prehi prehi pathibhiḥ pūrvyebhir yatrā naḥ pūrve pitaraḥ pareyuḥ |
Depart, depart, by the former paths by which our forefathers have departed – Rig Veda 10.14.7

śataṃ caikā ca hṛdayasya nāḍyastāsāṃ mūrdhānamabhiniḥsṛtaikā…
A hundred and one are the nerves of the heart. Of them, one has gone out piercing the head; going up through it, one attains immortality; others at the time of death lead different ways – [Katha Upanishad 2.3.16]

Steve Job’s final words apparently were: oh wow, oh wow, oh wow!
[Assuming he really said this] what did he see?

Whatever is’ thought of by one. at the time of his death, that will be realized by him afterwards. Will a mirror reflect anything other than that which is placed before it?             – Yogavasista

 caretprāṇyāccaivāpānyācca nenmā pāpmā mṛtyurāpnavaditi
So long as breath (prāṇa) moves in and (apāna) out, there’s no death – Satapata Brahmnana 14.3.34

Why is the breath not going in and out at some point, as we age?  Are our lungs calcifying, and our breath getting shallower by the day? What happens at death, and why does everyone want to avoid it?  What are these paths that our forefathers took that Rig Veda is talking about?  So far we have been discussing about how to stay healthy, and what life is.  Yogis also approached what life is by exploring what death is. As the good old joke goes: everyone likes the idea of going to heaven, but no one is ever ready to go there. This topic has fascinated and terrify all sentient beings, forever. The question is why do we fear it if we already know that it is inevitable. We may even be able to visit heaven!  Then, how not to fear it? That was yogis’ quest.

It is a two part solution to address this fear – the first part is to learn how to manage pain, which we already covered.  The second part is to address our own perception that it is an end to our existence, which requires some therapy. Rishi’s bottomline as summarized in Gita:

na tvevāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ na tvaṁ neme … [BG 2.12]
There was not a time you and I did not exist, nor will there be a time when we will not exist…
Krishna to Arjuna in Bhagavadgita [Krishna did not mean our physical bodies; see this]

Here Krishna is using you and I as  in the sense of the athi-vahika or the information bodies of you and I, and not the physical bodies.  After all, we can all see that the physical bodies are gotten rid of.   And there were many more cycles like this before the current one, and many more to come after this cycle. We have  already discussed yogis’ ideas on what reincarnates.   So, if we contemplate enough on the fact that it is only the physical body that is not permanent, we should be able to address the second part of the fear of death – the seeming end to our existence – because the true I is existent forever, which continuously changes as we undertake actions.

Yogis’ realization was that our lack of understanding of the birth-death cycle, and not knowing our purpose, is the root cause of this fear.  Just like with anything else, we fear that which we don’t understand.  We define and think of death and birth as specific moments in time.  Like when we say someone died, and we say s/he died on so and so date…  But death is actually a part of a long process, and we typically club everything other than clinically defined endpoint as aging, but what all that is is semantics.  Viewing death as a singular point in time as opposed to a part of the aging process adds significantly to this fear.  Yogis view birth and death as transitory points, and both come with some stress for the untrained.  But for the trained, Death apparently is that final teacher – for that last lesson, on this leg of the journey!     

Now, we will focus on the process side of it as opposed to the psychological side of it.  One way to beat this fear is to experience it in bits, in a controlled way – essentially a cognitive behavioural therapy (the CBT) strategy.  For this, the yogis developed recipes that take us close to that point, and bring us back.  We will cover those sources here.

the process of “Death”

Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There’s still time to change the road you’re on – “Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven“

Don’t exactly know what Robert Plant meant by those two lines, but yogis teach us that in fact there are two paths – dēvayāna and pitr̥yāna – the path of gods and the path of fathers.  If there is a path of fathers, why isn’t there a path of mothers?  Are the yogis sexist?  Be assured that they are not.  At least the ones that were laying out this theory.  The pitr̥ here is related to puruṣa, not fathers.  Again, puruṣa has everything to do with specificity in everything, while the prakṛti is non-specific and isotropic.  Which path do we want to take? It’s not that one is better than the other, but depends upon our individual goals.  If don’t want to reincarnate, it is the path of devayana, and if we have to come back and enjoy the fruits (pain and pleasure) that come with the next cycle, it is the pitr̥yāna.  Review the referenced Bṛhadarayaka upanishad slokas (Chap 6, Section 2, Slokas 15-16).

In the ontological sense,  Satapata Brahmana positions death as the complementary form of life that existed from the very beginning, as manifestation of non-existence. It was already present as the first universal entity (Prajapati) emerged, as he was the first, and was teetering on the edge of existence and non-existence.  [Prajapati is a he as in masculine, and not as in a man.]  As existence emanated from non-existence, those two are at constant tug of war, in a dynamic equilibrium. 

Anyhow, if one accepts death as just a transition point and nothing to stress about, and lose fear of it, it becomes a teacher.  Now, how can we learn those lessons while alive?   The solution apparently is to train the mind by going to that edge of life and death, in a controlled manner, but staying on the alive side to develop an intuition to those experiences.  Its almost like going to the beach to observe the ocean, and then learn to swim, then to dive and finally deep-dive to get a glimpse of the oceanic structure. Also, we don’t necessarily have to dive into the deepend to know something about the beach.  In a beautiful allegoric form, the vedic god of death, Yama, becomes a teacher to an aspirant that does not fear it. In this story, that fearless aspirant is a kid named Nachiketas.   The fire that takes us from this side (life) to the other side is named after him – Nachiketa-agni or Nichiketagni. Below is an excerpt from that upanishad.

Katha Upanishad (an excerpt) 

The “process of death” as the teacher

In a very insightful conversation setting the stage for the discourse by Yama (Death), Nachiketas in respond to Yama’s offer of all sorts of pleasures on earth in lieu of this discourse on the process of death and reincarnation says “how can a mortal who has seen you, or has a knowledge of you, ever enjoy those mortal pleasures?”.  

Here we only pick a few critical slokas (13-17) from Kathopanishad. We are trying to connect the dots – as one should expect, the gaps are huge! Crossing hour meditation/kriya is a starting point for techniques. Because of the nature of these techniques, yogis stayed away from publicizing them, and thus forcing the student to seek out a source of her/his choice. Some might instead prefer Death to come to them to teach it – for yogis, that is a perfectly valid approach too!

In an allegorical form, this text clues us on how to approach the process of death, and learn from it to lead a better, healthier, brave life. In the process, relieve ourselves from the fear of it.

To kick it off, our protagonist Nachiketas, did not panic when Death showed up in front of him (how?). This is the first lesson. In fact, he embraces it and takes advantage of the process to gain the very esoteric knowledge from something that terrifies all life forms.

Following are the translations (SriMatham translation) …. Typically agni is translated as fire, but that neither correct nor complete.; see this.

13. [Nachiketas said] You know O Death, that specific agni which leads one to the next world [heaven]. Describe it to me, who listens to you with full of faith. Immortal are they who dwell in heaven — This I choose, as my second boon.
14. [Death said]: “Knowing well as I do, that agni which leads to the next world, I shall describe it to you — learn it from me, O Naciketas. Know that agni to be the means of attaining the infinite world, and as abiding in the secret place (of the heart)”. [basically, the blue print or the map of “that how” is within us! We just need to pull it out and read…..].
15. [Death] described to him that agni [and the technique] which is the source of the celestial worlds, as also what kind of bricks, how many and in what manner to light it. And he (Naciketas) repeated all that just as it had been told; then, pleased with him, Death spoke again.
16. Death extremely delighted, said to him (Naciketas) I give you here today another boon. By your own name will this agni become (known). Take also this multiformed necklace.
17. One who has thrice kindled the Naciketa agni, associating with the three, performs the three acts, crosses over birth and death. Having known this agni born of Brahman, and having realized that, she/he obtains supreme peace.

Our ultimate goal is to light the “agni of Nachiketas” within us, experience it and extinguish it, in a controlled way. This will allow us to get rid of the fear of death and thus allow us to lead a fearless life that Vivekananda professes so succinctly. We will continue to discuss the physical tools we need to develop, to make progress towards this lofty goal.

How could Nachiketas not panic?

So, how could Nachiketas not panic, and maintain his cool when “death” showed up in front of him? [that is when we realize that the end is near, how do we keep our cool?] There may be several reasons, but from an infrastructure standpoint, it is the nervous system.  Recall that every belief, habit, addiction is a knot in our nervous system.  The more attachments, habits, beliefs and such we have, the more fragmented our nervous system would be…  More specifically, it is the capacity (the dynamic range) of the nervous system that matters.   A fragmented nervous system can be upset a lot faster than an open nervous system.  When the response to an input overwhelms the nervous system, we experience defensive responses, such as fear, panic, anxiety, pain, etc.  We need our nervous system to deal with the thought of death in a controlled way to not fear it – that’s the bottomline.  They are very useful as protective mechanisms, but having control is equally important.  Yoga practices therefore targets expansion, control and strengthening of the nervous system – physical strength and flexibility are the byproducts and not the main goal of the practice.

Having a strong expansive nervous system alone is not sufficient – other components such as compassion, empathy, and control are equally important. So it’s important to feed the expansive nervous system with the right kind of vital energy (separate topic).

“Death” in Vedas

We will start with a short snippet from Satapata Brahmana of Yajurveda, and then switch to Rg Veda.  Kanda 2, Chapters 2 and 3 are very instructive.  The vedic model for Agni (fire) is that there are three of them in each one of us, starting the one at the top (gārhapathya), one around the solar plexus (ahavaniya), and the last one in the root area (dakshina-fire or dakshinagni).  See the excerpt below

2.3.2.1. Verily, in him that exists, these deities reside, namely, Indra, king Yama, Nada the Naishadha (king), Anashnat Saṅgamana, and Asanpamsava.

2.3.2.2. Now Indra is the same as the Ahavaniya; and king Yama is the same as the Gārhapatya; and Nada Naishadha is the same as the Anvaharyapacana (Dakshina fire); and because day by day they take that (fire) to the south, therefore indeed they say that day by day Nada Naishadha carries king Yama (further) south. [this is a critical point – these fires are cajoled to move downward by nature; dakshina fire (or the southern fire) is located in the lower triangle which is all about defining and protecting the Me-Mine-NotMine boundaries.  This strengthening of the southern fire , and drawing of other fires towards it, is a key cause of death in humans; yoga is all about slowing down that process].

2.3.2.6.  Now the Gārhapatya (householder’s fire) has the practitioner for its deity; and the Anvāhāryapacana (southern fire) has his adversary for its deity: hence they should not take over that (southern fire) every day (from the Gārhapatya); and he indeed has no adversaries, for whomsoever, knowing this, they do not take it over every day. Indeed, it is the Anvāhāryapacana. [this is a mysterious verse – the sanskrit word used for adversary can also mean a hostile cousin; in anyway, keeping the southern fire in check is very important.  Under normal conditions with no threats in sight, this turns to the desire to mate; back to yama #4].

2..3.3.7. Now yonder burning (sun) doubtless is no other than Death; and because he is Death, therefore the creatures that are on this side of him die. But those that are on the other side of him are the gods, and they are therefore immortal. It is by the rays (rashmi) of that (sun) that all these creatures are attached to the prana pulsations (breaths or life), and therefore the rays extend down to the prana pulsations… [this is from the next brahmana, but the theme is the same, but with a connection to prana]

There are several contrasting hymns in Rig Veda – 10.14, 10.16, 10.18, 10.58, 10.135, and 10.154 – but we will cover a few verses from the famous hymn 10.16, again to  Agni; Wilson’s translation [with modifications; comments in purple] below…  Yama and Varuna are the two figures in this as Yama dissolves the person in cosmic waters, which Varuna rules, and this person reemerges as a new embryo.  It’s not entirely clear as what the early rishis were exactly talking about, but it appears that they are talking about the whole journey.     

Hint:  A clue to interpreting this hymn. – as we slow down breathing, as we exhale more than inhale, we will start heating up the body.  After a certain stage, the body starts shaking.  Let’s say we won’t go there, but keep the body in a heating mode (it’s very easy to sweat this way actually).  If you want to practice this, practice for only a few breaths like this at the beginning.  As always start slowly, and notice your body’s reaction, and then rinse repeat.

10.16.1. “Agni, consume him not entirely; afflict him not; scatter not (here and there) his skin nor his body; when Jātavedas [agni], you have rendered him mature, then send him to the Pitṛs.” [why burn him not completely?  So, they are not talking about cremation here; they are  talking about the slowing down the breath. to heat the body  What about sending to ancestor-land?  It is possible that this process takes us to the inherited parts of our unconscious.  Note that about 99% of our neural circuitry is inherited, and was there at birth]. 

10.16.2. “When you have rendered him mature, then give him up, Jātavedas [agni], to the Pitṛs; when he proceeds on path that leads away prana, then he will be led by the will of gods.” [does that mean, to be able to see “god”, we need part to with prana, i.e., life force?]  

10.16.3. sūryaṃ cakṣur gacchatu vātam ātmā dyāṃ ca gaccha pṛthivīṃ ca dharmaṇā | apo vā gaccha yadi tatra te hitam oṣadhīṣu prati tiṣṭhā śarīraiḥ ||

“Let the eye go to the sun; vata; atma go to heaven or to the earth, according to your dharma; or go to the waters if it suits you (to be) there, or abide with your body in the medicinal herbs.” [waters is the dissolved state of everything; vata is that signal transduction in our bodies]

10.16.4. ajo bhāgas tapasā taṃ tapasva taṃ te śocis tapatu taṃ te arciḥ | yās te śivās tanvo jātavedas tābhir vahainaṃ sukṛtām u lokam ||

“The unborn portion; burn that, Agni, with your heat; let your flame, your splendour, consume it; , agni, carry him to the world those who did good deeds.” [The unborn portion? Is it the part of us that did not get a chance to manifest…? That is requested to be burnt, so that it does not have to reincarnate, and go through these cycles again.  Sadly, some interpret aja as sheep (as it is also one of the meanings)!]

10.16.5 ava sṛja punar agne pitṛbhyo yas ta āhutaś carati svadhābhiḥ | āyur vasāna upa vetu śeṣaḥ saṃ gacchatāṃ tanvā jātavedaḥ |

“Release him again to the Pitṛs, Agni, him who offered on you, roams with the svadhās; putting on (celestial) life, let the remains (of bodily life) depart; Agni, let him, be associated with a body.” [The last part is generally associated with rebirth. Agni takes the unborn and this subtle body, and can associate with a new seed-body essentially].

10.16.6. yat te kṛṣṇaḥ śakuna ātutoda pipīlaḥ sarpa uta vā śvāpadaḥ | agniṣ ṭad viśvād agadaṃ kṛṇotu somaś ca yo brāhmaṇām̐ āviveśa ||
“Should the black crow, the ant, the snake, the wild beast, harm (a limb) of you, may Agni and the Soma that has pervaded the brāhmaṇas, make it whole.” [These animals have corresponding projections/internal aspects within us. This is a typical problem with vedas.  The animal names like sarpa have mystical meanings as well, just like how ajah can be sheep or unborn.  Here any harm done due to any of those corresponding internal aspects, agni and soma, the primal pair, are asked to fix it].

yoga Techniques

From techniques-wise, they closely replicate end-of-life states deliberately to experience them.  Near the end-of-life, several breath-related changes occur and one such change includes shallow breaths with periods of no breathing for a few seconds to a minute…  Yoga meditators mimic such changes; these groups of techniques are called crossing hour meditations – their approach is closely related to the modern day concept of “cognitive behavioral therapy”. Two important components of this meditation are: deliberate build up of a small oxygen deficit, and then first experience it and then control the resultant fear/anxiety response of our mind in a slow, meditative way.  One key result of these meditations is that they impact our fears and phobias, and have the potential to change the nature of our dreams…

As the breath and metabolism slow down, only the most important biological processes continue to operate; they even prepare the departure. In the mind field, these are all the instincts that we developed and inherited.  Before reaching the circuits that control breathing, we run through all the instincts that inherited from our fathers (pitr), the masculine [recall that feminine does not contain information by herself].  Such processes may also result in end-of-life dreams and vision (ELDV) experiences, which are common and cut across cultural boundaries.  Yogis’ thesis is that the process we go through as we practice these crossing hour meditations is the same as that that we go through as we are going through the process of death.  These meditations are not easy, but a little bit a time is the way to practice…

For the rest of us, master yogis ask us to start with the hypothesis that all fears trace back to the basic fear of our own non-existence: fear of death is a major component of it, but not all of it. For example, any perceived damage to our frontal self (ego) also generates all sorts of fears and anxieties.  Anyway, decouple the concept of death from the issue of our own existence or non-existence.  That will help ameliorate our fears.

At the end of the day, yoga is about contemplation and experimentation, within the labs of our own inner quarters. Discard anything that’s not working, with no judgement…