vi 5-6 Victory Over Death—Is It Possible for You? VICTORY over death! How delightful! The very idea warms the hearts of humans. But from time immemorial it has been the other way around. Death has reigned victorious over mankind. So, how could such a reversal ever be achieved? Who could do it? Is victory over death possible for you? DEATH’S ORIGIN 2 Death is a reality. It is no fable, as our grief-stricken human family well knows. As for death’s origin, the Hindu Rig-Veda depicts Yama as the first man to die. The Rig-Veda implies that Yama is another name for the first man, and that he had a twin sister, Yami, who was the first woman. We read: “Remembering the earth and days to follow, obtain a son, the issue of his father. Yes, this the Immortals seek of thee with longing, progeny of the sole existing mortal.” (RV. 10. 1. 3)1 The Rig-Veda thus depicts Yama as “the sole existing mortal,” hence, the first man, and that it was Heaven’s will for him to beget offspring for the sake of “earth and days to follow.” 3 Regarding the introduction of death to humanity, the Rig-Veda says: “He [Yama], for God’s sake, chose death to be his portion. He chose not, for men’s good a life eternal.” (RV. 10. 13. 4) Interestingly, Yama means “cessation.”2 A fitting meaning for the one reputed to have brought cessation to eternal life on earth. 4 These Rig-Veda quotations seem to recall memories of the Bible’s earlier record of the first man and woman, and how they brought death to the human family. For example, the Bible’s account reveals that the first man and woman were closely related. As Adam said: “This is at last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” (Genesis 2:23) Also, it was God’s will for the first human pair to “be fruitful and become many and fill the earth.” (Genesis 1:28) Moreover, by his willful disobedient action, Adam, the first man, rejected life and chose death. This was not for men’s good, because it resulted in loss of eternal life for all of his descendants by God’s judgment, which was carried out by the natural law of heredity. So the Bible states: “And to Adam he said: ‘Because you listened to your wife’s voice and took to eating from the tree concerning which I gave you this command, “You must not eat from it,” cursed is the ground on your account. In pain you will eat its produce all the days of your life. In the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return.’”—Genesis 3:17, 19. 5 Explaining how the first man’s actions affected his offspring, the Bible says: “That is why, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned.” This clearly shows that death came as a punishment for disobedience to God the Creator. Disobedience to God is sin. And, “the wages sin pays is death.”—Romans 5:12; 6:23. 6 The Rig-Veda shows sin to be a violation of divine law with death as the penalty. We read: “Whatever law of thine, O God, O Varuna, as we are men, Day after day we violate, Give us not as prey to death, to be destroyed by thee in wrath.” (RV. 1. 25. 1, 2) The Vedic writers obviously felt a sense of sin and viewed death as a punishment for sin, and they tried to appease their gods by prayers and sacrifices. Many of the Rig-Veda hymns are taken up with prayers for removing sin, and with sacrifices propitiating their gods. They also made their god Varuna the upholder of moral law, apparently sensing some legal obligation toward Heaven.3
Posted on: Tue, 13 Aug 2013 00:59:08 +0000
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