Death … Wake Up Call & Need for Conscious Preparation

Like me, most of us would have read in scriptures and also heard from accomplished spiritual seekers regarding the event called Death .. which is the end of material existence when one stops Breathing (inactivation of PRANA element). This is a certainty of Life Journey yet remains a mystery and also cause of Fear and could cause grief and emotional stress.

Spiritual seekers do get premonition/subtle signals and they also make conscious preparation to face the reality called DEATH as was the case with my parents, both disciples of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. Sri Aurobindo has described this phenomena as “Unconscious Rest” and need for conscious preparation by gradual abolition of Desires, attachments with material world of possessions and attachments.

I wish to share my first-hand experience of closely witnessing this phenomena happening in case of my father, Dr Devki Nandan Srivastava, who was an academician by profession and an ardent devotee of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother right from his initiation to their Thoughts and also the Ashram in late 60s. Based in Lucknow, he was closely connected with Sri Navajata ji, Dr MP Maheshwari, Dr Surendra Nath Jauhar, Shri Devdutta of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry as part of activities of Sri Aurobindo Society starting from early 1970s till late 2000s. 

He left his physical body in June 2017 at the age of 89 years after a prolonged illness during the last 9 months of his journey. It all began with his telling us that his period of Decay of physical body has started. First, we could witness his conscious withdrawal at the Mental level, from possessions and close relatives and zeroing down on listening to recorded Bhajans and Hymns. Being an academician, his daily practice of reading Bhagwat Gita and Ram Charit Manas remained part of his routine in morning hours till his last 3-month period of Life Journey.

We could hear his groaning, being in acute Pain, but he never asked us to call a doctor or gave specific instructions that he would prefer for us to be at home only. It was evident from his response to the doctor – ‘everything is okay’ when asked whether he had any Pain … His sole source of medication was bhajans and hymns and we could see him relishing and responding to the Rhythm .. His intake was restricted to Water only in the last fortnight … and finally last 3 days, no intake, with intense Breathing in the body … We could also see a glow and Peace on his face though his body had become very weak due to lack of food intake during the last few weeks. 

This has been to me a real life example of accomplished spiritual seekers. His subtle presence has been a guiding force in my life and also life of those to whom he was a source of Inspiration.

- Pranav Srivastava (India)

Comments

  1. Thakur Prasad16 February 2024 at 06:40

    Yes, very inspirational and informative that Death, so-called death, is not cessation of Life but a process of Life.

    ReplyDelete

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