In the Garuḍa Purāṇa the stress on hearing is expressed very nicely. It is said there, "The state of conditioned life in the material world is just like that of a man lying unconscious, having been bitten by a snake. This is because both such unconscious states can be ended by the sound of a mantra." When a man is snake-bitten he does not die immediately, but first becomes unconscious and remains in a comatose condition. Anyone who is in the material world is also sleeping, as he is ignorant of his actual self or his actual duty and his relationship with God. So materialistic life means that one is bitten by the snake of māyā, illusion, and thus, without any Kṛṣṇa consciousness, is almost dead. Now, the so-called dead man bitten by a snake can be brought back to life by the chanting of some mantra. There are expert chanters of these mantras who can perform this feat. Similarly, one can be brought back into Kṛṣṇa consciousness from the deadly unconscious state of material life by hearing of the mahā-mantra: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare.
Coma
Srimad-Bhagavatam
SB Canto 4
There are many parts of the body—the senses, the limbs, the skin, the muscles, blood, marrow, etc.—and all these are considered here figuratively as sons, grandsons, citizens and dependents. When the body is attacked by the viṣṇu-jvāra, the fiery condition becomes so acute that sometimes one remains in a coma. This means that the body is in such severe pain that one becomes unconscious and cannot feel the miseries taking place within the body. Indeed, the living entity becomes so helpless at the time of death that, although unwilling, he is forced to give up the body and enter another. In Bhagavad-gītā it is stated that man may, by scientific advancement, improve the temporary living conditions, but that he cannot avoid the pangs of birth, old age, disease and death. These are under the control of the Supreme Personality of Godhead through the agency of material nature. A foolish person cannot understand this simple fact. Now people are very busy trying to find petroleum in the midst of the ocean. They are very anxious to make provisions for the future petroleum supply, but they do not make any attempts to ameliorate the conditions of birth, old age, disease and death. Thus a person in ignorance, not knowing anything about his own future life, is certainly defeated in all his activities.
When a person is in deep sleep or when he has fainted, he forgets his gross body. Similarly, under chloroform or some other anesthetic, the living entity forgets his gross body and does not feel pain or pleasure during a surgical operation. Similarly, when a man is suddenly shocked by some great loss, he forgets his identification with the gross body. At the time of death, when the temperature of the body rises to 107 degrees, the living entity falls into a coma and is unable to identify his gross body. In such cases, the life air that moves within the body is choked up, and the living entity forgets his identification with the gross body. Because of our ignorance of the spiritual body, of which we have no experience, we do not know of the activities of the spiritual body, and in ignorance we jump from one false platform to another. We act sometimes in relation to the gross body and sometimes in relation to the subtle body.
A living entity too much absorbed in material activity becomes very much attracted to the material body. Even at the point of death, he thinks of his present body and the relatives connected to it. Thus he remains fully absorbed in the bodily conception of life, so much so that even at the point of death he abhors leaving his present body. Sometimes it is found that a person on the verge of death remains in a coma for many days before giving up the body. This is common among so-called leaders and politicians who think that without their presence the entire country and all society will be in chaos. This is called māyā. Political leaders do not like to leave their political posts, and they either have to be shot by an enemy or obliged to leave by the arrival of death. By superior arrangement a living entity is offered another body, but because of his attraction to the present body, he does not like to transfer himself to another body. Thus he is forced to accept another body by the laws of nature.
One who acts like a dog or hog in the present body will certainly be forced to accept the body of a dog or hog in the next life. A person may be enjoying the body of a prime minister or a president, but when he understands that he will be forced to accept the body of a dog or hog, he chooses not to leave the present body. Therefore he lies in a coma many days before death. This has been experienced by many politicians at the time of death. The conclusion is that the next body is already determined by superior control. The living entity immediately gives up the present body and enters another. Sometimes in the present body the living entity feels that many of his desires and imaginations are not fulfilled. Those who are overly attracted to their life situation are forced to remain in a ghostly body and are not allowed to accept another gross body. Even in the body of a ghost, they create disturbances for neighbors and relatives. The mind is the prime cause of such a situation.
Other Books by Srila Prabhupada
Nectar of Devotion
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
So nobody wants to leave this body, but the distress is so strong that one is forced to leave this body. That is called death. In the Bhagavad-gītā you will find that mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś ca aham. Kṛṣṇa says that "I am death." And what is the meaning of death? Death means "I take everything from him. Finished. I take his body, I take his association, I take his country, I take his society, I take his bank balance, and everything finished." Sarva-haraḥ. Sarva means everything. Everyone is trying to accumulated big bank balance and big house, big family, big motorcar... But with the death, everything is finished. So that is great distress. Sometimes one cries. You will find at the time of death, in coma, his eye drops are coming out. He is thinking, "I made so many things so nicely to live comfortably, and now I am losing everything." Great distress. I know one friend in Allahabad. He was very rich man. So he was only fifty-four years old. So he was requesting, crying, doctor, "Doctor, can you give me at least four years to live? I had a plan. I wanted to finish it." What the doctor can do? "That is not possible, sir. You must get out." But these foolish people, they do not know. But we have to tolerate. We have to tolerate.
Indian man (2): But suppose a rascal remembers at the time of death Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: A rascal cannot. (laughter) But even if he remembers...
Indian man (2): He'll go to Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Indian man (2): But what if they die in coma? What if they die in deep unconsciousness?
Prabhupāda: That is not very good. Coma is not good. That is the sign of sinful life. He must be conscious. That is good.
Devotee: Śrīla Prabhupāda, originally the desires come from the subtle body or from the soul?
Prabhupāda: No, mind.
Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
So that is the standard of highest perfection. If you do not die, if you do not take birth... If you know what are the miserable conditions of birth, to remain within the womb of the mother... Not only to remain. Nowadays, modern advanced civilization, they are being killed by the mother. Not only abortion, but they are being killed. Now the Western world is very familiar with these things. So just imagine. First of all, you have to remain within the mother's womb, head down, packed-up condition. You cannot move, ten months. And that is also not secure. Even within the... Now this is the... Within the mother's womb you are not secure. At any moment the doctor may advise that "Kill the child." So these are the miserable condition of birth, but we do not remember them. We have to know it from the śāstra. So similarly, at the time of death, coma and... Nowadays it is a very common disease. For seven days or fifteen days he's unconscious, crying.
So this is the movement how to make an adhīra dhīra. Everyone is adhīra. Who is not afraid of death? Who is not afraid of...? Of course, they are too much agnostic, they forget. But there is suffering. We can see how one suffering at the time of death. There are some men dying... Nowadays it has become a very common... Coma. One is lying in the bed for weeks, two weeks, crying. The life is not going. Those who are very, very sinful. So there is great pain at the time of death. There is great pain at the time of birth, and there is pain when you are diseased, and there are so many pains when you're old. The body is not strong. We suffer in so many ways, especially rheumatism and indigestion. Then blood pressure, headache, so many things. Therefore one should be trained up how to become dhīra. These things, disturbances, make us adhīra, and we should be trained up to dhīra. That is spiritual education. One has to know it. Mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ (BG 2.14). These sufferings, mātrā-sparśāḥ, tan-mātra. On account of the senses, sense perception, we suffer. And the senses are made of material nature. So one has to become above the material nature, then he can become dhīra. Otherwise, one has to remain adhīra. Dhīrādhīra-jana-priyau priya-karau.
So bhayaṁ tīvram. We have become so much dull or foolish that we do not know what is bhayaṁ tīvram. Tīvram means very fierce, and bhayam, fierce fearfulness, very strong. And we are entangled in this very strong fearfulness, but we have become so dull by the spell of māyā that we don't care for it. Just imagine. At the time of death there are so many troubles, very fierceful. Sometimes a person is dying, he is attacked with coma, and he is lying unconscious. Big, big politicians, "Mr. such and such," prime minister, and this and that, but he is lying unconscious in coma for seven days. And we do not know, but he is going very fierceful test. He is dreaming so many things that sometimes he is crying. He cannot express. Especially those who are very sinful, they die in that way. So this is not finished. Then, after death, you have to enter in the womb of the mother. That is another fierceful stage. You become packed up in a bag, and the bag is filled up or surrounded by stool, urine, worms. And you have to remain there, airtight packed, for ten months.
Rebirth, that is very painful. But because we are mūḍhas, we have forgotten what is the painful condition is rebirth. We do not remember it. We do not remember. We had to pass through. We can simply imagine how it is painful to remain in the womb of the mother, packed up in an airtight bag and hands and legs you cannot move even. So this is the tribulations of taking birth. And similarly the tribulations of death. Sometimes one remains in coma for months and he suffers so much. Sometimes he cries. Actually tears come out. We cannot see, but within the body of the dying man is so much painful. This is called janma-mṛtyu. And old man's, there are difficulties. And vyādhi. Everyone is subjected to some kind of disease. So we do not take account. So here Ṛṣabhadeva is stressing on this point. "My dear boys, do not spoil your life living like cats and dogs." Do not. This is not meant for this life. This human form of life is meant for different purposes. Durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janma tad apy adhruvam arthadam. That we should always remember, that this human form of body is obtained after many, many births. Bahūnāṁ janmanām ante (BG 7.19). Bahu sambhavante. Bahu sambhava. Sambhava means birth and death, birth and death. So we should not forget this. Everyone should be very serious. That is civilization. Not that to remain for sense gratification like cats and dogs fighting. This is not good.
So unless we practice, how it will be possible to chant at the time of death? Because at the time of death the whole system, anatomical-physiological system, becomes disturbed, in bewilderedness, in coma, in unconsciousness. But still, if one has practiced, there is possibility of chanting the holy name of the Lord, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Nārāyaṇa. Then that is success of life. In a Bengali there is a proverb, bhajana kara sādhana kara mūrti jānle haya(?), that "Whatever you are executing as a bhajana, sādhana, that's all right, but it will be tested at the time of your death." It will be test. Just like a parrot is chanting, "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa," but when some cat comes in, "Kaw, kaw, kaw." No. Then missing. So parrot life will not help you. You must be really chanting without any offense. Then it is possibility that at the time of death... Death will be there. You may be very proud of your body, that "I am permanent." No. "As sure as death." And after death you have to change your body. Tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ (BG 2.13). That we do not know, what kind of body I will enjoy. Now I have got Serji's(?) body. That's all right. But your karma will decide the next body.
Just like we are advised when chanting the mantra, mahā-mantra, to avoid ten kinds of offenses. So Ajāmila had no such program. He never meant that he was chanting the holy name of Nārāyaṇa. This point is being stressed by Śrīdhāra Swami. He simply tried to call his son, whose name was Nārāyaṇa. That was not practically kīrtana, but this very vibration, transcendent vibration, has got so potency that without following the rules and regulations of chanting the holy name, he became immediately released from all sinful reaction. That point is stressed here. Abhavan aśucir api niyamāna asustha-cittaḥ (?). Not only he never meant for chanting the holy name, he was not only sinful, but he was practically in coma because he was dying. His all functions of the physical body was stopped, and he could not chant even properly. Still, he became released from all sinful reaction. At the time of death... Why death? Even in our sleeping condition we are out of our own control completely. So Ajāmila was diseased and was almost on the verge of death, and he was calling his son only.
General Lectures
So under the illusion of māyā, as soon as we get out of the womb we forget everything, what we are suffering. And because the mother and relatives, they take on the lap, we forget. So this is the condition, miserable condition of birth. And similarly, miserable condition of death. When one is lying in coma, so many sufferings is going on, so many dreaming, the Yamadūtā is coming. Sometimes the man on the deathbed cries, he's so much suffering. But there is no remedy. Everyone is helpless. So that is the miserable condition of death. And then, janma-mṛtyu-jarā, old age. Just like we have now come to the old age. There are so many troubles. Sometimes heart failure, sometimes there is... So many troubles. You know, everyone. So janma-mṛtyu-jarā and vyādhi. So long we have got this body, you'll have so many diseases. So how you can get rid of these duḥkha? Therefore it is duḥkhālayam aśāśvatam (BG 8.15). How you consider that "We shall make it adjusted"? That is not possible. Therefore it is the duty. This human form of life is meant for realizing what is my position.
Boy: ...is when you can think. Unconsciousness is when you cannot think.
Prabhupāda: Yes. There is no such position when you cannot think.
Boy: When you are in coma.
Prabhupāda: When you... There is no such position as when you cannot think. You have to think something always. That is our position.
Boy: You can't think when you're in a coma or when you're dead.
Prabhupāda: Then you remember when you were dead. Try to understand what is consciousness, then you will understand what is unconsciousness. Consciousness is spread all over the body. Suppose I pinch in any part of your body: you feel some pain, and that is consciousness, any part of your body. But that consciousness is individual. You can feel the pains and pleasure of your body, and your friend also can feel the pains and pleasure of his body. I can feel pains and pleasure of my body. So this feeling of pains and pleasure is consciousness.
Philosophy Discussions
Hayagrīva: As an example of suicide, he gives the..., he says that at the procession of Jagannātha in 1840, eleven Hindus threw themselves under the wheels and were instantly killed. And he also mentions the satī rituals of the woman throwing herself into the sacrificial fire, the fire of her husband's funeral pyre.
Prabhupāda: This is not suicide. This is... Our life is continuation, but on account of impure understanding we are getting different types of body and you are suffering different varieties of miseries. So this suicidal, this is not suicidal, that voluntarily accepting death, so that by dying, if he thinks of the spiritual life, he gets it. Just like Kulaśekhara, he has got a poetry that... In the Bhagavad-gītā it is stated, yaṁ yaṁ vāpi smaran bhāvaṁ tyajanty ante: (BG 8.6) we get next life according to the desire at the point of death. So generally, when death takes place, one sometimes remains in coma, all the bodily functions becomes defunct, he dreams in different ways and so on, so on. So he cannot dream or think independently. Therefore sometimes the intelligent class, they think that "If I meet death in sound health, then I can think of my next life, go back to home, back to Godhead, and I achieve it. Because at the time of death my thinking will be taken into consideration. So if by thinking of Jagannātha if I die, then I go back to Jagannātha."
Conversations and Morning Walks
1974 Conversations and Morning Walks
Satsvarūpa: Don't they sometimes have to go to Yamarāja first for practice?
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is daiva-netreṇa. These things are finished very quickly. And if it takes little time, then this man who is dying, he remains in coma and does not die. Because the judgement is going on, the decision waiting, coma. You have seen sometimes a man is in coma for seven days, eight days? Yes. That means his judgement is going on, that... Such kind of death means very sinful death. Not yet settled up, very complicated case. Therefore it takes time.
Satsvarūpa: Don't they sometimes have to go to Yamarāja first for practice?
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is daiva-netreṇa. These things are finished very quickly. And if it takes little time, then this man who is dying, he remains in coma and does not die. Because the judgement is going on, the decision waiting, coma. You have seen sometimes a man is in coma for seven days, eight days? Yes. That means his judgement is going on, that... Such kind of death means very sinful death. Not yet settled up, very complicated case. Therefore it takes time.
Yadubara: What about persons who die in their sleep? Is that a sinful death?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Dream or awakened, everything is dream, gross dream and subtle dream. That's all. This is also dream. What do you mean by dream? Dream means existent for a little period. That's all. So night dream is for two hours and this dream is for twenty-four hours.
Yaśomatīnandana: So in other words when it says that one goes to hell, any lower species is also like hell. If one is going to assume a dog's body, then does he go to hell before he assumes a dog's body?
Prabhupāda: There is statement like that, that one is put into the hellish condition for practicing little, and then he is put into the womb of such mother.
Yaśomatīnandana: Is that a long duration of practice or just..., very short?
Prabhupāda: No, very short. Short mean their short. It may take little more time.
Girirāja: Now they have machines that when the person is in coma, the machines artificially keep the heart beating and the other processes...
Prabhupāda: Then heart beating will go on, either you apply machine or no machine. Heart beating. But when the heart stops, no machine can revive it. So what is the use of machine? But by nature's way when the heart beating will stop, no machine can help. That is not possible.
1975 Conversations and Morning Walks
Rūpānuga: My idea is that they are... Actually the scientists are preaching void. They are preaching to the people...
Prabhupāda: But what is the necessity of preaching void? Void is void, that's all.
Rūpānuga: There's nothing to say about that. But because they're saying that, the people think that at the time of death there's nothing, so they want sense gratification. So the scientists are selling them their gadgets. They're selling them cars and things to keep them in sense gratification.
Prabhupāda: We can see when a man is in coma, he cries, he suffers. Before death when a man is in coma sometimes tears come. Now why he says there is nothing? Imperfect knowledge, that's all. Misguiding people.
Prabhupāda: That is, means another death. You check death by death. That's all. These are all rascals. You are not yet convinced that these, they are rascals. That is your defect.
Pañcadraviḍa: I went to see my grandfather when he was dying. They said, "We have a nice arrangement. He's going to die in two weeks. Don't tell him. He'll die peacefully in his sleep." That was their arrangement.
Prabhupāda: Coma.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Many of the scientists actually believe in God, and they think that by experimentation, they'll come to understand God more and more.
Prabhupāda: That is another thing. That we admire, that you are trying to understand God. But there is no God, and they are becoming God—that is nonsense.
Rāmeśvara: Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: Hm.
Rāmeśvara: Some people say that Darwin was paid by the British...
Prabhupāda: Yes, I said.
Rāmeśvara: ...to make propaganda.
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Keeping life?
Harikeśa: They have these artificial machines that pump blood and breathe and digest food, and they pump everything into the body and they keep it alive. So all the scientists are wondering if they should pull out the plugs because it wastes so much money.
Saurabha: There is some disease now that people enter in some coma, and with the machine they keep them alive for thirty years. There's some lady. She is already thirty and the machine since thirty years...
Prabhupāda: So it's still limited, thirty years, not permanently.
Saurabha: No, no.
Prabhupāda: Then where is the solution? What is the solution? If after thirty years it is going to be collapsed, then what is the use?
Devotee (1): But it's the moral problem that they're having, isn't it? Not the sickness, but the moral problem of either killing off one person or letting him continue to survive.
Prabhupāda: Well, they have no moral. They are killing so many persons. That is killing. That is not... They are expert in killing.
1976 Conversations and Morning Walks
Prabhupāda: Unconscious, that may be.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Terrible karma, like a tree.
Hari-śauri: I remember reading in England there was somebody that had been in a coma for seventeen years.
Prabhupāda: Hm?
Hari-śauri: They had been in a coma, in a hospital, for seventeen years.
Prabhupāda: Seventeen years?
Hari-śauri: Yes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Bad karma.
Prabhupāda: And still he was taken care of?
Hari-śauri: Hm.
Prabhupāda: Good patient. (laughter) And then after? He revived?
Hari-śauri: No. He was still in a coma. It was just an article that he'd been in a coma for so long, and there was no hope that he would revive or anything.
Bali-mardana: No. They want to decide when to turn off the machine that is keeping the heart beating, because sometimes the brain stops functioning. The person..., the body is still alive, but there's no consciousness.
Prabhupāda: The coma.
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: Also they cut out the hearts when they do these heart transplants. They've been accused of taking out the heart of a living person.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: The doctors have been accused of taking out the hearts of living persons.
Prabhupāda: Oh. So how to use it? What they'll use?
Rāmeśvara: Sometimes if a man is in critical condition he will donate his bodily organs, so they will kill him just to take out his heart so that they can use it for transplanting.
Bali-mardana: When his brain stops, even though the heart is beating, they take it out.
Prabhupāda: So? (pause) That is the question put by Sanātana Gosvāmī. Ke āmi, kene āmāya jāre tāpa-traya. "I want to live, but what is that force that does not allow me to live?" This is the question, this is the question. They are trying to find out so many laws, so many, what is the purpose? They want to live, but there is a force that will not allow you to live. That is the human question. When this question arises, then he is human being; otherwise he's a dog. Dog never inquires.
Prabhupāda: Family right. Family is intelligent, that "You are rascal, why you are trying? Let him die peacefully."
Bali-mardana: They say "Let him die in dignity. Why keep him in the machine?" The family says "Let him die in dignity."
Rāmeśvara: They keep him in coma.
Prabhupāda: After all, you cannot protect. Why you give trouble at the time of death? You cannot protect; your foolish attempt will not help him. This is the same philosophy, that the animal is suffering, to kill him. Mercy of killing, what is called?
Rāmeśvara: Mercy killing.
Prabhupāda: So this is nonsense. Mercy killing. Killing mercy. (laughs) Just see. The action is killing, and that is his mercy. This is their mercy. All contradictory. Killing by mercy? Mercy is killing?
Hari-śauri: There's an example that's just going up to the courts now. There's one family, their daughter was being supported by one machine, so one day they went in early and pulled out the plugs. So now they are being taken to court. They stopped the machine because she'd been in a coma for so long, so they just pulled out the plugs and everything, the machine. So that's what they call mercy killing. They don't like the doctors just to keep them there uselessly.
George Harrison: When my mother died I had to send my sister and father out of the room, because they were getting emotional, and I just chanted Hare Kṛṣṇa.
Prabhupāda: She chanted.
George Harrison: I did.
Prabhupāda: Oh, very nice, so she could hear?
George Harrison: I don't know, I don't know, she was in like a coma or something. It was the only thing I could think of.
Prabhupāda: When it happened?
George Harrison: In 1970. It was the only thing I could think of that may be of value, you know.
Prabhupāda: Anyway, if she has heard Hare Kṛṣṇa, she'll get the benefit. Either she chants or somebody chanting, if she hears, śravaṇaṁ kīrtanam, both the same thing. Little chance. Svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt. So let us practice in such a way that at the time of death we may remember. That is success. Tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti kaunteya (BG 4.9). So you are reading Kṛṣṇa repeatedly? Kṛṣṇa book you are reading repeatedly?
Correspondence
1976 Correspondence
It will be a great achievement if you can write this book on the theme, "anything undertaken without Krsna fails." Here in India we have just seen how they have made a big, big plan for the city of Chandigargh. So much land is lying vacant, and in the meantime people are going hungry. Because they are not Krsna conscious, they do not know how to utilize anything properly. They are simply thinking of satisfying their own senses. So many big, big plans, but the result is that people are unhappy. Napoleon and Hitler made big, big plans, where are they now? All failures. Churchill wanted to keep India under control. Gandhi wanted to drive away the Englishmen. Now, the Englishmen are driven away and things are going on by the laws of nature. Churchill and others have remained in comatose condition before dying due to excessive attachment to their plans. All failures.
| Page Title: | Coma |
| Compiler: | Visnu Murti, Serene |
| Created: | 16 of Dec, 2011 |
| Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=4, CC=0, OB=1, Lec=11, Con=9, Let=1 |
| No. of Quotes: | 26 |