Seven Days Till Death!
Thanatophobia is a clinical term that refers to those who have an abnormal fear of death. The Western world doesn’t offer any reliable information about what actually happens after a person takes their last breath, so, because it is such a topic filled with so much mystery, it’s understandable why people fear it. Yes, there is a lot of guessing, some so-called “Scientific Research,” and the religious teachings found predominantly in the Judaeo/Christian/Islamic faiths, but there is little consistency between this diverse sources. The majority of people don’t have any type of erudite convictions about what happens after death and as a general principle, we fear the unknown or what we don’t understand. The mystery of death has led to a wide array of tales, superstitions, and dramatic ideas that spring from the unknown circumstances, intense emotions and chronic feelings of loss when someone dear to us passes away or we stop to consider our own mortality.
Because we don’t understand death, it makes us uncomfortable and because it makes us uncomfortable we shun open discussions about this socially taboo topic. This becomes a vicious cycle where our fears get compounded with every reiteration. How we think about death can be compared to being forced to travel to a foreign land that you can’t read about, see photos of, or get informational brochures from the state tourist department. Nope. Nada. Nothing. Just get on board… and oh… there is no returning to what has been familiar to us for however many years we may have had the opportunity to live. Yup… everything about it is pretty ominous!
For some churches the mystery of death has created an opportunity to fill individuals with so much fear and guilt that many can hardly sleep because of it. The blow back to the preponderance of that type of indoctrination has been so dramatic, it has thrust the pendulum of discretion to the opposite extreme for many. There are now a plethora of New Age sophistries that promote the whimsical idea that death will be a glorious moment when the soul will finally become free from the limitations of a material body. That can be a genuine comfort if one’s body has been broken by disease or ragged with age.
Thanatophobia can be so crippling that it is often at the root of several types of mental illness. Attempts to glorify the reality of death without properly understanding the eternal nature of the soul, matter, and the modes of nature is equally destructive but in the opposite way. Failing to engage in a pensive consideration about the reality of death with a socially acceptable way to psychologically avoid investigating it is a just a polished type of avoidance disorder. When we avoid something because it is too uncomfortable to face, we forfeit our free will and surrender any opportunity to effect the outcome of the given situation. For example ignoring the consequences of not paying our parking tickets, utility bills, or property taxes will in the long run be much more painful if left unattended than the angst that we must endure to respond to these things in a timely way. The same can be said about death. Everyone knows they must die, but only a very few rare individuals will consider this rude fact carefully when as they decide how they will engage their time, talent and consciousness on a daily basis.
manusyanam sahasresu kascid yatati siddhaye
yatatam api siddhanam kascid vetti mam tattvatah
“Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.” – Bhagavad Gita As It Is Chapter 7, “Knowledge of the Absolute” Text 3.
Out of many thousands, millions people, one is anxious to make his life successful. Nobody is interested. Practically they do not know what is actually success of life. The modern civilization, everyone is thinking, “If I get a good wife and nice motorcar and a nice apartment, that is success.” That is not success. That is temporary. Real success is to get out of the clutches of maya (illusion) or this material conditional life which comprehends birth, death, old age and disease. We are passing through many varieties of life, and this human form of life is a good chance to get out of this chain of changing body one after another. (Arrival Lecture Feb 25, 1975 Miami )
There may be a dearth of information about what happens after death in the Judeo/Christian/Islamic faiths, but there is a wealth of information in the Vedas about what happens after we take our last breath. In the Bhagavat Purana alone there are several lessons that allow the reader to follow the transmigration of a soul from one body to the next. For example, in the fifth canto of this extraordinary 18,000 verse scripture the soul of Jada Bharata is traced as he migrates from the life of a prosperous king, to a deer in the forest, and then to an avaduta. (One who is so absorbed in spiritual consciousness and oblivious to material norms that he appears completely mad to the average individual.) The story is both instructional as well as relieving to know that we can transcend death and all the miseries of this material body and world and that there is an actual science behind how the soul transmigrates into a different material or spiritual body based on the consciousness it picks up in this short lifetime. This is clearly declared in the Bhagavad Gita.
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yam yam vapi smaran bhavam tyajaty ante kalevaram
tam tam evaiti kaunteya sada tad-bhava-bhavitah
“Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kunté, that state he will attain without fail.” – Bhagavad Gita As It Is Chapter 8, “Attaining the Supreme” , Text 6.
This epic Bhagavat Purana is actually a record of the exchange between King Pariksit with Sukadeva Goswami. It occurred when the great king was cursed to die in seven days. As soon as he realized his fate he sought out the most spiritually elevated individual in the entire kingdom to prepare himself for this most important moment.
Imagine finding yourself in his situation. What would you do if you were just informed that exactly seven days from now you will be dead?
This may seem like a silly exercise, or a morose suggestion consistent with the taboo that surrounds any serious dialogue about death, but push all of that aside for right now. In the Mahabharat history of ancient India we find that this realization was the key to the proper answer to the riddle posed by the Yaksha at the Lake of death: “What is the most wonderful thing?”
The great King Yudhisthira replied: “The most wonderful thing is that although every day innumerable creatures go to the abode of death, still a man thinks he is immortal.”
What would you do differently when you wake up tomorrow if you knew for certain you would die seven days from now?
The conversation that ensued from the questions poised by the cursed King Pariksit is what we will discuss at the next AVA Bhagavad Gita Fellowship Discussion. Throw off the shackles of social taboo and take this opportunity to learn what the Vedas have to say about what happens after we take our last breath. Contrary to all the negative propaganda about death, there is a real comfort in understanding this type of knowledge. Oh… and keep in mind that the other rude but unavoidable fact is that none of us know for certain if we even have the luxury of living another seven minutes!
“The material body certainly moves under the control of supreme destiny and therefore must continue to live along with the senses and vital air as long as one’s karma is in effect. A self-realized soul, however, who is awakened to the absolute reality and who is thus highly situated in the perfect stage of yoga, will never again surrender to the material body and its manifold manifestations, knowing it to be just like a body visualized in a dream.” -Srimad Bhagavat Purana Canto 11, “General History”, Chapter 13 ”The Hansa-Avatar Answers the Questions of the Sons of Brahma”, Text 37.