Swamiji TV

Other links



Podcast details

The Last Minutes of Life

The body ages, but the mind and feelings do not. Dying is not easy. The psychic state of a person facing death is often terrible, filled with fear and the inner pain of existential questions. Therefore, one should stay with the dying as long as possible so they do not feel alone. We theoretically know the body is mortal, like a change of clothes, yet this is hard to accept. No one can ultimately help, not even God if asked. We can only pray for a gentle passage from material consciousness, as smooth as falling asleep or entering a dream. The sincere wish is to leave this world while chanting the divine name.

"O Lord, what will be with me? How will it be with me?"

"O Lord Kṛṣṇa, you play a sweet melody of your flute, and that I leave this world while chanting your sweet name."

Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic

The body becomes old. The mind and feelings do not become old. And it is not easy, you see. You feel that your body doesn’t help you anymore, and you have to pass away. It is not easy, dying. What people sometimes call it—they put you in the hospital in some room, it’s called the dying room, where one dies. And you know, the psychic state of that person must be terrible. Therefore, as much as possible, as a family member, as a friend, or a colleague, you should stay with them until the last minutes of life. We cannot accompany them, but as long as they are physically aware, they feel that they are not alone. And I think that is the most critical time of our life. You see, even for a small baby, that critical time is not like the time for one who is dying. It doesn’t matter if it’s illness or old age. We see that we are going somewhere. What will happen with me? And so many people, they are afraid; they don’t dare to close their eyes because they know they will die now. And that is the most painful, most—I wouldn’t say only this physical pain—but most inner pain, most tragic. Where to go? Where will you go? From where do I come? Why did I come? Am I doing this for what I came? And where will I go? And therefore, always, "O Lord, what will be with me? How will it be with me?" We know this body is mortal. This body is just like a cloth you change, like a dress. It’s very easy for Kṛṣṇa to say this in the Bhagavad Gītā, but it’s very hard to accept for Arjuna. So for us, we know theoretically, but it’s very hard to accept. But what to do? There is no other way. No one can help. Even if you will go to God and tell Him, "Please help me," God will say, "Well, it is like this, I can’t help you." So we can only pray for two things: that the last days of our life should not be painful, and that we should pass over from this material consciousness very gently. Like we sleep and we go to the dream. Did you ever observe yourself? How do you sleep? Nobody knows. You don’t know. That process from the conscious to sleep is very gentle; it is not painful. And from sleep to dream, you don’t know when and how it began, but it was the dream. And so we wish that our transcendental process from this physical consciousness to the astral or cosmic consciousness should be very smooth, gentle, without suffering. Therefore, "O Lord, what will become of me? O Lord, O Kṛṣṇa, it is my prayer to Thee: that I never forget your name. That day and night, day and night, I sing thy name, O Govinda, O Kṛṣṇa, O Madhvati. Govinda, O Krishna." Gāte yahi na tananātha tyāgum... O Lord, on that hour, on that minute, when I have to give up my body, I wish only one thing, nothing else. Because I know everything that I thought is for me is not for me. Everything that I thought was mine is not mine. Everything that I was possessing, and I thought it would go with me, but it seems it will not go with me. Lord, now I know finally what I wish. The time of renouncing this body, the end of my life, you are standing in front of me. And O Lord Kṛṣṇa, you play a sweet melody of your flute, and that I leave this world while chanting your sweet name: Govinda, Dāmodara, Mādhava. These are all names of Krishna. Will it be, or will it not be? It depends on you and on Him. And therefore, it is said: as many mantras as you repeat, at the end of life you will forget everything, but at least this you will remember, and that’s very important. That you will see Mahāprabhujī smiling, I tell you.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

Email Notifications

You are welcome to subscribe to the Swamiji.tv Live Webcast announcements.

Contact Us

If you have any comments or technical problems with swamiji.tv website, please send us an email.

Download App

YouTube Channel