God works as a referee in our lives

Question asked by a devotee: After death someone becomes spirit, some go to heaven and some attain God.  What is the secret of this diversity?

Answer by Swamiji: This is the judgment of God.  In this world, God has given every soul the free will to perform the actions it chooses.  We are all tiny parts of God, and we possess the independence to act as we wish.  God never forces His will on us.  God's job is just like that of a referee.  For example, there is an umpire in a match of cricket.  Eleven players come for fielding and two for batting.  Along with the players, two umpires also come out on field.  They do not play or interfere in the game.  They simply stand there, note the actions of the players, and pass decisions.  "No ball!"  "Lbw!"  "Four runs!"  "Six runs!"  There is no partiality in it.  The players are free to play as they wish.  The umpires merely pass judgment.  Similarly, God too acts as the referee in our lives.

God has given us human body.  He has also given us the power of knowledge, so that we may use it to know Him.  Now, if someone uses this power of knowledge merely in procuring and eating delicacies to gratify the palate, God will say, "If your only goal was to eat good food, then this human body is not fit for you.  For this, a body of a pig will be perfect.  I'll give you a body of pig next time, so that you can be completely absorbed in the activity of your choice."

If someone uses the free will to put an end to the body, and commits suicide, then God says, "The pain you were getting was a result of your karmas, and it was your duty to bear it.  You have wrongfully put an end to your body.  So now you will not get another body for some time.  You will become a ghost, who has no gross body." 

If someone uses the power of knowledge in pursuing devotion, but is unable to reach the goal in this lifetime, then God will give that soul a human body in next life also, so that it soul may continue its journey to God.

God does three things: He gives us the power to act, He notes our actions, and He gives us the results of our actions.  The soul's destination after death is decided by its own actions.  This is called the law of karma.  We can know its broad principles, but nobody can understand its intricacies, and determine what the exact fruit will be, except God.

 

What happens to those who have slipped into coma before death?

Question: Swamiji, we have heard that what we attain after death is based on our thoughts right before death. In such a case, what will he, who has slipped into the state of coma before death, attain?

 Answer by Swamiji: In the Bhagavad Geeta, Shree Krishna says, 

यं यं वापि स्मरन्भावं त्यजत्यन्ते कलेवरम् ।

तं तमेवैति कौन्तेय सदा तद्भावभावितः ॥

"Whatever one remembers at the time of leaving his body, he shall attain it after death". 

That is the spiritual principle that you have referred to in your question. But do you have an idea of the magnitude of the pain that one experiences while dying? It is said that the pain is as severe as 2000 scorpions stinging at the same time. Such pain is well beyond the tolerance limit of all ordinary mortals, and so before death arrives, everyone slips into a state of coma.

This state of coma comes when the mind and intellect cannot tolerate the pain that they are perceiving through the body. For example, if someone is being thrashed by hooligans, each time he is beaten, he screams, "Do not hit me!" However, after being beaten for the tenth time, he stops screaming. What has happened? The person who was being beaten has fainted. The pain was so intense that his mind and intellect could not tolerate it any further, and they slipped into a state of unconsciousness. This tolerance limit is not the same for everyone. Someone would faint on the fifth blow, and another would faint by the fiftieth blow. But once the tolerance limit is crossed, without exception everyone falls unconscious.

Now, the pain of death is many times more severe than most people's limit of tolerance, and so it is certain that the state of coma will come before death. Then how can anyone hope to remember God at that moment? The Saint Tuslidas writes:

जनम जनम मूनी यतन कराहीं अन्त राम कहि आवत नाही

"Sages endeavour for many lifetimes, and yet they cannot take Shree Ram's name at the moment of death." When they slip into the state of coma before death, how will they remember the name of God, or any other name for that matter? Only a person who leaves his body at will or voluntarily, can remember the name of God at the time of death. These are the God-realized Saints, who have attained God in their lifetime itself, and hence have transcended the bodily platform.

When Shree Krishna says that whatever we contemplate upon at the time of death, that is what we will attain in next lives, He is referring to the thoughts before entering the state of coma. Even at that time, the pain will be so intense that the mind will refuse to be guided by the intellect, and it will naturally wander in the direction where it has been habituated to go throughout its life. So, if people think that they will love the world for their entire life, and while dying they could remember God and attain Him, they are in for a surprise. Our thoughts at the time of death are not guided by the intellect. They are guided by the mental habits that we have cultivated throughout life.

There could also be cases of sudden death, where a person had no opportunity to think of anything before falling unconscious. There could be instances where one slips into coma for reasons other than mere physical pain. In such cases, God will not be so whimsical as to ignore the person's lifelong actions and merely reward or punish in accordance with the last conscious thought. Shree Krishna has stated elsewhere that our future in this life and the next is decided by our actions. The spiritual laws are very intricate. They are often simply stated to make them comprehensible to us. However, in God's governance there are often various laws that are taken into account to various extents. So we must not get confused if the simple principles do not fit into every situation that we can think of.