C L Kaloo
Swami Vivekananda delivered his speech at Lahore on 12th November, 1897 on “Vedanta”. He advocated that there are two worlds in which we live; one the external, the other internal. Human process has been made from days of yore, almost in parallel lines along both the worlds.
Search began in the external, and the man at first wanted to get answers for all the deep problems from outside nature. It was an attempt to get the solution of the deep problems of life from the material world.
“Yesyeetey heemventay mhatwa”
Means; whose glory these Himalayas declare. This is a grand idea, yet according to Swami ji, it was not grand enough for India. The Indian mind had to fall back, and the research took a different direction, altogether; from the external the search came to the internal, from matter to mind. There arose the cry,” when a man dies what becomes of him?”
“Asteetetyekey nayamstteetey chikey…”
Some say that he exists, others- that he is gone; – say, O king of death; what is the truth? In his deliverance on the Vedanta, Swami Vivekananda stated, in reference to the above cry (question) “The Indian mind got all that could be had from the external world but it did not get satisfied with that. It wanted to search further, to dive into its own soul and the final answer came. We know that all our great philosophers, whether Vyasa, Patanjali and even the Father of all philosophy, the great Kapila (Kapil Rishi) himself, whenever they wanted an authority for what they wrote, everyone of them found it in the Upanishads for therein are the truths only that remain forever. However in this context, the Lord in the Bhagavat Gita in Adhaya 8th tells Arjuna,” Lastly, he enters my Being who thinks only of ME at the hour of his passing, when the body is abandoned.” Normally, a worldly man is influenced chiefly by the external vibrations of activity that emanates from the cosmic vibratory Being- “AUM”, he thus becomes entangled in matter. Thus, each human life in a general sense bears the effect of the activities of the past lives and the sum total of the activities of a man’s entire life determines the specific one or more of his future incarnations- this is the truth beyond doubt, says the Lord in the Bhagavat Gita. The Lord in another shloka in Adhaya 8th (8:6 B.G) says:
“yam yamvapi smaran bhavam- Tyajatyante kalevaram,
Tam tam evaiti kaunteya- sada tad-bhava-bhaviteh”
Means: O son of Kunti (Arjuna) that thought with which a dying man leaves the body determines through his long persistence in it, his next state of being.
Thus, the Lord clearly explains in the Holy Gita that the Entirety of a human life is a preparation for the final examination at death. A man, suddenly finding himself at the door of death reviews the thoughts, desires and habits of his entire life. He may feel pre dominantly guilty of his evil actions or predominantly happy because of his good deeds or predominantly worldly because of his material activities. Whatever his feeling, it is the determining cause that will lead him to a particular part of the astral world and then to another suitable incarnation on earth. “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). Thus the paramount habit of thought and feeling during a man’s years on earth is the most important factor on “The day of Judgement”. Therefore, the final thought produced by the Tenor of a life time is indeed the KARMIC JUDGE that announces a man’s next destination.
In this context, Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda writes as I quote: ‘as a result of scientific research and comprehensive studies through descriptions given by dying patients in moments just before passing, and by people who were revived after a state of temporary clinical death, the doctors at major universities and medical research centres, have identified a consistent pattern in these so called “near death experiences.” Similarly, Dr Raymond Moody in his book, “Life after life”- (New York- Bantam 1975) and Dr Osis and Dr Haraldson in their book, “At the hour of death” (New York- Avon Books 1977) have written as quoted here under: – “At death man is overcome by fear at his strange experience- that of gradually finding himself unable to feel or express his will through a physical body. Then drowsiness overtakes him for some time, remains in a state of peaceful slumber. Awakening from this sleep of death- much needed after thess hard trials of life- he becomes aware of his encasement in an astral body, one whose tissues are made of light. Amid the new beauties of the astral world, he forgets the whole of his past physical existence. A Yogi or an advanced spiritual aspirant consciously observes through his spherical spiritual eye the various phenomena of death. Even a person whose soul is only partially awakened by good karma, May at the advent of death, has glimpses of his glory of the mortal transition from the physical body to the astral heaven___”
However, Bhagavat Gita has described astral and casual worlds, and the manifestations of the Divine are in evidence in the cosmic dream, but HE- the Ruler remains hidden.
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