What happens when we die?
Where did we come from?
Where will we go after death?
Given you’re reading this article, I suspect these are questions you have asked yourself and/or others at some point in your life. Unfortunately, finding meaningful answers to such fundamental questions is not always easy. Unable to find genuine knowledge, many people adopt the popular philosophy: “simply live in the moment and stop asking the big questions.”
The following is a real-life account by Muni Cari, my dear friend and mentor, who was involved in a life-threatening accident at work. The events in his story prompt life’s big questions, and my discussion after his testimony attempts to present the science of birth, death, reincarnation, and karma as Krishna explains in the Bhagavad Gita.
MUNI CARI’S ACCOUNT
A professional arborist, a tree surgeon, faces three very real fears while climbing large trees. By large, I mean 25-50 metres tall.
Fear 1: Falling out of the tree.
Fear 2: Cutting off an arm, leg, or head with your chainsaw.
Fear 3: Electrocution secondary to inadvertent contact with power lines.
Any of the above could kill you, so it’s not a profession for the faint hearted.
On a windy day, early in 1999, I was asked to climb a tree that had been hit by a tornado. Its structural integrity was unclear; its huge limbs were twisted and thrown about like a child’s toys.
This tree was famous as the tallest pine in New Zealand, maybe in the world. It could be seen on Auckland’s skyline from many parts of the city.
Given the potential structural damage, the relatively routine job of ascending a massive tree became considerably more challenging. Normally, you climb as high as possible to establish an anchor point for your rope, then you can safely work around the whole tree. It’s like abseiling with a chainsaw in one hand – totally safe!
On this day, however, another technique was required, as the safety of a high anchor point was doubtful. So, instead, I anchored my rope lower down, then free climbed far above it. That way, if the tree failed and I fell, my rope would at least be anchored at a safe point, albeit below me.
Of course, the inevitable did happen. Whilst working at the end of a long branch, insanely far above my anchor point, the branch snapped clean off. The force of the tornado had indeed compromised the tree’s core structure.
So that’s the scene. From high up in this enormous tree I was falling to the ground head first, chainsaw in hand. No branches to grab and hopelessly far above my anchor point, there was almost nothing to stop a high-speed impact with the ground.
What was going through my mind at this point? With only seeming seconds until my imminent death, what was I thinking about? What happened next was something quite amazing, something maybe even more exciting than cutting your arms off with a chainsaw.
As I fell, I saw my entire life as a collage of emotionally charged scenes. I could see everything I had done, everything I had thought, and everything I had wished for right there before my eyes. In that instant everything was visible. Later, I learned this phenomenon is called a life review, but in the few seconds I experienced it, I just saw it as my life’s picture. I could see sad scenes, happy scenes, distressing and sensual scenes. The images in the collage reached out to me and I could feel those emotions control me. Some things surprised me, they were not as I recalled them. There was a lifetime of events, which looked so exciting. But as I relived each experience the feelings seemed unexciting and the memories painful. Then I noticed images of myself sitting and practising mantra meditation with my wife. Contentment and peace immediately flooded my heart.
I didn’t have long to relish contentment, however, before a more pressing reality manifested. The ground. Specifically the ground approaching me unbelievably fast. Suddenly, my fall broke. The good news was that my free rope measured less than the distance from the anchor point to the ground. The bad news, however, was that now, swinging on the end of my rope like a massive pendulum, I hurtled towards the trunk of the tree, chainsaw still in hand.
The resultant impact with the tree knocked me unconscious.
As I slowly came round to the sound of panicked shouts from below, I had a chance to contemplate.
What was that life picture I saw? What did it mean?
CHAITANYA VIHARA
What actually happens when someone experiences a near death experience (NDE) or life review?
In Bhagavad Gita, an extraordinarily comprehensive handbook of metaphysical knowledge, Krishna presents a technical description of how the world works, including the process of reincarnation. In the eighth chapter Krishna reveals:
“Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail.”
So many persons who have had NDEs confirm the truth of this. We often hear the cliché expression “my life flashed before my eyes.” As Muni’s story similarly illustrates, whatever we do and experience in this life is indeed remembered and tested at the time of death. In his commentary to this verse, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the pre-eminent yoga scholar of modern times, elaborates:
“The process of changing one’s nature at the critical moment of death is here explained. How can one die in the proper state of mind? Once upon a time, a King called Bharata, although a great personality, thought of a deer at the end of his life, and so in his next life he was transferred into the body of a deer. Although as a deer he remembered his past activities, he had to accept that animal body. Of course, one’s thoughts during the course of one’s life accumulate to influence one’s thoughts at the moment of death, so this life creates one’s next life. If in one’s present life one lives in the mode of goodness and always thinks of Krishna, it is possible for one to remember Krishna at the end of one’s life. That will help one be transferred to the transcendental nature of Krishna.”
If we are honest, none of us can claim to have directly chosen the particular bodies, families, communities, countries, planets or universes in which we have been located. So how did we end up where we are?
Ordering wisely
Imagine you go to a restaurant for a nice vegetarian meal. After scanning through the menu, you decide to order a pizza and mango lassi (good choice!). Minutes later, the waiter brings your meal. At the same time, your friend who ordered lasagne and kumara chips receives his plate. Comparing the edibles, you then feel unhappy and wish you had ordered lasagne instead. You try to swap with your friend but are unsuccessful. He laughs at you and says:
“No chance, mate. I told you the lasagne is world-class here. One day you’ll learn!”
Now who can you blame for choosing pizza over lasagne? No one, you ordered it out of your own free will; now you have to pay for it and eat it!
Similarly, according to our mental state at the time of death, we subconsciously order our next body and situation. This is why real human societies caution their members to exercise discretion and intelligence throughout their lives—everything we do, say or think has an impact.
This law of action and reaction is known as karma. Specifically, karma refers to the process through which we create our material bodies.
What happens to students when they leave school?
The immediate answer is: “It all depends on the individual.”
We see that serious, academically inclined students who work hard generally excel and may go on to further elevate themselves at tertiary institutions. Then there are your less academic attenders, who might commence a practical apprenticeship or start work. Then you have the “drop-outs,” those who make no effort whatsoever, flunk their exams and struggle with limited career options thereafter.
Now granted, there are many environmental factors which also contribute to an individual’s success. Whilst discussion into such factors is beyond the scope of this article, the main principle still stands: what we do now directly affects and generates our future.
Common sense
Actually, this is all common sense. No one with half a brain buys into the fallacious claims of religious fanatics who evangelise that simply by “believing in God” one will go to heaven, no matter how impure or lazy one has been. Indeed, many people feel completely alienated from religious organisations because they detect this hypocrisy.
“Bro, go hard on Saturday night. Just remember to attend confession on Sunday and it’ll be all good. You just got to believe!”
Such ludicrous attempts to legitimise an animalistic lifestyle are hardly convincing. Where is the value in this cheating, other than temporarily relieving the guilt of pseudo-religionists?
Real education
Real spiritual training educates individuals and helps them to understand the wide array of potential destinations available to us all, in the next life. If you don’t know the possible choices, how can you make any sort of informed decision on where you’re going?
Now of course, you may well question whether there is another life after this one. Krishna addresses this doubt at the start of Bhagavad Gita:
“As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change.”
Some persons can distinctly remember their past lives, especially young children. However, regardless of whether we are able to recall events which occurred before our most recent birth or not, the fact that we exist now, and have experienced so many different phases in this current lifespan, should lead any openminded person to at least theoretically consider the possibility that life will continue after the death of our current physical body. Furthermore, with so many testimonies from people who have experienced “out of body experiences” and NDEs (and thereby substantiate the premise that consciousness exists independently to the physical body), it would certainly be naïve to dismiss the possibility of reincarnation outright.
Preparing for the next life: what are my options?
Our human form of life is a major junction. Just as travellers arriving at a major international airport can travel to any part of the world, human beings have the capacity to transfer themselves to different dimensions.
Because the real self, or the soul, is simply the energising witness within the material body, all forms of life are potential future “homes” for the spirit soul. We can be relegated to the animal kingdom, “re-spawn” as a human or acquire an advanced extra-terrestrial form on a different planet. Yet a greater option lies beyond all of these material destinations— we can elect to return to the spiritual world and experience true happiness, free from the limitations of time and space. Indeed, this special capacity to achieve a transcendental result, is what differentiates the human form from all others.
Ticket, passport, and papers
Practically speaking, to travel anywhere, one must be qualified. That translates as having sufficient wealth (to buy a ticket), identification papers (passport) and official approval (visa). Even on this earth planet, there is so much concern surrounding immigration and border control. This reflects the natural principle that different levels of qualification are required to achieve different destinations.
Spiritual visa
“So what does it take to return to the spiritual world?” I hear you ask. To return home, we first have to cultivate spiritual wealth through re-establishing our lost relationship with Krishna. The most practical means to achieve this is by chanting the Hare Krishna maha mantra:
HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNA
KRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE
HARE RAMA HARE RAMA
RAMA RAMA HARE HARE
By regularly vibrating this sacred mantra, one becomes empowered to spiritualise all of life’s activities. In exchange, Krishna progressively rewards sincere spiritual scientists with higher transcendental experience. In this way, remembering Krishna at the time of death becomes easier. As Krishna confirms in Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 4:
“One who understands me in truth, upon leaving the current body, doesn’t take birth again in this material world, but returns to my eternal spiritual abode.”
Great saints declare that understanding Krishna is the most urgent priority in life. Let us also become wise and secure this precious Krishna visa before the serpent of death bites.
Welcome to crunch time!
