Harimedia Forum

Hi Hari,
I wanted to ask you a question. How should man die properly? I mean that for example Bhisma was waiting the moment when sun is going to north. Or Krisna in BG is saying “what man is thinking about before death there he goes”. But only ones are dying being in sane and clear consciousness. Millions are dying being mad or suffering enormous or too suddenly. Since all of us should leave this body once, I wanted to ask you to clarify this moment. Should we somehow (and how?) prepare ourselves for the death? Or it is not the matter how we die, because whether or no we will get the place where we came from (as Newton writes)?

Bhisma was a very special personality who was lying on a bed of arrows in the middle of a horrific battlefield. No one else can die as he did. Using him as an example of how to die will not assist our passing from this realm.

We are who we are and everything we have experienced in this life creates our aggregate consciousness at any given moment. We do not suddenly become someone or something else. We make gradual shifts and changes according to our experiences. Each of us die in our own way. Those who die traumatically will leave their body differently than those who die in their sleep or those who fade away on their death bed. Regardless, that aggregate of who we are does not radically change in this one moment. We continue on our path when we leave this body according to the momentum we generated in this life.

Some people express great devotion to God at their end. This is not a sudden thing. They had that feeling all along. Maybe those around them never knew it, but devotion does not suddenly appear out of nowhere, especially if there is a sudden trauma. They reach out to the one person they have always counted on throughout their lives. Other people express great fear at death and they scream for mercy from God. I cannot say if they get it or not, but who they are does not change because of their fear.

And yes, we all go where we are supposed to. No one can change that. You can get there kicking and screaming or you can go peacefully. Our options are limited to how we choose to express our last communication and how we accept what is happening to us. Eventually, we end up in the same place.

We continue on our path when we leave this body according to the momentum we generated in this life.

Well said! And it seems that shocks, challenges or radical changes in our life are good amplifiers of the momentum. As well as love and continuous thinking.

But still, if I in sane consciousness and death is inevitable (for example if I in the falling airplane), what the best thing I have to do? Or if old man is consciously going away for die, how should he prepare himself for this event? Are, for example, states from Bhagavatam useful in this case (where it says that I should dissolve elements of my body one in another and so on...)? Conscious depart this life... Please do not mean I want to suicide.

By the way, I still cannot understand clear enough, why self-murders are so condemned in all cultures? There are may be many reasons to interrupt this life before the terrible end, isn’t it?

I think that you are not phrasing this in the best way. When one is not dying, one sometimes considers death and the best way to face it, but when one is dying, your response to this trauma has nothing to do with your plan or even your desires. It is automatic and flows from your consciousness. For example, if you are totally dedicated to your deities and death seems imminent, you will naturally depend on them, communicate with them, and propel your consciousness to them. This is the organic conclusion of your consciousness that has matured during your life.

If you make a plan on how to die best, you might just do the same thing as you always did in life. If you are devoted to God during your life, you will aim for God at the time of death. If not, then you will find your consciousness mixed with whatever emotions are relevant to your desires throughout life. What you cultivate in life, you continue to grow towards in death. Zucchini seeds make zucchini plants that make zucchinis! If you plant zucchini seeds but plan to get potatoes from them, you will be disappointed. What you sew, you reap later on. There is no mystery about it.

To die best means to live as good as you can. I recommend continuing to cultivate your Godliness, your divinity, and deepen your connection to the divine beings. And when you die, you will turn to them with focused attention because you are well aware that no other personality can assist you.

Yes, you are absolutely correct. We may plan things such and such but when it happens with us in reality we often find that our plan is failed. I have one funny example. Sometimes I think that I can stand any pain or torture. But yesterday I burned my finger. Not too bad but bubble appeared and I was jumping of pain and all my self-confidence disappear in one moment! What a big difference between what we are thinking (even if we already have some experience or knolage) and what it really is!

I recommend continuing to cultivate your Godliness, your divinity, and deepen your connection to the divine beings.

Yes, I feel that I should somehow arrange my life to intensify my spiritual practice…

I recommend continuing to cultivate your Godliness, your divinity, and deepen your connection to the divine beings.

How you recommend doing this? I mean what the most effective tools or means should be used for the cultivation? What is the best way to develop devotion to God?

But that is what we do here on this site! Lectures, meditations, advice and so on. If that is not enough for you, add some other things to it!