Verse 6
Yam yam vaapi smaran bhaavam
tyajatyante kalevaram;
Tam tamevaiti kaunteya
sadaa tadbhaavabhaavitah.
Whosoever at
the end leaves the body, thinking of any being, to that being only does he go,
O son of Kunti (Arjuna), because of his constant thought of that being!
Chinmaya
writes,
“Whosoever,
at the end, leaves the body, thinking of any being, to that being only he goes,
O Kaunteya (O son of Kunti) , because of his constant thought of that being.
Declaring
this well-thought-out conclusion of the Rishis, the Self-dedicated thinkers of
India, the Lord says "whatever
object one remembers while leaving the body, that alone is reached by him".
"As you think so you become" is a
theory which is obvious to every intelligent man even without an explanation
from any philosopher. Thoughts guide all actions, and at any given moment the
run of thoughts in an individual is governed and ordered by the channel of
thinking, which he himself has ploughed in his bosom with his conscious and
willful thoughts and actions in the past.
Naturally,
therefore, a mental equipment that has been struggling during its existence in
an embodiment to detach from all its identifications with that embodiment, and
to fix itself in the contemplation of the Real and the Eternal, would be
creating new channels of divine aspirations (Adhyatma Samskaras).
The time of
death, when the occupant of the body has packed up to quit, is not the moment
to decide or to plan the travel. At such a moment, instinctively, its thoughts
would run through its habitual channels, and the flight of thoughts at that
moment would determine the direction of the ego's pilgrimage!!
One’s final thoughts will naturally be determined by what was
constantly contemplated and meditated upon during the span of life, as
influenced by one's daily habits and associations.
The Puranas relate the story of Maharaja Bharatha. He was
a king, but he renounced his kingdom to live in the forest as an ascetic and
pursue God-realization.
One day, he saw a pregnant deer jump into the water on hearing a
tiger roar. Out of fear, the pregnant deer delivered a baby deer that
began floating on the water. Bharatha felt pity on the baby deer and
rescued it. He took it to his hut and began bringing it up. With
great affection, he would watch its frolicking movements. He would gather
grass to feed it, and would hug it to keep it warm. Slowly, his mind came
away from God and became absorbed in the deer. 
The absorption became so deep that, practically all day long,
his thoughts would wander toward the deer. When he was about to die, he
called out to the deer in fond remembrance, concerned about what would happen
to him. Consequently, in his next life, Maharaj Bharatha became a
deer. 
However, because he had performed spiritual sādhanā, he was aware of the mistake in his previous
life, and so even as a deer, he would reside near the āśhrams of saintly persons in the forest.
Finally, when he gave up the deer body, he was again given a human birth.
This time, he became the great sage Jadabharatha, and attained God-realization
by completing his sādhanā.
One should not conclude upon reading the verse, that for the
attainment of the ultimate goal, the Supreme Lord is only to be meditated upon
at the moment of death. This is well-nigh impossible without a lifetime
of preparation.
The Skanda Purāṇa states
that at the time of death it is exceedingly difficult to remember God.
Death is such a painful experience, that the mind naturally gravitates to the
thoughts that constitute one’s inner nature. For the mind to think of God
requires one’s inner nature to be united with Him. The inner nature is
the consciousness that abides within one’s mind and intellect. Only if we contemplate something continuously does it manifest as a part
of our inner nature. So to develop a God-consciousness inner nature, the
Lord must be remembered, recollected, and contemplated upon at every moment of
our life.
The essence of this verse is that “if we have pursued spiritual
path sincerely in present life and are clear about the purpose of our birth,
about the final goal to be attained, then, necessarily we would end
up being born in most favorable environment / most conducive family so as
to rush towards the goal in the next birth, if not at the end of this birth
itself.
“Whosoever at the end leaves
the body, thinking of any being, to that being only does he go”
Love.
