Conscious Death Experience

We all live in constant fear of death. We are ready to escape it at all cost. Death is seen upon as our greatest enemy.

A small story about Socrates, the Greek philosopher:

Socrates was killed by being forced to drink the juice of the poisonous herb called hemlock.

Just before he drank the poison, one of his disciples asked him, 'Master, are you not afraid of dying? You appear to be so calm.' Socrates replied, 'Why should I be? I know that only two things can happen after death. Either I will continue to exist, in some other form or name, or I will cease to exist after death. In the first case, there is nothing to worry about. In the second case, who will remain to worry? So either way, there is nothing to fear!'

Socrates was fearless of death purely because he had a clear understanding of death and its consequences. Death is always looked upon as a 'discontinuity' and that is why people suffer when they see death.

Death is never a discontinuity. It is either continuity in some other form, or simply liberation, that's all. When man understands this, he will realize how foolish it is to suffer on this account.

Man is very attached to the physical form and that is why he suffers so much. The body is a mere vehicle for the soul. This has to be understood very clearly.

Although the only certain thing on planet earth for man is death, he is always taken by surprise when it actually happens! This is the most surprising thing about man.

Death is never a discontinuity. It is either continuity in some other form, or simply liberation.

A small story:

A lady was celebrating her 100th birthday. Her entire family was there for the occasion. They were opening all the gifts and reading all the cards that had been received from family and friends.

They showed the lady one card that had been sent by her 94-year old friend.

The lady shrieked, 'God! She is still alive!'

We are able to apply death to everyone else except us! Everything in life we are prepared for except our own death. The irony is, everything in life is so unpredictable except death. The only certain thing in life is death. But the last thing we would like to be told is that sooner or later we are going to die!

Bhagwan Ramana Maharshi, the enlightened master from Bharat, became enlightened through a conscious experience of death.

When Ramana was a young boy, one day he was just lying on his bed in his uncle's house in Madurai in South Bharat.

Suddenly he got the feeling that he was going to die! He felt that death was coming upon him.

He had two choices – either to resist the feeling, or to accept it and go through it.

Usually people resist, so they pass into coma and leave the body in a state of unconsciousness.

99% of us leave the body in a state of unconsciousness.

Though we know from the moment of birth that our life will culminate in death, we never try to visualize it. We never try to actualize the possibility; we never try to welcome it. At least once if you go through it with consciousness, you will lose your fear for it automatically.

Ramana was courageous enough to choose the second path. He co-operated with the feeling.

He allowed death to happen. He decided to see what would happen during death.

He saw clearly one by one, the parts of his body dying.

Slowly, his whole body was dead. He saw his body turn into ashes.

Suddenly he realized that something remained even after that; something which cannot be destroyed. He suddenly realized that he was pure consciousness, beyond the body and mind. He was simply a witness to his own death!

That knowledge was tremendous and it never left him and when he came back into his body, he was Bhagwan Ramana Maharshi – an enlightened master.

When you conquer the fear of death, you conquer death itself, because death is just one more imagination! Just like how our greed makes us imagine the world to be more beautiful than it actually is, here our fear makes us imagine death to be more frightening than it actually is.

We wear glasses of greed and fear, which do not allow us to see reality. When you experience death psychologically, you release the energy that has been locked in the fear energy center called the swadhishtana chakra in your body, which is located two inches below the navel center. When this energy center is activated, the whole quality of your life changes.

Because of your capacity to accept death as just a continuity in another form, your capacity to enjoy life is transformed. Your whole body relaxes; your consciousness expands; your living capacity expands. By understanding death and fear of death,

your life will turn out to be rich; not wealthy maybe, but rich. Richness is what is really important in life.

But if I tell you all this now, you will not believe me. You will think that I am talking about impractical things.

A small story:

A man who had been born blind was promised a cure by a doctor.

The doctor assured the man, 'After this operation, you will get your vision back! You won't need to use your stick anymore!'

Hearing this, the blind man became afraid. He said, 'Doctor, I understand that I will get my vision back. But how can I possibly walk without my stick?'

The stick had become such an integral part of the blind man that he could not even understand that he would be able to walk without the stick! How can you explain to a blind man that once he gains his vision, he simply won't need the stick? Right now he is too afraid. So all you can do is, perform the operation, and let him see for himself, that's all. He will throw away the stick on his own!

In the same way, even if I tell you that all your

fears are only the ultimate fear of death, and that your self is immortal, that it is only your body which perishes, you will still hold onto your own ideas of fear, because you haven't experienced it.

Unless death becomes a conscious experience, the fear will never leave you. But you can do one thing. Repeatedly listen to these words. Develop a conviction about them. Try to see how your minor and major fears are actually related to the fear of dying. Bring some clarity into all your day-to-day fears. See how interrelated all your fears are. Bring awareness into your fears. Then you will steadily evolve and come closer to the truth.