Bhagwad Gita - Post 100

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.

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.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 98

Verse 4

Adhibhootam ksharo bhaavah

Purushashcha adhi daivatam;

Adhiyajno’hamevaatra

Dehe dehabhritaam vara.

  

Adhibhuta (knowledge of the elements) pertains to My perishable Nature, and the Purusha or soul is the Adhidaiva; I alone am the Adhiyajna here in this body, O best among the embodied (men)!

ADHIBHOOTA

The perishable world is the adhibhuta prapancha. All the world of names and forms, including this body, is perishable. It is under mutation; it is a flux. It is a continuity of a succession of events, and no object in this world can be said to be existing individually or independently even for a second.

Persons like Buddha have highlighted this aspect by saying that the world is like a flowing river, where we cannot touch the same water the next moment. Like a flame that is burning and every minute, every second, there is a new set of atoms of fire rushing forth, the world is not a total indivisibility, but a movement. As a flame is a movement, as water in the river is a movement, the world is a movement. Therefore, it is perishable because when it moves, it is conditioned at every minute into bits of process.

ADHYATMA

The word Adhyatma can be split into Adhi+Atma.

Beyond everything that a human mind can think of, there is

the Supreme, which is being eternal, is also imperishable.  And that Supreme is none other than Brahman. 

The universe  of which all the beings form a part, is a physical manifestation of that Brahman. Since we are a part of this universe, there has to be a component of that Brahman in all of us. 

And that component is Adhyatma.

(When we the drawings have superimposed ourselves on the pure canvas Brahman, it is but natural that in all of us, there has to be Brahman, the part of that pure canvas on which we have superimposed ourselves)

ADHIDAIVA

There is a Supreme adhidaiva who brings everything together into a hierarchy of divine operations, even when the different Gods act. Indra, Varuna, Mitra, Surya, Agni, Devi, Narayana, Vishnu, Siva, Ganesha — all these divinities represent facets of the Supreme Absolute, and they have to be put into a pattern of harmonious action so that one will not do something which would contradict what the other does. Gods do not contradict themselves.

Siva does not contradict what Ganesha does, nor does Ganesha contradict what Narayana does. There is a harmony of principle in the mode of behaviour and action of these Gods. They are all conditioned by a supreme constitution of the Absolute, and that is the adhidaiva.

ADHIYAGNA

Yajna here means the "act of perception, feeling, or thought." As in the Yajna, here also oblations --- the sense-objects --- are poured into the Yajna altar --- the sense-organs --- when the Devata --- the particular faculty in it --- gets propitiated and invoked, and as a blessing from it we gain the "fruit" thereof, viz., the knowledge of the perception. In this Adhiyajna, in the subjective Yajna-act of perception, it is quite evident that the One Vital Factor that dominates the entire activity is the Self, the Principle of Life.

The spirit of sacrifice in human also originates from the Supreme, that is Brahman. Adhiyagna simply means the spirit of sacrifice originating from the Supreme.

Love.