Are we equal in death?

People have the habit of repeating parrot-like and copying what others do and say without much reflection. A very popular example is the saying, “We are equal in death.” But is it true that we are all equal in death?

First of all, do we all die in the same way? Some people die in accidents, others by illnesses and some commit suicide. Natural death is inexistent. But most people do not know the meaning of natural death. They wrongly believe that if a person has died while sleeping or has had a sudden death, it means there was natural death. That is not true because in almost all cases such people are found to have died of some illness.

Natural death means to die of old age - no illness, no accident and no suicide. It is just as if a battery has gone down. The body has become too weak and old and the organs have been used up. In ancient times, people used to die of natural death.

Yes, it is true that after death, our bodies – whether cremated or buried - go to the earth where the different elements return to their respective source. This is the common element regarding equality in the death. Then, of course, we have a psychological point – the fear of death. Almost everyone fears death. Apart from Buddhas, no one knows much about death. The only thing that is known to lay people is that the body ceases to be. What else do they know that they say we are all equal in face of death!

Is the end of the physical body the end of human life? For scientists, yes, but that proves their ignorance. They are so ignorant about the Beyond that they reduce every esoteric, psychic and spiritual experience to mere creation of the brain. They do say that there is a God program, but they don’t say who programmed the brain thus. Or still, they talk of ‘the blind watchmaker’ when referring to nature. That is contradictory: a watchmaker and blind! There is harmony, law and order in creation, yet they say the watchmaker is blind.

Human beings are more than a mere physical body. The experience of mystics and my own is that our life has many dimensions. We have as many as seven layers of our being and those who have experienced them were all very sane in mind. From death to next birth, one goes through a state which is like a dream. The dream of each person depends on his mental state. It can be either hellish or heavenly - this is what is called hell and heaven. People being of different levels of evolution, their hell and heaven will also differ.

NDE (Near Death Experience) patients report that they behold a black tunnel, then light, followed by their ancestors, friends and relatives. A person living in UK wanted to learn meditation from me. He once asked me whether after enlightenment he will meet with his close ones. I asked him - what is the point? People reincarnate and in each incarnation we have different relatives, friends and neighbours. This is funny as the aim of human life is not just to be with our kith and kin. We are all travellers to an unknown but Promised Land. I say ‘promised’ because it is already ours. We are it; we simply have to be awakened from our slumber.

After death, we do not have the same experiences. Beyond the transit is an unknown territory, we therefore need guidance and that is provided by nature. It also depends on the type of life we have lived during our stay here. Meditators have the blessing to be guided by their guru. Some rare pious souls have the opportunity to be guided by disembodied masters to the higher realms of the astral world.

Not everyone beholds the black tunnel and their ancestors. That experience is for those of a lower level of evolution. The black tunnel is the path of the mind. As soon as one passes away, for some time there is a total black out; the light has gone. Consciousness becomes totally blurred, thus the experience of the black tunnel. Then as one is awakened in a subtler dimension, one beholds the light. Of course, this applies to those who have not lived their life in utter darkness.

There are different layers even in the astral dimension. These correspond to the different layers of consciousness and unconsciousness of our mind. There are some layers of the astral world that can be acceded solely by highly advanced spiritual people, while others only by enlightened beings. Those who have read the ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ by Paramahansa Yogananda will have an idea as the Swami’s guru gives a description of what he calls Hyranyalok - the ‘Golden World’.

Hence, in one sense, it can be said that we are equal in death, but in another, we are not. We are equal because we all have to pass through it, but it is different in the way it happens to us and what happens after. It is interesting to note here that enlightened beings leave their body voluntarily.