Sweet Bhakti Bliss in Kaunas

There is nothing like the bliss of Krishna bhakti. It is so relishable that all the other pleasures of life become paled into obscurity. Especially here in Kaunas, Lithuania in the association of the ISKCON devotees, the bliss is sweet, thick and heavy, something like premium grade tropical rain forest organic honey (although this crude simile hardly does it justice). The devotees make us feel so much at home that we never want to leave this place. Even though duty calls us to travel for spreading the ultimate science of Krishna consciousness all over the world, the devotees here in Kaunas always have a special place in our hearts. Whenever we return here we feel that the association of these sweet hearted souls is our eternal home.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Kirtan Bliss in Kaunas, Lithuania

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: What Happens to the Soul at the Time of Death?

Please forgive me for taking up tour most valuable time. But I really need to ask this from someone like you whom I believe has a wealth of knowledge!

Can you explain what happens to the soul at the moment of death? Where does it go? Is it that the soul gets into another body immediately? I imagine the journey would be different for someone who has transcended this material world before death but can you please explain the difference pathways - the path for a devotee and the path for someone who has not realized Krishna?

Thank you for your kindness.

Regards,

Somatee

Answer: He is Transferred to Another Body

At the time of death the soul is either transferred to the spiritual world or it takes another body within this material world. This depends of the consciousness he is absorbed in at the time of death. This point is confirmed as follows in the Srimad Bhagavad-gita:

yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ
tyajaty ante kalevaram
taṁ tam evaiti kaunteya
sadā tad-bhāva-bhāvitaḥ

"Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kuntī, that state he will attain without fail."
---Bhagavad-gita 8.6

How does one attain that state? This is described in the Bhagavad-gita as like the air carrying aromas.

śarīraṁ yad avāpnoti
yac cāpy utkrāmatīśvaraḥ
gṛhītvaitāni saṁyāti
vāyur gandhān ivāśayāt

"The living entity in the material world carries his different conceptions of life from one body to another as the air carries aromas. Thus he takes one kind of body and again quits it to take another."---Bhagavad-gita 15.8

We have gross bodies composed of earth, water, fire, air, and ether. We also have subtle bodies composed of mind, intelligence, and false ego. The gross body dies, but the subtle body continues. Whatever nature you have cultivated during this lifetime is fully manifested in your subtle body. If you have cultivated material desires, at the time of death your subtle body will enter into a human or non-human form according to what sort of material desires you have cultivated. If you have fully absorbed yourself in spiritual desires, the subtle body will be discarded at the time of death, and you will regain your original long-forgotten form and identity in the spiritual world.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari