Death is a natural phenomenon ending life

Death is a phenomenon that depends upon the attachment of the person to his body. The Vedic scripture Garuda Purana gives horrifying details about the death-pains. Wise people refrain from becoming attached to something which they are bound to be separated from, which means death. To keep one’s death painless on needs to have no attachment to the body. This can be carefully achieved by acting for the Supreme Lord, Krishna. Shrimad Bhagwad Gita 3.9 and 10.8.

Events which occur after death is given in Garuda Purana. For 9 days, the dead person receives rice balls and on tenth day, he/she obtains good strength. Exactly on the thirteenth day, the servants of Yama capture the soul and bound by Yama’s servants, the soul walks along the road like a captured monkey. Once after reaching Yamaloka, Yama’s assistant Chitragupta lists out the good and bad deeds done by the person. It is then decided whether the person should be retained in Yamaloka for doing bad deeds or should be transferred to Indra’s heaven. The below conversation is between Lord Vishnu and Garuda.

40. For nine days and nights the departed obtains rice-balls, and on the tenth day the being, with fully formed body, acquires strength. 50. The old body being cremated, a new one is formed by these offerings, O Bird; the man, the size of a hand (cubit), by this experiences good and evil on the way. 51-53. By the rice-ball of the first day the head is-formed; the neck and shoulders by the second; by the third the heart forms: By the fourth the back forms; and by the fifth the navel; by the sixth the hips and secret parts; by the seventh the thigh forms; Likewise next the knees and feet by two; on the tenth day hunger and thirst.

54. Dwelling in the body formed by the rice-balls, very hungry and pained with thirst, on both the eleventh and twelfth days the departed eats. 55. On the thirteenth day the departed, bound by the servants of Yama, walks alone along the road like a captured monkey. 56. The extent of the way of Yama measures eighty-six thousand Yojanas, without Vaitarani, O Bird. 57. Two hundred and forty-seven Yojanas each day the departed travels, going by day and night. 58-59. Having passed successively. through these sixteen cities on the way, the sinful man goes to the place of the King of Righteousness.

Throughout this life you prepare your next body. Since we are all eternal spirit soul we never die, but we must inhabit a body to fulfill our desires. Material desires need a material body, spiritual desires need a spiritual body and no desires don’t need a body. Whatever desires you cultivate and act on in this life, prepare your next body. Because there are unlimited ways to live a life there are unlimited possibilities for the next birth because the next birth is dependent on this life. Whatever consciousness you develop in this life will be present at the time of your death and that will take you to the next birth.

There are heavenly destinations and hellish destinations within this universe and spiritual destinations outside this universe; there is the unvariegated region with no activity, there are 8,4000,000 different types of bodies according to mentality and consciousness within this universe. There are living entities on every planet with bodies suitable for the environment there. What happens after death is that you go to your next birth, or a very few people with no desires go to Brahman.

Once you leave your body the decision is made by material nature, and although relatives and well-wishers left behind can have some influence over events, we don’t have any ourselves. We have all our chances to make choices in this life, as a human being, and once this birth is over we are simply in the system again and the process is automatic without any consideration of our desires or pleas. In that way it’s a bit like a judicial and penal system in a country. Once you are arrested, then you go to trial and if convicted you are sentenced. Regretting your criminal activity doesn’t absolve you from guilt, nor does charitable work performed while under trial. You broke the law and you will be punished.

The living entities in species lower than humans, due to their lower understanding of metaphysical concepts and total lack of morality aren’t subject to this arrangement. They simply take one birth after another through the different species until they hit human, whereupon they have a small amount of free will to decide how to react to the circumstances of their life. That small amount of free will makes their subsequent birth the result of their choices. The soul travels to a different plane (dimension). After that , it assesses its ‘bank balance’ of karma (result of good and bad deeds) and unfulfilled desires (vasanas), and then decides what sort of birth it should take next to experience the balance of karma and desires, and then is reborn again! And this cycle repeats itself. This rebirth cycle only stops then the net ‘bank balance’ of karma is zero (no more results of good or bad deeds left to experience) and no more desires left for the soul to fulfill.

The whole system is very organized, very detailed and very fair. It’s been running for a long time, so there are no bugs in the program. Every living entity you see has landed up in the body they have by this process, including ourselves of course, and as we work our way through this life, our next life is being put together for us as we go, so that at the time of death we are transferred through the agencies of material nature to all that awaits us.

Hinduism teaches that any attempt to find permanent happiness in this world is maya (an illusion). Hindus believe that a person's atman (spirit) is permanent and cannot change while the physical body is not permanent and can change. The atman is reborn many times, this is samsara (reincarnation). As a man casts off his worn-out clothes and takes on other new ones, so does the embodied soul cast off his worn-out bodies and enters other new.

Shrimad Bhagwad Gita 2:22: Death is a natural event so that the atman can move nearer the ultimate release from rebirth, moksha. For sure is the death of all that comes to birth, sure is the birth of all that dies. So in a matter that no one can prevent thou hast no cause to grieve. Shrimad Bhagwad Gita 2:27 Each group in society (varna) has its own dharma or duties which must be followed. The speed with which a person can be freed from samsara is dependent on karma, which is the law of cause and effect which teaches that all actions have corresponding results. The following terms are important:

Samchita karma - the karma from previous lives

Paapa - sinful actions in the past; these can cause suffering

Agami karma - the actions which are performed in the present life and which go on to affect the future.

When the atman finally reaches moksha it can rest:

'Coming right nigh to Me, these great of soul, are never born again. For rebirth is full of suffering, knows nothing that abides: free from it now they attain the all-highest prize.'

Shrimad Bhagwad Gita 8:15 Euthanasia and suicide are both attempts to shorten life, and there is a variety of views about them among Hindus. Euthanasia: Most Hindus would say that a doctor should not accept a patient's request for euthanasia since this will cause the soul and body to be separated at an unnatural time. The result will change the karma of both doctor and patient. Other Hindus believe that euthanasia cannot be allowed because it breaches the teaching of ahimsa (doing no harm).

However, some Hindus say that by helping to end a painful life a person is performing a good deed and so fulfilling their moral obligations. Suicide: A Hindu who is very old or very ill may decide for themselves that the right time has come for death by choosing to stop eating or drinking. This act of renouncing the world shows that the Hindu realises that the world is not as important as it appears. This method of choosing death is often admired as a sign of great holiness. The suicide of people who take their own lives because they are depressed or feel hopeless is not acceptable to Hindus, unless they took their lives as self-sacrifice or because they cannot live without someone who has just died. The one who tries to escape from the trials of life by committing suicide will suffer even more in the next life. Yajur Veda 40-43

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"As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones."(SBg 2.22) At the time of death the spirit soul leaves the gross body together with the subtle body (astral body-mind, intelligence and false ego)and is "born again" into the womb of a female body according to the law of karma (either immediately or after some time). One's next birth is determined by one's consciousness at the time of death (yam yam vapi smaran bhavan.SBg 8.6) because everything we do or think in our present life leaves an impression in the mind and the summary of these impressions influences our consciousness at the time of death.

It is important to understand that one may have to accept any type of body after leaving one's human body. If one's human existence is without the cultivation of spiritual knowledge one has to enter lower forms of life. Garuda Purana: Lord Vishnu Says To Garuda: When a person dies, the journey of the soul begins and it moves away from the body. The experience of the person who is dying is very painful and even a second feels like an year. After leaving the body divya drishti is given to the soul from which it can see the whole world from anywhere, but it can’t express its feeling to any living person because the soul leaves it earth element after death. Om Namah Shivay