39. Deities and enlightened masters – your paths to exhausting *karma*

There is a way to again and again remind ourselves not to collect karma and to live without the influence of the earlier incurred karma. The first step is to have a clear understanding that karma is powerless in the presence of an elevated consciousness.

There is an important difference between normal human beings and enlightened masters. A normal person does not have the ability to make his body alive out of his will. His body is either alive or it is dead, that's all. It is not under his control.

But for an enlightened person, it is under his control. He can either make his body alive, or relax. Because of this ability, he can also make another body alive! When an enlightened being chooses to make a stone or metal alive, that stone or metal becomes a representation of his very self.

All the deities in our major traditional temples are energized by enlightened masters. Masters like Arunagiri Yogeeshwara* from Tiruvannamalai * , Patanjali from Chidambaram* , Karurar* from Thanjavur * , Konganavar * from Tirupati* and Meenakshi* from Madurai* have energized the deities in these temples.

Deities are therefore considered to be the very bodies of the enlightened masters. Disciples continue serving the deities even after the masters leave their physical body. The body of the deity is considered to be the body of the master himself. That is the reason why the deities receive the same respect offered to an enlightened master.

For example, all the disciples initiated by Arunagiri Yogeeshwara* will worship the Arunachala temple for generations together. You will see that whatever is offered to the master will be offered to the deity also.

Masters, even after they decide to leave the body, are continuously available to the disciples through the deities that they energized. For example, even during my lifetime, my physical presence is not possible everywhere at the same time. So these deities are programmed to do my work where I am physically not present! They are my representatives!

Arunagiri Yogeeshwara - The temple of Arunachaleswara in Tiruvannamalai is built on the living energy tomb of Arunagiri Yogeeshwara, who is considered an incarnation of enlightened master Shiva.

Tiruvannamalai - Temple town in south India where Nithyananda was born and raised.

Chidambaram - A place in South India famous for its ancient temple dedicated to enlightened master Shiva in his dancing form as Nataraja and where he is represented as the space energy.

Karurar - South Indian mystic saint upon whose immortal remains, the temple at Thanjavur is believed to have been built.

Thanjavur - Town in South India famous for its massive temple, learning and cultural heritage.

Konganavar - Hindu saint and disciple of Bogar, upon whose immortal remains, Tirupati temple is said to have been built.

Tirupati - Famous temple to Vishnu as Venkateshwara or Balaji in Andhra Pradesh, South India.

Meenakshi - The goddess at Madurai in south India. She is said to be a saint upon whose immortal remains, the temple has been built.

Madurai - Temple town in South India. A major pilgrim center with the temple to Meenakshi and her consort Sundareshwara, an aspect of enlightened master Shiva.

The deities possess independent intelligence. Energizing the deities is a big process. It is like giving birth to a child. These energized deities will directly respond to your prayers. They will directly relate with you if you are open in relating with them.

If you see our puja* and our ashram* routine, you will see that in the morning, they play the wakeup song to wake up the presiding deity. Then they give a small cup of oil for His hair and a small cup of tooth powder for Him to brush His teeth! Then, they give Him a bath and offer fresh, ironed clothes, just like how they offer to the master. They offer food and perform the evening arati* . In the night, they put the deity to bed again in a ceremonious way.

Understand, all this does not add anything to the deity or to the master. It adds only to us! This is what is living with god. This is what is practicing the presence of god. Practicing the presence of the master is puja* . Puja* is done every day because it is a technique to remember the presence of god every day.

Rituals

Rituals are very powerful tools. They are powerful techniques. Many people ask me, 'You are enlightened. Why should you then perform rituals?' I tell them, 'Because I am enlightened, I am teaching people exactly why and how to perform rituals!' Enlightened beings do not need any rituals for themselves.

A small story:

A man went to a hotel and started eating idlis .*

He ate eight idlis , and after the ninth idli* his hunger was satisfied. The waiter came and gave him the bill for nine idlis. The man said, 'What is this? I will pay only for one idli, the ninth idli, which satisfied my hunger! The first eight idlis did not do the job. Only the ninth one did the job of satisfying my hunger. So, I will pay only for that idli!'*

If the man had not eaten the eight idlis, would the ninth idli have satisfied his hunger? This is exactly what we do in life also. People who reject rituals are actually rejecting the first eight idlis! People who think that rituals are a waste and that they

Puja - Hindu ritual worship.

Ashram - A monastery for Hindu or Buddhist monks.

Arati - Fire ritual performed at the end of most vedic worship done with lighted lamps or camphor, accompanied often by devotional songs.

Idlis - South Indian delicacy, a rice lentil steamed dish.

can go straightaway to meditation and spiritual experiences are doing nothing but rejecting the first eight idlis.

Understand, the ninth idli worked because of the first eight idlis. If the man had not eaten the first eight idlis, the ninth idli would not have appeased his hunger. In the same way, your meditation will work because of your having gone through ritual worship sincerely! If you reject all these preliminary things and think that you can directly eat the ninth idli, will your hunger ever get satisfied?

As long as you think you have a body, you will be able to relate to the cosmic energy only through another body. Only when you lose your body consciousness can you see the Divine also as formless. Until that happens, you need some form, some reminding rituals, some deities to worship. It is good to have a ritual along with meditation so that the discipline of sitting and doing some sadhana, penance, is cultivated.

Otherwise, you will not do any penance or meditation regularly. The first day, you will think, 'Today my mother-in-law is here,' or 'I have too much work' and you will skip it. After two days, when your mother-in-law has gone or the work is done, you will think, 'Let me enjoy my vacation after saying goodbye to my mother-in-law! I don't want to do meditation today.' Or, if you are happy, you will think, 'Today I am happy, then why meditate!' Or if you are depressed, you will think, 'Today I am depressed. How can I focus on meditation!' Your mind tries to find some logic to skip meditation. But, if it is made into a ritual, you will not find any logic to skip it. You will simply do it.

Ritualistic puja - a reinforcement of clicks

Initiation

With just the help of the initiations, you can reduce the prarabdha karma's influence over you and move towards your inherent state of joy. You can reclaim your pure and unwavering inner space. You can also stop collecting agamya karma.

Initiation is the knowledge or the clicks that bring you out of these depressive thoughts, which bring you out of the influence of your prarabdha.

Puja

Puja is a ritualistic offering. Puja is nothing but an everyday remembering of all the clicks that have happened in you till date, so that the necessary click will automatically come up whenever you have a problem.

When a master teaches, it is not even a teaching, it is a powerful experience. When you do not use the initiations received through him, when you do not again and again use those shaastra-shastras* knowledge-weapons given to you by him, not only do they lose their power, you may not even be able to remember them again. This is the important thing to understand here.

For example, let us say you have a cot. If you do not use the cot for two years, the cot will not become unusable or it will not disappear. After two years, you can still use it again. But if you do not use the knowledge given to you, the initiations given to you, for two years they will not be sitting in your bedroom waiting for you to use them! No! They will simply disappear, that's all.

So how do you remind yourself every day of all the clicks that have happened in you? Every day, sitting and reminding yourself of all the clicks that happened in you is what is puja or ritual. Pujas are designed with this intent.

Automatically, everyday, whether you want it or not, when you sit for the ritual, you will remember the initiation experiences. The clicks that happened with the master will arise from within you. The ritual brings you back to pure consciousness every day. The engrams start losing their power.

When the engrams with which you were born start losing their power over you, further collection of engrams stops. When the collection stops and the existing karmas also lose their power over you, then, the person who brings you back to the superconscious zone again and again, the master, appears when you leave the body and burns your sanchita as well.

For example, if your child sits and tries very hard to build a small house, what will you do? You will say, 'Alright, do not bother. I will build it and give it to you.' In the same way, when a disciple sincerely works to remove his prarabdha and agamya, the master's grace simply happens and removes the sanchitaalso!

Understand one important issue. The master's grace that we are talking about here is not just dependent on me. If anybody sincerely does penance or meditation, then in spite of me, the grace will land on him! It is not even dependent on me. It is an automatic mechanism!

Be very clear, it is dependent just on your own receptivity, not on me. I am like an ocean, constantly available to whoever comes with whatever size vessel they wish to carry. If you come with a coconut shell, you will carry back that much of me. If

Shaastra-shastras - Scriptures as tools used for blissful living.

you come with a little bigger vessel, you will carry back that much quantity of me. If you come with a bigger container, you will carry back what that container can hold. If you are intelligent, you will simply jump into the ocean of bliss!

So initiation or puja means, reminding yourself everyday of all the initiations and all the great experiences that happened with the master and bringing yourself back to the same high consciousness repeatedly. When you are ready every day with the same high spirit, it means that you are ready for the next 24 hours of the drama of life that is going to unfold! For the next 24 hours, you have the energy required. This is the reason behind doing puja.

Meditation and consciousness – antidotes for karma

When you have had even one glimpse of pure consciousness, no karma can influence you. Your frequency becomes much more than the frequency of karma. Karma can work on you only as long as you have thoughts. In conscious awareness you go beyond thoughts. So, naturally you will start ruling over karma. Any meditation when done intensely can give you a glimpse of consciousness, the Truth.

That is why they say, meditation is like exposing your film directly to the sun. If the camera shutter opens for one second, whatever is in front of the camera will be recorded on the film. If the shutter is left completely open, what will happen? If the sun's rays directly fall on the film, what will happen? Whatever is recorded will be erased.

When you took birth, for a moment the camera shutter opened and life entered your body. Whatever was there in the scene outside at that moment was recorded. By the word 'scene', I mean the planetary positions at that moment. That is why the time of birth is very important. Based on that, your consciousness functions. However, during meditation, I consciously keep the shutter open for quite some time! So naturally, whatever is recorded will be erased!

So the first time the shutter was opened was when you took birth. The second time the shutter is opened is when you are initiated. This time the shutter is kept completely and naturally open so that the sun's rays enter and wipe out all your karma. That is why when you are initiated by a master, you are called dvija or twice born. The man who operates your camera, who holds the shutter open for that period of time, is called the guru.He is the master.

Nithyam – dhyanam – anandam

What is needed so as not to collect gathered agamya karma, is life solutions, what I call nithyam (eternal) because you practice them daily. To dissolve the karma of this birth, you need meditation or dhyanam. That is why you see that most of our meditations are based on breathing. Altering the breathing, making it fast, slow, silent etc, is what our meditation techniques are all about. The only thing that can dissolve the total karma is the master's grace or anandam (bliss).

So understand, karma is simply the effects of thoughts, words and deeds that stem from deep ignorance and cause you to again and again tread familiar patterns of misery. The way to break this cycle is to tune into the clicks received from the master and live in an elevated zone of consciousness.

Myths on karma

Q: Will we contract another person's karma when they give advice, or touch them? How vulnerable are we to other people's karma**?**

Understand, you cannot get karma from somebody else. You have enough of your own! So do not bother about catching karmafrom another person.

Either by touching or by giving advice or by close physical contact or physical proximity, karma can never be passed on. You may acquire the mental setup of that person in close proximity, if you are continuously around him, but never his or her karma. Of course, you have to be mentally strong so that you don't get his or her mental setup! But if you are solid within yourself through the clicks that have happened in you, even this won't affect you in any way.

Understand one more thing, I do not interfere with your karma. Like how when the sun rises the darkness disappears on its own, in the same way in the presence of the master the karma gets burnt. Karma, like darkness, has got only negative existence. It does not have a positive existence. What I mean is that you cannot take it and throw it out like how you can take say a microphone and throw it out. Just like how lightless-ness is only called darkness, karma is just lack of inner light in us. It is just ignorance. It is energylessness.

Any karma can be burnt through remembering the clicks and living life according to the understanding through the clicks. Karma is nothing but the faith of your fear in it.

Karma does not exist even to the depth of your fear. Fear will go to the depth of your causal body, the energy layer that you fall into in deep sleep. If you sleep with a knife above your head, you will automatically touch the causal body because of the intense fear. Karma does not have even that much depth. It is just your own doing and can be undone with understanding and awareness, and a conscious decision not to incur more karma through thought, word or deed.

It is very important to live a life only exhausting karma and not accumulating more. It is this idea that is promoted in the vedic marriages. In the vedic marriages, the couple takes a vow to put their spiritual life ahead of their married life and live together. It is simply deciding to cooperate and exhaust each other's karma without causing any further karmafor each other.

Normally in marriage, the man will operate from lust and the woman from fear. The man exploits the fear aspect of the woman and the woman exploits the desire aspect of man. This vow states that they will work only towards exhausting each other's karma and not towards exploiting each other or multiplying their karma.

Q: Can our karma be exhausted by doing charitable service?

You need to see the motivation for the social service. Honestly look at yourself in the face. What do you want by doing the service?

Do you feel motivated by the fear of having to go to hell if you don't do good deeds? Is it the desire for a good name and publicity? Or is it just to do something to keep yourself busy? Is it the greed of a good afterlife after death? Is it a better next birth?

If you are driven by fear or greed, you can never intensely enjoy doing the service. One part of you will be doing the act of service. Another part of you will be caught in thinking about the benefits of the service. So you are not integrated in that action. You are not completely fulfilled through it.

This action also binds. Outwardly, socially, it looks good and free from bondage. But inside your inner space, you can see it is not. The whole of mankind is swinging around result-oriented action. This is extended to service as well. At least in service, do not think of dollars or fame. Do not plan to impress. Do not plan to make your presence felt.

Do the work for the work itself! Do not plan anything. Just do any service anywhere. This kind of service will infuse tremendous power into your being. For at least half an hour a day do something selfless, without any thought of results or benefits for yourself. You can then experience the true joy of service.

Karma can be exhausted only through deep understanding, awareness and at least one glimpse of consciousness.

Q: You teach us meditation. What is the point of meditation when the rest of the world is suffering? Instead of meditating, we can do some service.

A small story:

There was once a king who was known to be compassionate. He used to go around his kingdom unannounced to see how his subjects were.

One day, he saw a small boy catching a pigeon. The boy held the pigeon tightly in his hands as it tried to flutter desperately. The king asked the boy, 'Don't you see the bird is afraid and struggling? Why don't you free it?'

The boy did not know he was speaking to the king. He said, 'Sir, I have caught this pigeon after a long wait. How can I give it up?' The king thought briefly and then asked the boy if he would sell the pigeon. The boy readily agreed. The king handed the boy a gold coin in exchange for the bird.

By then a crowd had gathered around the king. They watched as the king took the pigeon and waved his hands upward releasing the bird. The king was very happy to free the bird and at the same time to see the crowd praising him.

The king asked if anybody else had any captive birds. A few people came forward. The king asked them to get their birds and he gave them all a gold coin each in exchange. Then he proudly released the birds.

After a few days, the king's advisor, a wise sage, paid a visit to the palace. He asked the king to come with him in disguise to visit the kingdom. The king in disguise went with the sage to a forest. To his utter surprise, he saw several villagers busy setting up traps to catch the birds. Many birds were even losing their lives because of the crude traps. The people were now deliberately catching birds to get a gold coin in exchange for the bird from the king!

The sage asked the king, 'Why do the birds have to pay such a heavy price for you to show your so-called compassion?'

Only acts of service coming from pure consciousness can be truly effective.

If we can genuinely feel the suffering of the rest of humanity and if we work out of compassion to remove their suffering, then it is very good. But we must first have the understanding of this extended consciousness to feel this compassion. Not only that, the greatest service that you can do to humanity is to become a divine human being yourself! Meditation is the first step for that!

Q: What happens when someone has a premature death like in suicide or accident?

In the case of premature death, the soul has to wait for the time it was destined to live, before it can take a new body. In the case of suicide, the suffering is much more intense than what would have been if the spirit had continued living. It is like when you have a plate of food in front of you but you don't have hands or a body to enjoy it!

In the case of accidents, the spirit has to be without body. But there is no suffering as in the case of suicide. The spirit lives in the same consciousness it would have lived had it been alive. It just waits to get the next body.

Q: Why do we do the rituals and annual rites related to departed souls?

The rituals related to departed souls are to help the people who are living to accept the departure of the person.

However, when an enlightened master does this, it helps but it is not the ritual, it is his sankalpa (vow) that works. When an enlightened master makes a sankalpa, if you are in the body, it may take time to settle because the plane in which he is in, the plane in which the sankalpa is in, is different from the plane in which you are. But for the being who is not in the body, the sankalpa has immediate effect because the being is in the same subtle energy level as the master's.

If the being is existing in another body, the sankalpa takes time to settle. But the person unclutches from the past samskaras, and all the past samskaras are cleared. So suddenly for no reason the person feels cleared and light.

Q: Are past life regressions useful and safe?

Past life regression should not be done except by an enlightened being. It has such a strong influence it can affect this birth. For example, if you had been a blind person in a past life, when regression happens, you can become blind in this birth!

An unenlightened being doing the regression will also suffer the karmas of the person he is doing the regression for.

To clear past life regression, one should know how to handle it, clear the past samskaras and close it.

Q: When the master clears the karmas, do we have to go through pain?

When the master removes the karma, you call that feeling pain. Actually, the master would be removing in a second the suffering of many births, what would have otherwise taken many births to dissolve. So it is practically no suffering in comparison.

Sharada Devi says, the master clearing the samskaras is like you facing a thorn prick instead of suffering a fracture!

Our concern for karma is rooted in our fear of death. It is a primal fear, that of the unknown. Our actions in this life are for the most part driven by the desire to be in a better place after death or the fear not to be in a worse place after death. This fear of leaving the body and mind has existed through the ages.

Story of Yayati

There is a nice story in Mahabharata, the great Indian epic:

There was once a king by the name of Yayati. He lived extremely well for hundred years, enjoying his kingdom and all the physical and mental comforts of life. At the end of hundred years, Yama, the lord of death, came to take him away as it was time for him to leave the earth. The king was shocked to see Yama and started crying, 'Why have you come so fast and that too suddenly without any notice? I have not lived my life fully yet. Please give me some more time to live.'

Yama replied that there is no extension possible to one's life. But Yayati pleaded with him and begged for more time. Yama finally agreed that if any one of his sons was ready to give up his life for Yayati, then the king could live for that much more time.

Yayati called one of his sons. The son agreed, 'I will give up my life, let my father live.' He gave up his life. Yama extended Yayati's life by a hundred years.

Yayati continued to enjoy all the material comforts in the same way as before and lived another hundred years. At the end of this period Yama returned to take him. This time too Yayati was shocked to see Yama again so soon. He felt he had hardly lived his life and begged Yama saying that he was not prepared to die and wanted some more time.

Yama gave him another chance. Another of Yayati's sons gave up his life for his father, and Yayati got a lease of another hundred years of life.

Yayati enjoyed another hundred years and again Yama came back to take him. Again as before, Yayati asked for more time but this time Yama refused to play the same game again.

Instead of agreeing to the king's plea, this time Yama asked Yayati compassionately, 'O king! Do you think you can put a fire out by pouring oil into it? Do you think that you can fulfill your desires by living them out more and more?' In just a few beautiful words Yama explained the whole purpose life to Yayati. Yayati finally realized the

Truth, followed Yama and rested at the feet of the Divine.

You cannot feel fulfilled by offering sense pleasures to the senses. You cannot feel that you are ready for death if you never lived intensely. Trying to satisfy the senses, pouring pleasures into your senses, or living as you want does not mean living intensely. When you really live intensely, automatically you will be liberated.

Common perception of death

The very word 'death' creates agony and fear. Even talking about it is considered inauspicious as we may invite it by even mentioning it!

Death is seen as an enemy. That is why in all the religions, in all the cultures, death is painted as black. In Hinduism, Yama is black. In Christianity* , Satan* is black. In Buddhism, Mara* is black. In all religions, death is painted as black. We paint death as a villain, never as a hero. The idea of death is always approached with negativity. We feel death takes away everything from us. Whatever we want, whatever we enjoy, whatever we have, everything is just taken by force from us. So most of us live either in denial of death or in fear of it. We think, 'Why should we think about it now? We will handle it when it arrives.' Or we consciously avoid even thinking about it.

Somehow we always want to escape from death. From time immemorial, all the traditions, all the civilizations are trying in all possible ways to conquer death. Scientists are trying through medicines, which gave birth to allopathy* . Siddhas* and ayurvaidyans* , the Eastern mystics, are trying through herbs, which gave birth to the whole siddha* tradition and kayakalpa* . The yogis are trying through mantras* , which gave birth to Mrutyunjaya mantra* and

Christianity - Religion based on teachings of Jesus Christ.

Satan - Representation of evil in the Christian tradition.

Mara - The demon of evil in Buddhist tradition.

Allopathy - Generally refers to western medicine.

Siddha - Practitioner of spiritual techniques.

Ayurvaidyans - Practitioners of the traditional Indian medicinal system of ayurveda.

Siddha - Traditional Indian system of medicine.

Kayakalpa - Body rejuvenation and anti ageing technique of ayurveda, traditional Indian system of medicine.

Mantra - Literally means 'that which shows the way'. Sacred syllables having a positive vibrational effect.

Mrutyunjaya mantra - Chant for victory over death.

pranayama* techniques. The Buddhist Lamas* are trying it through meditation, which gave birth to techniques like Mahamantra* meditation. Almost all the traditions, all the cultures are trying to conquer death, to go beyond death.

Why are we afraid of death?

Why is the whole of humanity struggling against one thing, the only thing that is a certainty in all our lives?

Can we make the whole earth flat? No, it is a proven fact that the earth is round. But if we struggle against this fact, then there is something wrong in our struggle, in our understanding. It is the same with death too. Why are we struggling to accept the truth? Because of the struggle, most people die unable to accept death when it comes - just as they have lived, unable to accept life as it is.

Why are we afraid of death?

We are afraid because instinctively we resist change and death is an abrupt change in life. The master Chuang Tzu says beautifully, 'Man's thirst for survival in the future makes him incapable of living in the present.'

We are afraid because we do not know who we are. We hold an We are afraid because instinctively we resist change and death is an abrupt change in life.

identity of ourselves inside us, based on our family, relationships, job, wealth, social image etc. Death removes this very foundation on which our identity is built, so we feel death snatches everything that is ours.

Our understanding about death, or rather our misunderstanding about death, makes death a fearful, frightening experience. The man who resists death dies even while he lives. He dies every moment because he is tortured by the very idea of death. When I say 'death', I don't mean only physical death. Losing anything is a form of death. Losing your comfortable life is one form of death, losing your relatives is another. Please understand that loss in any form is nothing but death.

There are two issues: the incident of death that happens at the end of our lives, and psychological death. Real death happens

Lamas - Buddhist monks.

Pranayama - Breath control, one of the eight limbs of the Ashtanga yoga of Patanjali.

Mahamantra - Humming meditation that energizes the anahata chakra and taught as part of Nithyananda's Life Bliss Programs.

only once, but psychological death, the fear of death, permeates our life. The idea and fear of death decides our entire life structure.

You may ask why people are so depressed and disturbed when they lose their close relatives. Even if you are not emotionally attached to them and in a sense are waiting for them to die you will be deeply affected by their death! It is more so when you are close to them, attached to them emotionally. Whenever your mother dies your whole left side will suffer. Whenever your father dies, your whole right side will suffer. Whenever your brothers die your hands will suffer. There is a deep connection between you and your relatives.

Every part of your body is connected to someone or the other. Your being is not an individual being. It is not alone, separate, as you think. We are all interlinked. That is why we undergo terrible suffering when we lose someone or something. Every missing that you experience, no matter of whom or what is what I call death.

All that we understand of death is that it is anti-life. Again because of our fear we think too much about death. We project our fear and see it as a giant figure. If real death is six feet tall, because of our fear we see it as sixty feet tall! Fear of death is just the fear of continuity or discontinuity. We are afraid about the 'what next'.

In the mystery of death lies the answer to life

Once, in USA, a young lady asked the great Indian monk Swami Vivekananda , 'What is life?' Swami Vivekananda* said, 'Come with me to India. I will teach you.' She asked, 'What will you teach me?'*

He said, 'I will teach you how to die.'

The question is about life but the answer is about death! It seems strange! What Swami Vivekananda* is saying is that if you know the secret of death, the quality of your life will be different. Your very understanding and attitude towards everything will change.

We can actually use our lives to prepare for death. We do not have to wait for the pain of seeing someone's death or the shock of being faced with a critical illness to force us to look into the meaning of life.

Swami Vivekananda - Primary disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and founder of the Ramakrishna Order. 19th century Eastern mystic considered a key figure in spreading awareness of Hinduism and yoga in Europe and America.

Death is not a mere incident at the end of your life. It is a profound knowing. If you know how to die, you know how to live. Living and leaving are two sides of the same thing. Your life will be totally different once you understand death.

Entering into Death

Almost all the traditions have tried to conquer death, to outlive death. But one group of really intelligent, intuitive people understood after much struggle that we were approaching death in a completely wrong direction. They decided to take a 180-degree turn. They started working with death in a different way.

They used meditation as a technique to take them where others had not dared to go before. Those few intelligent ones were the rishisof the Upanishad* age. The report they submitted on their research into the phenomenon of death is called the Kathopanishad* .

These rishis researched deeply on death and finally came to the conclusion that death cannot be understood or overcome by resistance. By resisting death you cannot go beyond death. The only way to break free from the vicious cycle The only way to break free from the vicious cycle of birth and death is by becoming enlightened.

of birth and death is by becoming enlightened, by entering into death, dropping the fear.

As long as you are afraid, you will never look death in the eye. Unless and until you do that, you will never know how much you are blessed with abundance. Only when you know that you will lose something will you realize the value of that thing.

Just meditate: suppose you are going to die in two days, what all would you want to do? How much is there to finish? It is only when you take stock of your life that you understand how much of goodness is showered on you. You have taken everything for granted because you believe that you are going to live forever. Only when you understand death you will understand the preciousness of life.

Upanishad - Scriptures that form the essence of the ancient texts of the Vedas. Literally means 'sitting with the master'. There are eleven main Upanishads that have been commented on by enlightened master Adi Shankara.

Kathopanishad - One of the major Upanishads or scriptures that features the interaction between Yama, Hindu god of death and a young boy Nachiketa.

Once when you face death without fear, you will understand that death is not the end of life but it is the climax. When this understanding dawns on you then you will stop praying for everlasting life.

Please understand that death has power over you because of your belief, your faith in it, that's all. It is just a matter of belief. When you believe that death is terrifying, it becomes terrifying. It is like a mirror that faithfully reflects whatever you project on it.

When a donkey sees itself in the mirror what will it see? It will see a donkey only, nothing else. In the same way if you are totally afraid of death then you will see only the fear reflected back to you. Then death will be truly death for you. If you take a little time and look into your fear of death you will see that it has the power to transform your life in the most positive way. You will realize that it is not contradictory to life but complementary to life.

The ultimate let-go

We are not able to face death because we are not able to face the ever-changing nature of life. We try to hold onto things, to people, to feelings, to situations and that is where the problem starts. We are terrified of letting go, we are wary of life. The irony of the situation is this. Not only is holding on to life impossible, but the very source of the pain we seek to avoid is holding on to life!

A small story:

Once a master was trying to teach his youngest disciple, a little boy. The little boy used to always hold onto things he liked and get very upset or depressed if he lost his favorite object or it was taken away from him.

One day, the master gave the boy a beautiful silver coin. The boy was thrilled and took the coin. Now the master told the boy, 'Son, hold it tightly in your fist and stretch your hand out.' The boy did as told. Now master said, 'Relax and open your fist.'

The boy was puzzled but did as the master said. He opened his fist and the coin fell down. The master said, 'Now take the coin and keep it in your hand.'

The boy did so. The master continued, 'Now make a fist and again stretch your hand out. But this time, keep your fist facing up towards the sky.' The boy obeyed. The master then said, 'Now let go and open your fist.' The boy opened the fist and there was the coin gleaming under the sun in his hands.

The master said to the boy, 'Son, if you can just let go and relax trusting this Existence, the Divine who is taking care

of you every moment, you can simply enjoy life.'

Look at everything happening in life with the understanding that change is the nature of life, the very reason why life is so colorful and interesting. Then you can see the mysteries of life unfold beautifully, including the ultimate mystery of death.

Death is a deep relaxation. It is the ultimate 'letting go'. It is the dropping of the old and starting with the new. When your being recognizes that it cannot achieve what it wants to through this body it decides to move on. This 'moving on', this 'passing over' is what is called death.

When your brand new house becomes old after the passage of years, you either try to repair it or if that is too inconvenient and frustrating, you decide to sell the house and move into a new one. When you do this, do you feel that you are missing something? No!

In the same way when you feel that you have not lived your life totally in the way you wanted to, you leave this body to take a new one. You want to restart. Your choice to start all over again is what is called death.

A fresh start

When you die, all that happens is that you rejuvenate your body and your mind. You take a fresh set of memories, a new place, a different set of Your choice to start all over again is what is called death.

relatives, a new life. In other words you take up a new birth hoping to fulfill all your incomplete desires. Whatever you left unaccomplished you come down to finish. This choice given to you by god to start all over again is death.

But without understanding this simple truth you waste your whole life by doing everything possible to resist death. Once you add meditation to your life, you start understanding your fears. Facing the fear demystifies death. It is as if all the fog, all the snow, all the ice has been removed and you are able to see the sparkling water of understanding flowing so clearly, so beautifully. You start looking death in the eye, face to face.

When you face death you see that it is nothing but life. Because every moment you die, the next moment you are born. Death and birth are just cycles. If you die you will be born and if you are born you will die. When this understanding happens you lose all fears. You start living your life. You start enjoying every breath that you take on planet earth.

When you are forty you are not what you were when you were ten or when you were twenty or when you were thirty. But you do not feel you died, though you are

Death is the beginning of a new chapter of life.

completely different. You are different

physically, mentally, emotionally, and materially, yet you feel you are continuing the same life. Death is just like that, it is one more continuum.

Nothing dies and nothing discontinues. Everything continues in a manner that nature dictates. When you get the knowledge that you are never going to die, bliss blooms and you are in ecstasy. Your life is transformed from fear to fearlessness, from death to deathlessness.

The Bhagavad Gita, the profound truths delivered by Krishna to Arjuna* , says that death is just like changing of one's clothes. Just like how we change our shirt, we change our body. This changing of the body leads us to inner transformation. Death is the beginning of a new chapter of life.

Mystery of mysteries

There is a beautiful story in the great Indian epic, Mahabharata:

The prince Yudhishtra was asked by a yaksha* , 'What is the most mysterious thing on planet earth?'*

Yudhishtra replied, 'Every day so many lives are going to the abode of Yama, the lord of death, yet the people who stay here think they are going to live forever.'*

We always think that it is someone else who will die, not us. Death is truly the mystery of all mysteries.

There are only two things that are certain about death. One is that we will die at some point in time. The other is that it is uncertain when or how we will die.

Everything that is born has to die. That is the nature of life.

A beautiful story from the life of enlightened master Buddha:

Once a woman came with her dead son to Buddha. She was mad with grief at the death of her only son. She cried to

Arjuna - Warrior prince and the third of the five brothers of the Pandava family in the great Indian epic Mahabharata. He was a disciple of enlightened master Krishna and received the wisdom in the Bhagavad Gita from Krishna.

Yudhishtra - The eldest of the five princes of the Pandava family in the Indian epic Mahabharata.

Yaksha - Demigod who according to Hindu mythology guards wealth.

Buddha, 'Master, please give me some medicine that will get my boy back to life.'

Buddha replied, 'Get me a handful of mustard seed.' The woman got up immediately and rushed to get a handful of mustard seed. Then Buddha added, 'The mustard seed must be from a house where no one has lost a dear one – child, husband, parent, friend.'

The woman went from house to house. Out of pity for the desperately crying woman, people gave her mustard seed from their house. But when she asked whether they had lost a dear one, they had someone or the other who had died in the house.

She went from house to house till sunset but found no house where a death had not happened. Slowly the truth started dawning on her – death is inevitable. She buried her son's body and returned to Buddha. She fell at the feet of Buddha and asked him, 'Master, please teach me the truth. What is death? What exists beyond death?'

She became Buddha's disciple and followed Buddha for the rest of her life.

There is a beautiful saying, 'Tomorrow or the next life, which comes first, we never know.'

Buddha says, 'This existence is as fleeting as the autumn

Tomorrow or the next life, which comes first, we never know.

clouds. To watch the birth and death of beings is like watching the movements of a dance.'

Religions that talk of only one life create a hurry, an anxiety, to take the maximum juice out of this life because you feel you cannot miss anything. The idea of only one birth gave rise to science, looking for maximum enjoyment.

All Eastern religions talk about many births. You come down again and again. You play the same drama of life. It is just the same setup, same relationships but at different times. You feel bored and fed up and wonder, 'How many times do I have to play the same drama?' You wish to get liberated and no more do you want to come back. You work towards moksha* , liberation. Your understanding about death changes your outlook of life.

The topic of rebirth is not popular because it cannot be proven by science. Of course, now Near Death Experience (NDE) has become a hot subject as many doctors and psychologists have recorded their experiences. There are many people who have recorded thousands of NDEs, almost

Moksha - Liberation through Self Realization.

all of which fall into a similar pattern. They all relive the events of their lives. Hypnotists have regressed people into their past lives. These too fall into a pattern. They are similar to what the rishis said over five thousand years ago about what happens when you die, which is recorded in the Kathopanishad* .

Death in my presence before enlightenment

This incident is from the days of my spiritual journey before enlightenment.

I was near a small village in North India, a place near Varanasi, the spiritual headquarters of Hindus* . Hindus* traditionally visit Varanasi at least once in their lifetime. The city has a floating population of at least two hundred thousand people every day.

I was there with an old monk who had been hospitalized and was in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). According to the vedic tradition, young monks take care of the elderly monks and sannyasis* . As a young monk staying in that village, I started taking care of the elderly monk.

One day, while I was attending to him, suddenly it became obvious that the man in the bed next to his was about to die. He started struggling for life. I was able to see very clearly what was happening inside him. By that time I had had my deep spiritual experience or satori but I had not become fully enlightened, the realization of the purpose of my life had not happened. I was still seeking and my body was getting prepared for the explosion of energy that was to happen after enlightenment.

Several doctors were trying to give the monk critical medical care and support. The man was gasping for breath. I could see very clearly how death was happening in him. I could see very clearly how the life source was moving away from the body.

That is the strongest experience that has happened in my life outside my body. Inside my body, the strongest experience that happened was realizing the mission!

I was able to see what was happening, but I was not able to bear it. An important thing you should know is, if you see somebody in physical pain, it will affect you only about thirty to forty percent. But

Kathopanishad - One of the major Upanishads or scriptures that features the interaction between Yama, Hindu god of death and a young boy Nachiketa.

Hindus - Followers of Hindu religion, estimated at over a billion people.

Sannyasi - One who has renounced, a monk.

if you see somebody in depression and you can relate to the person and feel the depression, it will affect you more, say around sixty percent. Further, if it is emotional pain and if you are able to connect and understand the pain, it will affect you much more, about eighty percent. The more subtle the pain, the more you will be affected.

I saw not only the physical, mental or emotional pains of the dying man, but I also saw the being level pain. It was almost like I was going through the pain myself. I wanted to just run away from there but the elderly monk got afraid and just held my hand begging me to stay. I had been taking care of him for two to three months, so he had got really attached to me.

Since a young age, I have loved serving monks. I used to take food and clothes from my house and give it away to the monks! Serving monks has always been my passion. I have always felt that this whole vedic tradition is alive even today only because of such monks. They have kept this science alive.

For doing research in any science, you need great support in many areas. For example, in the West, a lot of research happens in the outer world science because there are people and organizations to support it. If it is research on medicines, a pharmaceutical company may support the research. If it is some research related to space and astronomy, the government may sponsor and support it.

In the same way, in India, the whole country supports and sponsors spiritual science research. The whole country has taken up the responsibility to support an inner world scientist by providing him food, shelter and clothes so that he can continue his research in the inner world without spending time for basic outer world requirements. So I have always felt that it is my responsibility to take care of the monks and inner world scientists.

The elderly monk who I was taking care of in the ICU did not want me to leave because he was afraid seeing the man next to him dying. The man was going through such a hard time. It was like the whole six feet of his body was being torn apart! Imagine the pain if you have a small cut in your finger. Now imagine how painful it would be if the skin on your whole body is literally being peeled. It is something like a thousand scorpions stinging at the same time! I could clearly see the pain the man was going through.

On one side, the individual soul associated with all the unfulfilled emotions like desire, greed and guilt was undergoing terrible suffering. The individual soul wanted to stay in the body and fulfill these, but the body was tired and wanted to relax! It was a fight between the body and individual soul. It was as if the body wanted to leave but the individual soul was trying to hold onto it. If the right hand was gone, the soul was trying to hold onto the left. If the right leg was dead and gone, the individual soul was trying to hold onto the left leg. Whichever part of the body it could hold on to, the individual soul was trying to hold onto it.

Part by part the body was dying. I saw that with the lower body there was not much struggle. But when it came to the upper body, the whole body was vibrating and pulsating with pain.

Slowly the individual soul started moving out of the physical body. Understand, when the breathing stops, that is the moment when the individual soul actually leaves the physical body. There are seven layers or bodies in you. The body of flesh, bones and blood that you see is the physical body. The energy moving in you as prana or life energy is the pranic body. There are five kinds of prana or air movements that happen in the body: air that enters into the body, air that circulates inside the body, air that spreads all over the body as life force, air that comes out of the body, and air that cleanses. These form the second body or the pranicbody.

The third body is the body where inner chatter continuously happens. Inner chatter is nothing but the continuous stream of words or thoughts that move within you.

The fourth body is made up of emotions like fear, anger and greed which spread as feelings all over the body without even words coming into play. An emotion by itself can simply shake you. This is the emotional layer.

The fifth layer is the body that you experience in deep sleep. This is where all the engraved memories or engrams are stored in the seed or causal level. The engrams are not active but they are not dead either. It is like a deep coma where you are neither living what you want nor are you dead. You are just stuck in this layer.

From the causal body, the individual soul moves to the cosmic body. The sixth layer is the cosmic body where you experience bliss. This is what continuously inspires you to be a seeker. If you are a seeker, understand that this layer is strong in you. If you enrich this layer, your life will be blissful. If you have any engram remaining in this layer, you will assume another body and come back.

If you continuously enjoy pleasurable experiences, then you are said to be in heaven. If you are stuck in pain, then you are said to be in hell. Depending on how much pain you experienced in life, you will stay that long in the pain body or hell at the time of death. Depending on how much pleasure you experienced in life, you will stay that long in the cosmic body or heaven. Hell and heaven are purely psychological. This is the truth. Based on what engrams you have, you experience heaven and hell. That is why different cultures visualize heaven in their own way because heaven is not a place, it is an experience.

The seventh layer is the nirvanic* layer which corresponds to enlightenment.

At the time of death, there is a powerful fight between the owner or the individual soul and the object or the body. The object says, 'I am tired, I can't function any more.' The owner says, 'No, I want to use you.'

When the object wins, the physical body dies and the individual soul moves to the next layer, the pranic body. This is the layer you are in when you normally dream. While dreaming, your logic loses its power over you but your desires remain active. The very definition of dream is, the state where logic has no power but desires and engrams remain active. Even when you are unconscious or in coma, your logic will not be active.

As long as you are in the physical body, you will have desires with the logic to analyze whether the desires are needed or not and which one of the desires should be fulfilled etc. Desires are under your control, there is a balancing mechanism. But when the desires exist without the supporting logic, the individual soul will be kicked around like a football by the desires. On one side there will be guilt and on the other side, desires that play on the individual soul.

When I saw the man dying, I could see that the individual soul was slowly moving out, layer by layer. I could see the soul suffering intensely when it went through the unfulfilled desires. The soul was literally being eaten by guilt when it realized, 'I did not fulfill the purpose and mission of my life.' Understand, you will remember the purpose of your birth only during death.

When you are born, your body travels through the birth canal of the mother, and because of the intense pain that you go through, you go into coma or the deepest unconscious state, and you forget the whole purpose of taking birth. It is like this: you booked the flight ticket and sat inside the aircraft also, but during the flight you were put in coma and so when you landed, you forgot all about why you came to that particular place! Only when you leave the place and board the flight again, you suddenly remember why you had come to that place!

In the same way, when you die, you feel the strong guilt of not fulfilling the purpose of your birth or what we call the prarabdha* .

Nirvanic- Related to the bliss layer, the innermost of the seven layers of energy bodies in us.

Prarabdha - Mindset and desires that we bring into this world when we are born.

After passing through this guilt, next, all the pain experiences of your life will come up. So at the time of death, you first pass through physical pain, then through all desires, next through all guilt, then through all emotional pain and finally through all the pleasures that you experienced in this birth.

Normally, as soon as you reach the cosmic body or the sixth layer itself, you return to assume the next body, the next birth. The individual soul returns to assume the next body. Sometimes, rarely, you go beyond the sixth layer into the nirvanic* body. Then you don't come back to assume another body.

When you travel through these various bodies and experience your unfulfilled desires, deep guilt and intense pain, you decide strongly, 'Let me take another body, another birth. When I do, I will not forget the purpose of my life and get caught in these illusive games. I will straightaway follow the path of Truth.' But when you actually take birth the next time, again because of the intense pain during birth, you drop into coma and forget all about your decision!

Finally, the man died. But the experience left a strong scar in me. It left a very strong impression in my mind. The fortunate thing was that the elderly monk became alright and he was discharged from the hospital. I continued my journey, and after a few months, I had my own death experience and I became enlightened, thus realizing the mission and purpose of my life. My life as a liberated being started at the age of twelve itself when I had my deep spiritual experience. But the clarity about the mission, and what was exactly going to happen through my body, dawned when I became enlightened.

Death in my presence after enligtenment

After my enlightenment, I came back to South India. I was in Bangalore in a devotee's house, healing people who sought me out. At that time, a devotee was admitted in the ICU and I was requested to heal him.

There again, while healing, the person in the bed next to the devotee started dying! The moment I saw that the person was about to die, the first thing I felt like doing was to move away from the suffering that was about to come! But the devotee was afraid and not ready to leave me!

Suddenly I saw that this person who was dying, was not going through any suffering like the earlier person. I was shocked, and I became very curious. Earlier, the

Nirvanic- Related to the bliss layer, the innermost of the seven layers of energy bodies in us.

movement of the individual soul from layer to layer was great suffering and torture for it. But this soul was moving so smoothly from layer to layer just like how a knife moves through butter, or how a snowball rolls down!

In the first layer or physical body, there was a little pain. Then suddenly the pain disappeared and the individual soul moved to the pranic layer. It moved from layer to layer like a royal guest! It was so empowered, that the desires, guilt and pain were not able to attack it at all. Even in the causal layer, it did not fall asleep. It was so energetic, and it finally entered the nirvaniclayer, relaxed and just disappeared!

I thought that this person must be an evolved being. I asked his relatives whether he was a spiritual person or a meditator. The family was surprised and replied that the man had never meditated or done any spiritual practice in all his life! He had lived a completely materialistic life.

I contemplated as to why the first death I had witnessed was terrible while the second one was so wonderful. What I am about to tell you now is the honest and straight truth, and I am saying it because I have the great responsibility of telling it to you. When I meditated to know the difference between the two deaths, the revelation happened: at the time of the second death I was an enlightened person. The second person had died in the presence of an enlightened being! In the case of the first death, my presence could not help, because I could not radiate the energy of enlightenment at that time. So the first person died an ordinary death, while the second person died a wonderful death in the presence of an enlightened being who had realized the Truth.

When this revelation happened, I saw a deep compassion coming out of my being. I felt that if at all I can give this as a gift to every individual, my mission will be accomplished. A peaceful death is such a powerful and wonderful gift which nobody but an enlightened being can give. I started meditating as to how I can give this gift to everyone. Obviously I can't be in the ICU of all the hospitals and wait for people to die! I contemplated on the science behind the whole thing, and understood what really happens at the time of death.

Let me explain:

As long as you hold onto your ordinary logic and remain in the physical layer, the master is just a simple faith for you. The material world appears more solid and real. But when you travel to the deeper layers, the master becomes reality while the material world becomes vague and blurred.

It is like how during your night dream, the dream world looks real and the waking world looks vague, whereas when you are awake, that is when you are with a higher consciousness, the dream world becomes imagination while the waking world becomes reality. In the dream state, the dream world that you see appears alive, like a 4D colour film! When you come out of the dream, the whole dream appears black and white.

In the same way, if you are raised to a still higher consciousness, this waking world will become dull, while things like spiritual truths and the master will become alive and real! When you disconnect from the body and rise into higher consciousness, the master and the superconscious energy will become a gross reality.

When the second death happened, the intense enlightened presence straightaway caused him to connect strongly to it.

Understand, as you sit now and here, what is stopping you from connecting with the enlightened energy of the master and merging with it? Only your own logic and reasons.

As you sit here, there are still doubts in your unconscious like, 'If I drop my possessions and surrender, the master may take it away!' The other problem is, presently, as of now all other things in this world also appear as reality, and you think the master is also real to that same depth. You experience me as the same frequency as the rest of the material world. In the case of the second dying person, all his outer world things became inaccessible to him at the time of death. He could not sign his checkbook or drive his car! Whatever was holding him back in the material world was automatically being taken away from him. When he looked around, only I, the enlightened energy was there! He saw the strong light energy and just held on to me! The surrender automatically happened to him because I was there at that moment. Even in his case, if he had seen me while he was alive, he may have struggled to surrender and connect to me! Only when everything was taken away from him, there was nothing to hold him back from connecting to me.

There is a beautiful story in the Bhagavatam* :

There was once a rich devotee. He asked Krishna, 'I want more wealth and possessions.' Krishna granted him his wish. There was also a poor lady, who had a cow and a small house. Krishna once visited her house, ate the food she served, blessed her and left. That very same day, her cow died.

Somebody asked Krishna about the strange happening of how a rich person got more

Bhagavatam - The foremost epic of Hindu religion describing the incarnations of Vishnu, especially his incarnation as Krishna. It was written by Vyasa, who was also the author of the epic Mahabharata.

wealth while the poor lady was deprived of her only source of income!

Krishna beautifully explains, 'The king was already in heavy illusion of the material world. So I gave him what he wanted so that he will ultimately get tired of material things and turn towards enlightenment. In the case of the poor lady, there was only one thing that she really wanted, and that was to connect to Me. And the only thing that was stopping her from that was the cow. I took away the cow so that she could completely merge into Me!'

In the same way, in the case of the second death, the 'cow' was taken away. In the physical layer, the man was not able to connect. But in the pranic layer, the consciousness entered a different space, and the man was able to clearly see me there. The master's presence is such an intense light. It is much stronger and of a higher frequency than this world, just like how this world is of a higher frequency than your dream world.

The man realized that there is something of a higher frequency and he completely surrendered to it. When he surrendered, all his other engraved memories lost their power over him. The individual consciousness became empowered. Desires, guilt, pain, pleasure, everything bowed down. Straightaway, the individual soul's frequency increased.

In the case of the first death, the seen was stronger than the seer. In the second death, the seer was stronger than the seen.

I intensely meditated how to transmit this science to people. Suddenly, a revelation happened to me.

Understand, energy is not constrained by space and time. It is just like the satellite waves that are present in space. If you have a set-top box converter, you can see the channel that you tune into. An enlightened master's energy pervades the whole cosmos. I just need to place the settop box in people. It is like a pacemaker, just that this is a peacemaker! Once it is placed, the person can connect to it while leaving the body.

A master is a person who creates a formula to reproduce his inner world spiritual experiences in the inner world of others. Such a formula is the Life Bliss Program Level 2 also called the Nithyananda Spurana Program. It is a program that inserts the peacemaker in individuals.

Along with placing the peacemaker it is my promise that, wherever you may be, in whatever situation you may be at the time of death, I will be there and see that you beautifully relax into the nirvanic body. Please understand, I am responsible for what I am talking here right now. Even if I leave the body, I am responsible, because it is a promise; it is my commitment to whoever hears these words directly from me.

When I started sharing this technology, I realized that the people I shared it with, not only experienced peace at the end of their lifetime, but their life itself became intense, joyful and ecstatic once I shared it with them.

Understand, both life and death become blissful when deeply engraved memories are removed from your being. Your health becomes better, you start attracting wealth and better relationships because the frequency of being itself is different.

You will be relaxed in the nirvanic body when this peacemaker is placed inside you. You then have the freedom: to take one more birth as a conscious being or get enlightened and never again assume a body.

What you remember in the last moment counts

There is a beautiful story in the Upanishads, the sacred vedic texts:

A rishi called Jadabharatha somehow became attached to a deer he had rescued. He was living the life of a

renunciate but he got attached to this deer.

From morning till night, he used to spend his time taking care of that deer. When he was dying, he was not able to forget the animal. He started worrying about the deer, 'Oh! Who will take care of the deer? What will happen to it after my death?'

When he died, in the next birth, he was born as a deer.

Beautifully the verse in the Upanishad says that whatever you think in your last moment, you become that!

Some people think very cleverly, 'Let me live my whole life the way I want to live. In the last few moments, I will remember god and chant His name and enter heaven somehow.' Please be very clear, only that which you thought of in your whole life, will come up when you leave the body. Don't think that at that last moment you can play the game! No!

Actually, when you leave the body your whole system will be in such agony, because eighty or ninty years of your life will be run through in a fast-forward mode. All that will be seen are the scenes being fast-forwarded. Whatever experience you had intensely, only that will come up before you. Your spiritual experiences will come up in multicolor.

Please understand that 'thoughtless awareness' is the strongest experience you can have in your life. Even for a single moment, if you had that experience, it is enough. Naturally, when you leave the body that will come up. That will act as a light and you will be able to move into the Consciousness.

One more thing is important to understand about the time of death. If a person did not die naturally but had died prematurely or committed suicide, and if he did not have the conscious experience before his death, he has to wait for the remaining years he might have otherwise lived before he can assume a new birth. The spirit will live on without a body.

For example, if at the time of taking this body one had decided to live in this body for ninty years and then committed suicide at the age of sixty, then for the next thirty years the person has to struggle without a body waiting for the next body to be entered into. If the person commits suicide trying to escape the hell he was undergoing in the body, he will be forced to undergo the same hell without the body. Just imagine how much more suffering this would be. That is why one should never consider suicide as a solution to problems in this life.

Why do people normally contemplate suicide? Because they think this life is a torture, a suffering. But if they commit suicide, they will realize that what they are going to go through will be a much worse torture.

It will be like this: if you have sweets in front of you, but you don't have a tongue to taste or hand to take it and put it into your mouth, how much of suffering it will be! In the same way, the whole world will be in front of you, but you will not have the body to enjoy it when you float around waiting for your next body after having committed suicide.