Death is the most fateful experience of each of our lives. But no Hindu really fears death, nor does he look forward to it. Death for the Hindu is merely transition, simultaneously an end and a new beginning. Over two thousand years ago Saint Tiruvalluvar wrote that "Death is like falling asleep, and birth is like awakening from that sleep." In one of the ancient languages of our religion, the physical body had a name which literally meant "that which is always dropping off." When key truths are understood and accepted about the nature of the soul and the cycles of birth, life, dying, death, afterlife and rebirth, all sense of foreboding and fear of death perish. Here we explore those realities.

For Hindus, death is nobly referred to as mahaprasthana, the "great journey." When the lessons of this life have been learned and karmas reach a point of intensity, the soul leaves the physical body, which then returns its elements to the earth. The awareness, will, memory and intelligence which we think of as ourselves continue to exist in the soul body. Death is a most natural experience, not to be feared. It is a quick transition from the physical world to the astral plane, like walking through a door, leaving one room and entering another. Knowing this, we approach death as a sadhana, as a spiritual opportunity, bringing a level of detachment which is difficult to achieve in the tumult of life and an urgency to strive more than ever in our search for the Divine Self. At death we drop off the physical body and continue evolving in the inner worlds in our subtle bodies, until we again enter into birth. We are not the body in which we live but the immortal soul which inhabits many bodies in its evolutionary journey.

Our individual soul is the immortal and spiritual body of light that animates life and reincarnates again and again until all necessary karmas are created and resolved and its essential unity with God is fully realized. Our soul is God's emanational creation, the source of all our higher functions, including knowledge, will and love. Our soul is neither male nor female. It is that which never dies, even when its four outer sheaths change form and perish as they naturally do. The soul body has a form just as the astral body has a form, but it is more refined and is of a more permanent nature. It is this body which reincarnates, creating around itself new physical and astral bodies, life after life after life. This process matures and develops the body of the soul. The body of the soul is pure light, made of quantums. It is indestructible. It cannot be hurt or damaged in any way. It is a pure being, created by God, maturing its way to Him in final merger. The body of the soul is constant radiance. Its mind is superconsciousness, containing all intelligence, and is constantly aware, does not sleep and is expanding awareness as the soul body matures. The body of the soul lives in the eternity of the moment, simultaneously conscious of past and future as a one cycle. The true nature, everlasting secure personal identity, is realizing oneself as the soul body. This is truly finding our roots, our source, our indestructible, ever-maturing soul.

In Sanskrit, the bodies of our being are called kosa, which means "sheath, vessel, container or layer." They are the sheaths through which the soul functions simultaneously in the various planes of existence. The kosas, in order of increasing subtlety, are as follows: --annamaya kosa: "Sheath composed of food." The physical body, coarsest of sheaths. --pranamaya kosa: "sheath composed of prana (vital force)." Also known as the etheric or health body, it coexists within the physical body as its source of life, breath and vitality, and is its connection with the astral body. --manomaya kosa: "Mind-formed sheath." The lower astral body. The instinctive-intellectual sheath of ordinary thought, desire and emotion. --vijnanamaya kosa: "Sheath of cognition." The mental or cognitive-intuitive sheath. It is the vehicle of higher thought, understanding, knowing, direct cognition, wisdom, intuition and creativity. --anandamaya kosa: "Body of bliss." The intuitive-superconscious sheath, the ultimate foundation of all life, intelligence and higher faculties. Anandamaya kosa is not a sheath in the same sense as the outer kosas. It is the soul itself.

The term "astral body" names the subtle, nonphysical body in which the soul functions in the astral plane. The astral body includes the pranamaya kosa, the manomaya kosa and the vijnanamaya kosa.

As the physical forces wane, all the gross and subtle energy goes into the mental and emotional astral body. If the person was prepared for death, sudden or otherwise, his mental and emotional astral body would have already been well schooled in readiness. Sudden death to such a soul is a boon and a blessing. At death, the soul slowly becomes totally aware in its astral/mental bodies, and it predominantly lives through those bodies in the astral dimension. The soul functions with complete continuity in its astral/mental bodies. It is with these sensitive vehicles that we experience dream or "astral" worlds during sleep every night.

When the physical body dies, this automatically severs the subtle silver cord that connects the astral and physical bodies. This cord is an astral-pranic thread that connects the astral body through the navel to the physical body. It is a little like an umbilical cord. During out-of-the-body experiences, this silver cord is often seen as a cord of light connecting the physical, astral and spiritual bodies. When the cord is cut at the death of the physical body, the process of reincarnation and rebirth begins. The Vedas say, "When a person comes to weakness, be it through old age or disease, he frees himself from these limbs just as a mango, a fig or a berry releases itself from its stalk."

It is painful to the astral body to have the physical body cut or disturbed seriously within seventy-two hours after death. The soul can see and feel this, and it detains him from going on. As soon as you tamper with his physical body, he gets attached, becomes aware that he has two bodies, and this becomes a problem. Ideally when you die, your physical body goes up in flames, and immediately you know it's gone. You now know that the astral body is your body, and you can effortlessly release the physical body. But if you keep the old body around, then you keep the person around, and he is aware that he has two bodies. He becomes earthbound, tied into the Pretaloka, and confused.

The Sanskrit, loka, means "world, habitat, realm or plane of existence." Hinduism describes three primary lokas, as follows. --Bhuloka: "Earth world." The world perceived through the five senses, also called the gross plane, as it is the most dense of the worlds. --Antarloka: "Inner or in-between world." Known in English as the subtle or astral plane, the intermediate dimension between the physical and causal worlds, where souls in their astral bodies sojourn between incarnations and when they sleep. --Karanaloka: "World of God," and of the Gods and highly evolved souls, existing deep within the Antarloka at a higher level of vibration. It is a world of superconsciousness and extremely refined energy, the quantum level of the universe.

Subdivisions of the Antarloka are: --Devaloka: "Place of radiant beings." The higher astral plane, or mental plane, the realm of "angels." --Pretaloka: "World of the departed." The realm of earth-bound souls, or ghosts. It is an astral duplicate of the physical world and closest to it. --Narakaloka: Abode of darkness. The lower worlds, realm of "demons." Equivalent to the Western term "hell," a gross region of the Antarloka. A congested, distressful area where beings suffer the consequences of their own misdeeds in previous lives. Described as a place of torment, pain, darkness, confusion and disease. Narakaloka is not a place where souls reside forever. Hinduism has no eternal hell.

Where the soul goes in the astral plane at sleep or death is dependent upon his earthly pursuits and the quality of his mind. If the soul body itself is evolved, it will occupy the astral/mental bodies in the Devaloka. If somebody dies in the states of anger and fear, he goes into the lower worlds of those states of consciousness. And in that realm there would be hundreds of thousands of people in that same state of consciousness. The thoughts at death are the next samskaras of the astral body. Even if you have the thought, "When you're dead you're dead," your astral body might just float over your physical body and be "dead." A lot of people who are about to die do not believe in life after death, so they remain hovering over their physical body when it is lifeless. Astral-plane helpers have to come and "wake them up" and tell them that their physical body is dead and explain that they are all right and are alive in their astral body. It is often not easy getting them readjusted.

At death you leave through a nerve ganglia of consciousness, a chakra. Each one is a window, and at death it becomes a portal, a doorway. The tunnel of light that is experienced by so many people at the point of death is the portal they are going through, the window, the chakra. Passing through the tunnel is leaving this world and going into another. So, it is the state of mind at death that gets you into one loka or another. At the moment of death, you have the opportunity to stabilize yourself in the highest chakra you have experienced in this life. The dying should always remember that the place where one will reincarnate is the place that he is thinking about prior to death. So, choose your desires wisely. The last thoughts just before death are the most powerful thoughts in creating the next life. Secret questionings and doubt of Hindu belief, and associations with other belief systems will automatically place him among like-minded people whose beliefs are alien to Hinduism. A nominal Hindu on Earth could be a selfish materialist in the astral world. The Hindu also knows that death must come naturally, in its own course, and that suicide only accelerates the intensity of one's karma, placing one in a lengthy earth-bound limbo state in the astral plane, bringing a series of immediate lesser births and requiring several lives for the soul to return to the exact evolutionary point that existed at the moment of suicide, at which time the still-existing karmic entanglements must again be faced and resolved.

Everyone is prepared to die, and whether it happens suddenly or slowly, intuitively each individual knows exactly what he is experiencing and about to experience. You don't need any counseling. It is a blessing to know when you are going to die, because then you can prepare for it, make a decision whether you are going to be reborn, do intense sadhanas, make preparations. When one knows he is going to depart the physical body, he should not hesitate to tell his relatives he is going to die, and that is a wonderful blessing for them, as they can prepare for his great departure. In turn, family and friends should release him, be happy. Don't cry; you will make him unhappy. The sadness at death comes from Western attitudes. Western thought has to be reversed. He should consciously go over his wealth, his properties, be the executor of his own will, taking care of everybody, not leaving these things to others to deal with after his passing. After everything is settled, all personal possessions disposed of, then he begins meditation and awaits the fruitful hour, trying to exit through the highest chakra of the attainment of this life.

The ideal is to leave through the top of the head, through the door of Brahman, to get into the highest heaven and not have to come back. The dying person should, at the time of transition, concentrate awareness at the top of his head and willfully draw up into it all the energies from the left and right legs and arms, one after another, then the energy within the entire torso, and all the energies within the spine, from the muladhara chakra, up into the third eye and crown chakras. With all the energies gathered at the top of his head, he will leave through the highest chakra he experienced this lifetime. This would put him in a great place in the inner world.

Prolonging the life of the individual body must be done by the individual himself. Medical assistance is needed to cauterize wounds and provide the numerous helpful things that are available, but to prolong life in the debilitated physical body past the point that the natural will of the person has sustained is to incarcerate, to jail, to place that person in prison. Ayurvedic medicine seeks to keep a person healthy and strong, but not to interfere with the process of death.

Our soul never dies; only the physical body dies. We are not the physical body, mind or emotions. We are the immortal soul, atman. We neither fear death nor look forward to it, but revere it as a most exalted experience. Life, death and the afterlife are all part of our path to perfect oneness with God. People wonder whether death is a painful process, such as in the case of cancer victims. Cancer, which produces a lot of pain, is a process of life which results in death, but death itself is not painful. Death itself is blissful. Death is like a meditation, a samadhi. That's why it is called maha (great) samadhi. A Hindu is prepared from childhood for that mahasamadhi. Remember, pain is not part of the process of death. That is the process of life, which results in death. Death takes place in a short period, but is a foreboding affair to those who have never meditated. But dying is not such a dramatic experience really. Every night you "die" and leave your physical body. It is very similar.

The fear of death is a natural instinctive reflex. We encounter it sometimes daily, once a month, or at least once a year when we come face to face with the possibility of obliteration of our personality and of leaving the conscious mind. The fear of change or fear of the unknown is an ominous element in the destiny of a human being. The study and comprehension of the laws of reincarnation can alleviate this fear and bring an enlightened vision of the cosmic rhythms of life and death. It is a simple process, no more fantastic than other growth problems we experience daily. Death, like birth, has been repeated so many times that it is no mystery to the soul. The only problem comes with conflicting beliefs, which produce fear and anxiety about death. This temporary ignorance soon subsides when the failing forces of the physical body reach a certain level. At this point, the superconscious intelligence, the soul itself, is there.

Certain karmas can be resolved only in the physical world. This is due to the fact that on the refined inner planes only three or four of the higher chakras are activated; the others are dormant. For nirvikalpa samadhi, all seven chakras, as well as the three major energy currents, have to be functioning to sustain enough kundalini force to burst through to the Self. At the right time, the soul is reborn into a flesh body that will best fulfill its karmic pattern. In this process, the current astral body--which is a duplicate of the last physical form--is sloughed off as a lifeless shell that in due course disintegrates, and a new astral body develops as the new physical body grows. This entering into another body is called reincarnation, "re-occupying the flesh." Generally, the soul, at the time of conception, chooses the body he will inhabit but does not actually enter the womb until the infant body takes life and begins to move and kick.

During our numerous Earth lives, a remarkable variety of life patterns is experienced. We exist as male and female, often switching back and forth from life to life as the nature becomes more harmonized into a person exhibiting both feminine nurturing and masculine intrepidness. Therefore, the Hindu knows that the belief in a single life on Earth, followed by eternal joy or pain is utterly wrong and causes great anxiety, confusion and fear. Hindus know that all souls reincarnate, take one body and then another, evolving through experience over long periods of time. Like the caterpillar's metamorphosis into the butterfly, death doesn't end our existence but frees us to pursue an even greater development. Reincarnation ceases when dharma has been well performed, earthly karma is resolved, God is fully realized and moksha, liberation, is attained.

Kotilingeshwara temple hosts more than 86 lakhs Shivalingas and has the world's tallest ShivaLinga measuring 108 Ft height and Basava measuring 35 feet. It is surrounded by plush greenery amidst the Kammasandra village 5 km from Kolar Gold Fields.

TENS OF THOUSANDS The biggest linga in Kotilingeshwara is 108 ft tall

The adventurous foursome that we are, we set off to discover a few places we found in KSTDC pamphlets. With a load of hearsay and a couple of maps, we hit the road in a small family car to Chikka Tirupati via Whitefield. Most travelogues and guides flood you with dated info on popular tourist beeline ends, motorable beaten tracks and cushy spots to eat and sleep. For a change, we veered away from any such repeats and that is how we found our way to a Vaishnavaite temple in the middle of a handful of hamlets.

A homely but clean-on-the-inside mess nearby provided us with staple idlis, puris and avarekalu baath. We wended our way on routes frequented more by tractors than plush cars. We passed rose and marigold expanses, tomato, chilli, potato, cabbage, cauliflower, Bengal gram, mulberry plantations and mango and eucalyptus groves. Roses and tomatoes beckoned. We stopped to admire and even had a small chat with the locals.

Uniformly, they stand

On the way, Kotilingeshwara, we found, was one big park of lingas, lining pathways in all sizes amidst bilva and amla trees, but all in one single colour and shape, tens of thousands of them. The temple houses shrines for Manjunatha, Panduranga, Srinivasa, Panchmukha Ganesha, Panchamukha Hanuman, Rama-Sita-Lakshmana, Ayyappa, Annapoorneswari, Santhoshima and Kannika Parameswari, besides Navagraha and Raghavendra.

The biggest linga is 108 ft tall, matched by a huge figure of Nandi. Prasada lunch of anna, saru and majjige is served to all visitors between 12.30 p.m. and 2 p.m.

Then a short drive to Bangaru Tirupati. You can't miss the arch marking the entrance from the road to Mulbagal. The temple dates to Brigu Maharishi's days and is built on rocks. You reach the shrine after a climb of several hundred steps and see the deity through a chequered window. At a different level is the shrine for the consort Padmavathi, dating back to mid-19th Century.

Mulbagal lies just off the NH4. This taluk shows signs of rural progress. The well-known place here is the temple for Hanuman, said to be installed by Arjuna, one of the Pandavas, after the Mahabharata war. Sage Vasishta is believed to have installed the idols of the main deity Srinivasa, Padmavathi and Rama-Sita-Lakshmana.

Off the Srinivasapura road going north from Mulbagal, we reach Kurudumale. Two temples, within a hundred feet of each other, are now protected monuments. The Someshwara temple, where restoration work is under way, was built and dedicated to the locals by Raja Raja Chola. The priest patiently took us through the Chola king's times depicted on some of the pillar sculptures worked on by the king's sculptor, the legendary Jakanachari.

After military plunder some centuries later, just about 15 of the original 30-odd idols have been found and reinstated. The Ganesha temple has dates back to the Krta Yuga. The idol is said to have grown from a salagrama stone (originally from the Gandak river of Nepal) through the four yugas to attain its present size.

Legend has it that the Hindu trinity together installed the idol — hence the name Koodadri, now known as Koodumale or Kurudumale. The Vijayanagar king Krishnadevaraya built the temple around the idol at the request of the locals.

A recently built Prasanna Venkataramaswamy temple is located along a 1.5 km detour on the road back to Mulbagal. The place is called Doddaguruki/ Vedagiri.

Getting back to Mulbagal, it is a smooth turn into NH4 towards Bangalore. Five kilometres down the highway is a fairly huge Ayyappa Kshetram. Then Kamat group's Upachar, located after the Kolar bypass, is a good refreshment halt, 20 km short of Hoskote and is a standard stop for the KSTDC bus services. With an early start and a couple more hours in hand, it is possible to complete the day with a trip to Kaiwara, a forest department-maintained resort via Chintamani, travelling northwest from Mulbagal and get back on the highway near Hoskote.

How to get there

Chikka Tirupati (35 km from Bangalore): Turn right at Farm Cross, Whitefield; Kotilingeswara: On the right, three km short of Betamangala. Travel on Bangarpet-Betamangala- route via Malur, Tykal, Bangarpet; Bangaru Tirupati; Eight km from Kotilingeswara on the road towards Mulbagal. Entry marked by a stone arch; Kurudumale: Northeast from Mulbagal, off the Srinivasapura Road.

Surrounded by verdant greenery, Kammasandra is famous for its Kotilingeshwara temple. The temple houses 108 ft tall Shivling and 35 ft tall Basava. The shrine is surrounded by lakhs of small shivlings, which spread over an area of 15 acres. These icons are installed by the devotees to seek the blessings of the lord. The entrance from the highway to the central courtyard is majestic. Other major attractions here are ancient temples dedicated to Sri Manjunatheshwara, Trimurti, Ashta-Lakshmi, Subramanya, the Navagrahas and many other deities.

A three hour journey from Bangalore brings one to this place.

Formerly, Kolar was known variously as Kolahala, Kuvalala and Kolala. Kolar was called Kolahalapura during the middle ages, but later came to be known as Kolar. Kolahahapura in Kannada meant "violent city", as it was the battlefield for the warring kingdoms of Chalukyas in the north and Cholas to the south. It was the capital of the Gangas till 4th century AD when they shifted the capital to Talakad in Mysore. In 1004 A.D., the Cholas annexed Kolar till 1116 A.D,. Vishnuvardhana (1108-1142AD) freed Gangavadi from the Cholas, and in commemoration of his victory.

Gold was first mined in the area in the 2nd and 3rd century AD by the digging of small pits. During the Chola period in the 9th and 10th century AD the scale of the operation grew, but large-scale mining only came in the 1850s under the British with more manpower and sophisticated machinery. In 1873, M.F. Lavelle, a resident in Bangalore, applied to the Mysore Government for the exclusive privilege of mining in the Kolar district. His request was granted and he commenced operations by sinking a shaft near Urigam (Oorgaum) in 1875

There is a legend about why the Kolar Gold Fields are so full of gold. The story goes back to the Tretha Yuga, the time of Lord Rama. During his 14 years of vanavasa, Rama along with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana wandered through the dense forests of the present day Avani village, which is about 10 miles from the gold fields, where they set up their hut and lived. Surpanaka, sister of Ravana, one day happened to see Rama and asked him to marry her. He refused, as he was already married, so she approached Lakshmana.

People from many different places are settled in the Kolar Gold Fields today, with the majority of them being tamil speaking people from the north and south Arcot districts of Tamil Nadu. There are also Telugu speaking people from Kuppam, Ramakuppam, V-kota and other places in Andhra Pradesh. Given the mixture of population, many festivals are celebrated; the most famous and popular one being the Lakshmi Venkateshwara Jaatre.

Charles Schultz Philosophy 

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.

2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.

3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America Contest.

4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.

5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.

6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.

The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. They are not second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.

2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.

3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.

The lesson: The people who make a difference in your life are NOT the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones who care.

What Job Suits Me?

A Degree with No Job, Where Do I Start?

You have just graduated, and you are wondering "what job suits me"? Ideally, this should not have occurred if there was sufficient self-awareness and planning. That’s all water under the bridge now. Let’s move on to find a solution for it.

Before I move on to answer the question “What job suits me?”, I need you to first understand a few points.

The answer to the question "what job suits me" is simple, though the journey may not be as simple. That is something you have to keep in mind. I write this with experience. I have had many interview candidates passing through my door asking this question. Frustrating as it maybe, I have always used this as an opportunity to counsel them.

What job suits me? Here is my answer.

1. Think Positive - As You Think So You Are

I know it is tough not to have a job, and you're raring to go and build a career. Look at it this way; you have a degree. A qualification, regardless of how you look at it. How many people can claim that? All the things that you learned in these courses mean something to some employers out there. Think hard, surf the net to see who are in need of your skills. When you get ideas you won't feel so lost. You will begin to see hints of answers to what job suits you.

What if you don’t have a degree? Look at what qualifications you have. Think hard about those. What if you do not have any qualifications? Then think about what quality courses you can take, no matter how short it is, even if it is a certificate course. These will usually build into more skills and knowledge and start opening doors.

What if you have no money? Then, start low. Take an entry-level job to save up money. Tell yourself, this is but a step to finding the answer to what job suits me. The world conspires to help you achieve your dreams only if you are willing to sacrifice. How much commitment do you have in finding the answer to the question of “What job suits me?”.

2. Think Interest, Feel The Passion

Grab a job that closest reflects what interests you and your knowledge. Do you like working in an office? If it is an office setting, what industry could it be? List it down and give yourself some criteria that helps you short-list the choices. It can be as simple as distance, size of company, type of industry, reasonable expected salary and so on and so forth.

Interest and passion is what will eventually guide you in your quest for the answer to "what job suits me". It’s tough to start but once you start, the small answers will eventually cumulate into a big answer. Say for example, you like meeting people, there are jobs out there that permits you that – a hotel receptionist, a salesperson, a tour guide, or even a bus driver job allows for that. Dig deep. No job is too small for anyone. Not especially if you are on a quest to find out what job suits you.

3. Start Somewhere

Ideally, you have a list of criteria, but experience tells me more often than not, that there will still be people who are too lazy to do that. Even after reading this, you are still looking for hints of a short cut. Let me remind you that there are no short cuts to "what job suits me".

What I can say is start somewhere. Shrink your ego and swallow your pride. Get an entry-level job. So what if you have to start at the very bottom? Do it, it may not be what you want but it will give you some sense of self-awareness – what you like and don’t like.

It may even provide you with real lessons in life like humility, honesty and being hard-working Lessons are important in the journey of life.

4. Career Building Is A Journey

There is no need to rush. Yes, easier said than done but sometimes what seems to you as fumbling around is actually opportunities presenting itself. There are lessons to be learned everywhere and everyone we come in contact with can teach us a lesson or two. We just have to be conscious of it and learn from it.

Get into a temporary job that interests you. As you start, you will get to know people and soon one thing will lead to another. You will discover new strengths and interests and the opportunity will present itself. Therein may lie the answer "to what job suits me". Don't be afraid of being slow, worry only when you stop. Always keep walking.

To round this up, I have currently two staff working with me with qualifications totally unrelated to advertising. One has a B.Sc in Biotech, and another a B.Sc in Entomology. They too ‘fumbled’ through their careers. One has 10 years experience that started her career in a construction firm and eventually, advertising. The other started in a gift company before joining me, is only 2 years in advertising. They are doing very well in advertising and are even considered stars in my department.

It's all good. While there are no straight and simple answer to "what job suits me", the answer is always there to be discovered. Importantly, it can be discovered. Just make sure you have the stamina to take the journey and challenges.

Keep walking and good luck!