Small story.
There was a schoolteacher, who is a scoutmaster also. He has made a rule that all his students, all scout students, should come and give him a report. At least one good activity or one service they should have done that day. Every day as soon as they come to school, they should report to the scoutmaster about one good activity or one service done by them.
One day three friends, all three of them got up and said, 'Sir, today we helped an old lady cross the road'. Scoutmaster said, 'Old lady crossing the road is O.K., but you don't need three persons. Why do you need three persons to help her cross the road?' They said, 'Yes sir it really took three persons, because she didn't want to!'
Be very clear, many times you start doing things just for the sake of service, not feeling. You don't feel what you are doing. You don't feel the need of the other person. You have to fill your diary, you need to fill your timesheet. You need to fill your time and you need to show your project report to somebody. Maybe to the higher authorities or to the society that, see what I've done, just for that when you do it just for that, you create more mess and difficulty for others. You sow only more difficulty and more mess for others.
I always feel service should be overflowing out of your being; never it should be done for some other purpose. Whenever it is done for some other purpose, be very clear you will not be intense, you will not be growing in your being. Your love or service will be pure hypocrisy. I can say impure hypocrisy, not pure hypocrisy. With anything pure you will be liberated. This is impure hypocrisy.
When Ramana Maharishi felt he was dying, he did not run here and there. He did not ask for water. He didn't say, 'Oh, call the doctor, call 911'. First of all in India there is no 911. There is some number that never works and nobody knows that number also. Really I'm not able to remember because we never call, it never works. At the most in India we know only one number, which is oh God. Only then something can happen, it can happen that's all, nothing else can be done. Anyhow no 911, no water, no doctor, no emergency service, he was not even trying to save himself inside the house, trying to do something. See no possibility of 911 that we know. At least he could have tried to get little water or he could have shouted because his relatives were there in the house.
He did not do anything. He used that door of opportunity to take the jump. We are also again and again going near this door. Whenever you hear about somebody's death or whenever fear attacks, you also go near the door. But we are afraid to take the jump. And we have trained ourselves so much to be hypocrites or not to be intense. We somehow balance and we escape. We switch on the TV, we just move our attention towards something else.
Ramana Maharishi used that door to take a quantum jump into deathlessness. He just laid himself on the floor and did not move his body, allowed death to happen. He says beautifully, about his experience.
'Suddenly for no reason I felt the deep fear that I am going to die. I was not sick. I was not having any mental problem. Physically, mentally I was healthy. But suddenly the thought came that I am going to die. I just co-operated with that fear. I did not try to jump. I did not try to run away, I did not bother about anything else. I did not feel like doing anything else. I just sat and allowed. I just sat and allowed the death to happen to my being'.
He says, 'I lay down and I decided, let me see what happens, what can be done. I just accepted, consciously started moving into that fear. That fear overtook me. The fear started working on me. I could see that I am dead. My body is not moving, nothing is happening in me. I could see very clearly that I am out of the body. Suddenly like a flash the intelligence or the truth descended on me, my body is dead, but I am alive. I am not dead. My body is dead, but I could see, I could feel that I still exist. It means I am something beyond body'.
That single experience in that moment, experience of the truth, shook me completely and I realized I am not just body. I am something beyond body. After that never I had death fear or any fear. Once for all the fear has disappeared from my being. The moment I understood that even after my body dying there is something in me that is not dying. Why should I then bother about my body's death? Why should I bother about the death of my body? Even if my body dies, I shall continue to exist. I am going to exist, I am alive. What is happening? Then I am something more than what I think. I am something more than this body. I saw very clearly I was dying, step by step slowly the body died. Suddenly I remembered, yes, only the body is dead I am alive, I exist still, I am there'.
He says in the experience he saw very clearly, as if his body being carried, burnt, reduced to ashes, every thing happened in few seconds, but suddenly something opened, clicked. Yes, body has disappeared, I died, it is burnt and everything is over but, I exist. This was such a strong experience.
Ramana Maharishi says, 'once for all the death fear left me and the experience that I exist stayed for ever'. Understand: in half an hour you can become enlightened. That is what Ramana Maharishi is saying by expressing this. It is very difficult for a logical, ordinary mind to understand as to how just one simple experience can give so much of clarity and courage, and how such an experience can transform one's whole life. After the experience happened, within few days he left the house all alone, traveled and came and settled in Arunachala. After that he never left Arunachala. May be Ramana Maharishi would have practiced this technique in many births before that birth. Whatever he practiced, that experience just automatically opened up and pulled him inside and gave him the truth.
He says that this realization never left him. He says that he never moved away from this realization after that one experience. Just that one death experience had liberated one of the greatest masters India has ever produced into enlightenment. His influence, especially in the recent days, is so much on every political and social leader of India. I can say the great spiritual way that we are all expressing now wouldn't have happened but for him. It is the wave happening through the great ocean called Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi. Almost all the modern day mystics, enlightened masters, social leaders, politicians have drawn their inspirations from him, as waves in an ocean called Ramana Maharishi.
This single technique has created an enlightened being or gifted a great enlightened being to planet earth. Of course, it happened spontaneously to him because he was practicing for a long time, over many births. You don't expect it will happen spontaneously to you. Even if it happens, you will not allow that fear to take you over. Now only you need to practice, you must practice. Just lie down in the house as dead, do not move the body and be very clear that you are dead. Immediately all kinds of fears will arise. No, no, no, just half hour, let me finish some urgent work and come back or can I just sign my will and come back, Swamiji? Our mind will not be ready. Your mind will never be ready. Even if you have lived three hundred years your mind will not be ready.
In many of our Life Bliss Programs before we guide people through meditations that help remove fears of death, we have a discussion on whether people are afraid to die and why. While many do accept that they are not ready to die even if they do not confess to being afraid, there are some who vehemently reject being afraid of death in any way. We question such people further. They would admit that though they may not feel any fear in dying, they are afraid of dying painfully or in suffering. They are not afraid if death occurs suddenly, in sleep as it were, and snatches them away. Unfortunately no one can guarantee how we shall die. In whichever form death takes you over, whether as a massive heart attack that occurs in the night or as a creping cancer or as a bullet in the head, all these cause pain and suffering. Whether one is consciously experiencing these at that stage is a moot point.
Nithyananda says in his Nithyananda Spurana Program that death is painful, very painful. It is like a sword cutting the body across its length. It is so painful that the body mind lapses into an unconscious comatose state as a result. There is no such thing as a painless death unless one has consciously rejected the fear of death beforehand. It is only when one internalizes the truth that we still live after death that the fear and pain of death can disappear. This is possible.
When Nithyananda was in Varanasi during his parivrajaka he had a powerful experience of his own death.
Let me describe exactly what happened with me, when I had experience with this technique. I always used to think that I should have experience of death and face death directly, face to face. But some how that thought never became a priority. Any thought has to become a priority, it should not be in the corner of your mind, only then experience can happen. Usually in our list we have washing, cleaning, paying the rent and phone bill, if time permits enlightenment also, if time permits meditation also. Things will not work this way. Only when things become top priority, only when urge becomes urgent things starts transforming. Otherwise it is ok, let us get on with our lives, but nothing much can be done.
One small story, one guy goes to the doctor and says, 'Doctor I tried to commit suicide by taking 1000 aspirins'. Doctor asked, 'what happened?' The guy said, 'After taking two I felt better and I stopped'.
Only when it is in top priority experience can be achieved. The death experience was not in my top priority. Somehow it was getting postponed till I went to Varanasi. Varanasi is the holy city for Hindus. It has a huge floating population of pilgrims. Nearly 300,000 people per day enter and go out and every day 300 dead bodies are burnt in one place. This burning place is called Manikarnika Ghat. It is traditionally believed that if somebody dies or somebody's body is burnt in that area their spirit will be liberated and they will have direct enlightenment.
Not only it is traditional belief, Ramakrishna confirms it from his own experience. He says, 'I saw very clearly Mahadeva himself going to every fire and blessing the spirit, unclutching it from the body mind and liberating it'. So you can't say it's a mythological belief, it's a solid experience of an enlightened master.
I had the fortune of going to the Manikarnika Ghat. Traditionally it is not only believed, but it is true that, for last 2000 years the fire in that Ghat has never been put off. Whether it rains or shines or floods or what ever it is, the fire to light the funeral pyres burns constantly. People will not bring fire when they come to the Manikarnika Ghat with the dead body. From the fire that is continuously burning in one point in that Ghat, the fire will be taken to light the funeral pyre. It's an unbroken fire, means day and night bodies will be getting supplied. I saw sometimes two, three bodies burnt at a time, because so many dead bodies are coming. I don't know from where people are dying so much, because if you sit for half an hour, you can see over a hundred bodies coming, especially in the evenings. From all around the place from wherever whoever dies, they will start walking, carrying the dead body from their place. They will be chanting the mantra, 'Ram naam satya hai, Ram naam satya hai', which means that the only truth is God's name. By evening they will reach the Manikarnika Ghat. Every day an average of 300 dead bodies is burnt, only in the evenings 200 bodies will be brought there.
Whatever is rendered, I cannot describe the experience verbally, you have to see what happens there to have the experience. To tell you honestly the fear of death just disappeared. You see so many bodies and you feel, 'I am also going to go one day like this only, it is ok'. You feel that so many people are giving company. It's like one more trip, you don't feel lonely about death. If you see one body being burnt rarely once in a while you will have that fear, but there what you see is unimaginable. No ritual or anything, they will bring the body, straightaway they will dip the body in Ganga three times chanting, 'Ram naam satya hai, Ram naam satya hai, Ram naam satya hai', this means Rama's name is the ultimate and eternal truth. They will bring the body out from the water, by which time fire will be ready and the wood will be arranged for the pyre.
Actually they will be continuously arranging the wood even if the bodies are not coming; I asked them, 'why you are arranging continuously?' They told me, 'You don't know Swamiji, in half an hour 200 bodies will come'. Their accounts are correct, they know for sure. The bodies come, they arrange, and they give tokens based on the entry. One funny thing, no relatives stay there and do any ritual. They dip the body in Ganga and then throw the body on the wooden pyre and go away, that's all. The people who maintain the Ghat take care of the rest. They don't know how long it will take for the body that was brought to be put in the fire. It's like a queue system, continuously going on.
All I did was to decide, 'Let me sit here and see what goes on', and I sat. In just an hour, death was no more a strange incident that happens once in a while for some relative or friend. It became like, 'Ok, next, that's all. Next, that's all'. All sizes, all genders, all ages, all kinds, all colors, all communities, and all religions also come here. One nice thing in India, the power of our Indian spirituality is that even though few fanatic leaders are trying to create a split with the Muslims and Christians, the common people don't care. I have seen many Muslims and Christians who are initiated disciples in our own ashram, not only initiated but swamis, monks. Here they don't bother about Muslim or Christian bodies, because Indian blood itself seeks truth. That is really surprising.
When continuously you see the dead bodies being burnt, you actually lose respect for death. Now you have too much of respect, too many fearful ideas about death. It is nothing but that the breath that went inside did not come out, that's all. Nothing much can be done about it. You cannot rewind it or fast-forward it. When I was seeing this process continuously, initially whatever little fear that was there disappeared and slowly it became interesting. I went near the guys managing the process and started helping them. Then I started thinking, 'After all, this body is also going to become like this'. When you remember that death is going to happen to you, the respect that you carry for your ego will come down. Ego is what makes you think that you should not leave body mind. When you know for sure that everything is going to leave you, then the respect for ego just drastically drops. I am a kind of a too sharply intellectual, honest guy, so straight away the respect for ego dropped.
Then I decided, 'After all I am going to die. Let me have the death experience now itself and live without the death fear. Either that or let me die. That's all. But I have to experience death'.
There is a small Shiva temple around the corner and a small tower above the temple, I went and sat in that tower so that nobody will disturb me. If you see the first volume of the biography, you will see the photograph of the place where I had my first death experience. I sat there. From there I started seeing the dead bodies being burnt. Still I remember the strong click that happened in me when one elderly lady's body was being burnt. She had a big belly, the cloth was burning and the fat that was in the belly started burning and melting and flowing. I apologize for describing too vividly. I could see clearly, because of the fat flowing the fire was burning intensely. That gave a very strong click into me and said, 'God. Yes, it is the same way it's going to burn when I die and the same thing is going to happen to this body also. Let it happen'.
That click, that realization opened up a deep fear of death in me. When that fear spread all over my body, I faced it consciously. I could experience very clearly the fear spreading all over the body and when the fear met my awareness, when it hit my awareness that became death experience.
Whenever your fear is suppressed it stays inside you as a suppressed fear. Whenever it comes out and you are not consciously facing it, it becomes a fear stroke. The fear stroke shakes your whole nervous system and breaks it down. If it is faced consciously it becomes death experience. If you just try to escape and run away from the death fear when it occurs, it becomes death. When you face it consciously it becomes death experience. Death fear plus subconscious is suppression, death fear plus unconscious is nervous breakdown, and death fear plus conscious is death experience.
Let me give you this clear equation. Death fear plus subconscious is suppression, perversion. Fear of death plus unconscious means that you neither suppress the fear nor face it. You are shaken, frightened and what results is fear stroke, nervous breakdown. Death fear plus conscious awareness is death experience.
I was able to see very clearly that when I faced the fear that rose in me consciously with awareness, it became death experience. The body is dead, it's not moving. For two and a half days I stayed up in that temple upstairs without food, or water, or thoughts or questions. No doubt my body was still there. Only after the experience I realized that two and a half days had passed. I could see with closed eyes that my body was dead and there was no movement.
Suddenly after two and a half days the click happened, 'God! Body is dead but I still exist. I am still here'. That clarity, when it clicked became such an intense ecstasy. The fear of death left me once for all. It becomes such a deep ecstasy, such a joy, such bliss, and I slowly opened my eyes and I was able to move the body. The first thing I felt was such a deep ecstasy and gratitude. I went down to the Ganga, sprinkled little Ganga water on me, and filled some Ganga water in the water pot and, and collected a little ash from the pyre. I went to the Viswanath temple, put that ash on the Shiva Linga and did the puja with deep gratitude.
I saw that Lord Viswanath was alive. Understand, because I died Viswanath became alive. Till the day before, because I was alive Viswanath was still a dead stone. I always felt, to touch this stone 300,000 people are coming everyday from all the way, what foolishness? It is a strange thing, but when you touch the deity by yourself you start losing respect. In South India you can't touch but in North India you can touch the idols yourself. I always felt it was a stone, because I was alive. But when I died, I saw clearly that he is alive.
Only one can be alive, either Him or you. When you see the truth He will become alive, you will not be alive anymore as you think. The fear of death left me once for all. I can say this is one of the strongest experiences that transformed me leading me towards my enlightenment.
Nithyananda has incorporated the technique of death experience in all his Life Bliss Programs in one form or another. In the first level program called Ananda Spurana Program earlier, it is used to eliminate fear. Fear of death is the fear of loss of identity and when one loses that fear through an experience of visualizing the loss of identity, all fears dissolve.
At the second level Life Bliss Program called Nithyananda Spurana Program. The entire program is a journey through death. This program was created based on Nithyananda's own experience with death. The experience that Nithyananda had in watching two people dying in front of him and the huge difference that he experienced while watching these two people die enabled the Master to design a process that now helps millions. It is a process that not only takes away the fear of death once and for all, but also allows one to glimpse the ultimate truth of the imperishable energy within. This glimpse, this one glimpse, Nithyananda promises will rise high above all the clutter of one's past memories during the ultimate death process reinforcing the truth of the undying energy within. Many who have attended the Nithyananda Spurana Program with the Master have experienced their hairs stand on edge as he says: I promise you this. I promise you that what I take you through in this program is the ultimate truth. You will have a glimpse of the ultimate truth of your being during one of the meditations. That glimpse will ensure that you never need to be reborn. If for whatever reason you wish to be reborn, you will be reborn in the manner you wish. This is my promise to you.'
No one, but no one, who has listened to him say this and completed the program with him can ever be the same person again. The transformation is so intense that one is truly reborn. It is a journey through death that teaches one how to live one's life.
The two death experiences that helped Nithyananda design the process in his own words:
It was around 1999, I was in Varanasi, Kasi. I had the great opportunity to take care of an elderly sanyasi, a very old sanyasi, who was suffering from cancer. He was in the hospital in the ICU. He was a great sanyasi, but not an enlightened person, a great tapasvi, practitioner of meditations, yoga and rituals as penances. Everyday I used to bring food for him and take care of his needs and stay in the hospital.
One day, the person in a nearby bed was slowly dying. Doctors were standing around him, they were trying their best, but they were not able to do anything. Even though I was not enlightened at that time, I had had own death experience, a deeply spiritual and liberating experience.
Because of that, I was able to see what was happening to this dying person.
Slowly, the patient started suffering and struggling. First, he started suffering tremendous pain in the body. His face started showing the pain. Next, he became breathless. He started inhaling and exhaling with difficulty. I was able to see very clearly the pain and the agony, the suffering he underwent. It was like one thousand scorpions biting him. It was as if one thousand scorpions biting him at a time tearing up his whole consciousness. If we cut our finger half an inch with a blade, how much of pain do we experience? How much of pain do we suffer? This was like the six-foot body being cut into pieces. I was able to experience the pain, the agony, the feeling that he was undergoing. Of course, slowly, slowly, slowly, he started moving away from the physical body.
Even though it is a little difficult to receive logically, even though it is little difficult to understand intellectually, this is what happened. It is like a formula: X x 2 = 4. To understand the formula, to understand how to solve it, first we assume different values for X. We assume that X = 2. Let us replace 2 in the place of X. Then we understand: 2 x 2 is 4. Once the answer is right, now we know X is 2. Till the calculation is done, we have to have a little patience. But when I say, let us assume X = 2, immediately if we start raising the question, 'No, why not 3? Why not 1? Why not 4?' we will not be able to proceed. Just see the result. When the formula is working out, naturally we will know that X = 2.
Even if we understand it as a hypothesis, that is enough. At the end of the calculation we will be able to understand how this whole thing happens.
I was able to see and experience the tremendous pain and agony of that being. It was an excruciating and deep suffering. The being started moving away from the physical body to the pranic layer, which is the second layer energy body. Pranic layer is our breathing energy.
We have seven energy bodies and all these seven bodies are seven energies, energy layers of our being. When the being started moving towards the pranic layer, again there was deep suffering! Our pranic body is filled with all our desires. Our breathing and our desires are very closely related. If we change our breathing, our desires can be changed. If we change our desires our breathing pattern can change. Our desires and breathing are very closely related. When the energy was moving into the pranic layer all the desires of the being started coming up. The being started suffering with all the unfulfilled desires.
Then when the being started moving towards the next level body, all the guilt started rising- 'Oh! I should have lived in that way, I should have lived in this way.' Anyhow, slowly, the being moved layer by layer and died. I saw the whole death process. How the death is happening, the whole process I was able to see. But I was not able to help, of course. I was not an enlightened man at that time. I was not able to help. Just I saw the suffering. But, the pain created in me, just seeing the suffering itself was too much.
I started feeling the pain; if we see an accident on the road, what will happen? Will we be able to eat for the next two days? No! We will not be able to eat for the next two days. It was the same. It
was almost the same. In an accident we see only one body, the physical body. Somehow I was able to see all the 7 layers, all the 7 bodies. What will happen to the suffering? It was so deeply engraved. It was recorded in my being so deeply. I was not able to eat or sleep for the next 3-4 days. It was a deep suffering. Anyhow, after a few days, I left Varanasi and went away. After about a year I continued with tapas and became enlightened. Then I came to the South. After that, maybe 2 years ago, again, I had the opportunity to see another death.