SOME THOUGHTS ON DEATH and IMMORTALITY---7

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Hari OM.Death

is denoted as the moment when the soul or spirit covered by the subtle body, comprising mind,intellect and ego, departs from the material Gross body. It is said that the subtle body always travels with the soul wherever it goes within this material world and therefore the living entity has a continuity of material experience throughout its different avatars or existence in gross body. It is said that when death happens the first thing that a person experiences is total darkness or lackness which lasts only for a moment. The Atma or Supersoul which is present everywhere is said to illuminate a hole which appears to be light at the the end of a tunnel to the soul. It is said that there are 118 passageways through which one might depart from the body but one can depart only through one whole at thhe time of death.

These passages are called nadis or channels of consciousness. Garuda Purana holds that death occurs when both the main(spine) nadis viz., Ida and Pingala are at work. These are major nerve channels of energy flow within the body. It is said if one departs through anus or genitals the soul goes to lower regions or hell. Similarly, one who departs through upper regions of the body goes to the higher regions like swargaloka etc. For whom the ultimate departure takes place through the top of their skull from the hole known as Brahmarandhra or Sahasrara, the place where three bones in the skull are said to meet, will attains the regions of Brahman. That is the region after attaining which the soul does not come back(Yad gatwa na nivarthanthi bhuyah) as the Gita puts it. This is what is called as Param Dhama, etc. etc. in Bhagawad Gita and

Upanishads . That is what is meant by IMMORTALiTY. Mortality ,on the other hand, is known as Samsara(keep travelling up and down) or "Punarapi jananam punarapi maranam" etc. etc. It is upto each one of us as to which destination we want to go and through which hole our sole should depart. One thing is clear. If we can tread the path that has been shown to us by our beloved Swamy, the departure of soul in our case can not be through the lower parts of the body. (to be continued)G.Balasubramanian