Verses 8.3–8.6🔗

Before going into what happens at the time of death, let us understand how we assume the body, how we live through it and how we leave it. Please understand that we create our whole body out of our fear, greed, guilt and our engraved memories, called the root thought patterns (saṁskāras). Whatever saṁskāras we have, we create the body to work them out, experience them and enjoy them. Once we have created the body and live our life, we do not live out only the root thought patterns (saṁskāras) that created this body, we also acquire more saṁskāras, more patterns. For example, we take $10,000 and go downtown to buy things that we Akṣarabrahma Yogaḥ The Art Of Leaving 581 need.

On the way, we meet a friend. He says, ‘Let us go to Disneyland’ and we go and blow up all the money. Finally, when we go downtown to buy what we need, we are broke. Now, with the credit card we buy what we want and live our life just to pay credit card bills, feeling we do not have sufficient things. We have fulfilled our friend’s desires not ours, through our body, our time, money and energy. But we never got what we desired, what we needed. In the same way, when we came down to planet Earth, we came with enough energy to work out and complete our root thought patterns, saṁskāras.

Listen! God never sends us empty handed. He sends us with everything. He sends us with our inner powers, but we have forgotten that we even have these great powers. Whatever saṁskāras or desires we bring, we bring enough energy to live them out and enough power of enjoy them also. Listen: you can fulfill your desires that you bring and live an enriching life of completion! You actually have the power to simply manifest the reality of your choice! You have the potential for self-transformation that will enrich every aspect of your life, bringing you everything from health to wealth to meaningful relationships to lasting happiness. Inside each of you is an enormous potential energy known as Kunḍalinī.

Kunḍalinī is nothing but your own latent inner energy which you have never used, and which you may not even know about! Kunḍalinī expresses through you in four different streams, known as the four inner powers. All these inner powers are the different expressions of Kunḍalinī energy in your life. The key to health, success and lasting happiness lies in unlocking the four inner powers that are continuously available to you. Though you use these powers everyday in your life, you don’t use them consciously, with a clear intention. Please understand, all these powers are great energies, just like electricity or wind-power. If you handle them properly, they can shower you with everything you want.

But if you don’t handle them properly, they will continue to impact your life in negative ways. The key is to create the right space inside you to express your greatest and highest possibility. When you create the right space inside you, all the events of your choice will simply flow into your life without any effort! Everything you do will be successful. When you learn to use these powers in the right way, you will immediately transform not only your own life, but the lives of all those living around you. To be able to unlock these great powers inside you, you must first understand a little more about yourself—the way you live and the way you leave!

As I told in earlier chapters, your four inner powers are: the power of words or vāk śakti; the power of thoughts or mano śakti; the power of feeling or prema śakti; and the power of living or ātma śakti. Please listen! Karma refers to the unfulfilled desires that we create over many births, which pull us back again to take birth and fulfill them. We have three types of karma—sañcita, prārabdha and āgāmya. Sañcita karma is our complete bank of unfulfilled karmas like our safety deposit or the files archived in our office vault. Prārabdha karma are those karmas that we have brought and come in this life, like files in filing cabinets which we access and work on regularly.

Āgāmya karma are like the new files on our table that we keep creating— new karma that we create in every life. We must exhaust all three types of karmas to experience enlightenment. Sañcita karma is all that we have accumulated over many births. Prārabdha karma is karma that we brought with us to work out in this life. Āgāmya karma is what we acquire newly in this birth. Prārabdha karma is like our opening bank balance in this life. We have enough energy to exhaust this prārabdha karma. Then why do we feel that this life is not sufficient? Why do we feel unfulfilled? The problem is that after coming down, we forget what we came down for, the saṁskāras and desires that we brought to live out and complete.

Instead we accumulate more and more desires from family, friends and society. We accumulate desires from others in society and work out their desires in our life. Akṣarabrahma Yogaḥ The Art Of Leaving 583 For example, if our neighbor wears a new sari... I mean in India... in America, we do not even know who our neighbor is! A devotee in Oklahoma told me that his neighbor passed away and he came to know of it only six months later! The Indian lifestyle is different. Anyway, when our neighbor gets a new sari, we think, ‘I should also get one.’ We try to work out her desire. Naturally we run short of money, energy, and time; we run short of everything.

When we live out others’ desires in our life, we feel deeply discontented, deeply incomplete because the energy that we brought with us will become insufficient. If we go downtown with a plan and a particular amount of money and suddenly our plan changes, naturally we run short. After coming down to planet Earth, we forget what root patterns or saṁskāras we brought and we collect more and more desires from society. So much social conditioning happens through advertisements. All advertisements make us poor. The advertisers become rich, no doubt, but we become poor. Advertisement agencies know that whatever touches the mūlādhāra is automatically recorded in our system. That is why whether it is soap or shampoo or clothes or cars, it is promoted with the undertones of sex appeal.

We forget one thing: when we pay $2, we get only the soap and not the model who is using the soap in the advertisement! But both the soap and the model are recorded together in our system. Whatever root patterns get recorded in the mūlādhāra energy center are so deep that we unconsciously act in accordance with them. As long as we fulfill our own desires, it is fine. However, when we live out others’ desires, the problem starts. In the next verse, Kṛṣṇa goes slightly deeper into this. Kṛṣṇa says here, ‘O best of embodied beings! The physical nature that is constantly changing is called adhibhūta or the universal form of the Lord, which includes all the demi-gods.

For example, the nature of the Sun and Moon is adhidaiva. As the supreme Lord represented as the Super Soul in the heart of every embodied being, I am called adhiyajña.’ adhibhūtaṁ kṣaro bhāvaḥ puruṣaś cādhidaivatam I adhiyajño ‘ham evātra dehe deha-bhṛtāṁ vara II 8.4 We have seen how we are ruled by our desires at every step. Please understand: This gives us a background against which to understand the secret of death. When we understand why we take birth, it is easier to understand what happens when we leave the body. We will see the secrets of death in the next verse. Here Kṛṣṇa throws light on the physical matter in front of us.

If we understand this deeply, our desire to ‘possess’ automatically drops. Let us take this chair you are sitting on. To our knowledge, there is some solid object placed at this location. However, if we go one level deeper, we see that this solid plastic can be broken down into many particles that make up this plastic. Now if we go one step further, we see that there are atoms and molecules. We can keep dividing into smaller and smaller particles and there is no end to it. And more than ninety percent of the volume within each particle is empty space. Modern science has proven that matter and energy are mutually convertible.

You see, this solid object that our eye sees is not solid. It is pure energy. This physical matter is energy and it constantly changes because of the fluid nature of energy. That is what Kṛṣṇa says: adhibhūtaḥ kṣaro bhāvaḥ. This physical or material nature constantly changes. Understand, because of the fluid nature of energy, it constantly moves; it changes.Changeistheonlycertainthing.Thatiswhyeverythingaroundis temporary. We think something is permanent and hence we try to possess it. Everything that we call matter is energy and it constantly changes. This truth was given by inner scientists or ṛṣis thousands of years ago. Kṛṣṇa clearly says it. And we find this truth declared not just in Gītā.

We find similar statements in the Upaniṣads also. All physical matter is Akṣarabrahma Yogaḥ The Art Of Leaving 585 energy and it keeps changing. In the last verse, we talked about our desires. Why do we run behind materialistic desires? Why do we constantly operate from the mūlādhāra cakra? It is because we do not have a good understanding about the physical world, about the matter. If we understand this verse, we will understand the futility of running after the fulfillment of material desires. When we look at something, we think of it as only matter, as a physical object. We think we can possess it. We think we can keep it with us.

We take ownership of that physical object. This is where the problem lies. Our ego sees the material world as only matter, and it asks for more and more of it to keep under its control. We fail to understand one important thing—it is all energy and energy cannot be kept in one place. Listen, energy cannot be kept in one place. It is Universal. The physical object that we see is a manifestation of the Universal energy. Please understand this clearly. There are energy waves and these waves manifest as physical matter. When we understand this, we can understand the futility of holding onto something or running after something.

One more thing, this root pattern of possessing is not only with inanimate objects, but with people as well. We are continuously looking for a partner, friend, wife, husband or child to possess. When we have someone, we hold onto that person. If that person leaves, we feel terrible. When a close family member passes away, we feel depressed. Why? It is because we hold onto them as if they are physical matter like any other possession, like jewelry, laptop, car and house. If our car meets with an accident, we feel sad. We feel that we have lost something. In exactly the same way, when someone passes away, we feel that part of us is lost.

We feel depressed. I do not say that we should be insensitive to relationships. I mean we should stop being possessive. Understand that everything and everyone is created out of the same underlying energy. Kṛṣṇa says clearly in this verse: Everything, whether living or non-living, is an embodiment of the Supreme Soul—adhiyajño ‘ham evātra dehe deha-bhṛtāṁ vara (8.4). The same Supreme Soul lives in everything.Whenweunderstandthis,weseethetruththatweareapartof everything around us and we complete with everything. There is no difference between you and me. There is no difference between this chair and me or this tree and me. We see ourselves in everything. When we understand this great truth, a new dimension of ourselves is revealed to us.

When we see ourselves in everything around us, our compassion towards everything grows a thousandfold. By being compassionate to others, we are being compassionate to ourselves because everything is one. Please listen! This is what I mean when I say, ‘Enriching others enriches you.’ Enrich yourself and enrich everyone. Then, experientially you understand that you are one with others, others are one with you. Please understand this great truth of enriching, the space of Enlightenment, the power of living. This changes the way we look at life and everything around us. This completely changes the way we perceive our desires, our fantasies. Kṛṣṇa answers all the questions with a single sūtra, a single technique.

The Secret of Death Now we enter the main subject. Here, Kṛṣṇa reveals the secrets of death. He says, ‘Whoever dies remembering Me alone at the time of death will attain Me at once.’ What does He mean when He says, ‘remembering Me alone?’ He says, ‘Whoever, at the end of his life, quits his body remembering Me alone, at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt.’ anta-kāle ca mām eva smaran muktvā kalevaram I yah prayāti sa mad-bhāvaṁ yāti nāsty atra saṃśayaḥ II 8.5 Why should He say the words nāsty atra saṃśayaḥ ? Why should He Akṣarabrahma Yogaḥ The Art Of Leaving 587 say, ‘there is no doubt?’

He emphasizes, ‘this is the truth.’ He takes an oath. We have a meditation program lasing two days on this sūtra, called Nithya Kriya Yoga Program (LBP level 2). The whole program is based on this single verse. Before starting the session on death, I always take the oath, ‘I hereby state that whatever I say is the truth,’ because there are some truths that cannot be logically expressed. They cannot be explained using logic that you understand. You need a little patience to listen. The big problem with our mind is that we question, refute or straightaway don’t want to listen to anything not presented in a logical form.

Otherwise, we hear it as one more story. We think, ‘Anyhow, I have come all the way, let me sit and hear what he has to say.’ We allow the speaker to speak; however, we do not listen. That is why, before I talk about death, I say, ‘Hereby I promise that whatever I am going to say is pure truth. If you are interested, take it, digest it and transform your life. If you are not, it is ok; it is up to you; it is your choice.’ Kṛṣṇa says: nāsty atra saṃśayaḥ, because He is going to speak something that is beyond logic. When we want to understand the outer world, we need logic.

When we want to know about the inner world, we need a Master who takes us beyond logic. Logic gives us the outer world; it cannot give us the inner world. Here Kṛṣṇa says: nāsty atra saṃśayaḥ: Have no doubt, what I am speaking is the truth. Please wait. Let Me finish the calculation, then you will understand. For now assume that X equals 2.’ At the end of the calculation, you agree that X should be substituted with 2, but at the start, you need to believe the Master’s word and patiently wait until he works it out and shows you. Until you realize it, till it becomes an experience for you, for a few minutes you need to accept the Master’s word as it is.

When you finish the calculation, naturally it becomes your understanding. It starts as my understanding. In the end, it becomes your understanding. When it becomes your understanding, you naturally see the truth behind the words. So Kṛṣṇa says: ‘Whoever, at the end of his life, quits his body remembering Me alone, at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt.’ Why? Why does He say, ‘remembering Me, mām eva smaran?’ and that too ‘alone?’ In Mahābhārat there are at least 100,000 stories. One story goes like this: There was a king who lived for a hundred years. Then Yama, the god of death comes and tells him, ‘Your life is over, O King, come now, it is time, let us go.’

The king says, ‘What is this? You gave me such a beautiful kingdom, such a beautiful life, such wonderful wives, kids; you have given me everything. 100 years is too short to enjoy this life. Please bless me with 100 more years.’ Yama explains that no extension is possible. The king continues to plead, ‘No, please bless me with another 100 years.’ Yama says, ‘Alright, if one of your sons gives his life, I will extend yours as an exchange offer.’ Somehow one son agrees to give his life for his father and the king gets 100 more years. After 100 years when Yama appears again, the king does not realize that his time is up and says, ‘What is this?

I asked for 100 years and you have come so soon.’ Yama tells him that 100 years are over. The king pleads again, ‘Please help me somehow; I did not realize that 100 years are gone. Please give one more extension.’ Yama tells him it is too much and that a second extension is not possible. However the king begs Yama Akṣarabrahma Yogaḥ The Art Of Leaving 589 to let him live a few more years. Finally he gets one more extension. The next time when Yama comes, again the king is in the same mood. Now Yama gives a beautiful teaching. He says, ‘By pouring oil on it, you can never put out the fire.

Now it is time, you must come.’ The king understands and follows Yama. In the same way, by chasing our desires, we can never feel fulfilled. Only more desires will come up. By fulfilling our desires, we can never hope to have contentment. When we acquire more and more desires from the outer world, we naturally feel that life is not sufficient, that we had not been given time or resources to fulfill these desires. Understand that if we have lived 70 years, at the end of our life, when we leave our body, the whole scene, the whole 70 years appear before us as a flash, as a fast-forward movement.

The whole thing appears in our consciousness again so that we can make the decision about our next birth. Now, we have karma that we brought with us but have not enjoyed or experienced, as well as karma that we accumulated from society in this birth, but have not exhausted. Both are there. I want to give you one more understanding: karma or saṁskāra means any desire that is not completely experienced by you. By nature you are a fulfilled complete being. But whenever you do not fulfill any action completely, with totality, you create a hangover. You create a recorded memory of that action, a saṁskāra. A saṁskāra is not merely a dead memory stored in your unconscious mind; it has the power to make you repeat that action again and again till the desire is fulfilled.

Please be very clear, saṁskāra is living energy because it has the power to make you repeat the same action again and again as a pattern. It can make you travel the same path over and over again. That is why saṁskāras are called engraved memories, the root thought patterns. The more you travel on a path, the more it will be strengthened. But if you have completed with that pattern by living a single saṁskāra totally, completely, that saṁskāra leaves you! It drops from your being; you are liberated from it. Completion directly liberates you from karma. Completion directly leads you to experience the Truth. Whatever you have not lived completely remains as a saṁskāra in you, as a karma in you.

Here you have brought some karma that you have not yet experienced and completed, as well as newly accumulated karma. The whole thing appears in front of you at the time of leaving the body, so that you can decide your next birth. Please listen! Every birth is your declaration of completion and you start the whole thing anew. You decide, ‘Come on! I declare completion. I will now work from the space of completion!’ But during your birth, when you fail in your declaration and fall from the space of completion, you bring some of your past incompletions back. That is what is prārabdha karma. Karma which you bring back from the past incompletions is prārabdha.

If you don’t fall at all and continue to be in the space of completion, you don’t become incomplete at all, then, I can tell you, you are an Incarnation! If you need to make an important decision, don’t you call for all the files, all the old files from the archives before you make the decision? Now you are going to decide a few important things: where to take birth, what type of parents and family to choose, what type of family to choose, whether to choose a male body or female body. All these decisions you are going to make. Understand, all these decisions are taken by your consciousness, not by anybody else.

However, your consciousness is influenced by incomplete, inadequate data, karma collected when you lived on planet Earth. Understand one important thing! Even sense enjoyments look like enjoyment because from a young age you are taught that it is enjoyment. An important research report I read spoke about the lifestyle of a group of African tribal people. It said that they do not know anything called joy or sense pleasures. It is not that they do not eat. They eat good food: not Akṣarabrahma Yogaḥ The Art Of Leaving 591 food, good human beings! Yet, because they have not been taught the idea of pleasure, they do not run after it.

Let me share another example of how the patterns created out of social conditioning work. During my days of wandering, I lived near Omkareshwar in Madhya Pradesh with a small group of tribal people for months. I was really surprised about the way they lived. Nobody, not a single person there was depressed. What I say is the truth, the honest truth. Human beings can live on planet Earth without getting depressed! I was surprised that not a single person in that village was depressed, and nobody ran behind sense pleasures. I thought to myself, ‘How come these people lived without running behind sense pleasures?’ It was because they had not been taught that there is something called sense pleasure.

The basic corruption had not happened. When I was with these tribal people in Madhya Pradesh, I lived in a small temple in the center of the village. While wandering about one day I came upon a small hut. A pregnant lady entered it. Half an hour later, she came out with a newborn baby! There was no pain, no attendant, no doctor, no medicine, no screaming. Within half an hour she walked out with a baby. I was shocked! Of course, I could not ask her anything because I did not know their language. After one month, another pregnant lady did the same thing. Within half an hour she came out with a baby.

Now it was too much! I asked the local priest who came to the temple, ‘How does this happen? Don’t they have pain?’ He asked in surprise, ‘Pain? Why pain?’ I was surprised! They do not have pain at the time of delivery. The idea that women should have pain during delivery does not exist in their society. Not only that, nobody suffers from menopause problems or gynecological disorders. I enquired about their lifestyle. Then I understood that they respect womenalotintheirculture.Womenareneverdisrespected.Theyarenever told that they become impure during their monthly periods. Women are nevertaughtthattheyarelowerthanmen.Themomentagirlcomesofage, sheishonoredandtold,‘Nowyouarequalifiedtobecomeamother.’Sheis respected. People fall at her feet and she touches and heals them. They believe that if a woman touches and blesses them during her menstrual period, they will be healed.

Because the conditioning is totally different, nobody suffers any pain there. In the so-called civilized society today, women are disrespected. Again and again, they are taught, ‘This is impurity; you are not pure now; don’t stand here, don’t sit there.’ Especially in India, it is real torture. Because of the wrong conditioning, women suffer pain. If they are not conditioned in this way, they will never feel pain. Social conditioning divides everything into pleasure and pain. Even this decision—‘What kind of life will I choose in my next birth? What kind of body will I take?’– is based upon your social conditioning. You decide to achieve whatever you think is the highest thing in life.

You automatically run behind whatever is kept as an ideal in front of your eyes. Whatever you consider the highest ideal of your whole life, only that comes to your mind when you leave the body. What you remember at Death, So you attain Kṛṣṇa says, ‘Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O Kaunteya, that state he will attain without fail.’ yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajaty ante kalevaram I taṁ tam evaiti kaunteya sadā tad-bhāva bhāvitaḥ II 8.6 What exactly happens at the time of leaving the body? We should understand that. When a person leaves the body, he goes through seven layers of his being.

The first and the outermost layer is the physical layer. When a person leaves the body, it creates tremendous pain in his whole system, what the Upaniṣads liken to ‘thousands of scorpions stinging at a time.’ Please don’t think I am frightening you. I must state a few truths and facts as they are. Even though it may hurt, it is better to tell them Akṣarabrahma Yogaḥ The Art Of Leaving 593 now. At least we will be better prepared for the journey that we are going to take or that will be forced upon us. Whether we will take it or it will be forced upon us we don’t know, but we must make this journey.

Let us at least understand what happens then. There will be tremendous pain at first. We may ask, ‘Why pain?’ It is because our being wants to stay in the body, but the body cannot host the being anymore. There is no need for our beingtoleaveunlessthebodyiscompletelytiredorexhausted.Ifdeathstarts happening, this means the body is completely exhausted, or damaged. In natural death, the body is exhausted, so we leave the body. In an accident, the body is damaged. Understand: You know what pain we experience if we cut our finger half an inch wide while cutting vegetables. What would the pain be like if we extend the same thing to our six-foot body?

It will be simply torn, is it not? Naturally there will be tremendous pain. But one thing: there is an automatic mechanism in our being, an automatic painkiller mechanism. What happens is, the moment the pain becomes unbearable, we fall into coma. If we fall into coma, we will not experience pain. But the big problem is that we die in unconsciousness when we die in coma. That is the worst thing, because we remain unaware of why we took this birth, and we will not be able to make the decision about the next birth consciously. That is the reason Kṛṣṇa says: yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ—in whatever state you are at the time of leaving the body, you will achieve that state without fail.

If we are unconscious at the time of leaving the body, we naturally take lower level bodies in our next birth; we come back as beings, which do not have a high level of consciousness. At the time of death, the moment we leave the physical body, we go to the next level, the prāṇic body or the prāṇic layer in us. The prāṇic body refers to the layer responsible for the inhaling and exhaling of prāṇa, the life giving energy in our body. The prāṇic body is filled with all our desires. Please understand, our prāṇa and desires are closely related. If our desires change, immediately the circulation of our praṇa changes.

Similarly, if we change the circulation of prāṇa, our whole mind changes. Our mind and prāṇa are closely connected. That is why people inhale and exhale, pull and push with their breath at the time of leaving; they suffer. The body says, ‘I can’t host you anymore; relax, go out.’ But the being says, ‘But I have so many desires. I must live in this body. I must enjoy this body.’ The tug of war happens between body and being. Next we move to the mental layer, mana śarīra. All the guilt that we harbored throughout our lives, stays in this layer. Desire is expectation about the future. Guilt is regret about the past.

Guilt is: I have not lived in this way—thoughts about the past. Desire is: I should live like this—a thought about the future. Understand, guilt is nothing but the emotion created in our being when we review our past decisions with updated intelligence. Let me give you a small example. At the age of seven we are playing with our toys. Our mother comes and calls us for dinner, ‘Come and eat.’ We say, ‘No, I don’t want to eat; I want to play.’ By force our mother takes away the toys and pulls us to come and eat. Immediately we say, ‘You go and die; give me my toys, I want to play.’

At that moment, we feel that toys are more important in life than our mother. But as we mature, we understand that this isn’t true. Once we mature, if we think, ‘O what a grave mistake I made. I shouldn’t have Akṣarabrahma Yogaḥ The Art Of Leaving 595 said those words to my mother. How important the mother is! But I never thought of it at that time!’... If we create guilt in this way, there is no point or utility in it. At that moment as a young child, we had only that much intelligence. Now, our intelligence has been updated. If we review our past decisions with updated intelligence, we create only one thing: guilt.

If God gives us one more life, we will make the same mistakes that we made when we reach seven years of age because we will have only that much intelligence at the age of seven. Now our intelligence has been updated to an adequate cognition. Just because our intelligence has been updated now, we can’t review our actions and create guilt in ourselves about what we did earlier. We should see what data was available to us to make decisions with at that time. We had such and such inadequate data and only that much intelligence to process the data at that time. Based on that, we made the decision.

Now the intelligence to process the data has been updated; our software has been updated with an adequate empowering cognition. Because our software has been updated, we now say, ‘O! I made the wrong decision at that time; I am suffering from guilt.’ This does not make sense. One more thing: Guilt is a wedge inserted in our being. It creates uneasiness between you and your being. Be very clear, the worst sin is guilt. Guilt is the only sin; nothing else is a sin on planet Earth. We can neverbecomepurethroughguilt.Wecanneverbecomeabetterperson,an integrated and authentic person or a pure person through guilt. Instead, guilt becomes such a load on us that again and again we make the same mistake.

If we have deep guilt about smoking, we can never quit smoking because the habit is strengthened when the guilty thoughts are continuously repeated in our system. Whatever is continuously repeated in our consciousness becomes strong; we never grow out of it. In Rāmāyaṇa, there is a strong character called Vāli. He had obtained a boon from Lord Śiva that whosoever comes in front of him to fight him, half of that person’s power would go to Vāli. If we stand in front of Vāli, half of our power goes to Vāli! Naturally who will win? Only he will win! Understand, our guilt is Vāli. The moment we fight the smoking habit, we give half our power to the habit.

We struggle with the habit. Then how can we come out of it? Listen. If we complete with guilt, at least our personality will be integrated and authentic. When our personality is integrated, we will naturally become pure and energetic. All immoral, inauthentic behavior is because we don’t have enough energy. The person with plenty of energy is always pure. The person without energy is immoral and inauthentic. In society we have a wrong idea that people who are full of energy do nonsensical things. Never think so. Doing immoral things means a person wants energy through that action. Understand, even our sense enjoyments, running behind our senses, are in the same league.

We feel that we will get energy and we will feel blissful through that action. Running behind the senses is nothing but running behind energy. When we review past decisions with updated intelligence, we create guilt. Never make that mistake. If we create guilt, the whole thing sits in the mental body and when we leave the body it becomes a big obstruction. Listen! If you complete now with your guilt pattern, the disempowering cognition about yourself will melt down. Completion melts down all the obstructions. The obstructions for your realizations are like heap of mountains. The process of completion can melt down even the mountains of incompletions. So complete, complete, complete!

The next layer we cross in the process of death is the etheric body. Here, all the painful experiences that we had in life are stored. These four layers are hell. When the energy crosses these four layers: physical body, prāṇic body, mental body and etheric body, the being undergoes hell. Understand that hell is not situated in a place above Akṣarabrahma Yogaḥ The Art Of Leaving 597 our heads, but in these four layers, comprising all our desires, guilt and painful experiences. During our life in the body, if we have kept these four layers clean and complete, we never enter hell. That is, if we can technically clean these layers; when I say ‘technically’, I mean through meditation, through the process of completion.

If we keep these layers clean with the proper meditation techniques, we will never have a problem at the time of leaving the body. We will have a clear highway. Straightaway we will travel! That is what Kṛṣṇa says: This is the path on which a man can easily leave and liberate himself, and also the path on which he can suffer and destroy himself. Both ways are now shown by Kṛṣṇa. These are the major obstructions when we leave the body. After these first four layers, the three inner layers where all our blissful memories are stored are called heaven. Even if we are stuck there, we need to move on.

Please be very clear, even our puṇya, merits, are karma. Even that will not allow us to become enlightened. We may feel good, ecstatic, for a few days. After that our mind takes that also for granted. In the case of heaven also, we will take it for granted after a few days. When you take it for granted, you have to come back to take another body, another birth. Be Sure To Reach Me