First of all, it is important to understand as to what is death; and for that, you must at first try to find out as to who it is that was born, who it is that is living now, and who it is that will die one day. If you think properly, you will begin to understand that it is your body that was born as an infant; and it is your body that was nourished and has grown, to enable you to work, do your duties, and to carry out your responsibilities on earth.

It is your body that enables you to carry out your mission on earth purposefully, and then when it becomes old and worn out, it is the body dies, that gets cremated or buried, as per custom. The real you, that is the ‘Jeevatma’, is a witness to all these happenings. So, understand that what happens to your body is not what happens to you – the ‘Jeevatma’ which has come to earth to fulfil its purpose on earth. So, nothing really happens to you, you – by which is meant. the ‘Jeevatma’ goes on living forever, and the truth is: “No one really dies”.

According to the Vedanta scriptures, every being is an individual soul or ‘Jeevatma’, and therefore all are spiritual in nature. The body is the outer covering worn by the jeevatma, and it is a temporary covering like the changing clothes worn by the body. The body eventually gets old and dies, but the ‘Jeevatma’ is eternal and upon death of the temporary body, merges with the ‘Paramatma’. After death, if the jeevatma has unfinished karmas or purpose on earth, then it reincarnates, taking birth in another physical body or form.