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Preparing for death is the most challenging task of human life. Have you ever seen an animal die? They know it’s coming. They find a comfortable, secluded spot, settle down and gradually withdraw into themselves, like a flower closing at sunset. It’s an easy and natural process of letting go.

We humans make a much bigger drama of death. We go into denial about it, struggle with it, get angry about it, fight with it—all to no avail whatsoever. Death always wins.

Why are we so afraid of death? Maybe because, despite 20 centuries of Christianity and the so-called progress of Western civilization, our Western ontology, our materialistic world view stubbornly resists all attempts to integrate death. Therefore we don’t understand death, and we tend to hate and struggle against whatever we don’t understand.

But what is death? Death is an event horizon, like the perimeter of a black hole, to which all are inexorably drawn, and from which no one returns—at least in their present form. Kṛṣṇa says,

mrtyuh sarva-haras caham
udbhavas ca bhavisyatam

“I am all-devouring death, and I am the generating principle of all that is yet to be.” [Bhagavad-gita 10.34]

Does that sound familiar? How about “I am the alpha and the omega”? Except Kṛṣṇa mentions death (omega) first, and then rebirth, because that is the order in which we will experience them.

jatasya hi dhruvo mrtyur
dhruvam janma mrtasya ca
tasmad apariharye 'rthe
na tvam socitum arhasi

“For one who has taken his birth, death is certain; and for one who is dead, birth is certain. Therefore, in the unavoidable discharge of your duty, you should not lament.” [Bhagavad-gita 2.27]

Why lament, when it not going to change anything? Death is inevitable; better to spend our time and energy doing something constructive about it. According to the Western materialistic ontology, there is nothing we can do about death, because like consciousness, death is by definition outside that ontology. Just like consciousness, death is a completely subjective experience, therefore death, and whatever is on the other side of it, is ontologically nonexistent for materialistic consciousness.

So from the Western viewpoint, death becomes a kind of black hole, an impenetrable event horizon beyond which we can know nothing, about which we can do nothing. The materialist has no control over his destination after death.

The Esoteric Teaching transcends this crippled materialistic consciousness:

yam yam vapi smaran bhavam
tyajaty ante kalevaram
tam tam evaiti kaunteya
sada tad-bhava-bhavitah

“Whatever condition one remembers when he quits his present body, in his next life he will attain to that state of being without fail.” [Bhagavad-gita 8.6]

This is the secret of death and rebirth, and it all revolves around consciousness. The state of consciousness we remember at the time of death determines our next birth. And what will we remember at the time of death? The sum total of our experiences in this life.

You have heard the saying that at the time of death one’s entire life passes before one’s eyes. This is a fact. It is as if the entire record of mental images of this life is being spooled into a compressed data format, to be transmitted along with the departing soul. So what we remember at the time of death is nothing but the aggregate of this life’s impressions.

If we have spent our entire life absorbed in matters of material existence, then this is the state of consciousness we will remember at death. If, on the other hand, we have spent our entire life rapt in contemplation of spiritual subjects, then at the time of death we will automatically remember the spiritual world and the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

prayana-kale manasacalena
bhaktya yukto yoga-balena caiva
bhruvor madhye pranam avesya samyak
sa tam param purusam upaiti divyam

“One who, at the time of death, fixes his prana (life air) between the eyebrows and in full devotion engages himself in remembering the Supreme Lord by the strength of bhakti-yoga, will certainly attain to the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” [Bhagavad-gita 8.10]

This is the secret of attaining the spiritual world after death: one must spend the majority of one’s life absorbed in spiritual subjects. This is why we chant and hear the Holy Name of God and other spiritual topics over and over, again and yet again. This why we study and think in order to absorb a spiritual ontology: to build up a large set of spiritual impressions in the mind.

Such mental impressions are called samskaras in Sanskrit. We are creating samskaras at every moment. Therefore we should dedicate every moment, or as much of our time and energy as possible, to obtaining spiritual samskaras, so that at the time of death we will be in spiritual consciousness and attain a spiritual destination in the next life. How to obtain spiritual samskaras is also mentioned in the Esoteric Teaching:

sravanam kirtanam visnoh
smaranam pada-sevanam
arcanam vandanam dasyam
sakhyam atma-nivedanam

“The nine processes of devotional service are: hearing and chanting about Lord Visnu and remembering Him, worshiping Him, serving the lotus feet of the Lord, offering Him prayers, carrying out the orders of the Lord, making friends with Him, and surrendering everything to Him.” [Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.5.23]

As indicated in the previous sloka by the words bhaktya yukto yoga-balena, the successful yogi fully engages in the nine processes of devotional service engagement. One can engage in all nine devotional processes—or eight, or seven, or at least in one—and that will surely make one eligible for transfer to the spiritual world after death. The more we engage our life, time and energy in the processes of devotional service, the greater chance we have for the highest spiritual success.

This Esoteric Teaching is the Vedic ontology of consciousness. And as we have seen, consciousness is the key to everything. Yet in the Western materialistic ontology there is no reliable way to understand or manipulate consciousness, because consciousness is unalterably subjective, self-referential, recursive and transcendental.

So there is a tremendous need for this Esoteric Teaching to enlighten people on how to utilize this human life to attain the highest destination after death. The spiritual ontology of the Esoteric Teaching transforms death from the event horizon of an unimaginable future, to a natural process that we can influence, and even overcome, by living our lives according to its transcendental principles.

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