Bhagwad Gita - Post 99

Verse 5

Antakaale cha maameva

Smaranmuktwaa kalevaram;

Yah prayaati sa madbhaavam

Yaati naastyatra samshayah.

And whosoever, leaving the body, goes forth remembering Me alone at the time of death, he attains My Being; there is no doubt about this.

Sri Krishna says this  because the shape that the mind takes at the time of death will be the shape into which it will enter after death. Thus, the pattern of our future life in the other world is laid at the time of our passing from this body, depending on the state of thinking in which the mind is lodged. 

“Whoever contemplates on Me only” — you may ask what this ‘Me’ is. The Supreme Being is a total blend of all the aspects of possible concepts — the adhyatma, adhibhuta, adhidaiva, etc. It is a timeless conceptualization of an eternal possibility and that is the kind of ‘Me’ on which we have to concentrate.

The Universal Being is telling us: “Concentrate on Me.” The Universal Being shall reveal itself completely in the Eleventh Chapter. Now it is preparing the way for it. It is gaining momentum; the tempo of the teaching is gradually rising. 

The heat is rising, as it were, in the very manner of the exposition, until it reaches the culmination in the Visvarupa Darshana. 

Therefore, it is this Universal Visvarupa, the Total Existence, that is the object of our concentration. “That is Me, and on Me (that type of ‘Me’) you concentrate yourself.” 

We should attempt to bring our mind to that point of meditation when we depart from this body. That is the antakala, or the end period of our life. If we think that any moment is the end period of our life, it will be good on our part to be meditating like this always. 

There is no loss in getting engaged in this meditation day in and day out. We will not lose anything by thinking of God. 

One  may ask , “How do I know when I will pass away? Should I think that I will pass away just now, and collect myself in tremendous earnestness? Or should I be at ease with myself because I may not die so quickly, because I have a long tenure of life—for ten, twenty, thirty or forty years more, as the case may be? 

So are you telling me that I can postpone this meditation to later for consideration, and now I can be merry in this world?” Not so is the case. 

We cannot expect to have that blessing of concentration at the time of passing from this body unless we have cultivated that habit even earlier throughout our life. 

If we have lived a dissipated, indulgent life during our normal tenure here, our span of life, do we think some butter will come by churning water? Butter comes only by churning milk.

So, in essence, this verse has to be understood thus:-

For one to remember Him and Him alone, the one who has been described as Adhi-daiva / Adhi-atma in earlier verse, one must have taken up spiritual sadhana from early stage in life and with intense purushartha, one must have evolved to such an extent that, while his body leaves, there is no possibility of any thought other than the thought /  focus / contemplation on the highest Supreme Source.

If one is evolved to such an extent as explained above, so that, already the concept of Body, Mind, Intellect, Samsara (in essence, individual ego) has been transcended, then, very soon, may be upon death or in the early life in the next birth, such an evolved soul is sure to reach HIM (Attain liberation / freedom from this samsara, freedom from the cycle of birth and death).

Love.