Standard Procedures at the Time of Death

13 June 2013--This morning after we woke up from an overnight flight from Johannesburg, South Africa to Hong Kong the flight attendants were serving breakfast as usual. (We did not accept the breakfast because it was not Krishna prasadam. After landing we will take the prasadam breakfast that we brought with us.) Surprisingly when a flight attendant was serving a nearby gentleman she dropped his breakfast plate on the floor breaking it into many pieces and scattering food everywhere. She was not even slightly flustered. After assuring the gentleman not to worry she immediately began cleaning up the mess as if nothing at all went wrong. She was just acting according to the standard procedures she learned in flight attendant's school. Another flight attendant showed up on the scene to assist her, the gentleman was served his breakfast, and everything went on as normal.

I was thinking that for a devotee death is like that. When the catastrophe of death comes it is not a big deal. The devotee simply acts according to standard procedures taught to him by his spiritual master. He fixes his mind on Krishna and ecstatically enters into the wondrous topmost transcendental abode, Goloka Vrindavana, to live an eternal life full of bliss and knowledge in the intimate personal association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. So for a devotee death is not at all calamitous. It's simply a matter of being transferred from one department to another department as he continues engaging in his blissful duty of offering devotional service to Lord Sri Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Krishna and Balarama in Goloka Vrindavana

Krishna and Balarama in Goloka Vrindavana

Answers by Citing the Vedic Version:

Question: What is Vikarma, Capricious Work?

Dear Gurudeva,
Please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

What exactly is vikarma or whimsical/capricious work? Please explain by giving a practical example. Why can't we offer the results of whimsical work to the Supreme?

Your humble servant,
Sushant

Answer: Sinful Activity Such As Meat Eating

Vikarma means sinful activities, such as meat eating, which are forbidden in the scriptures. Krishna will not accept an offering of meat because the animals are very dear to Him. Krishna knows the languages of the animals and birds and speaks to them in their own languages. He loves them as His beloved children. Do you know of any father who would be happy to accept it, if you killed his children, cooked them, and then offered him the flesh of his children to eat?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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