Vol 01.009 2. Rahasya Traya Saram

2. RAHASYA TRAYA SARA

Adhikara 20 : Niryana Adhikara ( The Departure of the soul)
SECTION 1 : The two faces of death Death? The very thought would send a chill through the spine to any person especially one who is face to face with death. Those who are impervious to such a sensation would be those driven to suicidal proclivity by deep distress, untold miseries, jilted love, betrayal by trusted ones, financial breakdown or mental alteration caused by drug , dope and the like. Though the media blares forth day in and day out cases of murder, loot, arson and rape along with a good sprinkling of suicides - the suicide instances are comparatively few and far between.

On the other end of the continuum, there are of course, a few exceptional cases who 'liked to live and not die' for very different reasons. For example, when Sri Rama beckoned Anjaneya to ascend with him to Paramapada, the latter declined politely saying that the relationship he had acquired with Sri Rama on earth would be unavailable in Paramapada and therefore preferred to ' live' here on earth! Similarly, Thondar Adippodi Alwar also liked to stay back saying that he would not trade in the pleasant experience he had in this world serving Sri Ranganatha with any of the pleasures that Paramapada itself could offer !.

Swami Desikan also saysTvam Chet Praseedasi Tavaasmi Sameepatas Chet Tvayi Asti Bhaktir Anagha Kari Saila Naatha Samsrijyate Yadicha Daasajanaas Tvadheeyah Samsaara Yesha Bhagavaan Apavarga Eva

" O! Lord! If thou art gracious, if I am always by thy side, if there is in me pure devotion to thee, if I am in the company of those who are thy servants- Then, this Samsara itself is salvation"

Death and total non-existence are unbearable and unacceptable to the ordinary mortal in spite of the trauma attaching to the struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest. THE MAJORITY, HOWEVER, WOULD RATHER LIKE TO LIVE THAN 'JOIN THE MAJORITY'. This has been very vividly portrayed in the Puranic story of a man hounded by a wild animal and falling into a deep well surrounded by poisonous snakes clinging to a branch that was being gnawed by rats- still going in for the momentary pleasure of tasting the rare drop of honey dripping from the honeycomb nested on the branch of the tree just above his head.

Life of man on earth is likened to the flight of a sparrow through a banquet hall in winter, with a good fire in the midst, while storms of rain and snow batter abroad. The sparrow is flying in at one door and immediately exiting out at another. During the passage in the hall he is safe from the wintry storm but after a short sojourn of fair weather, he instantly vanishes into the dark winter from which he emerged. The only difference is that the sojourn here is really not that rosy while the Scriptures say that the beyond is beautiful to the one who has played by the rule while on earth. Says Dr. Radhakrishnan " The fleeting is enclosed on both sides by an eternity which is real"

Another reason for the dread is the prospect of one's having to contend with death 'all alone'. Even when one is involved in a collision dash on the road or, or a train smash or a plane crash or a ship wreck when hundreds die, each one has to go through the throes of death 'all by oneself'..

More than the inevitability of death itself, the fact of the pangs involved in the process is forbiddingly threatening.

It is here that our Vedas, Sastras, Itihasas, Puranas and in fact the entire gamut of our sacred scriptures step in to assure that one could actually look forward to death as a welcome guest, LIVE PEACEFULLY TILL IT ARRIVES AND DIE GRACEFULLY.

Lord Krishna , the Charioteer friend turned Acharya of Arjuna intended to convey this comforting formula to us under the pretext of advising Arjuna. He deliberately goaded Arjuna to ask a leading question by feigning to slip out an apparent indiscretion when he said to Arjuna " I taught this great truth to Vivaswan (the Sungod), he to Manu and Manu to his son Ikshvaku etc."

Arjuna promptly seized the slip to question Krishna that since they themselves were just contemporaries, how could Krishna have taught anything to Vivaswan. The launching pad thus set adroitly, Krishna proceeds to explain the secret of his Avatara, how the imperishable soul transmigrates to newer bodies and therefore he should not imagine he was killing the soul and how the perishable body is cast away by the soul in successive births so that he should not feel sorry for the destruction of the body which, in any case, was going to perish.

" Many births of mine have passed away, Arjuna! as well as many of yours. I know them all but you know them not, Slayer of foes"

He further explains how even though he has no birth he is born out of his own sheer will while others are born due to their karma.

This concept of transmigration of the soul , the central theme of Hinduism imparts the much needed solace to the troubled minds of those fearing death. It presents the prospect of death as a welcome experience not to feel sorry about, prepares us to cast off our mortal coils, 'IF THE TIME COMES, WHEN IT COMES' with absolute ease and equanimity.

"To understand man's life as important, but not all important, as good but with a chance to be still better, is to relax the grip of terror a bit, and to see things in perspective. When one does see things in perspective - 'freedom from existence' can become the goal which transcends and transforms the threat of death to a sweet promise."

How the soul escapes at the time of death has been engaging the attention of researchers all over the world. They experiment with persons with ' paranormal' and 'Near- death- experiences' (NDE). Even recently, in the USA, a person terminally ill with a prognosis of imminent death was enclosed in a glass domed cubicle. When he actually died, the scientists wondered how the breath could have escaped through the air tight, hermetically sealed cubicle. They noticed a minuscule - less than hairline fracture in the glass that was not there earlier when the dome was examined with sophisticated instruments before the experiment. The experiment conclusively proved that the soul must have pierced through the glass dome.

Long long ago, in fact, millions of years ago, our Sastras have explained graphically and with minute details not only what processes the soul undergoes 'At death' and what happens 'After death'.

Sri Ramanuja's SriBashya based on the Vedas and Upanishads clearly portrays these aspects and Swami Sri Vedanta Desika has incorporated these in Adhikaras 20.21 and 22 of his Rahasya Traya Sara in his own inimitable style. We discuss below the subject as told by these pioneers.