 Bhagavad Gita Commentary–Fifty-Seven–by Swami Nirmalananda Giri
 The Sure Way To Realize God
The easy way out
The attainment of liberation (moksha) is very simple in principle–and in practice, as well. Perhaps it is its simplicity that keeps people from managing it. However it may be, Krishna explains the whole matter in a very simple manner: “At the hour of death, when a man leaves his body, he must depart with his consciousness absorbed in me. Then he will be united with me. Be certain of that.” (Bhagavad Gita 8:5)
This is quite straightforward and easy to understand. The moment of death is perhaps the most important moment in our life, equalled only by the moment of birth. Dr. Morris Netherton, formulator of the Netherton Method of Past Life Recall, has found that the most significant factors in our life can be either birth or death trauma. The same would be true of positive experience during birth or death, which is why in India sacred mantras are recited during both times–at least by the spiritually intelligent. In this way the individual both comes into incarnation and leaves it accompanied by the remembrance of God. In a few verses we will see that the way to fix our consciousness in God will be the repetition of Om. The principle
Sanatana Dharma is never a matter of “shut up and accept what I tell you.” So Krishna explains to us how it is that if we are intent on the remembrance of God at the time of death we will go to God.
“Whatever a man remembers at the last, when he is leaving the body, will be realized by him in the hereafter; because that will be what his mind has most constantly dwelt on, during this life.” (Bhagavad Gita 8:6)
When we die, we gather up all the subtle energies that comprise our astral and causal bodies–energies that ultimately are seen to be intelligent thought-force. Then we leave the body through the gate (chakra) that corresponds to the dominant vibration of our life and thought. If our awareness has been on lower things we will depart through a lower gate and go to a low astral world. If we have been spiritually mediocre (the ignorant call it being “balanced” or “following the middle way”) we will go to a middling world. But those who have made their minds and bodies vibrate to Divinity through constant japa and frequent meditation, will leave through the higher centers. Those who have been united with God even in life will go forth to merge into Brahman forever.
Some people pay attention to the first part of this verse only, and think that they will cheat the law of karma which operates mentally as well as physically. They think that if at the moment of their death they will say a few mantras, then off they go to liberation no matter how they have lived their lives. Others, not quite so crass, decide that after having lived in a materialistic and spiritually heedless manner they will “get religious” during the last few years of their life and then be sure to be saying the Name of God as they die. But Krishna points out that a person will remember at death only “what his mind has most constantly dwelt on, during this life.” There is no cheating or cutting corners. What we sow that we reap–nothing else.
The outspoken Ajann Chah, a meditation master of the Thai Buddhist forest tradition, said that many people pester their grandmother at the moment of death, calling out: “Say ‘Buddho,’ grandma, say ‘Buddho’!” (“Buddho” is the Pali word for Buddha. Some Theravada Buddhists recommend doing constant repetition of “Buddho.”) “Let grandma alone and let her die in peace!” said Ajahn Chah. “She did not say ‘Buddho’ during life, so she will not say ‘Buddho’ during death.” Sri Ramakrishna said that even at the moment of death a miser will say: “O! look how much oil you are wasting in the lamp! Turn it down.” The lesson we must learn
There is a lesson here for all of us. As Jesus said: “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,” in the realms of higher consciousness, “for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,” (Matthew 6:20, 21) even at the time of death.
“Therefore you must remember me at all times, and do your duty. If your mind and heart are set upon me constantly, you will come to me. Never doubt this. Make a habit of practicing meditation, and do not let your mind be distracted. In this way you will come finally to the Lord, who is the light-giver, the highest of the high.” (Bhagavad Gita 8:7, 8) As Patanjali said, the japa and meditation of Om is “the way.” (Yoga Sutras 1:28) The Lord
We are not going to heaven–we are going to God! Of Him Krishna says: “He is all-knowing God, lord of the emperors, ageless, subtler far than mind’s inmost subtlety, universal sustainer, shining sunlike, self-luminous. What fashion His form has, who shall conceive of it? He dwells beyond delusion, the dark of Maya.” (Bhagavad Gita 8:9)
We do not just believe in God, we intend to unite with God. So Krishna further says: “On Him let man meditate always, for then at the last hour of going hence from his body he will be strong in the strength of this yoga, faithfully followed: the mind is firm, and the heart so full, it hardly holds its love. Thus he will take his leave: and now, with the life-force indrawn utterly, held fast between the eyebrows, he goes forth to find his Lord, that light-giver, who is greatest.” (Bhagavad Gita 8:10)
One of the gates to higher worlds is the “third eye” between the eyebrows. During meditation the yogi sometimes finds his awareness drawn spontaneously to that point. It is the same at the time of death. The purified and divinely-oriented life force (prana) automatically exits through that gate and goes to God, bearing us upward, even as the Egyptians pictured the freed soul flying in a spirit-boat to the sun.
There is more: “Now I will tell you briefly about the nature of Him who is called the deathless by those seers who truly understand the Vedas. Devotees enter into Him when the bonds of their desire are broken. To reach this goal, they practice control of the passions.” (Bhagavad Gita 8:11)
To die right takes a lifetime of purification and preparation. Only those can enter into God whose bonds of desire are broken. To this end they constantly practice brahmacharya–control of the senses and mind. Going forth
“When a man leaves his body and departs, he must close all the doors of the senses. Let him hold the mind firmly within the shrine of the heart, and fix the life-force between the eyebrows. Then let him take refuge in steady concentration, uttering the sacred syllable OM and meditating upon me. Such a man reaches the highest goal.” (Bhagavad Gita 8:12, 13)
Sivananda’s translation is more literal and to the point: “Having closed all the gates, confined the mind in the heart and fixed the life-breath in the head, engaged in the practice of concentration, uttering the monosyllable Om—the Brahman—remembering Me always, he who departs thus, leaving the body, attains to the supreme goal.”
It is important to remember here that “heart” means the core of our consciousness, and not the physical heart–or “heart chakra.” Even more important, Krishna is not referring to some kind of strenuous breathing exercise, but rather, the natural and automatic rising of the life-fore into the higher centers of the brain that occurs when we inwardly repeat Om with attention.
If we do this throughout our life it will be done by us in death. As the upanishads say: “Om is Brahman. Om is all this. He who utters Om with the intention ‘I shall attain Brahman’ does verily attain Brahman.” (Taittiriya Upanishad 1.8.1) “What world does he who meditates on Om until the end of his life, win by That? If he meditates on the Supreme Being with the Syllable Om, he becomes one with the Light, he is led to the world of Brahman Who is higher than the highest life, That Which is tranquil, unaging, immortal, fearless, and supreme.” (Prashna Upanishad 5:1,5,7) “This is the bridge to immortality. May you be successful in crossing over to the farther shore of darkness.” (Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.6) A resume
Krishna then recaps all he has said in this section with these words:
“When a yogi has meditated upon me unceasingly for many years, with an undistracted mind, I am easy of access to him, because he is always absorbed in me. Great souls who find me have found the highest perfection. They are no longer reborn into this condition of transience and pain. All the worlds, and even the heavenly realm of Brahma [the Creator–not Brahman the Absolute], are subject to the laws of rebirth. But, for the man who comes to me, there is no returning.” (Bhagavad Gita 8:14-16)
Read the Bhagavad Gita online: The English text of the Gita posted on this Web Site is arranged according to the meter of the original Sanskrit text so it can be sung–as it is done every morning in our ashram and in most of the ashrams of India.
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