Death is frightening for all of us. But those who look straight into the face of death are not intimidated. The daredevils of various shows and tricks look directly into the face of death. It has been observed by doctors and scientists that patients who are fearless of death and recover faster than those who are petrified of dying. But why do we feel afraid of one of the natural stage and processes of life?
The answer is that leave alone mastering, we have not yet thought of learning how to die peacefully without any regrets?
And who can die peacefully?- The yogis. The spiritual explorers and philosophers in ancient India delved into the mysteries of death and dying in the same manner as one observes life and birth in nature. It was looked upon as culmination of one complete life. The process of dying is a natural one unless intervened by karmic compulsion and resulting in untimely accidental deaths. If we have lived our current life very well and have done no wrong, then we shall also die well without any fear of dying, or repentance and regret.
So many people brood and think that at the moment of dying, they shall suffer. This is not true. Death is not painful; the thought of death is painful! Unfamiliarity with the knowledge of death gives birth to illogical fears. Like any other event of our life demands sufficient preparation, so does the last chapter or should I say the last page? If we prepare ourselves well before the predetermined event, in that case we shall be able to confront and tackle the situation dexterously.
So what is required of us? And how should we prepare for it?
The five senses and our mind are the main things that are totally involved with this progression; the physiological aspect follows customarily. Each man acquires his state of consciousness according to the karmas performed. As a result, the state of consciousness in any person is categorized in 7 levels. Like there are 7 chakras in a personality, there are 7 levels of consciousness abbreviated on the spinal cord hence giving that person’s mind that level of corresponding state of consciousness. The lowest three chakras are considered the lower category, the fourth chakra the midpoint and the remaining three chakras considered auspicious and favourable.
Similarly there are 7 strata or levels in the astral world from 1 to 7. Correspondingly, the lowest three worlds are considered inauspicious, the fourth gate or house the midway and the last three worlds or gates of the astral worlds are auspicious and harmonious.
Again each strata/level in the astral world is subdivided into 7 sub strata or 7 bands or 7 degrees of minor elevation. Levels are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. Sub strata-1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6 and 1.7. Then comes the second level 2 with sub strata 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3…2.7; Next is 3.0, 3.1……………… and lastly the level 7: Sub strata7.0, 7.1……………7.7.
One should lead a clean, honest, pure, generous and spiritual life. The physical, material and spiritual goals and activities should be well balanced or else we suffer in so many ways in this world as well as in the other world also.
Just above the Earth, between the surface of the Earth and eternity, there are 7 skies. After our life expires on Earth, each human being is designated a berth or tier as per his performance on the Earth life. Recall post, “What happens after we die?” The lowest plane is the place of the liars, cheats, murderers, rapists, swindlers, etc. and they are severely punished by God for their abhorrent acts. There is no redemption, but only punishment for them. How are they punished you may ask? They are punished by complete loss of peace and fearlessness. Such bad and condemned souls are always suffering mentally and are all the time restless and agitated. They lack love, compassion and are overladen with hatred, lies, jealousy, fraud, deceit and falsehood. The duration here as punishment is long and durable. They get ‘perceived mental beating’ by the supposed Yamaraj’or Death deity and they are repeatedly questioned and asked whether they will replicate their heinous crimes. The answer always is in the affirmative. Sadly these souls never regret their deplorable acts because their ego is oversized and awareness nil!
The next strata or level is of abusers, tormentors, sex obsessed, thieves, country spies, adultery doers and even the adulterators. Their condition and situation is more or less similar to level 1 people except in intensity and degrees in their karmas. They are gloated in ego and they fantasize that they are the doers and makers of everything and God’s presence does not prevail at all. Forgiveness from the Almighty God approaches very late for such downfallen souls. They get repeated births for many, many years and take extra-long to clean and refine their Spirit because of so much time that they have spent in vicious and evil actions.
The third level habitants are those who have committed suicide for some reason and are suffering mentally. The stingy people, scheming people, those fanatical about sex pleasures, petty thieves, angry people and those who do not wish to still reform themselves are pushed in this house, still quite dark and unhappy. As they had sowed, so they reap there. These three levels or houses as we may call them are full of darkness inside outside. They are for the sinners, evil doers, unrepentant, stubborn and ignorant. The duration is stretched until the soul promises to God that he/she will not do such deeds again on Earth. The tragedy is that these souls crave to return to Earth as soon as possible because of their so called vasanas or unfulfilled lust and greed and they try to even jump their parole whenever God is gracious enough.The lower three levels of the astral are jam packed and resemble extended dirty slums of Earth. There is no space, tranquillity, happiness and quietude anywhere.
The fourth strata or house is reserved for those beings, who along with prohibited karmas have also performed some virtuous karmas and there is some light, some peace in this atmosphere unlike the previous three lowest levels. Sometimes there are flashes of light in this region because of arrival of some saintly soul who arrives from the higher levels at the request of these inhabitants. However, this is not a regular feature. The beam of light is the spiritual light of the illumined being and can be seen by others as well, barring those living in the lowest three sections!
The fifth level is of the angels, dwarfs, elves, fairies and other such helpful souls. These beings are gentle and loving souls who were very kind, caring and affectionate even on Earth when they were alive. They can move from one place to another at a quick speed and they have been assigned the task of rescuing people, stopping accidents, creating an alarm by giving a buzz and thus averting mishaps, untimely deaths and unfortunate accidents to others. Basically they put things in order and thus give happiness and peace of mind to others. These souls are the blessed souls and require no penance or redemption.
The sixth level is of the ‘jeevanmukta’ souls. These are those ones who were liberated from various illusory tangles after many, many lives of penance, contemplation, good karmas and various kinds of purification means either at the end part of this life or if they were liberated even at an earlier stage of their last life, they had decided to live a reclusive life out of their own choice as they had earned spiritual ecstasy and wished to drown in it. After attaining ananda they did not wish to come in direct contact with the normal world. In this liberated category come the rishis , munis, tapasvis, maunis, sages, philosphers, some serious scientists and even poets and painters. Such souls continue doing their sadhana even in the astral world and they may or may not fall down from the elevated steps depending on their remaining dormant, hidden desires or wishes.
The seventh sky is of the ‘param mukta’ souls, the serving Masters who have been permanently liberated. They are completely freed of Maya and are not under the influence of any binding factors or mayic forces. The soul resides on a particular tier according to his/ her spiritual achievements. All these beings live here in complete harmony and divine bliss and they shall pursue further advancement as they climb up steps to gain unrelenting ecstasy and complete peace of mind. They worship God in so many forms and meditate more often than anything else and help each other in advancing on their paths.
Again like any other level there are 7 sub strata on the highest sky . Depending on their earning and spiritual attainments, some souls are on level 7.1, some on 7.2 and so on. But there is an exception here. So far except for His Holiness Shri Mahavatar Babaji, there is no soul who has crossed all the sub levels of level 7 of the highest sky and there will be no time when anyone can supersede him because he is aeons ahead of us and no soul can hasten or speed up his/her spiritual progress to catch up with him as it requires a lot of time on Earth and the astral world to earn that much wealth.
Therefore my many, many salutations to this Mahatma, the shashwat, eternal soul. Blessed are we that we are able to receive direct instructions and teachings from none other than this towering spiritual giant. He is the most humble soul I have ever come across. He is so pure, so gentle and so holy. That is why God has prohibited him from mixing with common people and he obliges God in every way by obeying him in the smallest way. In spite of having reached the epitome of all divine qualities and highest incomprehensible spiritual achievements, Mahavatar Babaji has acute compassion and love for all because he understands well how intricate and trapping is the power of God’s Maya. It deludes and traps each one of us. We all suffer because of our ignorance and he sympathizes with us by helping us all the time by delivering timely directives and messages in so many direct and understated ways.
Anyone of us who is serious about transforming himself/herself now, and wishes to make a better and purer life, here and afterwards must make immediate right positive changes in his/her life. Instead of explaining directly how should we die, a roundabout route was taken to explain how important it is for us to lead purer lives because our life does not end once the physical body casts off. There is life beyond what we see and perceive. It is important to have a strong conviction in reincarnation and life after death because only after knowing all this a person will be able to reform and he/she will be inspired to accomplish unceasing composure, poise, calmness and happiness which we all are seeking today.
So we return to the main question- how should one die?
Recall from the previous post that mind and breath are inseparable. Wherever our mind is, there will be our breath. We shall be born where our mind is. Death is cessation of breath. The last moment of a man’s life is the exhalation of a breath. The breath exits the body by any 5 openings or holes of the body. The lower 3 chakras are connected to basal desires or vasanas and correspond to greed, sex, money, hunger, survival instincts and other lower sub human qualities. When the consciousness of a person is low, the mind will be in the lower chakras and the last exhalation or exit of the prana or life force will be from the area of reproductive organs. The prana will make a small inaudible sound while departing and the person will die unwillingly. Maximum people die in this manner and they are the same people who are going to crowd the lower 3 levels in the astral world unfortunately. What they have experienced here, they will continue to feel, perceive and feel up there too!!
Some people’s life force at death terminates and leaves from the mouth. They are the ones who have done partly good karmas and partly bad karmas. Their consciousness belongs to the fourth chakra. This goes to show that their mind was little elevated than most people yet it was wandering at the time of death. Wherever the mind will be, our new birth is sure to be!
Some people after their evolution reach the fifth chakra, their level of consciousness is of higher category and the life force also leaves with ease from the mouth. Some of the people who die suddenly in accidents, in stray cases have however shown their life force terminating from ears or nose.
Holy people who have aroused their third eye or agya chakra have known to leave the body when their life force was withdrawing from the eyes.
Only those souls who have controlled their mind and senses in many lives by various techniques and have been very faithful to their spiritual masters are able to discard the body willingly and consciously from the crown of their head. The mind and all the senses are in place and in full control. When the time to leave the physical world comes, the yogi preconceives the time of his death. The relatives and all the departed arrive from the astral world to receive him and take him along with them to the other side, the true yogi waits until his/her guru arrives. He is in no hurry and waits for the guru to give directions. When the spiritual master comes, the mind is brought to the place in between the eyebrows and it does not wander or scatter. All the life force in the body is collected and diverted towards the nervous system and then siphoned out of the hole at the crown chakra very peacefully. This yogic kriya is a blessing from the guru and God for all the beautiful, sacred and blessed deeds performed on the Earth by this yogi.
In peace, serenity, forgiveness was a life lived and in tranquillity the body was returned to Mother Earth after the duties were performed gracefully.
In light was a life lived and in light that life vanished. In love was life lived, in divine love and divine bosom a life dissolved….
(A note-With this post we finish the title ‘death and dying’ in occult, rest articles will appear once I return. All the three articles should be read without a break to get the full meaning and a right picture in mind.
I am yet to revise this post thoroughly but it can be done only once I return, but you may continue to send your responses and I shall revert later. Thanks & Rgds.)