Die, we must, but how must we live first?

And whosoever, leaving the body, goes forth remembering Me alone, at the time of his death, he attains My being; there is no doubt about this.

– Geeta Cp 8, Verse 5

Extremely few of us attain God-realization before death. Some of us go through our ‘prarabdha’ and attain God when the body falls off, and the above verse from Geeta defines how it happens. This proclamation by Krsna can be very soothing for someone who is mired in the play of his senses thinking all it takes is remembering the Lord at the time of death. One may live one’s life any way one wants, for only the moment of one’s death, determines one’s bondage or salvation. A convenient but absurd conclusion reached by the unintelligent, and many would find it easy to succumb to it.

Is it that easy to attain God? If it were, then Krsna would not go through the trouble of propounding the many yogic principles in Geeta. Though factually undeniable, what he has proclaimed above is only possible for the rarest of the rare. It’s not our choice when it comes to our death. Pre-supposing that one’s death would be comfortable where one’s faculties would still be functioning, giving one the luxury of thinking about whoever one wants at the precise moment of one’s last breath is ludicrous. Only established yogis can command the circumstances of their death, and they can fulfil the condition of thinking about God as they leave their mortal frame, but to be able to do that requires a lifetime of yogic practice.

How we live our last moment is not a matter of our choice but a reaping of the reward of a life lived as per the tenets of Geeta. Geeta, when practiced diligently throughout our entire life, promises us this reward. If we can coherently think at all at such a time, we can only think of what has been the object of our adoration our whole life.

जिसकी चाहत मैं गुज़ारी है ज़िन्दगी सारी | जां-ब-लब को वो चेहरा दिखाई देता है ||

What has been one’s object of affection one’s entire life, that alone the dying one sees.

-Zaahid

It should be amply clear by now that one cannot conjure up one’s thoughts at will at the time of death. We are either senseless, or the mind is forcibly drawn towards a particular person or thing we have adored most of our lives. One can think about God at the last moment only when one has lived one’s entire life in devotion to God, but nothing is lost even if one loses all consciousness at the time of death, for then the Lord arranges for the above proclamation to be fulfilled for his devotees. One’s ‘Ista Devata’ or one’s Guru appears before them at such a time and ensures that the mind dwells solely upon them when the ‘jeevatma’ leaves his physical body, thus attaining God and leaving the cycle of birth and death forever.