GETTING CLOSE TO MARILYN MONROE COSTS $4.6 MILLION

MARILYN MONROE THE STAR OF THE CEMETERY.
A CEMETERY SPACE ABOVE HER SOLD ONLINE FOR $4.6 MILLION

LOS ANGELES (AFP) Marilyn Monroe, who has been dead 47 years, still has such cachet that the crypt above her tomb has fetched $US4.6 million. Men said that spending eternity directly above her isn’t priceless, but it’s worth more than $4.6 million. That was the winning bid when an online auction ended Monday for the crypt directly above Monroe at the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park cemetery in Los Angeles. The crypt is occupied by former Beverly Hills resident Richard Poncher, who was actually interred face-down. But his widow, Elsie, put the spot up for bid on eBay in hopes of paying off a $1.6 million mortgage. She told the Los Angeles Times she wanted to leave the property to her children “free and clear.” Richard Poncher, a businessman, who owned several companies, died 23 years ago aged 81. Richard had bought the crypt from New York Yankee great Joe DiMaggio when he was in the middle of his divorce from the blonde sex symbol in 1954.

Online bidding began at $500,000 but ended at $4,602,100. The winning bidder was unknown. According to eBay, there were 21 bids. “Here is a once in a lifetime and into eternity opportunity to spend your eternal days directly above Marilyn Monroe,” read the online auction description. The eBay.com listing says the space at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery above Monroe is being vacated, making room for someone else. The listing also offers the detail that the current occupant is "looking face down on" Monroe. Monroe was laid to rest at the cemetery in 1962. Other notables buried at the cemetery include Natalie Wood, Donna Reed, Dean Martin, Walter Matthau, Bob Crane, Jim Backus, Jack Lemmon, Rodney Dangerfield, Billy Wilder and George C. Scott.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

The material body, which is subject to birth and death, diseases and old age, is the cause of all sufferings of the living being, otherwise the living being is eternal; he is never born, nor does he ever die. Foolish persons forget this problem.

Srila A.C. BV Swami Prabhupada:
"The Srimad Bhagavatam - Purport in Canto 1 - Chapter 13 - Verse 17"

The misunderstanding of the conditioned soul is the bodily conception of life. The body is material, but within the body is the soul. This is spiritual understanding. Unfortunately, one who is in ignorance, under the spell of material illusion, accepts the body to be the self. He cannot understand that the body is matter. ... "As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change." (Bg. 2.13) We are not the body; we are spiritual beings trapped in the body. Our real interest lies in understanding this simple fact. Then we can make further spiritual progress. Otherwise, if we remain in the bodily conception of life, our miserable material existence will continue forever.

Srila A.C. BV Swami Prabhupada:
"The Srimad Bhagavatam - Purport in Canto 6 - Chapter 15 - Verse 3"