Yoga Vasishta - Post 37

The enlightened Lila said: O Goddess, kindly enlighten me concerning death: is it pleasant or unpleasant, and what happens after death?

 

Sarasvati said: There are three types of human beings, my dear: the fool, one who is practicing concentration and meditation, and the yogi (or intelligent one). The two latter types of human beings abandon the body by the practice 'of the yoga of concentration and meditation and depart at their sweet will and pleasure. 

 

But, the fool who has not practiced concentration or meditation, being at the mercy of forces outside himself, experiences great anguish at the approach of death.

 

He wishes to express his suffering, but is unable to do so. Gradually, his senses lose their power; and he is unable even to think. Therefore he sinks in unwisdom and ignorance.  

 

When there is cessation of the flow of the life­ breath, the consciousness of the individual becomes utterly passive. Please remember, O Lila, that consciousness is pure, eternal and infinite: it does not arise nor cease to be. It is ever there in the moving and unmoving creatures, in the sky, on the mountain and in fire and air. 

 

When life­ breath ceases, the body is said to be 'dead' or 'inert'. The life ­breath returns to its source—air—and consciousness freed from memory and tendencies remains as the self.

 

After a momentary lapse of consciousness, the jiva begins to fancy that it sees another body, another world and another life­span.

 

O Lila, there are six categories of such 'departed souls': bad, worse and worst sinners; good, better, best of virtuous ones. Of course, there are sub­divisions among these, too. 

 

(In the case of some of the worst sinners, the momentary lapse of consciousness may last a considerable time.)

 

The worst among the sinners undergo terrible sufferings in hell and then are born in countless living species, before they see the end of their agony. They might even exist as trees for a long time.

 

The middling among sinners also suffer lapse of consciousness for a considerable time; and then are born as worms and animals.

 

The light sinners are soon reborn as human beings.

 

The best among the righteous ascend to heaven and enjoy life there. Later they are born in good and affluent families on earth.

 

The middling among the righteous go to the region of the celestials, and return to the earth as children of brahmanas, etc.

 

Even the righteous among the departed ones, after enjoying such heavenly pleasures, have to pass through the realms of the demigods to suffer the consequences of the iniquities they might have committed.

SARASVATI continued:

All these departed souls experience within themselves the fruition of their own past actions. At first there is the notion 'I am dead', and then 'I am being carried away  by the messengers of the god of death'. 

The righteous among them fancy that they are taken to heaven; and the ordinary sinners fancy that they are standing in the  court of the god of death where, with the help of Chitragupta (the hidden record of one's deeds), they are being tried and judged for their past life. 

Love