Waking Up To A Different Reality!
People may think they are dead, but they wake up to a different reality. Similarly, right now, you are going on with a different kind of dream which is the combination of your body and mind and one day you are awakened from that dream
If we take a look at the funeral process of yogis, a common practice is that a yogi arranges sufficient dry wood, sets fire to the wood and simply sits in meditation and burns. By then he has distanced himself from the body. Being fully conscious, he is destroying the physical body. To not scream and run when you are on fire, you cannot be any more conscious than that. They do it by themselves in total isolation – so they are self-cremated.
Sometimes, when yogis choose to leave their body, they walk into water to do ‘jalasamadhi. ‘ Such a yogi may have the necessary awareness but does not have the necessary control over the physical mechanism to stop it. Once the nature of your existence has reached a certain level of awareness, even if somebody suddenly walks in and shoots you in the head, you can still leave in awareness. That cannot be denied to you.
So, whether they go into water or fire, it is only a cosmetic difference. Like you choose to wear different kinds of costumes in your life, you can choose a watery costume, an earthy costume or one of fiery at the time of death. Most yogis leave somewhere between the age of 27 to 35 years of age, while 42 years is another limit. Generally, they leave because they feel it is all done.
People may think they are dead, but they wake up to a different reality. Suppose you were having some kind of dream. When the morning alarm goes off, you are awakened from the dream. Similarly, right now, you are going on with a different kind of dream which is the combination of your body and mind and one day you are awakened from that dream.
For one who is attached to his dream, if you wake him up at that moment, he will cry. We usually see children crying because their dream was broken. They were having a wonderful dream and the dream broke, they get up and cry because they cannot continue their dream. It is no different from you crying at the approach of your death. This is because, you are unwilling to awaken from your physiological and psychological dream that is going on right now.
Death is just an awakening similar to that. So, is it right to awaken everybody? No, because it is not going to serve any purpose. They must be awakened in such a way that they cannot sleep again! Only then will awakening be worthwhile.
Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and bestselling author. Sadhguru has been conferred with the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India in 2017.