This chapter of the Gita has been translated as “The Yoga of the Imperishable Brahman”. The path which will lead us to God — to the Supreme Eternal State of Peace and Blessedness. He is Akshara Brahman — the Supreme Indestructible
and Imperishable Reality.
In this chapter, Arjuna begs the Lord to enlighten him on that yoga which one may practise even in antakala, the hour of death, and so attain to the Supreme. The Lord’s reply is succinct:
He, who, casting off the body, goeth forth, meditating upon Me alone, at the hour of death, he attaineth to My State (madbhavam). Doubt that not! [VIII:5]
The law of the final thought
This is the law: what a man looks for at the hour of his death, to that he goes. The soul is fashioned to its like. The thought of a man’s last moment determines his destiny after his death. A man is transformed to that state (bhava) which he bears in mind when casting off his body. He, whose soul, at the hour of death, is fixed in meditation on Krishna, on abandoning the body (the “shell”), comes to Krishna after death. But there are other destinations for those who, while quitting the body, think not of Krishna but of other beings, other objects. As a man thinketh in the hour of death, so he becometh after death.
Paths determined by thought
Does he think of earthly objects, of father, mother, brother, friend, wife, child, wealth, power, honour, gain? Then he cometh back to this earth.
Does he think of Heaven and Heavenly happiness? Then he goeth to Heaven, the swarga loka, which is an abode of bliss, but a temporary one.
Does he think only of the Supreme? Then to the Supreme he goeth after death. This is Ultimate Liberation — Moksha.
The practice of constant awareness
This, then, is the law: whatever be the bhava, state, object, being, a God, man, beast, bird, worm, tree, place, land, money, etc., whereof a man constantly thinks, doing his abhyasa in daily life, that bhava dominates his consciousness in the hour of his departure. And in that bhava is fashioned the picture of his life after death.
(Dada J P Vaswani was a humanitarian, philosopher, educator, acclaimed writer, powerful orator, messiah of ahimsa, and non-sectarian spiritual leader.)
