From jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca Sun Aug 15 21:47:33 1999
Newsgroups: alt.meditation.shabda
Subject: The Mystery of Death (5/6)
From: jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca (James Shannon)
Date: 16 Aug 1999 04:47:33 GMT





                           MYSTERY OF DEATH

                                  by

                             Kirpal Singh 

                             [Part 5 of 6] 

                           

                                  IV

                           DEATH IN BONDAGE


            In nature death follows life and life proceeds
        from death. Death as a cessation of life in one
        form is but a prelude to re-living in another, and
        generally at a higher level of existence than
        before, and in better and more congenial environs.

            Evolution is the law of life and it consists in
        active flowering of the latent possibilities in the
        spirit-matter, and comprises in its compass, not
        only evolution of the spirit-matter which grows more
        plastic and translucent in its onward march but also
        evolution of forms from minerals to human entities
        and lastly expansion of self-consciousness. The
        so-called dead matter is not really dead though the
        energy in it may for some time be in a congealed
        state.

            A worn-out garment, that has outgrown its
        utility is to be cast off and replaced by a new
        one, moulded in, a fashion one desires the most.
        Such is the law of Dame Nature, the handiwork of
        God. The kindly Father, it is said, hath ordained
        that His children may have what they ardently
        wish for.

            In providing the essentials of life on the
        earth - plane, Love, Light and Life and the necessary
        adjuncts thereto, like earth, water, sun, air and
        space together with all the means of sustenance,
        the Supreme Lord of the universe is munificent
        beyond measure, and provides the same freely to
        all though each one gets according to his need and
        measure of descent. His bounties are innumerable
        and inexhaustible, and for ages man has fed upon
        them in diverse ways. Not satisfied with the limitless
        gifts, man ever craves for more - more of silver
        and gold, more of amenities and conveniences of life
        and more of everything else, and he struggles
        and strives endlessly for them. Instead of being
        grateful to the Lord for all that He has, by His grace,
        provided for us, we curse ourselves, curse those
        around us in better and more affluent circumstances
        than us, and curse the innocent stars above and
        do not hesitate to cavil at and criticise in stinging
        terms our own fate or destiny which we have by our
        own actions, forged for ourselves. With all his
        possessions, one loses his head for just a pittance.

            Human life is a great privilege and a rare
        asset and blessing. It comes after passing through
        a long evolutionary process extending over time
        unending. It is an opportunity for amassing the
        riches of spirituality that lie hidden within us and
        of which we are hardly aware. But the majority of
        us are after ephemeral non-essentials - the sense-
        pleasures of the earth-life, and not real happiness.
        For these short-lived and fleeting pleasures, which
        we may or may not get, we, by all means, fair or
        foul, try to move heaven and earth, and more
        often than not pay dearly, even with our own
        life, and quit the stage of life with many a deep
        regret for one thing or the other and for the
        unworthy means employed and for the sorrows
        suffered in the attempt.

            Nature is not extravagant in her design and
        purpose. As one thinks, so he becomes. Our feelings
        and emotions, thoughts and passions, desires and
        aspirations do not die with the death of the body.
        They constitute an inner vest, an undergarment
        (the astral body), below the physical cloak; and
        the spirit clothed therein, goes out to be covered
        by yet another mantle, drawing upon the karmic
        seeds lying in store in the seed-body, the precious
        treasure-chest. It is this causal or instrumental
        body with its vast resources that helps its inmate, the
        spirit, in fashioning a new mould, a fresh tabernacle
        of flesh, which may serve as a fitting vehicle for
        the fulfilment of what lies uppermost in the
        unconscious self. The curtain finally rises unfolding
        the entire panorama of life down to the minutest detail
        ere one passes out of sight from the stage of life.
        On death-bed one may get a glimpse of reality,
        but then it is too late to comprehend it. This process
        works on and on giving at the end of each span on
        earth, fresh momentum to the wheel of life and death
        with its natural concomitants of joys and sorrows,
        weal and woe - sometime up and sometime low, moving
        in interminable gyres, as one is never satiated with
        all that one gets in one's sojourn on earth, and goes
        on adding new hopes and new desires mixed with many
        a regret for what he wanted and did not get. He is
        thus unwittingly engaged perpetually in sowing the
        dragon's teeth, and life after life, he spends in
        fighting his self-started battles with the self-raised
        armed bands which, like shadows, follow on his heels
        as untamed furies or the avenging spirits. Nature, like
        the potter's wheel, provides the means in the form of
        many clayey pots, one after the other, for slaking the
        insatiable thirst and expectation of each individual.
        Weighed down by countless desires from top to toe,
        one makes a slave of himself. Without them one could
        revel in his Godhood. What is man after all? - God plus
        desires. And conversely what is God? - Man minus desires.

            The great philosopher-poet, William Wordsworth
        (1770-1859) draws a beautiful pen-picture of a
        growing child in his memorable Ode on Immortality:

            The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
              hath had elsewhere its setting,
            And cometh from afar;
            Not in entire forgetfulness,
            And not in utter nakedness,
            But trailing clouds of glory do We come
            From God, Who is our home:
            Heaven lies about us in our infancy
            Shades of the prison-house begin to close
            Upon the growing boy...
            Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own;
            Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind,
            And, even with something of a mother's mind,
            And no unworthy aim,
            The homely nurse doth all she can
            To make her foster-child, her inmate man,
            Forget the glories he hath known,
            And that imperial palace whence he came.

            This then is the sordid picture of life on earth as
        we witness from day to day. Ever having our fill, as
        preordained, we are yet hungry - ravenously hungry
        for more and more of pelf and power, more of
        ephemeral pleasures and sense-enjoyments. Far from
        being thankful for what we have of the bounties of
        nature, 'we look before and after, and pine for what
        is not.' Nature cannot remain a silent spectator of
        our unappeased gluttony and with her magic wand
        turns us, Circe-like; into swines so that we may have
        our fill of the piffle and be done away with. It is
        only some wise Ullyses armed with a magic-flower from
        Mercury (the messenger of gods) who can fight the
        enchantress on her own ground and rescue his followers,
        getting them reconverted from swines into men
        and along with them, all others held in captivity by
        the sorceress in many different forms, each according
        to his or her innate nature. It is the type of the
        ruling passions that determine our course of life, not
        only here right now in the living present, also in the
        here-after.

            Now let us have a look at the inevitable process
        of change called death. This transference from. one
        state of life to another is a necessary adjunct of life;
        and takes place in its own good time but with a swift
        and stunning suddenness the more so when it is least
        expected. Death knows no calendar, and no one can
        predict it nor can anyone escape from it with all his
        cunning and wit. Each living thing has its own
        alloted span of lifetime. We all live, move and have
        our being in time and when, the sands of time run
        out, this change comes and continues to do so, time
        and again, until one gets beyond the farthest bounds
        of time and arises into timelessness.

            Death then is something terribly real and
        unavoidable. It perhaps seems to be the only real thing
        in the midst of the unrealities of the world. Everyone,
        rich or poor, king or beggar, young or old, healthy or
        diseased, has to pass through the death's trap-door,
        whether one likes it or not. One may live long or
        short, a hundred years or just a while; but one cannot
        live on eternally in one and the same life form which
        in course of time is sure to decay and become wearily
        burdensome, a millstone around the neck as it were,
        and one in sheer desperation may cry out in anguish
        for a quick riddance from the heavy load hanging
        around the self in him:

            Neither kings nor beggars remain,
            All go, each one in his own time.

                                             -Ramkali M.1

        A Muslim darvesh therefore advises:

            All thy life thou hast bemoaned the death of
              others,
            Why not thou sit for a while and ponder over
              thy own fate?

            Is death a painful process? is the next question.
        Generally speaking it is so with most. The scriptures
        tell us of the excruciating pain that a dying person
        suffers at the time of death. In the Bhagwad Purana,
        it is said that one experiences the horrors of death-
        pangs as if one is bitten by a million scorpions at once.
        The holy Quran likens the throes of death to the
        condition of a person when a thorny hedge were to be
        pulled through the alimentary canal from one end to
        the other. The Sikh scriptures also speak in much
        the same strain: The life-currents are wrenched out.
        All such statements are merely illustrative of the
        immensity of the torture that one experiences when
        the demons of death appear to forcibly take the
        spirit out of the body. What actually happens at that
        time it is only the dying man who knows. No one
        after the actual experience of death has ever returned
        from across the borders of the death-land to tell us of
        the exact nature of his sufferings. Each one suffers
        unto himself and becomes silent forever. To be
        on the death-bed is a veritable nailing on the cross,
        and the death-chamber is a charnel-house. One can
        hardly stand unmoved, when some people toss restlessly
        for days on end with a death-rattle in their
        throat, writhing in extreme agony on the death-bed.
        Who can assuage the tortures of death? All stand
        helplessly by; the best of physicians administering
        drugs to the last, the attendant nurses standing on
        toe-tips, the nearest of kith and kin with tearful eyes
        and woebegone looks and sombre faces, awaiting the
        inevitable end. Who hears the piteous cries of the
        poor victim and his life companions, his wife and
        children?

            As the wife with hairs dishevelled moans,
            The solitary spirit wings its way alone.

                                                -Kabir

            Of Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.), king of
        Macedonia and conquerer of the world as known at
        the time, it is said that it had been prophesied that
        he would die only when the earth would be of steel
        and the sky of gold. As neither of these two phenomena
        could be possible, the king was lulled into a
        false sense of perennial security. He imagined and
        believed that like the Olympian gods, he was immortal.
        After long and wearisome campaigns in the far east,
        as he was passing through the desert near Babylon,
        on his way back to Greece, he was stricken
        with fever. Being unable to hold on to the saddle, he
        was helped to dismount and one of the generals
        spread his steel coat-of-mail on the ground lined as it
        was with velvet on the inside and made the king lie
        thereon and held up outstretched his gold-embroidered
        umbrella over his face to protect him from the
        scorching rays of the fierce desert sun. It was then
        that the great hero of many a battle, the invincible
        conquerer, realised that his end was near, for he was
        now lying on the steely ground with a golden awning
        over him. He was overtaken by consternation. Addressing
        the best of the physicians who were attending
        upon him he, with tearful eyes, begged that something
        should be done to save him for the time being, so
        that he could reach home and meet his mother
        whom he greatly loved. But one and all expressed
        their helplessness. He offered to them at first half his
        kingdom and then the whole if they could by their
        medical skill procure for him that much of respite.
        But who could help to stay the divine decree? On the
        tenth day of illness, as his generals one by one, passed
        through the tented chamber of the dying king, he
        bade them good-bye and directed that at his funeral,
        both his hands be kept out of the shroud so that all
        could see that a great emperor was leaving empty-handed
        just the way he came into the world.

            Similarly, we hear of the sad story of a great
        and talented queen who ruled over vast dominions.
        She was adored by her people for her dazzling beauty
        and admired for her sagacity. She had ruled wisely
        and well for quite a long time. Brought up in the lap
        of luxury, with hundreds of attendants, she could not
        for a moment believe that there was such a thing as
        'death.' When her end came, she was stricken with
        great sorrow and overtaken by poignant grief. The
        royal physicians by her bed-side could do nothing to
        assuage her fears and torments. As death stared her
        in the face, they tried to console her and advised her
        to prepare for the last journey. 'What,' in her horror
        She exclaimed. And where was she going? she wondered.

            'Alas! to the land from where there is no return,'
        was the simple reply.

            She could not believe her ears. 'Am I dreaming?'
        she enquired.

            'No, you will have to go, your majesty.'

            'Is there a land of no return? and if so, where is
        it?

            'It is far off from this world,' said the courtiers.

            'Could not you locate it for me in time ? And
        what preparations have you made to make my stay
        over there comfortable?' asked the queen.

            'None, your majesty.'

            'How many of you will accompany me to that
        land?' enquired the terrified queen.

            'You will have to go alone and by yourself
        madam,' said the courtiers.

            'How many attendants will I be permitted to
        take with me?'

            'None, not one.'

            Such indeed is our ignorance of the realities of
        life. We are clever, very clever, in the workaday
        affairs of the world. But strange as it may seem, we
        know next to nothing of the stern retribution that
        awaits all of us and we have, like all others, to go all
        alone and empty-handed.

            'Naked I came into the world, and naked shall
        I go,' says the hymnologist. That indeed is the inevitable
        fate of all. Weeping we come into the world and weeping
        we depart from the world. To come weeping is
        understandable. A new-born babe does weep as he emerges
        from the chamber of the womb for he is severed from the
        Light of lights, the Light of life that has been
        sustaining him right through the period of gestation
        in that chamber, suspended upside down. This is why we
        generally keep some sort of light on for a few nights
        after the birth of the child, and whenever he cries, we
        turn his face towards that light, or at times, we play
        the rattle to amuse the baby and quieten him. But why
        should we weep at the time of departure, when on the
        way back to the parental care of the loving Father? It
        was open to us to relink the strands of life in us by
        consciously working for that end. This we, willy-nilly,
        do not care to do, and the human existence from cradle
        to the grave runs waste. Once this opportunity is lost,
        we go down in the scale of existence. To fall from the
        top rung of the ladder, more often than not, proves fatal.
        Snapping ties with acquired relationships of the world,
        spread over a number of years, is painful and the
        departure terrifically poignant, the more so as we are
        quite unprepared for the quit notice that is sprung on
        us. We do not know how to quit the rented house
        and where we are to go? The prospect of being
        thrown out into the unknown as we take the life
        after death to be, bewilders us. All this works up a
        a state of horror, unimaginable horror of the worst
        type. This is why it is said:

            Remember thou the day you came weeping
              into the world to the jubilation of those
              around thee; Live thou a life that you may
              depart laughing amidst the weeping and
              wailing of all.

            Francis Quarles (1592-1644), a mystic poet,
        speaking of death tells us: "If thou expect death as a
        friend, prepare to entertain it; if thou expect death
        as an enemy, prepare to overcome it; death has no
        advantage, but when it comes a stranger." Herein
        lies the difference between the eastern and the
        western thought on death. St. Paul, describing
        death as 'the last enemy of man' said that he died
        daily 'swallowing death in victory' and mockingly
        asked: 'O grave, where is thy sting?' The eastern
        savants hail it as an occasion for union with the
        Beloved. The conclusion, however, is the same in
        both cases; viz., that death claims an advantage
        over us only when it comes suddenly and swiftly as an
        unexpected stranger, neither as an expected friend nor
        as a dreaded foe, and we are entirely unprepared to
        receive it or to meet its challenge. Those who are
        prepared for it and are ever ready, they receive it,
        welcome it, taking it as a home-going and a means of
        union with the Beloved. A true lover of God even when
        condemned to death for heresy cheerfully lays his head
        on the block and beseechingly calls the executioner,
        praying, to make a short shrift of his body with his
        sword as he sees reflected in it the Light of his
        Beloved (God). After all, what is death? "Death," says
        Euripides "is a debt we must all pay." This being the
        case, why not pay off the debt and be forever free from
        the obligation? The body is the ransom or the
        dower which the soul has to deliver to obtain ultimate
        release from the Law of Retribution.

            To have some idea of what happens after death,
        let us have recourse to the scriptural texts. The
        Masters divide mankind into four categories. In the
        first place, there are those who have not had the
        good fortune to take refuge in any Sant Satguru and
        these form a considerable bulk. They have to go all
        alone, each a solitary soul by itself, without any
        friend and companion. All such souls have to appear
        before, and abide by the decrees of the just-god
        (Dharam Rai), who dispenses stern and strict justice
        on the principle of 'as you sow, so shall you reap,'
        without compassion or commiseration. This is what
        is called the inexorable law of karma that works
        relentlessly. This law does not take any count of
        extraneous circumstances and admits of no exceptions:
        "Castes and colours avail naught there; One gets his
        meed according to his deeds." (Asa M.3). "Every
        way of a man is right in his own eyes; but the
        Lord pondereth the hearts." (Prov. 21:2). At the
        appointed time of which no one is aware, good angels
        (Ramgans) or bad angels (Yamgans), as the case
        may be, come to forcibly take the spirit out of the
        body and one has to go along with them. They
        escort the spirit to the judgement-seat so that each
        has to render account of his thoughts, words and
        deeds. "Fool thinkest thou that because no Boswell
        is there to note thy jargon, it therefore dies and is
        buried. Nothing dies, nothing can die. The idlest
        word thou speakest is a seed cast into time which
        brings fruit to all eternity." (Carlyle). Jesus in no
        uncertain terms has declared: "And I say unto you,
        that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall
        give account thereof on the day of judgement. For
        by thy words thou shalt be justified: by thy words
        thou shalt be condemned." (Matt. 12:36-37).

            All thoughts, feelings and emotions, all words
        uttered intentionally or unintentionally and all deeds
        done premeditatedly or casually leave indelible
        impressions (samskaras or naqsh-i-amal) on the tablet of
        the mind and the account has to be rendered after
        death. It is all a summary procedure but just, with
        no provision for logic-chopping or argument or appeal
        to any higher power nor can there be any chance
        of release therefrom. The one who has indulged
        all his life in sinful doings is sent to hell (Narak or
        Dozakh) to undergo the penal servitude for a particular
        length of time as his deeds may merit and thereby rid
        himself of the evil impressions, and understand the law
        that works for his ultimate good. When the allotted time
        runs out, he once again takes birth so that he may have
        another chance to lead a reformed life freed from the
        evil now washed off, and make a fresh start avoiding
        the pitfalls of the past. If one leads a life of
        righteousness, he is assigned a place in heaven or
        paradise (Swarg, Baikunth or Bahisht), where he for
        some time enjoys the fruits of his good deeds, after
        which he too, once again, comes down to the earth-plane.
        Thus all persons ensconced in the karmic wheel of life
        move up and down by the ceaseless momentum of their
        own deeds. There is no escape from this ever-revolving
        giant wheel until one, by a stroke of good fortune,
        meets some Sant Satguru and the latter accepts him
        and helps him to a way-out and to the God-way. The
        spirits on coming out of the nether world of Pluto,
        gradually work their way up from the mineral to the
        vegetable kingdom and then to the world of insects
        and reptiles and on to that of the feathery fraternity
        and next to the quadrupeds and finally to human beings:

            After passing through the wheel of the eighty-four
              thou hast gained the top,
            O Nanak! now take hold of the Power of God,
              and be thou eternally free.

                                            -Shri Rag M. 5

            Even the Devas or Deities, the various gods and
        goddesses who are said to reign in regions of bliss are
        there on account of their highly meritorious deeds on
        the lower planes. As soon as they exhaust the merit
        gained, they have also to return to the physical world.
        The blessed Lord Krishna, the adorable one, once
        explaining to Udhav, a devoted disciple of his, about
        the working of the law of karma, pointing to an insect
        crawling in the filth said: "O Udhav, this insect
        that you see before you, has oft times been Indra, the
        god of thunder and rain, and has oft times been
        grovelling in dirt as at present. Such indeed is the
        fate of all."

            Even the Avtaras or incarnations) the embodiments
        of the Powers of God are not immune from the
        inflexible working of the karmic wheel and are called
        to judgement. Like a soldier in the army, an
        Avtara is not immune from liability under the civil
        law in addition to his obligations under the military
        law governing his profession. Even if he may be
        doing his duty under the command of his superiors
        which is law unto him under military regulations, he
        may incur a civil liability under the civil law. His
        is a two-fold responsibility: one under the army law
        - to wit, to obey implicitly what the officers order
        him to do on pain of being court-martialled and the
        other under the civil administration if, in the
        discharge of his duties, he is found to have exceeded
        the limits.

            Gods and goddesses, and the incarnations of
        various God-powers are, therefore included in this
        category, so far as the law of karma, goes. With all
        their privileged position, they, and the entire hosts of
        angels, are under the law and not above the law. This
        is why they too seek human birth in which lies the
        possibility of escape from the toils and struggles on to
        the abode of peace-eternal and life ever-lasting. Even
        the great Rishis with all their austerities and penances
        when their end draws nigh, wish and aspire for a
        human body in preference to celestial abodes in
        heaven as the shining ones (Devas). They do so
        because it is in this way alone that they stand the
        chance of contacting a Satguru, getting instructions
        from Him and rising above the inexorable law of
        causation or action and reaction.

            Heroes like Arjun and the Pandva brothers
        except Yudhishtra, the dharam-putra (the embodiment
        of dharam), as he was commonly known and believed to
        be, were cast into the nether regions for
        engaging in a war, though of righteousness, and
        enjoined by no less a personage than the blessed
        Lord Krishna, because in doing so they could not,
        with all His exhortations divest themselves of the idea
        of doership.

            Again, of Lord Krishna himself, it is said that he
        met his death by the chance arrow of a bhil, thus
        requitting his past karma committed ages before as
        Rama, who killed the invincible Bali, a forest prince,
        by the artifice of shooting an arrow from behind the
        cover of a tree. Rama and Krishna, it may be mentioned,
        were both incarnations of Lord Vishnu in different ages.

            Similarly, of King Dasrath, the rather of Rama,
        it is said that one night while hunting in the forest,
        he heard the gurgling sound that appeared to
        him to be of some wild animal lapping water close
        by among the rushes and the reeds. Guided by the
        sound, he directed his arrow in that direction, hitting 
        a young man, Sarvan, who had gone to the riverside to
        fill a pitcher with water for his blind and thirsty
        parents whom he was carrying in a pannier across his
        shoulder, and had just left them at some distance.
        Hearing the piteous anguished cry of his victim, the
        king rushed towards the dying man who told him of his
        plight and begged him to take the water to his parents.
        Full of grief, the king went to the aged couple and told
        them of the mishap. They could hardly bear the shock
        and died bemoaning their lot, wishing the same fate
        as their's for the unknown perpetrator of the crime.
        In course of time, the king also met the same fate,
        when he died in bitter agony caused by the pangs of
        separation from his son Rama who had been exiled for
        fourteen long years. This is how Nemesis overtakes each
        one in his turn, meeting out what is due unto him.
        Thus each one comes in his own way into the world and
        goes out of it into the valley of death under the
        compulsive force of karma.

            In the second category fall all persons who come
        in contact with a living Perfect Master, are accepted
        by Him, and initiated into the esoteric science of the
        soul but, for one reason or another, are not able to
        develop Communion with the Holy Word to any
        appreciable extent, be it on account of indulgence in
        sense-pleasures or because of sloth or lethargy or
        something else. They stand on a different footing from
        those in the first category. At the time of their death
        when the soul-currents begin to withdraw from the
        body, or a little earlier, the Satguru in his Radiant
        Form appears within, to take charge of the departing
        spirit. His Radiant Form gladdens the heart of the
        devotee and he gets so absorbed in Him that all
        attachments of the world fall off like autumn leaves,
        and he fearlessly and joyously follows Him into the
        valley of the shadows of death. "Yea, though I
        walk through the valley of the shadows of death, I
        will fear no evil: for thou art with me," says the
        Psalmist. (23:4). And this indeed is His troth -
        'Everyman, I will go with thee, and be thy guide;
        In thy most need to go by thy side.' Again, 'So...I
        shall not leave thee nor forsake thee till the end of
        the world.' The Master constantly keeps a watch
        over the affairs of the disciple. He is ever with him
        in weal or woe. "He stands by him even before the
        judgement-seat of God," says Nanak. With the
        darveshes, there is no reckoning of deeds of their
        disciples. The Master is all in all, the sole judge and
        arbiter of the disciples' deeds, whether these be
        righteous or unrighteous, and deals with them as he
        thinks best. "The Father hath life in Himself; so
        hath He given to the Son to have life in himself;
        And hath given him an authority to execute judgement
        also, because he is the Son of man." (John 5:26-27).
        It is because of such a deep solicitude for the
        disciple that Nanak so emphatically declares:

            Love thou the true Master and earn the riches
              true,
            He who believes in Him unto the last, the
              Master rescues him true.
            Like wandering sprites, the mind-ridden roam
              up and down,
            Animals in human form - devoid of light through
              and through.
                                            - Malar War. I

            Distance does not count with the Master. The
        Master-power does come at the last moment, or even
        earlier, no matter where the disciple may be-far or
        near. He apprises him of the impending inevitable
        hour of his exit from the world and accordingly comes
        to escort him. The Subtle Form of the Master is
        resplendent, and leads the spirit into higher regions
        and assigns each one an appropriate place to which he
        may be entitled according to his sadhna or the practice
        of the Holy Word during his lifetime; and imparts
        to him the necessary instructions for further and
        fuller development on the spiritual path. "In my
        Father's house are many mansions; and if it were not
        so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place
        for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I
        will come again and receive you unto myself that
        where I am, there ye may be also." (John 14:2-3).
        In case one is to be chastised for his laxities, He
        Himself administers the necessary chastisement but never
        lets him into the torture of hell-fire. The divine
        balance-holder (the king of shadows) who judges each
        according to his deeds, has no authority over the apt
        disciples of the Master, for they live in 'the name of
        Lord (which) is a strong tower.' (Ps. 18:10). It is
        not given to him to pass and execute judgement on
        them. In all such cases the Master Himself decides
        and does things as He thinks best. "The Lord taketh
        pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in
        His mercy." (Ps. 147:11). Again, "For whom the
        Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every
        son whom he receiveth (accepteth)." (Heb. 12:6). In
        brief:

            Those who love the Master, are never alone,
            Nor are they answerable to any nor do they
              suffer pain.
                                            -Gujri War M. 3

            But such initiates who have no love for the
        world, they are not reincarnated on the earth-plane,
        unless for some particular reason the Master deems
        it necessary to do so and in that case such a one does
        not slide down the scale but is reborn in some family
        of pious and religious parents so that the new-born
        easily gets into touch with a Master-Saint and resumes
        on his path Homeward from an early age without any
        let or hindrance, for the seed of the Word sown by
        the Sower (the Master) ever remains within the depths
        of his soul and cannot but, in time, sprout, blossom
        and fructify by the Water of Life that he is sure to
        get from the Master of his age: "None can take away
        the gift of the Guru; He who has bestowed it, knows
        how to ferry across." (Maru M. 1). "Once the seed is
        sown by a Sant; None has the power to singe it."
        (Soami Ji). Hafiz, the mystic poet of Persia, says:

            On the day of reckoning, thou shalt know for
              certain,
            In the land of darveshes, there is no count of
              deeds.

        Shamas Tabrez, another great mystic of'Persia, says:

            Death breaks down the cage liberating the
              spirit,
            Death has no sway over phoenix that dies to
              soar again,
            Why should I not fly back to my own home?
            Why should I tarry in the clayey mould?

        Again:

            The lovers know where and how to die,
            They accept and relish death as a gift from the
              Beloved:
            With inner eye opened, they see the glory of
              God,
            When others are forced blind-fold into the blind
              alley.
            While the lovers wend their way happily to the
              Lord,
            The ignorant ones die a horrifying death.
            Those who pass sleepless nights in fear of God,
            They have no regrets in life nor any hopes and
              fears;
            While here they seek His glance of grace,
            Merrily do they go in His holy presence.

            The third category comprises such persons as make
        the most of the instructions imparted to them by the
        Master but have not yet attained Perfection though
        they are well on the way to it. Such souls know of
        the time and day of their departure in advance of
        the event. Since they are fully conversant with the
        death process and every day undergo its experience,
        they are not afraid of death and know its shadowy
        character. On the contrary, they wishfully and
        wistfully await the appointed time and voluntarily
        throw off the worn-out mortal mantle just in the
        same way as they had put it on, on their advent into
        the world. They know some of the higher planes of
        the spirit-world which they traverse day in and day out
        along with the Master-power, and know the particular
        plane to which they are ultimately to go for sojourn
        after death. There they live for some time and work
        for their way up to still higher regions. They live
        all the time consciously in the love of the Master,
        and the Master-power ever abides in them. He is
        their mainstay and support and they owe no allegiance
        to anyone else. "Led by the spirit they are no more
        under the law." (St. Paul).

            Last, but not the least, come the Perfected Souls.
        They, while living, are liberated beings (jivan-mukats)
        and lead a freed life of the spirit. They know full
        well, far ahead of the time, as to when they have to
        go back to the Mansion of the Lord and gladly await the
        hour, and welcome the manner, in which they are required
        to quit the bodily frame - be it on the cross or the
        gibbet, on the red-hot iron plates or on the executioner's
        block. With no will of their own, they live in the Will
        of God, and joyously embrace death as a means of reunion
        with the Beloved, unmindful of the swift or lingering
        process of death, as may sometime be ordained by the
        religious zealots and tyrannical pontiffs and potentates,
        for that is the moment of highest jubilation for them.
        Thenceforth they live out their span of life from
        moment to moment. They care not if they are flayed
        alive, hacked to pieces or burnt at the stake or made
        to drink the cup of hemlock or nailed to the cross
        along with felons. They give a hearty handshake to
        death as it comes in their way, no matter what form
        it may assume. This then is the way that Gurmukhs,
        the Saints and the Prophets follow.

            Of Guru Amar Das it is said that when the time
        of his departure drew nigh, he called for the Sangat
        (congregation) and addressed: "I am going back to the
        Hari (Lord). No one should weep for me. He who
        will do so, will incur my displeasure. After I am gone,
        be ye all engaged in the silent Music of the soul."

            Similarly, Shamas Tabrez said: "On the day of
        my death, as my bier slowly moves along, never for a
        moment feel that I am going with any regrets in life.
        When you see my coffin, utter not a word of separation
        for then alone I am in union with the Lord. When I
        will turn my face away from the world, I will then
        be facing the eternal Reality."

            Hazur Baba Jaimal Singh J1 Maharaj had foretold
        of his approaching end long before it actually
        came about. When he was nearing his earthly pilgrimage,
        he said: "I am going back to my native place and none
        should press me to stay on. My mission in this life
        is over and I have amassed immense spiritual riches.
        Happily I go to the Mansions of the Lord."

            It is a sacrilege to lament and bewail the passing
        away of Saints for verily do they go back to their
        own home. One may, if he likes, shed copious tears
        at the death of a worldling who is forcibly ejected
        from, and dragged out of, the body by the Prince of
        the nether world and passes through devious processes
        up and down: "O Kabir, why weep for a Saint who
        goes back home: Weep, if you must, for a worldly-
        wise who tosses from hand to hand."

            Saints, when called back, on completion of their
        mission are given an honoured place in His Court.
        To die such a death is a rare privilege and a real
        blessing which may be envied by mighty kings and
        emperors.

                          [End of Part 5 of 6]

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