Question: How do you feel about preserving the body after death?

Sri Chinmoy: There is no purpose to it when the soul leaves the body. It is up to the soul to leave any fragment of its existence in the body. When the tenant of an apartment goes away, he can take everything away from his apartment, and again he can leave some expensive things that he feels he does not need. If the soul wants to leave a portion, an iota of its infinite wealth in the body, then it can. But the soul usually does not do this; it thinks that since the house is broken, there is no use in keeping something very valuable there. If I know that I am giving up my apartment, and I am not only giving it up, but smashing it, then the game is over. If the soul does want to leave something, then usually it is only for five or six months.

It may happen that some spiritual Masters will leave light. But again, the Masters may say, "What is the use of it? We have stopped playing the earthly game." It depends entirely on the soul. Only I wish to say that by keeping the body of a realised person on earth for six months, you cannot make others realise God. A Master stays on earth for forty or fifty years. If his physical presence on earth cannot make somebody realise God, then what can a little light accomplish in the body six or eight months after death?

No miracle on earth will help any human being realise God. Miracles the Christ did, but it is not because of his miracles that the world is appreciating and admiring and worshipping him. If you think that it is just because he came back after his death that the world is appreciating him, you are absolutely wrong. He came to the world with the message of Compassion, Peace and Love in infinite measure. He is being worshipped by the world not because of his miracles, but because of his Peace, Light and Compassion, because of the Reality that he embodied, that he still embodies and will eternally embody.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Reincarnation and evolution, Agni Press, 1977
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/re