What Is Samadhi Maran?

What is Samadhi Maran?

Generally, what is the kind of atmosphere in the house where death has occurred? All around, there is a mood of sadness and mourning. Someone is crying their heart out, someone is lamenting, someone is beating their chest. The mortal body of the dead person is covered with a white sheet and a lamp is lit. A smiling photograph of the relative is framed in a beautiful frame and garlanded, but other than that photograph, everyone around is crying. Amidst this crying and lamenting, one of the responsible persons in the family is constantly seen to be on the phone. On one hand is the grief of the person's death, and on the other hand are hospital trips to get a death certificate, preparations for the last rites in the crematorium, and too many consoling phone calls from the relatives! Amidst all of this, a big commotion gets created inside and outside. As if this is not enough, relatives keep coming home, they express pity for the dead person's family, and remembering the dead person, in his/her memories, hug and weep aloud. Every time this happens, the pain of family members doubles. This weeping and lamenting goes on right up to the cremation ground. On returning home, the Sutak rituals are performed and then mourning is observed for thirteen consecutive days.

Where the atmosphere is in total contrast to the above, that’s Samadhi Maran! There is nowhere lamenting or heart-rending crying behind a person who dies in Samadhi Maran. The people in the house appear calm and serious, but no one is sad or grieving. Instead of cries, a quiet melody of God's name is playing. Instead of weeping, the relatives are offering flowers to the dead person and praying for his/her Soul to rest in peace. The fragrance of incense seems to melt away the sadness and grief. Poise and peace are seen on everyone's face. It is such an ethereal atmosphere that death does not seem like death, rather it becomes a festival! This becomes possible when a person leaves the body in a complete state of Samadhi.

Such beliefs prevail in the world that if one dies on a pilgrimage like Kashi, one's next life will improve or one shall be liberated. But the fact is that salvation is based not on the place where the death happens, but on what one’s internal state is. The religious place may be instrumental in bringing about a higher internal state, but is not the only cause. However, if one dies with the experience of the Soul being stable in one's Self, then in whichever place one may die, it becomes a festival!

The State of Samadhi:

A person who dies in Samadhi Maran has a very high inner state. In such a state, although the body is in pain, nothing touches the Self. At the time of death, one is detached from the body. One does not have the belief of "I am dying"; when the (karmic) account of the body is over, one leaves the body. During the last moments, the awareness of 'I am Soul' remains to the person who is dying. S/he is in the state of 'I am there forever, am eternal, am immortal'. Due to this state, when a person leaves the body in Samadhi Maran, at that time, the immediate family members do not experience any severe suffering or pain.

That’s when the question arises, how is it possible that no one around is sad at the time of the death of a close loved one! So, let us understand with an example. Suppose, one end of the rope is held by us, and the other end is held by the other person. Now if the other person moves away, the rope is pulled. So, the hand in which we’ve held the rope, it pains us there, and it pains the other person as well. This is how we also are bound by the rope of attachment hatred, love and affection with people close to us. So when a person dies, the person who is leaving experiences pain, and along with him/her, the family members also experience a lot of pain.

But if the ropes of attachment-hatred and affection have been loosened, the person who is leaving has cleared the accounts of attachment-hatred with every person in the household, then the person leaving remains in Samadhi. Consequently, even close family members do not suffer. In the house, leave aside the pain, one experiences happiness instead! Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan says, “Samadhi Maran means other than the Soul, there is nothing that one remembers. Apart from one's own form (Soul), consciousness is not anywhere else, the mind-intellect-consciousness-ego, nothing at all wavers! Constant Samadhi! Although the body is in pain, yet pain does not touch him/her.”

Samadhi Maran is Possible Through Self-Realization:

How does such samadhi death become possible? Through the knowledge of the Soul (Self-Realization) - such knowledge, because of which no matter how much difficulty is there, suffering does not touch them. True self-knowledge is that which yields results. Through words, it is written in the scriptures, 'I am separate from the body.' But by reading that, Self-Realization does not manifest. Just like by touching our lamp with a paper lamp does not light the lamp, but if we touch the wick of our lamp with the flame of a real lamp, the lamp lights. That Self-Realization (Aatma-Gnan) can be attained only from the present Enlightened One (Aatma-Gnani). Where happens the real experience of 'I' and 'mine' are separate, that is called true knowledge. After attaining Self-realization, at the time of death, the body leaves with the full awareness of ‘the body is separate; I, the Soul, am separate.’

Just as when we say “This watch is mine”, it proves that we and the watch are separate. Similarly, if we say, “This body is mine”, then it is said that I and the body are separate. 'My house', 'my wife' and 'my children' are all 'mine', then who am 'I'? The realization of 'I' is Self-realization.

Through Self-Realization, such vision gets fitted within, as a result of which, despite living in the world, the miseries of the world are not able to touch one’s Self. The Self is in the form of bliss, is an abode of infinite bliss, is eternal. The Soul never takes birth, nor does it die. No pain or suffering can touch it. If one realizes such form of one's own, then that form can be seen in others as well. Therefore, whichever person or thing one has called 'my', 'my' and thereby has wrapped the knots of affection, those knots are dissolved by the knowledge of the Soul. And that is why suffering does not touch one’s own self or those around. So many people have had such an experience of Samadhi Maran. Where one and only young son has died in an accident, or a cancer patient has died amidst excruciating pain, in every case suffering has not touched one's own self and the family members.