VARANASI & DEATH EXPERIENCES🔗

Nithyananda has said that unless one experiences death one can never experience life fully. The shadow of death is so overwhelming and our fear of death is so primal that we do not die once, we die many time fearing that we may die.

In the Mahabharata there are many stories woven around the concept of death. During their stay in the forests, the Pandava Princes reach a lake at the end of a hard day and camp there. One by one the brothers go to the lake to drink water. They are stopped by a voice that claims to be the guardian of the lake. Answer me before you drink, the voice says, or you die. Disregarding the disembodied voice, one by one the princes drink the water and fall down dead. Finally the eldest, Yudhishtra, approaches the lake, having waited for his brothers to return. He finds them all sprawled around the banks of the lake dead. As he picks up his sword to face the enemy, the voice calls out warning him. Answer me first or you will die like your brothers. Yudhishtra agrees to answer the questions.

Of the questions, the most profound is this.

‘What is the strangest thing that you experience around you’ asks the voice.

Responds Yudhishtra, ‘I see people around me dying every day and they see others dying around them every day. Yet, no one believes that he or she is going to ever die. This is the strangest thing I experience.’

All great masters have used death as a teaching aid. A woman unable to bear the death of her young child came to Buddha seeking his intervention in restoring life to the child. Knowing that whatever he said would offer no consolation to her, Buddha agreed to revive the child provided she could get for him a handful of rice from any household that had never experienced death. The distraught woman suddenly gained hope and went from house to house.

The story says that when she couldn’t find a single household that had not experienced death, wisdom dawned on her and she became a disciple of Buddha.

This is great story from Mahabharata that Nithyananda often recounts. In his words:

There was a king called Yayati who lived for a hundred years. Then Yama, lord of death, came to claim him. Yayati says, ‘No, no, no what is this? I am a king. I have so much to do. I have such a big kingdom and hundred years is too little. Please leave me. I cannot come now. I have not lived this whole life’.

Yama says, ‘What? Leave you where? I have never heard this statement, I never even allow people to talk this much. Pack up. This is totally new for me and there is no petition in my case. Straightaway I come and take people, that is all. If you don’t come, I’ll take you, that’s all. Nothing else. In my language I don’t understand all these words’.

Yayati says, 'No, no, no please consider, do one favor, do one small favor.' Yayati tries to convince. I think that day Yama was in a good mood. He said, 'All right, you are begging so much but at least someone of your sons should give their life for your sake'.

Yayati calls one of his sons. Son says, 'Yes, yes, I'll give my life I have no problem, let my father live'. Son gives his life to Yayati. Yama extends Yayati's life by another hundred years. Next time when Yama came, again this guy started, 'No, no, no please do something. You said you'll come after hundred years but you came so quickly. I don't think hundred years are over. Something is wrong with your calendar. Why don't you check once more?'

Yama said, 'Nothing is wrong with my calendar. Something is seriously wrong with your mind. Nothing can be done'. Somehow Yayati rolls on the ground, weeps and prays to Yama. It's very rare case. I've never heard Yama giving discount or Yama obliging anybody. Again second time he accepted, 'All right, I'll take another son if he is willing o give up his life and let you live hundred more years. Last extension, but be very clear. You can't ask for extension anymore. Done, nothing more'.

When Yama comes a third time, again this king Yayati wants extension. Yama says, no, this is too much, now nothing can be done. Then Yama gives some teachings to him, beautiful teachings. He says you cannot put the fire out by pouring oil into it. You cannot feel fulfilled by offering sense pleasures to the senses.

You cannot feel that you are ready if you never lived intensely. Living intensely is not about fulfilling your senses, pouring pleasures into your senses, or living as you wanted. This is not living intensely. When you live intensely, automatically you will be liberated. I always tell our ashramites do mistakes with creativity. Do some new, new mistakes. Don't do the same old mistakes. Even to do new mistakes you don't have intelligence.

Therefore, it is not today that people have become afraid of death. From time immemorial this has been the case. Even our mythology is full of tales and metaphors on the fear of death. Simultaneously there have been techniques developed by our inner scientists on overcoming death. The best of these techniques focus on removing the fear by facing the fear squarely. They taught how to experience death to overcome the fear of death

Many masters have used the technique of experiencing death consciously as a tool for enlightenment. The understanding that all that death takes away is the perishable mind body and that the spirit lives on is the deepest spiritual experience one can have. Krishna says in the Gita to Arjuna that the immortal spirit moves from one body to another in the same way as we change one dress for another. The realization that death is a mere passage and not an end by itself allows one to relax in life and enjoy the journey.

All mystical traditions on the planet earth used this technique, including Christianity and Sufism. In many catholic monasteries and nunneries they use this technique. Every day they would lie down inside an open coffin before sleeping, for two hours. They would lie down and meditate that they are dead. In Sufism they dig a pit and lie down in that and meditate. In

Buddhism too they use this technique to purify one's karmas. In Vedanta the death meditation is the most used technique in preparation for enlightenment.

Kato Upanishad describes this technique wonderfully. Everybody before taking sanyas has to go through this technique. In Buddhism, before being initiated into sanyas, one has to do is sit in the graveyard for three months and watch dead bodies being burnt and visualize that one is also being burnt. If one has that much courage one can go and sit in a graveyard and see dead bodies being burnt. Unfortunately in the west one can't see it, it's all electrical. In India one can see, it is open burning, natural process. They will arrange the wood, place the body on it and burn.

Nithyananda describes the death experience of Ramana Maharishi in his own words:

The great master Ramana Maharishi became enlightened through this technique. With just this single technique of death experience he became enlightened. When he was sixteen, spontaneously this happened to him. Actually he must have been practicing this in the past lives. Otherwise such a big experience cannot happen spontaneously. Spontaneously, you cannot have enlightenment. Even if you have, you must have tried earlier itself. I don't think such an ultimate experience can suddenly happen without any reason. There is no coincidence in the existence. It is purely your intensity.

When he was sixteen Ramana was in Madurai, near his native place in Tamilnadu. His birthplace is called Thiruchuzhi. Suddenly one day he felt that he was going to die. A strong fear of death arose in him. You also feel this fear sometimes when you hear about some near or dear one's death or when you hear some friend has died or when you see an accident or when you come across some news about death. You also have that fear. But we are so well versed or trained to suppress our emotions and control ourselves that we never allow this fear to come out. We are such hypocrites that we don't even know that we are cheating ourselves. Many times we can see the fear rise in us but we are on automatic mechanism to stop it. By now you know how to balance yourself or suppress yourself. You suppress yourself and just forget about it or try to do something. You just turn the attention elsewhere.

Be very clear, all TV, newspaper, doing this, doing that and everything is directly related to your hypocrisy. You just do not want to sit with your self. I've seen many people doing something in the name of social service, just because they can't sit with themselves. They can't sit with themselves so they do something. Be very clear, even if you do social service, going to some temple, going to some social service organization, doing some social service because you are not able to sit with yourself, you will never be able to experience the truth.

Going to a temple or church or doing some social service should be based on the overflowing of your love for others. You feel so much love, you feel there is nothing more to be done for yourself and think, 'I have so much of time, let me do some service to society', then it is beautiful. Then it will lead you to enlightenment. The service itself can lead you to spiritual experience. You feel love overflowing and think, 'God has given me so much, this whole life is so beautiful and let me go to a temple or church and offer my gratitude' then it'll just liberate you. You will become enlightened.

But if you are going to temple or for social service just because you don't feel relaxed within yourself, because you can't sit quietly and because of so much of restlessness, it is of no value. You need to deal with your catharsis in some way and this is the way.

This type of attitude, these kinds of persons, even if they go to temples, they will be sitting there and ranting against everybody. Hey don't do this, don't do that, what are you doing? Don't you know? God wants this and God wants that. They will start representing God. They will start, not even representing, they will start acting like God. These type of persons, even if they go to social service organizations, even if they do some service, they will be only putting their ego in front, they will only be torturing, they will not be serving, they will be torturing others. I've seen people doing so much of nonsense in the name of service.

Small story.

There was a schoolteacher, who is a scoutmaster also. He has made a rule that all his students, all scout students, should come and give him a report. At least one good activity or one service they should have done that day. Every day as soon as they come to school, they should report to the scoutmaster about one good activity or one service done by them.

One day three friends, all three of them got up and said, 'Sir, today we helped an old lady cross the road'. Scoutmaster said, 'Old lady crossing the road is O.K., but you don't need three persons. Why do you need three persons to help her cross the road?' They said, 'Yes sir it really took three persons, because she didn't want to!'

Be very clear, many times you start doing things just for the sake of service, not feeling. You don't feel what you are doing. You don't feel the need of the other person. You have to fill your diary, you need to fill your timesheet. You need to fill your time and you need to show your project report to somebody. Maybe to the higher authorities or to the society that, see what I've done, just for that when you do it just for that, you create more mess and difficulty for others. You sow only more difficulty and more mess for others.

I always feel service should be overflowing out of your being; never it should be done for some other purpose. Whenever it is done for some other purpose, be very clear you will not be intense, you will not be growing in your being. Your love or service will be pure hypocrisy. I can say impure hypocrisy, not pure hypocrisy. With anything pure you will be liberated. This is impure hypocrisy.

When Ramana Maharishi felt he was dying, he did not run here and there. He did not ask for water. He didn't say, 'Oh, call the doctor, call 911'. First of all in India there is no 911. There is some number that never works and nobody knows that number also. Really I'm not able to remember because we never call, it never works. At the most in India we know only one number, which is oh God. Only then something can happen, it can happen that's all, nothing else can be done. Anyhow no 911, no water, no doctor, no emergency service, he was not even trying to save himself inside the house, trying to do something. See no possibility of 911 that we know. At least he could have tried to get little water or he could have shouted because his relatives were there in the house.

He did not do anything. He used that door of opportunity to take the jump. We are also again and again going near this door. Whenever you hear about somebody's death or whenever fear attacks, you also go near the door. But we are afraid to take the jump. And we have trained ourselves so much to be hypocrites or not to be intense. We somehow balance and we escape. We switch on the TV, we just move our attention towards something else.

Ramana Maharishi used that door to take a quantum jump into deathlessness. He just laid himself on the floor and did not move his body, allowed death to happen. He says beautifully, about his experience.

'Suddenly for no reason I felt the deep fear that I am going to die. I was not sick. I was not having any mental problem. Physically, mentally I was healthy. But suddenly the thought came that I am going to die. I just co-operated with that fear. I did not try to jump. I did not try to run away, I did not bother about anything else. I did not feel like doing anything else. I just sat and allowed. I just sat and allowed the death to happen to my being'.

He says, 'I lay down and I decided, let me see what happens, what can be done. I just accepted, consciously started moving into that fear. That fear overtook me. The fear started working on me. I could see that I am dead. My body is not moving, nothing is happening in me. I could see very clearly that I am out of the body. Suddenly like a flash the intelligence or the truth descended on me, my body is dead, but I am alive. I am not dead. My body is dead, but I could see, I could feel that I still exist. It means I am something beyond body'.

That single experience in that moment, experience of the truth, shook me completely and I realized I am not just body. I am something beyond body. After that never I had death fear or any fear. Once for all the fear has disappeared from my being. The moment I understood that even after my body dying there is something in me that is not dying. Why should I then bother about my body's death? Why should I bother about the death of my body? Even if my body dies, I shall continue to exist. I am going to exist, I am alive. What is happening? Then I am something more than what I think. I am something more than this body. I saw very clearly I was dying, step by step slowly the body died. Suddenly I remembered, yes, only the body is dead I am alive, I exist still, I am there'.

He says in the experience he saw very clearly, as if his body being carried, burnt, reduced to ashes, every thing happened in few seconds, but suddenly something opened, clicked. Yes, body has disappeared, I died, it is burnt and everything is over but, I exist. This was such a strong experience.

Ramana Maharishi says, 'once for all the death fear left me and the experience that I exist stayed for ever'. Understand: in half an hour you can become enlightened. That is what Ramana Maharishi is saying by expressing this. It is very difficult for a logical, ordinary mind to understand as to how just one simple experience can give so much of clarity and courage, and how such an experience can transform one's whole life. After the experience happened, within few days he left the house all alone, traveled and came and settled in Arunachala. After that he never left Arunachala. May be Ramana Maharishi would have practiced this technique in many births before that birth. Whatever he practiced, that experience just automatically opened up and pulled him inside and gave him the truth.

He says that this realization never left him. He says that he never moved away from this realization after that one experience. Just that one death experience had liberated one of the greatest masters India has ever produced into enlightenment. His influence, especially in the recent days, is so much on every political and social leader of India. I can say the great spiritual way that we are all expressing now wouldn't have happened but for him. It is the wave happening through the great ocean called Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi. Almost all the modern day mystics, enlightened masters, social leaders, politicians have drawn their inspirations from him, as waves in an ocean called Ramana Maharishi.

This single technique has created an enlightened being or gifted a great enlightened being to planet earth. Of course, it happened spontaneously to him because he was practicing for a long time, over many births. You don't expect it will happen spontaneously to you. Even if it happens, you will not allow that fear to take you over. Now only you need to practice, you must practice. Just lie down in the house as dead, do not move the body and be very clear that you are dead. Immediately all kinds of fears will arise. No, no, no, just half hour, let me finish some urgent work and come back or can I just sign my will and come back, Swamiji? Our mind will not be ready. Your mind will never be ready. Even if you have lived three hundred years your mind will not be ready.

In many of our Life Bliss Programs before we guide people through meditations that help remove fears of death, we have a discussion on whether people are afraid to die and why. While many do accept that they are not ready to die even if they do not confess to being afraid, there are some who vehemently reject being afraid of death in any way. We question such people further. They would admit that though they may not feel any fear in dying, they are afraid of dying painfully or in suffering. They are not afraid if death occurs suddenly, in sleep as it were, and snatches them away. Unfortunately no one can guarantee how we shall die. In whichever form death takes you over, whether as a massive heart attack that occurs in the night or as a creping cancer or as a bullet in the head, all these cause pain and suffering. Whether one is consciously experiencing these at that stage is a moot point.

Nithyananda says in his Nithyananda Spurana Program that death is painful, very painful. It is like a sword cutting the body across its length. It is so painful that the body mind lapses into an unconscious comatose state as a result. There is no such thing as a painless death unless one has consciously rejected the fear of death beforehand. It is only when one internalizes the truth that we still live after death that the fear and pain of death can disappear. This is possible.

When Nithyananda was in Varanasi during his parivrajaka he had a powerful experience of his own death.

Let me describe exactly what happened with me, when I had experience with this technique. I always used to think that I should have experience of death and face death directly, face to face. But some how that thought never became a priority. Any thought has to become a priority, it should not be in the corner of your mind, only then experience can happen. Usually in our list we have washing, cleaning, paying the rent and phone bill, if time permits enlightenment also, if time permits meditation also. Things will not work this way. Only when things become top priority, only when urge becomes urgent things starts transforming. Otherwise it is ok, let us get on with our lives, but nothing much can be done.

One small story, one guy goes to the doctor and says, 'Doctor I tried to commit suicide by taking 1000 aspirins'. Doctor asked, 'what happened?' The guy said, 'After taking two I felt better and I stopped'.

Only when it is in top priority experience can be achieved. The death experience was not in my top priority. Somehow it was getting postponed till I went to Varanasi. Varanasi is the holy city for Hindus. It has a huge floating population of pilgrims. Nearly 300,000 people per day enter and go out and every day 300 dead bodies are burnt in one place. This burning place is called Manikarnika Ghat. It is traditionally believed that if somebody dies or somebody's body is burnt in that area their spirit will be liberated and they will have direct enlightenment.

Not only it is traditional belief, Ramakrishna confirms it from his own experience. He says, 'I saw very clearly Mahadeva himself going to every fire and blessing the spirit, unclutching it from the body mind and liberating it'. So you can't say it's a mythological belief, it's a solid experience of an enlightened master.

I had the fortune of going to the Manikarnika Ghat. Traditionally it is not only believed, but it is true that, for last 2000 years the fire in that Ghat has never been put off. Whether it rains or shines or floods or what ever it is, the fire to light the funeral pyres burns constantly. People will not bring fire when they come to the Manikarnika Ghat with the dead body. From the fire that is continuously burning in one point in that Ghat, the fire will be taken to light the funeral pyre. It's an unbroken fire, means day and night bodies will be getting supplied. I saw sometimes two, three bodies burnt at a time, because so many dead bodies are coming. I don't know from where people are dying so much, because if you sit for half an hour, you can see over a hundred bodies coming, especially in the evenings. From all around the place from wherever whoever dies, they will start walking, carrying the dead body from their place. They will be chanting the mantra, 'Ram naam satya hai, Ram naam satya hai', which means that the only truth is God's name. By evening they will reach the Manikarnika Ghat. Every day an average of 300 dead bodies is burnt, only in the evenings 200 bodies will be brought there.

Whatever is rendered, I cannot describe the experience verbally, you have to see what happens there to have the experience. To tell you honestly the fear of death just disappeared. You see so many bodies and you feel, ‘I am also going to go one day like this only, it is ok’. You feel that so many people are giving company. It’s like one more trip, you don’t feel lonely about death. If you see one body being burnt rarely once in a while you will have that fear, but there what you see is unimaginable. No ritual or anything, they will bring the body, straightaway they will dip the body in Ganga three times chanting, ‘Ram naam satya hai, Ram naam satya hai, Ram naam satya hai’, this means Rama’s name is the ultimate and eternal truth. They will bring the body out from the water, by which time fire will be ready and the wood will be arranged for the pyre.

Actually they will be continuously arranging the wood even if the bodies are not coming; I asked them, ‘why you are arranging continuously?’ They told me, ‘You don’t know Swamiji, in half an hour 200 bodies will come’. Their accounts are correct, they know for sure. The bodies come, they arrange, and they give tokens based on the entry. One funny thing, no relatives stay there and do any ritual. They dip the body in Ganga and then throw the body on the wooden pyre and go away, that’s all. The people who maintain the Ghat take care of the rest. They don’t know how long it will take for the body that was brought to be put in the fire. It’s like a queue system, continuously going on.

All I did was to decide, ‘Let me sit here and see what goes on’, and I sat. In just an hour, death was no more a strange incident that happens once in a while for some relative or friend. It became like, ‘Ok, next, that’s all. Next, that’s all’. All sizes, all genders, all ages, all kinds, all colors, all communities, and all religions also come here. One nice thing in India, the power of our Indian spirituality is that even though few fanatic leaders are trying to create a split with the Muslims and Christians, the common people don’t care. I have seen many Muslims and Christians who are initiated disciples in our own ashram, not only initiated but swamis, monks. Here they don’t bother about Muslim or Christian bodies, because Indian blood itself seeks truth. That is really surprising.

When continuously you see the dead bodies being burnt, you actually lose respect for death. Now you have too much of respect, too many fearful ideas about death. It is nothing but that the breath that went inside did not come out, that’s all. Nothing much can be done about it. You cannot rewind it or fast-forward it. When I was seeing this process continuously, initially whatever little fear that was there disappeared and slowly it became interesting. I went near the guys managing the process and started helping them. Then I started thinking, ‘After all, this body is also going to become like this’. When you remember that death is going to happen to you, the respect that you carry for your ego will come down. Ego is what makes you think that you should not leave body mind. When you know for sure that everything is going to leave you, then the respect for ego just drastically drops. I am a kind of a too sharply intellectual, honest guy, so straight away the respect for ego dropped.

Then I decided, ‘After all I am going to die. Let me have the death experience now itself and live without the death fear. Either that or let me die. That’s all. But I have to experience death’.

There is a small Shiva temple around the corner and a small tower above the temple, I went and sat in that tower so that nobody will disturb me. If you see the first volume of the biography, you will see the photograph of the place where I had my first death experience. I sat there. From there I started seeing the dead bodies being burnt. Still I remember the strong click that happened in me when one elderly lady's body was being burnt. She had a big belly, the cloth was burning and the fat that was in the belly started burning and melting and flowing. I apologize for describing too vividly. I could see clearly, because of the fat flowing the fire was burning intensely. That gave a very strong click into me and said, 'God. Yes, it is the same way it's going to burn when I die and the same thing is going to happen to this body also. Let it happen'.

That click, that realization opened up a deep fear of death in me. When that fear spread all over my body, I faced it consciously. I could experience very clearly the fear spreading all over the body and when the fear met my awareness, when it hit my awareness that became death experience.

Whenever your fear is suppressed it stays inside you as a suppressed fear. Whenever it comes out and you are not consciously facing it, it becomes a fear stroke. The fear stroke shakes your whole nervous system and breaks it down. If it is faced consciously it becomes death experience. If you just try to escape and run away from the death fear when it occurs, it becomes death. When you face it consciously it becomes death experience. Death fear plus subconscious is suppression, death fear plus unconscious is nervous breakdown, and death fear plus conscious is death experience.

Let me give you this clear equation. Death fear plus subconscious is suppression, perversion. Fear of death plus unconscious means that you neither suppress the fear nor face it. You are shaken, frightened and what results is fear stroke, nervous breakdown. Death fear plus conscious awareness is death experience.

I was able to see very clearly that when I faced the fear that rose in me consciously with awareness, it became death experience. The body is dead, it's not moving. For two and a half days I stayed up in that temple upstairs without food, or water, or thoughts or questions. No doubt my body was still there. Only after the experience I realized that two and a half days had passed. I could see with closed eyes that my body was dead and there was no movement.

Suddenly after two and a half days the click happened, 'God! Body is dead but I still exist. I am still here'. That clarity, when it clicked became such an intense ecstasy. The fear of death left me once for all. It becomes such a deep ecstasy, such a joy, such bliss, and I slowly opened my eyes and I was able to move the body. The first thing I felt was such a deep ecstasy and gratitude. I went down to the Ganga, sprinkled little Ganga water on me, and filled some Ganga water in the water pot and, and collected a little ash from the pyre. I went to the Viswanath temple, put that ash on the Shiva Linga and did the puja with deep gratitude.

I saw that Lord Viswanath was alive. Understand, because I died Viswanath became alive. Till the day before, because I was alive Viswanath was still a dead stone. I always felt, to touch this stone 300,000 people are coming everyday from all the way, what foolishness? It is a strange thing, but when you touch the deity by yourself you start losing respect. In South India you can't touch but in North India you can touch the idols yourself. I always felt it was a stone, because I was alive. But when I died, I saw clearly that he is alive.

Only one can be alive, either Him or you. When you see the truth He will become alive, you will not be alive anymore as you think. The fear of death left me once for all. I can say this is one of the strongest experiences that transformed me leading me towards my enlightenment.

Nithyananda has incorporated the technique of death experience in all his Life Bliss Programs in one form or another. In the first level program called Ananda Spurana Program earlier, it is used to eliminate fear. Fear of death is the fear of loss of identity and when one loses that fear through an experience of visualizing the loss of identity, all fears dissolve.

At the second level Life Bliss Program called Nithyananda Spurana Program. The entire program is a journey through death. This program was created based on Nithyananda’s own experience with death. The experience that Nithyananda had in watching two people dying in front of him and the huge difference that he experienced while watching these two people die enabled the Master to design a process that now helps millions. It is a process that not only takes away the fear of death once and for all, but also allows one to glimpse the ultimate truth of the imperishable energy within. This glimpse, this one glimpse, Nithyananda promises will rise high above all the clutter of one’s past memories during the ultimate death process reinforcing the truth of the undying energy within. Many who have attended the Nithyananda Spurana Program with the Master have experienced their hairs stand on edge as he says: I promise you this. I promise you that what I take you through in this program is the ultimate truth. You will have a glimpse of the ultimate truth of your being during one of the meditations. That glimpse will ensure that you never need to be reborn. If for whatever reason you wish to be reborn, you will be reborn in the manner you wish. This is my promise to you.’

No one, but no one, who has listened to him say this and completed the program with him can ever be the same person again. The transformation is so intense that one is truly reborn. It is a journey through death that teaches one how to live one’s life.

The two death experiences that helped Nithyananda design the process in his own words:

It was around 1999, I was in Varanasi, Kasi. I had the great opportunity to take care of an elderly sanyasi, a very old sanyasi, who was suffering from cancer. He was in the hospital in the ICU. He was a great sanyasi, but not an enlightened person, a great tapasvi, practitioner of meditations, yoga and rituals as penances. Everyday I used to bring food for him and take care of his needs and stay in the hospital.

One day, the person in a nearby bed was slowly dying. Doctors were standing around him, they were trying their best, but they were not able to do anything. Even though I was not enlightened at that time, I had had own death experience, a deeply spiritual and liberating experience.

Because of that, I was able to see what was happening to this dying person.

Slowly, the patient started suffering and struggling. First, he started suffering tremendous pain in the body. His face started showing the pain. Next, he became breathless. He started inhaling and exhaling with difficulty. I was able to see very clearly the pain and the agony, the suffering he underwent. It was like one thousand scorpions biting him. It was as if one thousand scorpions biting him at a time tearing up his whole consciousness. If we cut our finger half an inch with a blade, how much of pain do we experience? How much of pain do we suffer? This was like the six-foot body being cut into pieces. I was able to experience the pain, the agony, the feeling that he was undergoing. Of course, slowly, slowly, slowly, he started moving away from the physical body.

Even though it is a little difficult to receive logically, even though it is little difficult to understand intellectually, this is what happened. It is like a formula: X x 2 = 4. To understand the formula, to understand how to solve it, first we assume different values for X. We assume that X = 2. Let us replace 2 in the place of X. Then we understand: 2 x 2 is 4. Once the answer is right, now we know X is 2. Till the calculation is done, we have to have a little patience. But when I say, let us assume X = 2, immediately if we start raising the question, 'No, why not 3? Why not 1? Why not 4?' we will not be able to proceed. Just see the result. When the formula is working out, naturally we will know that X = 2.

Even if we understand it as a hypothesis, that is enough. At the end of the calculation we will be able to understand how this whole thing happens.

I was able to see and experience the tremendous pain and agony of that being. It was an excruciating and deep suffering. The being started moving away from the physical body to the pranic layer, which is the second layer energy body. Pranic layer is our breathing energy.

We have seven energy bodies and all these seven bodies are seven energies, energy layers of our being. When the being started moving towards the pranic layer, again there was deep suffering! Our pranic body is filled with all our desires. Our breathing and our desires are very closely related. If we change our breathing, our desires can be changed. If we change our desires our breathing pattern can change. Our desires and breathing are very closely related. When the energy was moving into the pranic layer all the desires of the being started coming up. The being started suffering with all the unfulfilled desires.

Then when the being started moving towards the next level body, all the guilt started rising- 'Oh! I should have lived in that way, I should have lived in this way.' Anyhow, slowly, the being moved layer by layer and died. I saw the whole death process. How the death is happening, the whole process I was able to see. But I was not able to help, of course. I was not an enlightened man at that time. I was not able to help. Just I saw the suffering. But, the pain created in me, just seeing the suffering itself was too much.

I started feeling the pain; if we see an accident on the road, what will happen? Will we be able to eat for the next two days? No! We will not be able to eat for the next two days. It was the same. It was almost the same. In an accident we see only one body, the physical body. Somehow I was able to see all the 7 layers, all the 7 bodies. What will happen to the suffering? It was so deeply engraved. It was recorded in my being so deeply. I was not able to eat or sleep for the next 3-4 days. It was a deep suffering. Anyhow, after a few days, I left Varanasi and went away. After about a year I continued with tapas and became enlightened. Then I came to the South. After that, maybe 2 years ago, again, I had the opportunity to see another death.

Second Death experience

I saw the second death in another ICU, an Intensive Care Unit in a hospital in Chennai. This second person did not suffer when he passed away. I started analyzing, ‘Why did the first person suffer and why did the second person not suffer?’ After analyzing or meditating on that issue, something came up. It occurred to me as a formula. That whole formula itself is this whole program of NSP.

I saw the first death in Varanasi and that was so painful. There is no other word to explain it. It was so painful even to see, I was not able to digest the scene for the next 3-4 days. When I saw the second death I was enlightened. I saw the life slowly moving out from that person.

I went to the hospital to heal one of our devotees. At the ICU I was healing our devotee. Again the next bed person was dying. I was able to see what was happening.

This time I saw that the person neither had pain nor he had suffering. Beautifully he was moving from the first body to the second layer, second layer to third layer, third layer to fourth layer. Like how a ball rolls in the snow, just like that his being was moving. I was surprised. Suddenly his being slowly moved out and just disappeared. He became enlightened. He was liberated.

I started thinking, ‘Why did the first person suffer so much while the second person did not have anything?’ I enquired with his relatives, ‘Was he a spiritual person?’ First I thought that he must be a great spiritual person. He must have meditated a lot. But the relatives said, ‘Meditation? What meditation? He would not even go to the temple. He was not even religious.’ Then I started contemplating, ‘Why did the first person suffer so much while the second person had such a beautiful and peaceful death?’

There is an educative website on near-death experiences. An American doctor did research on this subject. He started meeting people who had near death experiences. Near death means those who are clinically declared dead and who come back to life after a few hours. There are so many such cases. In our Indian villages there will always be 4-5 cases. If we go to our native village, always we will hear 3-4 cases like this.

The other day a doctor was telling me, ‘There are so many cases who are medically declared dead, who come back to life after 4-5 hours.’ In some person’s life, it happens 3-4 times; they come back to life. This doctor somehow got interested in this subject and he started going all over the world meeting these types of persons, who are medically declared dead and who came back to life. He met 10,000 people. He went all over the world and for 30 years he did research.

He met 10,000 people and collected all their memories, all their experiences of how they had their death experience.

After analyzing all their experiences, he makes a conclusion. He makes a statement, a beautiful statement. People on the planet earth, only when they live they are Christians, they are Muslims, they are Hindus, they are Jews, they are Buddhists. But when they die, all of them die in the way that is described by Hinduism. We maybe a Hindu, Muslim, Jew or Christian, but when we die we are a Vedanti.

In the Katopanishad, there is a clear description of death. What he found in all these 10,000 people’s experiences that he collected matches exactly with what Katopanishad describes.

Let us see exactly how death happens. First we move from the physical body. You may be thinking, ‘I came to learn how to live but Master is teaching all about death!’ But unless we understand the mysteries of death, we will not have a clear idea about life. Our concept about death totally changes our concept about life. Our philosophy about life changes when our philosophy about death changes.

See, in the East, nobody cares about time. Things will happen in their own way, things take their own sweet time. Why? That is because all eastern religions believe in many births. We have eternity in our hands! If not today, let it be tomorrow. If it is not coming today, tomorrow, otherwise, next janma, the next life!

All western religions say there is only one birth, one lifetime. They say, after death, we don’t have any birth. That is why western people are so time conscious. Whatever has to be enjoyed has to be enjoyed in these 70-80 years. Nothing else can be done. We have to finish whatever it is. That is why their life style, everything is catered around this time consciousness.

The idea of death changes the whole idea of life. So, never think learning about death is a waste. That is the basic lesson everyone has to learn. First a person moves from the physical layer, this body that we are having, to the pranic layer, which involves inhaling and exhaling, the energy or the air movement, the prana movement inside our system.

When we move from first layer to second layer, all our desires, the desires, the unfulfilled desires, the way we wanted to live but did not live, all those things usually come up. It is almost like in a room 10 persons are standing and all the 10 people are kicking a football. What will happen? How the football is kicked from this corner to that corner, that corner to that corner and back from that corner to here. Same way, our consciousness is kicked from all the corners. It moves from all the corners because in each corner some desire is standing and kicking. All our desires are forcing us to enter into the body so that we can enjoy them.

Our desires will be forcing us one side to enter into the body so that we can live and enjoy. The other side, the body will say ‘No! I am tired. I can’t host you anymore; leave!’ One side, the body will tell, ‘I am tired; I can’t host you.’ The other side, the pranic layer, the desires, will force us to live inside the body. That is what is the pulling and pushing. Pulling and pushing is nothing but the fight between the desires and the body.

And somehow if we move from the pranic layer slowly, next we enter into the mental body. In the mental body, another one problem is that all the guilt rises. All the guilt is about the way in that we wanted to live, but we never lived.

See, desire is about the future, guilt is about the past. But both are one and the same. Same thing, when it is about the past it is guilt, when it is about the future it is desire. The way in which we want to live is desire, the way in which we wanted to live but didn't is guilt. I always tell, guilt is nothing but reviewing our past decisions with updated intelligence.

Our intelligence is continuously updated. With this updated intelligence, we review our past decisions. For example, at the age of 7, your mother comes and calls you to eat. She says, 'Enough! Stop playing. Come and eat.' What do you say, 'No, I don't want to eat; I want to play.' If your mother comes and tries to snatch the toys away, what do you do? You not only cry, but also curse your mother. Now you know that the toys are not as important as your mother. Your mother is more important. Now your intelligence is totally different. At that time, toys were so much more important to you than your mother. You started cursing your mother.

Now you know, mother is much more important. With this updated intelligence, we create guilt, 'Oh! At that time I cursed my mother'. What is the use? At that time we had only that much of intelligence. All our decisions are made with the available intelligence.

If we start reviewing our past decisions with updated intelligence, we will always create guilt. All the guilt is nothing but trying to review past decisions with updated intelligence. All the guilt rises in the mental body. Then if we move a little away, a little deeper, we reach the etheric layer that is related to all our sufferings. Like this, each and every layer has got its own samskara.

Actually, traveling through these layers only is called as hell. Really, there is no other place called separately as hell. Hell or heaven are not geographical, they are psychological. Please be very clear, hell and heaven are not geographical. They are psychological.

One more thing, when we enter into the dream layer, if we start dreaming, this whole world will become black and white. We forget this whole world and the dream becomes multi-color. If we come out of the dream, this whole world is seen in 4 dimensions, like 4D.

Now, when we are in this physical layer, this whole world is seen as 4D. We experience this world as 4D, in multi-color. When we are in the dream world, we experience that as 4D. When we are here, dream becomes black and white, and this becomes 4D. When we are there, dream becomes 4D and this world becomes black and white.

In the same manner when we move away from this physical layer to the pranic layer, this whole world will become black and white. What did we work for? What all did we think as the base for our life? You see, we invest in our personality. We build our personality based on a few pillars.

There are a few pillars, foundations, on which we build our personality such as money, name and fame, relationships and pride that I have a big community support. These are the few pillars on which we create our personality.

If someone asks you, ‘Who you are?’ What will you say? ‘I am an engineer’, ‘I am a doctor’, ‘I am a lawyer’. Or you will say, ‘I am the owner of 4 houses’. Or ‘I am such and such a person’s husband or wife’, or I am her husband, or somebody’s son, somebody’s daughter, somebody’s wife. All these things, all these ideas that are the foundations we build our personality upon.

When we move from the physical body, all these foundations will be completely shaken. We can’t sign in our check any more. Our signature is not accepted. Our bank balance is no more related to us. We can’t handle our bank balance. And our car will not be useful to us. At the most only the ambulance will be useful. Our house will not be useful to us. We can’t even relate with our relatives, we can’t talk to them. If we try, they will run away. Whatever had been the foundation for our being, that whole foundation would be shaken. When the foundation is shaken, naturally we don’t have anything to hold on to.

Understand this one thing, if we suddenly hear some loss in our business, we will feel that our whole body is suffering. The suffering will not be in one portion, the whole body will be suffering. It is almost like our being is crushed. We can see in our life, if we just sit in our office and worry about something, we don’t have to do any work, just sit and worry and we will have shoulder pain. If we just sit and worry for 10 minutes, what will happen? We will only have shoulder pain.

When something moves away from us, our whole body suffers. When we move from the physical body, the same suffering starts happening. Whatever we thought as a foundation for our life is shaken.

As of now, this whole world will appear in 4D. All this spirituality, meditation, growing the inner being, consciousness and all these issues will appear black and white. That is why, when I call people for meditation, they tell me, ‘I don’t have time to meditate.’ Never say ‘I don’t have time to meditate.’ Be very clear to yourself and say, ‘I don’t feel that it is that much important.’ If we say, ‘I don’t think meditation is so important’ then we are honest. But never say ‘I don’t have time.’ Everybody has got the same 24 hours. It is not that the few who are meditating are jobless. It is just a question of priority, what we want in our life.

As of now, this world will appear in 4 dimensions, in multi-color. That is the reason all this spirituality or the consciousness, spiritual experience, all these will appear in two colors. But, when we move away from the physical body, whatever we thought as 4D everything will totally disappear, because their foundations would have been shaken. That time, we will not have any base. Or we will not have any space, where we can rest. That is the reason why death is always about suffering. At that moment of death or before, if we can have a conscious glimpse truth, or awareness of consciousness, we can consciously enter into death.

If we understand this completely, whatever we think as 4D will not seem as important. Our personality will not be built on this 4D. While we are still living we need to create at least one foundation or pillar in the other dimension of spirituality. See, now we are in two dimensions, this material world and the other is that of spirituality.

As on now, if our being has got 10 pillars, all the 10 pillars are based on this world and this 4D. Not a single pillar is based on consciousness or the inner space. Our whole personality is built only based on the outer space - our name, our fame, what society speaks about us.

Our complete personality is structured based only on what society speaks about us. If everybody around us says that we are great, what do we think? We think, ‘I am a great person.’ If everybody says, ‘You are useless’, what do we start doing? We start getting depressed.

Not even a single pillar of our building is based on spirituality. Our entire identity is based on outer space. Everything important to us is based on our wealth, our name and fame, our social setup, our relationships, our family, our friends. That is the reason why we start suffering terribly when those pillars are shaken. If we have even only one pillar in the consciousness, we will not have suffering.

That is what the Gita says: what comes and stands in our mind at the time of leaving the body decides what we shall be in our next birth. If we have even only one pillar on the consciousness, naturally, we will not have the suffering when we leave the body. All the other nine pillars will become black and white. Even if the other nine pillars become black and white, this one pillar of consciousness will be there to guide us. That one pillar will be there in the multi color and 4D.

As of now, that pillar does not exist. As of now, our whole personality is based on outer space. All our pillars are in this 4D. There is no inner space. That is why people can kick us around like a ball. If any body just throws one word at us, that’s all, we are depressed. If somebody says we are mad, we shout at them and prove that we are mad! A single word is enough to make us mad. Nothing much is necessary. We see the street dogs, if we throw one stone at the dog, it is enough to disturb that dog.

We are in no way better than street dogs. Any body throwing one word on us is enough. We are already out because our whole personality is built on the outer space. In the inner space we don’t have strength. One more thing, as of now the inner space looks black and white. That is why we never give importance. But when we move from the body, the inner space will become 4D, the outer space will become black and white. Even if there is a single pillar in our inner space, we will not have any suffering at the time of leaving the body. We will leave the body beautifully.

Now let us see how the second death happened so peacefully. Now the statement that I am making is a little difficult to understand but again I have no other way, because truth has to be explained. Truth has to be expressed. Only then you will be able to enter into the formula. This is the way the formula has happened to the person. When the second death was happening, the moment the person left the first layer body, because an enlightened being was standing there, because of his presence, somehow he was able to catch a glimpse of that consciousness. He was able to catch my presence.

At this time, I had become enlightened. But at the time of the first death I was witness to I was not enlightened. I was still doing my tapas. I was wandering all over India. At that time of the second death I had already been enlightened. Somehow because of that he was able to catch a glimpse of consciousness. The moment he left the first layer body, he was able to feel me or experience me. The moment he started experiencing me his whole consciousness was simply centered on me.

See, what are the things that usually stop you from surrendering to the Master? These are issues like your bank balance, your house, your car, your relationship, your wife and your own insecurity about your life. You are concerned that if you surrender what would happen. You may start becoming a servant for him. There are so many other such concerns.

All these things are stopping you from surrendering or entering into the consciousness. Surrendering and entering into the consciousness, all these are one and the same. But for that person who was dying all these things have already become valueless. When he has left the first level body, naturally all these things have become already valueless. So, whatever is catching or pulling, whatever strings are pulling him down are already cut, disconnected.

As long as you think the outer world is worthy and that it has got value, you will have the fear that somebody may take it away or somebody may snatch it from you. As long as you think that whatever you collected in your life is valuable you will have tremendous fear. That is why I tell people that as long as you think these things are valuable you will never be able to experience fearlessness. There will be continuous fear. The more you have the more the fear in you and the more your being will be shaken. Every moment you will be waiting afraid of what may happen. But at that moment, whatever can be taken away from that person has been taken away. Now there is nothing to lose. Trusting the Master is very easy at that moment.

Somehow, fortunately he had my presence there. Simply he could understand that all the other things are valueless. When the physical body and material things were taken away from him, his whole consciousness without any doubt, without any difficulty, was centered on me. Naturally, when he was centered on the enlightened being or conscious being, he simply dissolved into that enlightenment without any suffering.

What ever is stopping you now will not stop you at that time. At that time you don't have to practice renunciation, everything will be taken away from you by force. See, only as long you have choices you have to practice this renunciation of wealth, fame and all these things. At the time of death you don't have to practice renunciation because everything will be taken away from you. What is there to practice? You see, you don't have anything to even renounce.

So, there is nothing that can stop you from entering into the enlightenment experience. There is nothing that can stop you from entering into the conscious experience. But only one thing you need, when you leave the body, you need a conscious being around you. Without that, it is not possible. Now what to do? I can't go and stand in all the ICUs and ask people 'Hey, when will you die? When will you die?'

From my experience I can tell you that leaving the body peacefully is the greatest gift anybody can have. If you have got that gift, you achieved whatever has to be achieved. You have lived your life; nothing else needs to be achieved. If you have not achieved that, nothing is worth achieving.

After seeing this second death, I started seriously contemplating about how this can be reproduced? Or, how can I help people to leave consciously? As I was telling you, I cannot go and stand in all the ICUs. That's impossible.

And one more thing, energy is not bound by space or time. Energy is beyond time and space. All we need is a set-top-box, that's all. See, if you have a set-top-box in your house, you can just tune your TV to some channel. If you tune to BBC, you will see BBC. If you tune to CNN, you will see CNN. Whatever channel you tune you can see that program.

Same way, at the time of leaving the body if you can tune yourself to consciousness, if you can tune yourself to thoughtless awareness, conscious experience, simply you will see your life is a conscious experience. You will be able to cross this ocean of samsara, birth and death or this ocean of samskara, ocean of all these 7 layers, beautifully and peacefully.

We are going to work with that formula in this program. Please understand, if you work with the theory of gravity, you can understand completely what Newton experienced. Same way, work with this formula, you can simply experience what that dying man experienced. What has happened in my consciousness and his can happen in your consciousness also. All you need to do is, work with this formula intensely. Just go with this formula as intensely as possible. Nothing else needs to be done.