We should always look for the real thing, even if it means we have to work hard at it. Sometimes people think,
“Oh yeah, all I have to do is put a tilak (sacred mark on the forehead) on, because if you wear this tilak, Yamarāj (the god of death) can’t come near you.” So when you die, he sees,
“Oh, this tilak means he’s a devotee of Shree Krishna (the Supreme Divine Personality), I won’t go near him,” and you get to go to the Divine abode just by wearing a tilak.
Again, there’s no attaining anything after death that you haven’t attained in life. So it doesn’t matter if I’m wearing a tilak or not. If I haven’t followed the proper path, which purifies my heart, and then I become surrendered to God, receive His grace, get a Divine mind, Divine senses, and become God-realized, if that hasn’t happened before I die, then I’ll be reborn in this world.
Some people believe if you are in a certain place when you die, you’ll go to the Divine world, you’ll get liberation.
People think if you die in Kāśhī (Varanasi, a sacred city), you’ll get liberation. Kabir Das (a great Saint-poet) said,
“I’m going out of Kāśhī on purpose.”
He lived in Kāśhī, and he said, to show people this kind of foolishness, and what kind of things people believe in,
“I’m going out of Kāśhī when it’s my time to die, and I’ll still go to the Divine world.”
It doesn’t matter where you die; it matters what’s in your mind at the time of death. And if we haven’t attained God in life, then what’s in our mind are worldly attachments, and we’re reborn accordingly.
Some people think if you just say God’s name before you die, you’ll go to the Divine world. Again, our last word happens when we lose consciousness. At that time, we’re still not dead, but we can’t speak anymore. You lose consciousness, then your breathing stops, your heart stops, the doctor may pronounce you dead, and sometime after that, you actually leave your body, meaning the soul leaves the body. So at that time, when the soul leaves the body what is our mind thinking? Well, it’s only active on a very subtle level, and it’s going to be actively remembering whatever it’s attached to again.
So it doesn’t matter if, with your last word, you said, “Ram” (Divine name of Lord Ram) or “Shyam” (Divine name of Krishna),” because if you haven’t attained Them, you won’t be able to remember Them when your soul leaves your body, which is the actual moment of truth, so to speak.
So there are no shortcuts or loopholes. Shree Krishna has told us in so many places in the Gita (Bhagavad Gita), things like,
… मामेव ये प्रपद्यन्ते मायामेतां तरन्ति ते ||
… Mām eva ye prapadyante māyām etāṁ taranti te.
- Gita 7.14
“Only by surrendering to Me can someone cross this maya (Divine illusion), and if you cross maya, you’re free from rebirth and you reach God.” How do you become surrendered to Him? He says,
“There’s only one way - bhakti (devotion).”
भक्त्या त्वनन्यया शक्य अहमेवंविधोऽर्जुन | …
bhaktyā tv ananyayā śhakya aham evaṁ-vidho ’rjuna …
- Gita 11.54
He says, “I’m only attainable through bhakti.”
नाहं वेदैर्न तपसा न दानेन न चेज्यया । …
Nāhaṁ vedair na tapasā na dānena na cejyayā …
- Gita 11.53
He says, “I’m not attainable through good actions. I’m not attainable through even charity or ritual observances. I’m not attainable by study of the scriptures, because that’s an intellectual pursuit. I’m attainable through bhakti, which means the process of attaching your mind to God.”
