Life's Final Exam (Death and Dying from the Vedic Perspective)

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This book has its roots in a talk I gave at San Diego Hospice and The Institute for Palliative Medicine, one of the leading hospices in the world, and the world leader in hospice education. Dr. Parag Bharadwaj, now Medical Director of Palliative Care Services at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, invited me to address the hospice staff on death and dying in the Hindu tradition. That experience impressed me in several ways. I learned that people in the field of death and dying need and want to know about death and dying in different traditions, so that when they encounter people of different cultures they will know what to say and do-and what not to say or do-to best help them. I also learned that people in the field of death and dying are themselves quite spiritual and willing, if not eager, to learn more about the mysterious transition from life to death-and perhaps beyond. In their work, they regularly con-front death, and many sense a level of existence beyond gross matter, beyond the purview of the chemical and physical laws they learned in textbooks and classrooms. They want to explore the realm of the spirit, the science of the soul, the principles that govern the living entity's progress in the present body and beyond-to its next destination, its next body, wherever it may go and whatever form it may take.

This book addresses those professional demands and spiritual interests: It provides information about death and dying in the Hindu, or Vedic, tradition, and it offers explanations for what happens to the living being-its entry into its present body, its sojourn within it, and its journey to its next destination-independent of any particular beliefs or cultural biases. According to the Bhagavad-Gita, there are universal principles that apply to all souls, in all places, and at all times.

Hospice and palliative care workers are fortunate to be around people who are concerned with the meaning and purpose of their lives. We rarely hear our patients being satisfied with just "getting more stuff"!

What is important in life? How should we live?

How can we face devastating news with courage, acceptance, and even gratitude?

How can we help those approaching death or grieving loss?

What does one of the world's oldest religions (with a billion followers) have to say about these questions?

All of us can benefit from reading Life's Final Exam. Its contents can fuel our own spiritual search, help us better 'understand our brethren from the Vedic tradition, and teach us much about life's great mysteries. You will be glad you opened these pages!

Porter Storey, MD

Boulder, Colorado

March 2013

Dr. Porter Storey, Executive Vice-President of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and respected author, teacher, and innovator in the field, has served patients with advanced illness for over twenty-five years.

The great king, the emperor of the world, sat on the bank of the sacred river Ganges awaiting his imminent death. A crucial question burned within his heart- What is the way of perfection for one who is about to die?

The answer to this question is of deep significance to all of us, because who among us can say that he or she will not die? The history of the king, Maharaja Pariksit, and the answer to his question are recorded in Srimad-Bhagavatam, the "mature fruit of the wish-fulfilling tree of Vedic literatures."

King Pariksit had been cursed to die within seven days. Although he was a powerful devotee and was competent to counteract the imprecation, as a surrendered soul he took the curse as a superior arrangement and made no effort to counter-act or escape it. Rather, he went to the banks of the Ganges and prepared for his death. Because he was the emperor and a great devotee, many saintly persons came to be with him, and he presented himself as a soul surrendered to these wise sages. He said, "0 brathmarias, just accept me as a completely surren-dered soul, and let Mother Ganges, the representative of the Lord, also accept me in that way, for I have already taken the lotus feet of the Lord into my heart." (SB 1.19.15)

We are all destined to die. Unlike Maharaja Pariksit, how-ever, we do not know how long we have-seven days, seven years, seven minutes, or seven seconds. We are all on the verge of death, which for sure will come sooner or later. And death is the greatest fear of the living entity. We have many fears-of getting sick, of growing old, of becoming poor-but our greatest fear is of death, before which all others pale in comparison. Being fearless of death means that one is liberated from fear altogether, that one is free.

In his purport to the above verse (SB 1.19.15), 8rila Prabhu-pada, my spiritual master, explains, 'As soon as one is given up completely unto the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, he is not at all afraid of death. The atmosphere created by the presence of great devotees of the Lord on the bank of the Ganges and Maharaja Pariksit's complete acceptance of the Lord's lotus feet were sufficient guarantee to the king for going back to Godhead. He thus became absolutely free from all fear of death."

Among the multitude of sages who had gathered, Sri Sukadeva Gosvarni was the most outstanding, and all the others agreed that he should be the one to instruct the king. The king's question was, "What is the duty of a person who is about to die?" The question was posed in the context of a basic spiritual understanding-that our actual identity is not the body, but is a spiritual particle within the body, which will continue to live after death. That was the basic understanding that everyone there shared, and it is the basic understanding of any spiritually enlightened soul.

The body is really just a machine. It is animated by the presence of the soul, but as soon as the soul leaves the body, leaves the machine, the machine no longer functions. As long as the soul is in the body, we will do anything to preserve the body, but once the soul leaves the body, once the life is gone, the body is disposed of as quickly as possible. It is said that the ultimate fate of the body is to become ashes, dirt, or stool. In the Hindu and Buddhist traditions, the body is burned; it becomes ashes. In the Christian and Muslim traditions, the body is buried, decomposes, and ultimately becomes dirt. "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." And in the Parsee tradition-and others-the body is taken out into the wilderness and left. And generally in the wilderness vultures or other animals come and eat the remains of the body and so it becomes stool.

**Contents and Sample Pages**