The Grace of Divine | Katopanishad A commentary by H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Katopanishad (A commentary by H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar) – 

✨ "The Grace of Divine"✨

1) So when Nachiketa was offered all these temptations, “You can be the lord of the world, the king of kings, you can have beautiful girls, singing and dancing around you”, he said with a smile, “No. But what I want from you us the secret of death?” When the boy was adamant. “I only want the highest; I don’t want any of these other appeasements that you are giving me,” the lord of death was pleased. This is a real good student, a really good seeker; He was pleased by his patience, his perseverance. Then he praised Nachiketa. 

2) You have chosen liberation when pleasure was offered to you. They both have got different users. The one who goes for liberation the pleasure also comes to him. The one who goes only for pleasure, only misery comes to him. Not only does he get misery, he is deprived of the Highest. You have chosen this path of liberation, so you will get all other pleasures as well. They follow you.” What is certain is that the one who chooses this path of knowledge is lucky in the sense he gets both. But if you have chosen only pleasure, you will be deprived of this highest knowledge, this beautiful knowledge, which is the birth right of human life.

 

3) This is what Yama said, and it’s so beautiful. “I consider you worthy of giving that instruction because none of this could distract you; your attention is not on that, your attention is on what is real. Not money, not power, not position, not reputation, none of this.” There is a beautiful couplet in Sanskrit that says that pleasures are of utmost importance for people – food, sex, enjoyment. More difficult to get over is reputation and recognition. Once you have it, it is so difficult for you not to have it. Many are caught in these two – pleasure and reputation. The brave cross beyond reputation. They don’t worry because they know it is all temporary. What people think about you – they don’t have time, they will all forget. 

4) Just wake up and see there are millions of people even in this city. Among those millions, only a few are getting a chance to hear about this. A few walk on spiritual path. Few people hear about it. Among the few who hear, a few really grasp it. It is a wonder how some people can speak about it with skill. It is such an abstract thing; some skill is needed to talk about it. And that’s a wonder how some people are able to express it. It’s a skill and it is even a greater wonder – how some people are skillfully able to imbibe it! 

5) Lord Krishna said in Gita, “Among millions of people, only a few will walk on spiritual path. Among those who walk, only a few will know me.” Few are those who really reach the goal, who understand this and it is a wonder in itself. You are not going to get it just by listening to a lot of talks, reading books or doing practices. Now this can cause frustration. What do we do? “I listen, I read, I do all this. I don’t get it?” No way. The hurry to get it becomes an impediment in itself. Relax. It’s the ego that wants to capture, which wants to get it now. Neither the intellect nor the ego can capture it, or your efforts. The glory of the Self is seen by the grace of the Divine, not by your effort. You do all your effort and then finally it happens by the grace.

6) Once in Lord Rama’s kingdom somebody threw a stone at a dog. Rama’s kingdom was considered to be very non-violent and there was truth and justice for all. So the dog went to ask for justice – animal rights! It went to Rama and demanded that road is for everybody and dogs can also walk on the road. Lord Rama heard this and said, “That’s correct. The road is for everybody.” He summoned the person who threw the stone. In those days, the victim would decide the punishment for the culprit. So they asked dog, “What punishment do you want to give to this person?” And the dog said, “Make him the head of the ashram”. Lord Rama said, “This is such a strange request.” The dog said, “I was also the head of ashram in my past life. I thought it is better to be a dog than the head of an ashram. On my own Sankalpa, I became a dog. Let him go through that. Let him be made a head of an ashram.”

7) There are many who hear about spirituality, many who walk on the path. Still it is difficult to achieve. It is the same with basic course. You see that many people have heard, many teach also, “Accept people as they are; don’t be football of others people’s opinion; don’t see intention behind other’s mistake; live in the present moment.” It takes a whole lifetime to practice and to perfect this. Don’t think that just by doing basic course once, you have perfected the art. Don’t think that by teaching the course to many, you have perfected this art. Imbibing these five points in your life is a challenge for a lifetime. 

😎 The Lord of Death says, “May we have more seekers like you.” It’s not just a student who is blessed to have a great teacher. A teacher also feels happy and blessed to have a student who sees beyond logic and scholarship. When you think your logic is very strong, you don’t see light on the other side. “I am right. I am so good.” Then you make others culprit, the world as culprit. 

9) Nachiketa then said, “I know that earthly treasures are transient. I can never reach the eternal through them. Hence I have renounced all my desires for earthly treasure to win the Eternal through your instructions”. He basically said, “Now come to the point. I praise you, you praise me. You are just beating around the busy.”

10) Lord Yama said, “The wise realize the timeless Self, through meditation. It is beyond all perception, hidden in the cave of heart, leaving pain and pleasure far behind.”

11) In the Puranas, even Gods are shown getting angry and jealous. This is happening even among the devas. Why? Just to show that there is divinity inside you also. Do not undermine that for passing emotions. You think about an ideal state in your mind, where no emotions should come. If it comes, it comes on its own. Don’t be hard on yourself. Either you are hard on somebody or hard on yourself. Balancing is like walking on razor’s edge.

12) What Nachiketa said next is very beautiful. A student usually says, “Teach me what is right.” But Nachiketa said, “Teach me of that you see beyond right and wrong.” He has transcended the limited logic of the mind. 

13) Those who meditate, for them there is no fear of death. For others there is only one fear, that of death. All fear is about death. Behind the losing money, fear of losing reputation, fear of losing attention, fear of losing status – behind all that, there is only one fear that is of death. Meditation is confronting that. When you are in meditation, there is stillness, nothing exists. This is what takes you away from fear of death.

14) Unconsciously, we encounter death every day. I remember when I was with my grandmother, in the village, as soon as you get up, they would role the bed and sprinkle water, where you slept and mop it. Sleep is like a mini death. When you take the dead body out, you clean and mop that place. As children coming from an urban area to a rural area, we would wonder why grandmother is saying all these things. “You should not touch that place. You should keep the bed rolled. Mop the place, clear the vibration.” You don’t do this in the cities. In villages, the earlier generations used to do this. The place where you have slept has tamas. So, you have to clean the place and then you can use it. We were never allowed to eat food on the bed. “Get up, brush your teeth and take bath. No more getting in the bed till night. You have to be dynamic the whole day. If you lie down on bed that means and you are impure again. Go and take bath.” It appeared to be utter superstition to me. As children, we would say this is superstition. You can sit on the mat but not on the bed because that is where you sleep and go to another state of consciousness. In Brahmin families it is like that. If you touch the bed, you have to take bath. But it is not prevalent anymore. 

15) Why do people practice charity? Why do people practice self-restraint, why do people take monkhood, stay in monastery? Why do people become nuns and fathers or swamis? Why do they all do this? What is the purpose? They want to attain something higher but they get lost in their way. They simply become recluses, become monks, but they don’t get it. The purpose of them doing all this is to see that which is beyond death. 

16) The lord of death told Nachiketa, “This is why they all are doing it and I am going to give it to you right away because you are a capable student. You didn’t become a monk but you are even more than a monk.” You don’t have to leave everything and run away from this world. You can be in the world, yet your mind can be completely unblemished by possessions. Don’t think those people who have renounced everything are greater than you. They might have greater craving than you. They are so hell bent on getting something which they don’t know. It is said that, when you finally meet God after all your struggle, then you say, “Oh! He was my neighbor, I knew him all the time.

17) Aum consolidates all that I am telling you. Death gives you sound Aum. It is called the sound of one hand clapping in the Buddhist tradition. Go deep in meditation, there is a sound that resonates in you –Aum. When you die the sound that remains with you is Aum. I said two things will stay with you – sound and sight. Sound is Aum, sight is light. So death is nothing but a light and a sound show. If sound and light are removed, then your subtle body dies and only the casual body remains. And the casual body is all bliss. It is the subtle body that makes you miserable. It is sound and light. How to cross over the sound and light? You can only cross over the sound by sound. 

18) Yama said, “The sound which is required for this, which is eternal is that secret I am telling you.” 

19) When Buddhists meditated, they found Aum. Jains meditated and they found Aum. Sikhs found Aum. Zoroastrians found Aum. Aum is very similar to Ameen. In the Jewish tradition, it is Shalom. Aum is there Shalom. Aum is the eternal sound, Aum is what one hears. So that which cannot be expressed by any name or form is represented by sound. That sound is Aum. Thought it is beyond sound, it can be identified with the sound Aum. 

20) Once we brought two swamis (recluse monks) from India. We took them to Disneyland. I wanted them to experience the world, have some fun. The first ride was ‘splash mount’ roller coaster and that really scared them. They come out and said, “Guruji, all our Vedanta went back to India. We keep saying everything is maya but we were so scared” They accepted it with such innocence. It is easy to say everything is maya when we sit somewhere comfortably. But when we are failing from such height! “My heart was beating so fast. All the scriptures we studied ran away to Bangalore. We were left shaking.” And they were laughing. Body-mind complex can go through all these. They said, “Guruji, it is so scary.” When they saw the next ride, they went off in the other direction. “No no, no more rides, we just want to walk.” We had to convince them that ‘small world’ ride was good.

21) Guru and Self have same vibrations. You innermost and the teacher have the same frequency. That is why you feel comfortable with Guru, because you feel comfortable with your Self. Why do Guru give joy? You self is joy. When you are with the Guru, your mind opens, your ego opens; it can’t stand there fully, unless you try so hard to keep it. Joy wells up. A streak of light shines through, that’s all. That’s the mechanism that is the science behind it. 

-Sri Sri Ravishankarji

Founder The Art of Living🌷

Beyond Death | Katopanishad A commentary by H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Katopanishad (A commentary by H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar) – 

✨"Beyond Death"✨ 

1) When a pure heart, a sincere heart moves in any action, even death bows to them. A seeker with wisdom is supreme. Death bows in front of them. The first boon Nachiketa asked was, “Let my father’s temper get cooled down. Let him receive me with love when I return back home. 

“Lord Yama said, “OK, that’s done.” That shows innocence - how in spite of father’s anger, the son didn't get angry at the father. He wished good for his father. He wanted his father to enjoy merits of the yagya he was doing. So he requested, “Let my father receive me with love.”

2) The natural desire of every life is to have comfort, to get into a place where there is no misery, no sorrow. The goal of human life is to move towards heaven. Heaven means a place where there is no death, no destruction, no old age, where there is no suffering. Where is this place? Is it somewhere up in the heaven? How to get there? What you should do to get to a state where there is only bliss? This was the second boon, the lord of Death taught Nachiketa how to attain heaven. How to attain heaven, where there is no misery. 

3) It is but natural for every human being to want to be in heaven. How? Death teaches you. Death is not cruel, death is very compassionate. The lord of death teaches Nachiketa what death is all about. It doesn't take away life, it enhances life. Knowledge of death makes life very rich.

4) In California, in the early 90’s when we were teaching courses in the bay area, with a group of people, who were HIV positive and had cancer, one of them shared, “From the moment I realized that I have AIDS, I lived every moment. My life has become much more precious. All those years, I was not living at all. I just existed. I never cared about my life. Now that I know I am going to die, I have suddenly become so alive. This disease has brought into my life. I feel so grateful. He looked so uplifted.” There was such glow on their faces; nobody could say that they were sick. The knowledge that “I am going to die” had somehow kindled the light.

5) I felt that was interesting. How I wish people were aware that we are going to die, even without disease! My job would be done. If everyone understood that they are going to die, why would they be angry or greedy? Why would they be worried? All this negativity that they are feeling in a day and night would simply disappear. Life would become much simpler. People should understand it is so simple. It is a matter of time, only a few years. What difference it makes. You are all going to be finished one day. This walking, talking body will become silent. This awareness of death can make you much more alive. It can take slumber out of you and it brings heaven right here.

6) All that you are worried about from morning till evening is pleasure and comfort. For that you do everything possible, destroying your own self, your own mind. Neither that pleasure nor comfort is going to be with you forever, and definitely not in the last moment. It is not so pleasurable. One of our teacher’s mother was dying. She sent him “Go and ask Guruji how it is on the other side. I am not used to being in new places.” He came and asked me, “She is not used to sleeping new places. She is concerned about her death.” We all do wrong things for comfort and pleasure

7) Nachiketa was instructed to climb the steps of heaven. What are those steps? He was taught how to bring together 720 bricks, how to organize them. This is a secret. Think, what is this 720? Nachiketa learnt all this. When the disciple learns fast, it is the pride of the teacher. The lord of death got very pleased. “You learnt this with such sincerity, honesty and with such sharp attention; I will give you one more gift.” He gave Nachiketa a necklace. Pleased by his clarity of mind, sharpness of intellect, his ability to grasp and understand, he gave a gift as an extra boon. What was the beautiful gift that the Lord of Death gave Nachiketa? 

😎 Then Nachiketa asks for third boon, “When someone dies, some say they still exist, some say they don’t who else can teach me this other than Lord of Death. You know the truth. I want to know what happens when a person dies.”

9) Very few people are curious about it. We take life for granted, we take death for granted. We never question what happens after life? What is death? How it happens? Where do we go after we die? We live here as though we have been here forever. In one way it is correct. Your spirit has been here even before the stones and trees. Your spirit is so old. It is not the way we think – that body comes first and then spirit. The spirit comes first and then body gets formed. That’s what happens in the womb. If the spirit is not there, the body will not be formed. Spirit first and then matter. Even before anything existed on this planet, you were there, I was there. We have been here many times. This is not first time. I know it. I only wish you remember a little bit at least.

 

10) Yama said, “Don’t ask me this. Please release me from this promise. This doubt has haunted so many people. They haven’t known it. Please ask for anything else. I will give you any other boon, but don’t ask me secret of death.”

11) There are five great secrets. The secret of death and secret of birth are among them. The lord of Death said, “Ask anything else. Ask for pleasure, ask for lovely women. Whatever is your desire – you want a kingdom, I will grant it to you. Leave me with this. Since I have promised, I have to fulfill my promise. But please don’t ask me the secret of death.”

12) Nachiketa said, “When I see death, It is imminent in life. It is unavoidable in life, what do I do with all that you are offering? You keep your chariot; you keep your horses, your beautiful women for yourself. When you (death) are staring at my face, how can I enjoy all this? What use is it? They are there for a moment and then they are not there; so momentary. They wear out vital powers of life.”

13) There is difference in bliss and pleasure. Bliss energizes you, pleasure depletes you. Pleasure is momentary and drains prana; energy goes out. The capacity of the five senses is limited. However tasty the food is, you can’t take more than what your system can take. You can’t enjoy more sex more than your body can respond to. You cannot listen to music forever. You can enjoy only to some degree. The five senses have limited capacity but the mind has unlimited desire. There is an imbalance between the desire to enjoy and capability of the senses to enjoy. Then conflict arises. You feel miserable. He is not saying it is wrong to enjoy the five senses, to enjoy pleasures of life. There is nothing wrong, but giving it more importance than life itself is disastrous. 

14) Nachiketa said, “I won’t go for anything less than this. It is a rare opportunity that I have come face to face with you. Now, please teach me.”

15) The last rites in Hindu tradition are fantastic. Because the departed person can still hear, they tell him, “You have lived a grand life. Your body is made up of five elements. Let the earth element go to earth. Let the water element go to water. Let fire be consumed by fire, and the air element go back to air. You are light. Merge in the Universal Light. This is where you have come from. You have no blemish. You have no sin. You have no impression. You are just pure joy. You are love incarnate. Go back to your source. Bless the whole creation from there. You need nothing now. Go. May you be free, may you be free, and may you be free.” This is what the mantras that are chanted mean. 

16) Unfortunately nobody understands what they are chanting. Nobody explains to them in the language they can understand. They simply chant, do the ritual and go back home without understanding what they are saying. With the hope that perhaps the soul understands that language. 

17) Do you know why people give their ancestor’s names to their children? This is there even in British tradition. Kings usually give the name of grandfather to the child, George V, Edward III etc. This tradition has come from Vedic times. The biggest attachment for a person is in the old age to their grandchildren. More than parents, grandparents are attached to the children. They might be born to them. This happens many times. You are born in the same family, because of your attachment, because your world is limited. The attachment is strong and that’s why they keep the same name also. If someone has a deep aversion to somebody, they are born to them. Your strongest craving, your strongest fear and aversion determines your next life. Rats are born as cats. They are not born as dogs. 

Question and Answers: 

Q) Is communication possible with someone after their death?

Ans: In death, only physical body gets separated from the subtle body and casual body. Subtle body is where all impressions are. Definitely there is communication from the other side. Communication in the sense, there is a witness from there. Like you are on the hot air balloon and you can see everything happening down. You can’t do anything about the traffic. You can see there is traffic jam, but you are in the hot balloon and you keep moving. 

Q) Is there any way that we can help people in coma? 

Ans: Coma is a state where you lose three senses, but mentally there is alertness. You still hold on to the sense of sight and sound. And you have not left the body; you stay in that state of limbo for a longer time. Some can come back from that state and feel all the senses again. It is like going in the balcony and returning back inside. Blessings works all the time. Karma plays a big role there. Karma means all the impressions in the subtle body. It determines your next life, where you will come. 

Q) What happens when someone dies unnaturally, like in an accident or through suicide?

Ans: When a soul dies in an accident, that soul lingers on for a certain time. There are some prayers and rituals to make them free from that. Suicide is like saying, “I am feeling cold,” and still removing all the jackets. It is a crazy act. It is like a child crying so hard to sleep but can’t. You don’t know how to sleep, you want to sleep and you cry. Similarly, it is so cold and instead of putting more blankets on, you are removing clothes. This is exactly what suicide is. Suicide doesn't get that person out of the misery for which he is committing suicide. In fact, it remains with them for longer time and they come back, they have to be born again.

Q) If you are rid of aversion and craving, then do you still come back? 

Ans: Yes, then you come back out of compassion. Then you come back as a free person; you come back, do something and you go back. 

- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Ji❤️

Founder of The Art of Living

At the Door of Death | Katopanishad A commentary by Gurudev Ravi Shankarji

Katopanishad (A commentary by H. H. Sri Sri Ravishankar) – 

"At the Door of Death"

1) Katha Upanishad – “tha” means the final. What is the final thing about life? What is the end? What is the ultimate?

2) Every Upanishad begins with Shanti Mantra and ends with Shanti Mantra. “Shanti” means “Peace”.

ॐ सह नाववतु । - Let us be together

सह नौ भुनक्तु । - Enjoy this life together

सह वीर्यं करवावहै । - Let us grow in strength together

तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै । - Let us glow together

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥ - Shanti, Shanti, Shanti

3) You can go deep into knowledge in a peaceful environment, but you can’t do so if the environment is disturbed. If your mind is disturbed, you have to do pranayama, yoga, meditation and kriya, to calm it and only then you can talk about higher knowledge. The minute you sit close to the Master, the vibration is already getting transferred and by the vibration; the mind is already becoming calm.

4) Long long ago, there lived a very pious man called Vajashravas. He got this name because of his passion for feeding people. Nobody would go hungry from his house. He would feed the entire town.

5) His son was very proud of his father, when he grew up; he was too wanted to give away everything. Thus there is a “yagya” called “Vishwajit yagya”, which means the yagya performed to win the universe.

6) What did Jesus do? He did “Vishwajit yagya” – he gave away everything. The same Buddha and Adi Shankaracharya do. Yagya is that ritual ceremony which brings everyone together, which honors the Divine, which is a part of our giving back to universe, from where we have been taking all the time.

7) The Vishwajit yagya was done by Vajashravas and he gave away whatever he had, in the ceremony. He had a small eight year old son. His name was Nachiketa.

He saw his father giving everything away. He was running around and observing what his father was doing. He was watching everything with a lot of faith. When Nachiketa saw old things being given away, he thought, “This is not good. This is not going to bring merit to my father. My father is so possessive of me. He should give me away too.” He went and asked his father”, “To whom are you going to give me?” Vajashravas was engaged in something and did not reply. Nachiketa kept on asking again and again, pulling and bothering him. Finally, Vajashravas got irritated and said, “I give you to death! Get lost.”

9) (Guruji adds) – I remember once, when my sister was very young, she came back from school and told mother that she got zero in math test. She was happily jumping around and saying, “I failed today! I failed today! “You should be sad about failing! That’s what parents teach children that failing is not good. But she was happy and telling everybody that she failed. What is failure, what is success? For a child it doesn’t matter.

10) (Guruji adds) – Once I and my sister went to our uncle’s house. He had used all the official leaves that he got from his office. He informed his office that he was sick son that he could take us for a picnic. But someone from his office came to the house and my sister told him, “Uncle is saying that he is sick and he is taking out for a picnic.” When my uncle heard this, he said, “Oh! My reputation has gone, “My sister asked immediately, “Where did it go?”

11) Fathers and mothers usually tell us to get lost but they really don’t mean it. Sometimes, in moments of frustration, they say such things. Nachiketa said, “Yes this is the place where everybody dies. So many have died and those who are living will also be dead. Those who will come in the future will also die. When death is certain, let me go there now.”

12) Nachiketa thought, “Let me be the first to go among those who are going to die. Everyone is going to die. I will go a little earlier. Like corn which ripens and falls and then, comes up again. Everything is temporary. People are dying and I will also die. It’s just that I am going a little early. I am going to go to the Lord of Death,”

13) Nachiketa knew that his father said it in anger, but he still went to death. This is very beautiful. This Upanishad is about the dialogue of this young boy and the Lord of Death.

14) Now the experience of death is described here – What happens to Nachiketa. The spirit of Nachiketa left the body and went to abode of Yama, the lord of death. Yama told him, “You have come here just because your father’s words are so powerful and they had to be fulfilled. It is not your time yet, go back. You still have to acquire knowledge and give love.” Nachiketa was dead for one whole hour while his father lamented and prayed. Suddenly, the boy got up and looked effulgent. Having met death and then coming back to life was most wonderful thing. It was then that he propounded the whole fire ceremony, named after Nachiketa.

15) He described what death is. It is nothing to be afraid of. Nachiketa proclaims that death is beautiful. That there is no fear, there is eternal silence. If you have read about people having near death experience they all say the same thing. They go through a tunnel and see a light. Sometimes the light tells them that it is not yet time and they should go back. The same thing happened some thousands of years ago to Nacihketa. He went through effulgent light, but was told that it was not his time, and that he should go back. So, Nachiketa came back after an encounter with death. This is one story.

16) What is death? Is it something to be afraid of? How does death happen? Honor death; people who commit suicide are not honoring death. You must remember this. The craving for living, results in suicide not in death. There is a big difference. They can’t bear the pain; they can’t get rid of it. Their life is important for them, not death. So, they commit suicide. That which is different from the body, different from everything around that is changing, is central to spiritual growth.

17) What happens in process of death? What happens to you when you die? First the mind withdraws from the five senses with their impression. You stop feeling, numbness comes. Sensation in the body disappears. Then sight gets blurred and vision goes away. Sense of touch goes away, sense of taste goes away, sight goes away, and then smells and finally sound disappears. When somebody is dying, they keep a candle burning so that if the soul, the spirit leaves the body, it can feel the light, see the light and remind itself that it is light and move on. This ritual is there in all ancient traditions.

18) The mind retrieves from the five senses, with the impressions of those senses. Once it snaps out of the body, it feels such a freedom; it is like coming out of cage! The spirit becomes so peaceful. In its peace, it also has impressions of craving. If a person is fond of ice cream, burger, that fondness will remain there for some time. It takes three days for the spirit, to really adjust to the other side. You have come out of the body. You don’t know how to get into the body. It doesn’t interest you also - the body is not interesting anymore. It looks like garbage. Suppose you have used a tissue and thrown it in the garbage, will u take it and use it again? The same feeling comes to the spirit when it snaps out of the body. It doesn’t care about the body anymore. If it wants, it will take another body somewhere else. It takes almost 48 hours, i.e., 3 days to get used to the other side, to get relief from this side. It is very significant. That is why for three days, friends and relatives are in more anguish. They start getting some relief after three days. In ancient days, ten days were kept for mourning. In these ten days, you could cry as much as you wanted and celebrate on the eleventh day. You should mourn for a maximum of ten days, no more.

19) There is a time zone here but when you leave the body the time zone changes. Six months here is a day there and six months here is night there. One whole year is one day there.

20) In the process of death, one sense gets into the other and finally, the mind, with all the impressions of the five senses, it snaps out. Though it snaps out, it still has the ability to listen to sound. That’s why singing and chanting is very good for people on other side. Meditating is very good for people on the other side. Your meditation, your peace touches their soul. It gives them relief. If you are crying and feeling miserable, they also feel that misery.

21) For the first three days, it is intense and after three days, the soul starts adjusting to the other realm. It keeps away from this. Very few souls are earth bound; they don’t go far for long time. They stick on. They are very few, 0.1%. Someone who is fond of chicken will be found in a poultry farm. That is why last impression of your life is very important. It becomes like a balloon over the spirit.

22) Some people lost interest in food when they are nearing death. Some crave for more food towards the end of life. In that case, within those ten days, it is good to feed some people, the food the deceased were fond of. When they smell those foods, the spirit feels, “Ok, I have had this for now.” It gives them some sort of relief.

23) For three days, Nachiketa waited at the door of death but the Lord of Death did not come. Nachiketa didn’t eat anything. He was there – poised, peaceful, calm and uplifted spirit. Even death became apologetic to him.

24) Yama gave three boons to the boy – “I owe you three boons because you have been so calm, so quiet, you have meditated, you have been spiritual. You have been thinking of something higher.”

25) Nachiketa said, “O Lord of Death, as the first of these three boons, grant that my father’s anger be appeased, so that when I return he may receive me with love.”

26) First boon is granted – let my father’s anger be appeased. Many times, as seekers when you meditate you feel, “Nothing is happening to me.” Do you know why? Because some of your merits are being passed on to your forefathers. There is no escape from it. When you meditate or do something good, a portion of it, those good vibes are passed on automatically. It is like clearing your past debt. When you meditate, a little amount of merit goes to those who gave you this body. Somebody gave you this body and because of it, you are doing. So some portion of your merit gets or somebody passes on and you automatically inherit. Whether it is their loans or earnings, they just fall on your head. In the same way, in subtle world also, these things get transferred. A sanyasi or a monk is the one who, while living, completely fulfills all duties and obligations and washes his hands off. Then there is no connection with the ancestors of any sort. That is monkhood – sanyasi, fourth of ashrams.

27) First 25 years learn as much as you can – the student life. Next 25 years enjoy your life as a house holder. Settle down, get married, have children and all that. Third quarter of your life, from 50-75 years is Vanaprastha, be a social worker. It means there is no more ’my, my, my’! Now you are for everybody in the society. You share yourself with everybody and you are godfather or godmother to everybody. Broaden you scope from ‘only my child’, to ‘our children’. The last quarter – from the age of 75 to 100 years, you are supposed to live as a recluse. You are in a state of “I am nothing, I want nothing”. These are four stages of ashrams in life. Some take a jump from first to fourth; they don’t have to go through the middle.

- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Ji