Q: Can Near-Death Experiences lead to enlightenment?
Near-Death Experiences, NDEs, can be highly spiritual experiences, but they are not enlightenment experiences. You do not have to die or nearly die to become
enlightened! On the other hand, you die in a different sense since you lose your past identity.
Many people have such powerful NDEs, which are so different and shocking to their logical minds that they go through a cognitive shift. This leads to a transformation in the way they think and act.
Most NDEs follow a pattern. They float away from the body. They see themselves dying. If in an operating theatre, they see and hear what the doctors and nurses do and say. They see what they normally cannot from their position on the bed. Typically, they go through a dark space at the end of which they see light. The light is comforting. They experience no fear, just peace.
Especially if they are medically trained, some see the gradual cessation of their mind-body functions. They may seek help if they are able to, but not out of any fear. They are happy to move towards whatever there is at the end of the dark tunnel.
Depending on cultural and religious beliefs, they may see figures that seem to beckon them. Finally, they are told to go back. Or they are sent back. They feel themselves back in the body and wake up.
People lose their fear of death when they experience NDE. Whatever they experienced gives them the belief that there is something more to life than mere material benefits. Many start believing in rebirth and reincarnation. Awareness develops that one is not bound by this body and mind and that we are all interconnected beyond body and mind. People develop more tolerance and pay more attention to relationships. They develop a greater belief in a superior being, a God.
In our Life Bliss Programs, we take participants through meditations that replicate the death experience. Without having to go through an uncontrolled NDE, one can shed fears of death through these meditations under safe and controlled conditions. Participants also go through identity dissolution experiences. They learn that there is more to life than possessions and acquisitions. They learn to figure out who they are and what they need to do in this life.
Enlightenment is your natural state. You become enlightened when you understand who you truly are. In that sense, an NDE can direct a person towards realization of one's Self and therefore, enlightenment.
Conditioning
15.7 The living entities in this conditioned material world are a portion of My eternal Self.
In this conditioned material world they are attracted by the six senses, which include the mind, dwelling in Prakriti, the active energy principle.
15.8 The spirit in the mind-body living in this material world moves from one body to another carrying these just as air carries aroma.
Krishna uses a new word, 'conditioning.'
Recent research tells us that human beings walk on two legs due to conditioning. A scientist group recently found a seventeen-year-old guy in a forest. Wolves had raised him. The scientists tried to teach him how to walk on two legs and to speak a few words. They were unable to do this and he died within one year.
Man walking on two legs is due to conditioning. Everything we consider as human nature is nothing but conditioning.
Zen Buddhism has a beautiful technique for de-conditioning. For twenty-one days, the aspirant is allowed to be in a room. He can eat and sleep. But he must throw away everything he has seen or heard from his mind. Nothing he has seen or heard should enter his mind. They say within twenty-one days he will be enlightened. It is a tough job. It is tough to be in such a position even for twenty-one minutes.
Here Krishna says, 'conditioned world.' Everything is conditioning. Right and wrong, honor and dishonor, are all conditionings. We think of honor or dishonor because we are taught that way.
We are conditioned. If a group of people give us a certificate and clap their hands, we take it as honor. That is the way we are taught. But never judge yourself by others' applause. This idea of honor drives many people mad. Never accept the judgment of the crowd.
A small story:
Winston Churchill was delivering a lecture. About 10,000 people were listening. A press person asked Churchill what he felt about such a huge gathering. Churchill replied, 'Never judge my importance by the crowd. Today there are 10,000 persons. If you announce that I will be hung in public tomorrow, there will be 100,000 people. It will be a scene to be seen.'
The crowd cannot decide right and wrong or honor and dishonor. Your integrity, your honesty to the truth, your depth of self-center alone can decide your worth.
Here Krishna gives these dhyana slokas, meditation hymns to re-program your causal layer, your samskara.
One small story:
A Sufi mystic begged a king for a meal. The king shouted at him, 'Nobody here knows you.'
The mystic laughed and said, 'Yes. I agree. Nobody here knows me. Yet I know myself. In your case, everybody knows you. However, you don't know yourself.'
Only those who don't know themselves worry about others knowing them.
After crossing the three layers and going beyond the causal layer, you enter a space where you are free from conditioning. May you be free from all conditionings!
Krishna says:
mamaivaamsho jeeva loke jeeva bhootaha sanaatanaha manaha shashthaani indriyani prakriti sthaani karshati
"They are attracted by the six senses that include the mind.'
There are five physical senses and the sixth sense is the mind. However, according to me, mind is the only sense and the so-called five physical senses are slaves to it. The mind jumps around. If the mind can be handled, all the other five can be handled.
A small story:
Queen Madalasa gave birth to seven children. Each child became enlightened by the age of seven and moved out of the kingdom. Their father, the king, was puzzled. How did seven children in a row become enlightened? He probed into the issue and found that Madalasa has taught them one phrase, tat tvam asi (You are That). Just by internalizing tat tvam asi, their mental setup changed. They were cleared of samskaras in the causal layer. They became enlightened.
Enlightenment is the removal of samskaras, the elimination of embedded memories, and dissolution of conditioning. We return to our pure original state. This is why enlightenment is referred to as samadhi. The Sanskrit word Samadhi means 'returning to original state.'
The spirit in the mind-body, living in this material world, moves from one body to another carrying these samskaras just as air carries aroma. Samskaras in one body quit that body and take shelter in another. This continuous vicious cycle of movement of samskaras is what Krishna refers to as samsara, the life-and-death cycle.
What does He mean by these? He says grihitva etani, 'taking these.' In the previous verse, Krishna talked about the six senses, including the mind. He refers to them here.
When the spirit leaves one body and moves to another body, it carries the six senses, the five senses and the mind, in the same way as wind carries smells. Just as wind carries smells, consciousness carries samskaras, causal level imprints, from body to body.
Krishna answers a frequently asked question about sin. People ask whether sins come with them from one birth to another. Sins never follow. Only imprints travel. For example, if a man commits one hundred murders, the quantity will not follow, however the basic mentality of murdering accompanies and tortures him. Only the mental setup is carried.
The concept of karma which is often used to justify actions, by saying, 'It is our karma,' 'It is our vidhi (fate).' 'It is our destiny, what can be done?' 'Whatever had to happen has happened,' is pure fabrication and justification of our negative deeds.
We have the freedom to act: the free will to decide and act. Ironically, only an enlightened Master has no freedom. Enlightened Masters are driven by Parashakti's will; they are guided by Her, that Universal Power, into