Reference: DEATH: An Inside Story
“No two people in the world live their lives the same way. Similarly, no two people die the same way. People may die in the same situation, of the same cause, but still they don’t die the same way.” ~ Sadhguru
3.1 Types of Deaths
GOALS
As people create ‘life goals’ for themselves, there is growing awareness that one should set ‘death goals’ as well.
UNTIMELY DEATH
We call a death untimely when someone has intent to live, that is, they still have Prarabdha Karma to work out, but suddenly something strikes them down and they die. Most people do not die a natural death because they die while their intent is still on.
TIMELY DEATH
Chronological age, whether you are thirty-five or sixty-five or ninety-five years old is not the point. The criterion is that the intent to live is gone. Then, in terms of life, it is a timely death.
NATURAL DEATH
In a natural or timely death, Prarabdha Karma, or the information that runs the life, runs out and life becomes feeble. Life peters out slowly and this is not torturous but beautiful. The last few moments will become very peaceful, wonderful and perceptive. There is no attachment but an extraordinary sense of maturity. Natural death is not a bad death. It is a good thing for you and a good thing for those you are leaving behind because you are not being forced out of your body. For this to happen, you need to empty your Prarabdha Karma before your body wears out.
RUNNING OUT PRARABDH KARMA
How rapidly you empty your Prarabdha Karma depends on how quickly you move from one aspect of life to another. If you are eighty and still think like a teenager wanting to romance someone, your Prarabdha Karma has not run out. You are not rid of what you should have done at sixteen or eighteen. Now, it will not matter if you live to be a hundred, you will still die an unnatural death because the body will run out, but the Prarabdha Karma will not.
MORTALITY
If a person dies naturally, he or she clearly knows that they are going to die and you will see they will display extraordinary wisdom. That possibility is being completely obliterated in the so-called modern society because everyone is trying to be immortal at any cost, and they will die a bad death because of that. You can die well only if you accept your mortality.
DEATH BY CHOICE
This, in a sense, is not death, but actually the transcendence of the cycle of birth and death. This can happen when a person is able to untangle his life energy from the physical body without damaging it. The person has understood where the keys to his or her karmic structure are and is able to dismantle it completely. Such a person becomes truly no more. This is considered the highest kind of death. This is also referred to as Mahasamadhi in the Hindu tradition and Mahaparinirvana in the Buddhist tradition. In English, we simply call it Liberation, meaning one has become free from the very process of life, birth and death.
3.2 Predictions of Death
It is difficult to predict death when a person is on a spiritual path. But there are factors, such as, a person’s energy, the exhaustion of Prarabdha Karma and various other aspects, that can help predict a person’s death. Apparently, death can be sensed in advance consciously or unconsciously. According to Sadhguru, “When there is an imminent death, the defined boundaries of the body will be somewhat diffused, which will dilute one’s physical presence in our vision.”
The transition from life to death is a transition from a certain level of dynamism to a certain level of inertia. Eyeballs will focus less. Breath will become shallower. Foreseeing death up to four to six months is very much a possibility. So at that time, if you become meditative, you will go peacefully and joyfully, and the shutting down will happen well. Otherwise, if you fight it and do this and that, you will leave in ugly ways; it may become painful and disturbed. This is why it is said that you must be ready for death every moment of your life. When it is time, you will know how to sit in a conducive place and die. That is the best way.
3.3 Negative Energies
CURSE
One simple way people try to hurt others is through a curse. It is a certain level of black, negative thought that is directed towards you. Because of this, you become sick. When this happens, if you don’t find a good doctor, you can become mentally unstable or even die.
NOTE: A curse appears to be a way of restimulating a person’s case.
BLACK ART
After the mind, blood is the most susceptible thing. The next thing that can be affected is your liver or your kidneys because, once again, certain things flow through these. Above all, it is vulnerability of fear that generally does a large part of the work. If one, either through devotion or meditativeness, comes to a sense of fearlessness, that is the simplest way of being above such base arts.
CURE FROM NEGATIVE IMPACT
One simple way is to be in the space of the Dhyanalinga for three days. If there is strong sadhana, one does not have to worry about all these things. For such a person, all these things don’t matter. For example, if the brahmacharis sit in Siddhasana, with their eyeballs rolled up intensely, it will all be gone in two minutes.
NOTE: Being in the space of Dhyanalinga sounds like Placebo effect caused by faith. Siddhasana sounds like self-hypnosis.
3.4 Suicide: A Perspective
SUICIDE
Suicide is one classification of death that has become a growing epidemic of our times, even though our generation of people have more comfort and convenience than any other in the history of humankind. This is an indicator of things going seriously wrong with humanity.
NOTE: The book says, “Referring to Sadhguru’s own peculiar predicament, where, having already dismantled his karmic structure, he has to strive to keep his body.” From my perspective, nobody is fully free of karma, until everybody is free of karma. This is according to the Principle of Oneness.
REASON FOR SUICIDE
Fundamentally, people want to commit suicide because in some way they don’t know how to handle life. It is like you want to find a permanent solution to a temporary situation in life. That is all it is. Either they don’t know how to handle their emotions, thoughts, physical ailment, financial or family situation—there is something they don’t know how to handle. When you are trapped in that situation, it may look like it is the end of the world in your understanding. Essentially, you do not know how to handle a specific aspect of your life. So you think the best thing is to end life. It is ignorance, ignorance about the nature of life.
HANDLING
A lot of fixing is needed in the world because sometimes people do terrible things to each other.
3.5 Succour for the Suicidal
SUICIDAL MENTAL STATE
Most people who want to commit suicide do it not because the world is torturing them; it is because they are torturing themselves through their own thoughts and emotions. They drive themselves to this point, simply because they have not made an attempt to know anything about the fundamental nature of their own existence and the mechanics of life that they are. Silly little thoughts and emotions that they created become a Universe in itself. Those who really want to commit suicide generally become quiet.
HANDLING
Sympathy is not what a suicidal person needs. He needs a little treatment and very cautious levels of disdain. In Yoga, a suicidal tendency is considered the result of an aberration or distortion at the energy level of the person. For such people, only bringing a certain amount of exuberance to their energies will bring them out of it. There are tools and methods to do this, and it is possible to pull most people out of it. Time, energy and organization are the only barriers to this.
3.6 The Consequences of Suicide
SUICIDE
In suicide, one breaks one’s body while the Prarabdha Karma is still on. All that life cares about is are you making a pleasant experience of it for yourself, or an unpleasant experience, and the consequences come accordingly. With death, only the physical body is gone, the subtler bodies still hang around until the allotted karma is finished. When young people commit suicide, particularly in very great distress, they linger around for a long time.
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