They do not know that every moment they are dying. Dying, death has begun since he, one takes birth. And our business is before dying we must be prepared for the next life.
[Posted
October 15, 2007]Living Wills and a Will to Live
A lifetime in preparation for this moment...
Washington PostOctober 14, 2007
- CHARLOTTE F. ALLEN
BACK OFF! I'M NOT DEAD YET.
I Don't Want a Living Will. Why Should I?
Do I have to have a living will? Last year, I had an experience that gave me the distinct impression that if I didn't have one, my life was hardly worth, well, living.
A routine mammogram had revealed that I had early-stage breast cancer. This kind of cancer is noninvasive and thus not particularly life-threatening if promptly attended to, and the required outpatient surgery isn't especially risky. Nonetheless, one of the shoals I had to maneuver through at the hospital (which otherwise afforded me excellent care) was a series of efforts to persuade me to sign on to the currently fashionable notion of a "good death." go to story
Sri Guru and Gauranga
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Health Living Beings - Spirit Soul - Life Force Srimad-Bhagavatam (3.31.44): Lord Kapila's Instructions on the Movements of the Living Entities
"In this way the living entity gets a suitable body with a material mind and senses, according to his fruitive activities. When the reaction of his particular activity comes to an end, that end is called death, and when a particular type of reaction begins, that beginning is called birth."
From time immemorial, the living entity travels in the different species of life and the different planets, almost perpetually. This process is explained in Bhagavad-gita. Bhramayan sarva-bhutani yantrarudhani mayaya: [Bg. 18.61] under the spell of maya, everyone is wandering throughout the universe on the carriage of the body offered by the material energy. Materialistic life involves a series of actions and reactions. It is a long film spool of actions and reactions, and one life-span is just a flash in such a reactionary show. When a child is born, it is to be understood that his particular type of body is the beginning of another set of activities, and when an old man dies, it is to be understood that one set of reactionary activities is finished. more
You're already dying
excerpt from conversation, Perth, May 11, 1975
PRABHUPADA: Why they are coming here?
DEVOTEE (1): They're coming to fish and to surf.
PRABHUPADA: Waste time. Finding out opportunity how to waste valuable time. They do not know that every moment they are dying. Dying, death has begun since he, one takes birth. And our business is before dying we must be prepared for the next life. But they have no knowledge. That is ignorance, tamo-guna.
Not advocating advance booking to sign out, but proactive measures for when the time comes
excerpt from purport to Bhagavad-gita 8.2
Now the word prayana-kale in this verse is very significant because whatever we do in life will be tested at the time of death. Arjuna fears that at the time of death, those who are in Krishna consciousness will forget the Supreme Lord because at such a time body functions are disrupted and the mind may be in a panic-stricken state. Therefore Maharaja Kulashekhara, a great devotee, prays, "My dear Lord, may I die immediately now that I'm healthy so that the swan of my mind may enter into the stem of Thy lotus feet." This metaphor is used because the swan often takes pleasure in entering the stem of the lotus flower-similarly, the mind of the pure devotee is drawn to the lotus feet of the Lord. Maharaja Kulashekhara fears that at the moment of death his throat will be so choked up that he will not be able to chant the holy names, so it is better to "die immediately." Arjuna questions how one's mind can remain fixed on Krishna's lotus feet at such times.
What is a peaceful death?
Bhagavad-gita 8.6, text & purport
yam yam vapi smaran bhavam
tyajaty ante kalevaram
tam tam evaiti kaunteya
sada tad-bhava-bhavitah
TRANSLATION
Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail.
PURPORT
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? Maharaja Bharata thought of a deer at the time of death and so was transferred to that form of life. However, as a deer, Maharaja Bharata could remember his past activities. Of course the cumulative effect of the thoughts and actions of one's life influences one's thoughts at the moment of death; therefore the actions of this life determine one's future state of being. If one is transcendentally absorbed in Krishna's service, then his next body will be transcendental (spiritual), not physical. Therefore the chanting of Hare Krishna is the best process for successfully changing one's state of being to transcendental life.
When medical intervention goes too far
excerpt from conversation with disciples, New York, July 11, 1976
SVARUP DAMODAR: Srila Prabhupada? In this biomedical science, this ethics, there's a problem arising. The person, the family of the person who is suffering, says that "Please don't apply these machines. Let the person die." But the medical doctors say "No, we'll keep him alive as long as we can go on." So this is a problem. So who's right? Is the family right, or...
PRABHUPADA: Family right. Family is intelligent, that "You are rascal, why you are trying? Let him die peacefully."
BALI-MARDAN: They say "Let him die in dignity. Why keep him in the machine?" The family says "Let him die in dignity."
RAMESVAR: They keep him in coma.
PRABHUPADA: After all, you cannot protect. Why you give trouble at the time of death? You cannot protect; your foolish attempt will not help him. This is the same philosophy, that the animal is suffering, to kill him. Mercy of killing, what is called?
RAMESVAR: Mercy killing.
PRABHUPADA: So this is nonsense. Mercy killing. Killing mercy. [laughs] Just see. The action is killing, and that is his mercy. This is their mercy. All contradictory. Killing by mercy? Mercy is killing?
HARI-SAURI: There's an example that's just going up to the courts now. There's one family, their daughter was being supported by one machine, so one day they went in early and pulled out the plugs. So now they are being taken to court. They stopped the machine because she'd been in a coma for so long, so they just pulled out the plugs and everything, the machine. So that's what they call mercy killing. They don't like the doctors just to keep them there uselessly.
RAMESVAR: But then they want to kill the old people. This mercy killing, they think that "An old man is suffering, so let us kill him."
PUSTA KRSNA: They think if someone dies in their sleep, they are very lucky.
PRABHUPADA: It is dangerous to die here.
TAMAL KRSNA: Not as dangerous as in Africa. I saw one movie, and there's one tribe, that when a man becomes very old...
PRABHUPADA: Yes, I've heard of that.
HARI-SAURI: They throw him on the roof, and then eat him.
PRABHUPADA: That is a feast.
TAMAL KRSNA: Love feast.
PRABHUPADA: Grandfather feast. Now great-grandfather feast.
CYAVANA: We're preaching to them, Srila Prabhupada. Trying to change them.
RAMESVAR: Also the Eskimos, when a man gets old, if he is an Eskimo, then he has to go out into the icelands and wait for some animal to kill him. He cannot stay at home and be supported by the family.
BALI-MARDAN: He eats too much, they say.
RAMESVAR: Too much burden.
BALI-MARDAN: Because he's eating, and he is not able to go and hunt, they send them out to die.
PRABHUPADA: The Communists also, they'll do. All old men should be killed. That time is coming. Don't become old.