The Last Ritual Reading from Bhagavas Gita: II.

7-30 For those that believe in rebirth, then this ritual marks the transition from on e life and another. May .............obtain a good rebirth as a human being the greatest part of all manifest beings possessing the consciousness to penetrate the mysteries of exis tence and the ability to obtain perfect equipoise, ecstasy and eternity. Rise up ..............and be not afraid one. You who stand in limbo between the worlds, between life and death; afraid to go on lest terrible things befall you when your spirit leaves this body and travels through unknown regions. For the Blessed One has said You sorrow for things which do not need your sorrow and [yet] speak words that [ in part] are wise. Wise men do not sorrow for the living or the dead. [For] Never was there a time when I was not, not you, nor yet these princes, nor will there be a time when we shall cease to be,-- all of us hereafter. Just as in this body the embodied [self] must pass through childhood, youth and old age, so too [at death] will it assume another body; in this a thoughtful man is not perplexed. But contacts with the objects of sense give rise to heat and cold, pleasure and pain: they come and go, impermanent. Put up with them [then], Wise One! Of what is not there is no becoming: of what is there is no casing to be: for th e boundary between these two is seen by men who see things as they really are. Yes. Indestructible [alone] is That,--know this,--by which this whole universe w as spun: no one can bring destruction on that which does not pass away. [As a spider emits As plants grove up As hair [grows] on So does everything and re-absorbs [its threads] upon the earth, the body and head of a living person, on earth arise from [this] Imperishable [thing]

Finite, they say. are these [our bodies] [indwelt] by an eternal embodied [self] ,--[for this self is] indestructible, incommensurable. Fight then, brave ones. Who thinks this [self] can be a slayer, who thinks that it can be slain, both ha ve no [right] knowledge: it does not slay not is it slain. Never is it born, nor dies; never did it come to be nor will it ever come to be again: unborn, eternal, everlasting is the [self]-- primeval. It is not slain wh en the body is slain. If a person knows is as indestructible, eternal, unborn, never to pass away, how and whom can he cause to be slain or slay? As one casts off worn out clothes and takes on other new ones, so does the embod ied [self] cast off worn-out bodies and enters other new ones. Weapons do not cu t it not does fire burn it, the waters do not wet, nor does the wind dry it. Uncuttable, unburnable, firm-set, unmoved, primeval. Unmanifest, unthinkable, immutable it is called: then realize it thus and do not grieve [about it] And even if you think that it is constantly [re]born and constantly dies, even s o you grieve in vain. For sure is the death of all that is born, sure is the birth of all that dies: s o in the mater that no one can prevent you have no cause to grieve.

By a rare privilege may someone behold it, and by a rare privilege indeed may an other tell of it, and by a rare privilege may such another hear it, even so ther e is none that really knows it. Never can this embodied [self] be slain in the body of anyone [at all]; and so y ou have no need to grieve for any contingent being. Musick Ewen McColl 'Joy of Life'