies of animals and people, but also in plants, water and everything that is created. Moreover, her choice of the physical body is determined by the desires of the soul. So every follower of Hinduism can “order” who he would like to be reincarnated as in his next life.
Everyone is familiar with the concepts of yin and yang, a very popular concept that all followers of Chinese traditional religion adhere to. Yin is negative, dark, feminine, while yang is positive, bright and masculine. The interaction of yin and yang greatly influences the fate of all entities and things. Those who live according to traditional Chinese religion believe in a peaceful life after death, however, one can achieve more by performing certain rituals and paying special honor to ancestors. After death, the god Cheng Huang determines whether a person was virtuous enough to go to the immortal gods and live in Buddhist heaven, or whether he is heading to hell, where immediate rebirth and a new incarnation follows.
Sikhism is one of the most popular religions in India (approximately 25 million followers). Sikhism (ਸਿੱਖੀ) is a monotheistic religion founded in Punjab by Guru Nanak in 1500. Sikhs believe in One God, the Almighty and All-pervading Creator. No one knows his real name. The form of worship of God in Sikhism is meditation. No other deities, demons, spirits, according to the Sikh religion, are worthy of worship.
The Sikhs resolve the question of what will happen to a person after death this way: they consider all ideas about heaven and hell, retribution and sins, karma and new rebirths to be incorrect. The doctrine of reward in the future life, the demands of repentance, cleansing from sins, fasting, chastity and “good deeds” - all this, from the point of view of Sikhism, is an attempt by some mortals to manipulate others. After death, a person’s soul does not go anywhere - it simply dissolves in nature and returns to the Creator. But it does not disappear, but remains, like everything that exists.
Juche is one of the newer doctrines on this list, and the state idea behind it makes it more of a socio-political ideology than a religion. Juche (주체, 主體) is a North Korean national communist state ideology developed personally by Kim Il Sung (the leader of the country in 1948-1994) as a counterweight to imported Marxism. Juche emphasizes the independence of the DPRK and fences itself off from the influence of Stalinism and Maoism, and also provides an ideological justification for the personal power of the dictator and his successors. The Constitution of the DPRK enshrines the leading role of Juche in state policy, defining it as “a worldview centered on man and revolutionary ideas aimed at realizing the independence of the masses.”
Juche adherents personally worship Comrade Kim Il Sung, the first dictator of North Korea, who rules the country as eternal president - now in the person of his son Kim Jong Il, and Kim Jong Soko, Il's wife. Juche followers believe that when they die, they go to a place where they will forever remain with their dictator-president. It is not clear whether this is heaven or hell.
Zoroastrianism (بهدین - good faith) is one of the oldest religions, originating in the revelation of the prophet Spitama Zarathustra (زرتشت, Ζωροάστρης), which he received from God - Ahura Mazda. The basis of Zarathustra's teachings is a person's free moral choice of good thoughts, good words and good deeds. They believe in Ahura Mazda - the “wise god”, a good creator, and in Zarathustra as the only prophet of Ahura Mazda, who showed humanity the path to righteousness and purity.
The teachings of Zarathustra were one of the first, ready to recognize the personal responsibility of the soul for the actions committed in earthly life. Those who choose Righteousness (Asha) will experience heavenly bliss; those who choose Lie will experience torment and self-destruction in hell. Zoroastrianism introduces the concept of posthumous judgment, which is a counting of deeds committed in life. If a person’s good deeds outweigh his bad ones by even a hair, the yazats lead the soul to the House of Songs. If evil deeds outweigh the soul, the soul is dragged to hell by the deva Vizaresha (the deva of death). The concept of the Chinwad Bridge leading to Garodmana over a hellish abyss is also common. For the righteous it becomes wide and comfortable; for sinners it turns into a sharp blade from which they fall into hell.
In Islam, earthly life is only a preparation for the eternal path, and after that the main part of it begins - Akhiret - or the afterlife. From the very moment of death, Akhiret is significantly influenced by a person’s lifetime deeds. If a person was a sinner during his lifetime, his death will be difficult, but a righteous person will die painlessly. Islam also has the idea of a posthumous judgment. Two angels - Munkar and Nakir - interrogate and punish the dead in their graves. After this, the soul begins to prepare for the last and main Fair Judgment - the Judgment of Allah, which will happen only after the end of the world.
“The Almighty made this world a habitat for man, a “laboratory” for testing the souls of people for loyalty to the Creator. He who believes in Allah and His Messenger Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) must also believe in the coming of the End of the World and the Day of Judgment, for the Almighty speaks about this in the Koran.”
The most famous aspect of Aztec religion is human sacrifice. The Aztecs revered the highest balance: in their opinion, life would not be possible without offering sacrificial blood to the forces of life and fertility. In their myths, the gods sacrificed themselves so that the sun they created could move along its path. The return of children to the gods of water and fertility (sacrifice of infants and sometimes children under 13 years of age) was considered payment for their gifts - abundant rains and harvests. In addition to the “blood sacrifice,” death itself was also a means of maintaining balance.
The rebirth of the body and the fate of the soul in the afterlife depend largely on the social role and cause of death of the deceased (unlike Western beliefs, where only a person’s personal behavior determines his life after death).
People who succumb to illness or old age end up in Mictlan, the dark underworld where the god of death, Mictlantecuhtli, and his wife Mictlancihuatl rule. In preparation for this journey, the dead man was swaddled and tied with a bundle containing various gifts to the god of death, and then cremated along with a dog, which was supposed to serve as a guide through the underworld. After passing through many dangers, the soul reached the gloomy, soot-filled Mictlan, from where there is no return. In addition to Mictlan, there was another afterlife - Tlaloc, which belonged to the god of rain and water. This place is reserved for those who have died from lightning, drowning or certain painful diseases. In addition, the Aztecs believed in heaven: only the most valiant warriors went there, who lived and died as heroes.
This is the youngest and most cheerful of all the religions on this list. No sacrifices, just dreadlocks and Bob Marley! Rastafari followers are growing in number, especially among communities that grow marijuana. Rastafarianism originated in Jamaica in 1930. According to this religion, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was once God incarnate, a claim that his death in 1975 did not disprove. Rastas believe that all believers will be immortal after going through several reincarnations, and the Garden of Eden, by the way, in their opinion, is not in heaven, but in Africa. Looks like they have great grass!
The main goal in Buddhism is to free yourself from the chain of suffering and the illusion of rebirth and go into metaphysical non-existence - nirvana. Unlike Hinduism or Jainism, Buddhism does not recognize the transmigration of souls as such. It only talks about the journey of various states of human consciousness through several worlds of samsara. And death in this sense is just a transition from one place to another, the outcome of which is influenced by deeds (karma).
The two largest world religions (Christianity and Islam) have many similar views on life after death. Christianity completely rejected the idea of reincarnation, about which a special decree was issued at the Second Council of Constantinople.
Eternal life begins after death. The soul passes to another world on the third day after burial, where it then prepares for the Last Judgment. No sinner can escape God's punishment. After death he goes to hell.
In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church introduced a provision about purgatory - a temporary place of residence for sinners, through which the soul can be cleansed and then go to heaven.
