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Summary of Question:	Death List ...(Of Questions)
Category:	General Sikhism
Date Posted:	Wednesday, 7/24/2002 8:11 AM MDT

Hello

I come to you with hope that u may help me. I had just found out that close family member of a freind of mine has passed away. this has led me to think about death. I have read many of the answers in the forum already. however i have confused myself a little as i have at the same time read extracts from SGGS. !!!

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Response: I'll do my best. Responses to each question are below the listed questions.
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In the SGGS is says that Dharam Raj will ask for ur accounts and judge u
1. Who is Dharam Raj ? is it a manifestation of God? Is God there with u while u are getting judged?

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Reply: Well - first problem with death is that it is beyond the human realm, including the human intellect, language and concept. So what happens after death is really a great Unknown, although mystics have attempted to describe the experience. One of my favorite stories is about a Zen teacher and a Zen student. The student asked the teacher, "Master - what happens after you die?" The teacher replied, "I don't know." The student was shocked. "But you're a master!" he protested. "Yes," said the teacher. "But not a dead one."

So - we can't know everything. And what happens after we die - well - honestly - it's not something that you can know. But we can look to the Guru to see what instructions He gives us about death.

Now, Dharam Raj, if I'm not mistaken, can also be tranlated as "King of the Law." In other words, the Divine created the Universe according to certain guiding principles and, once you die, what happens next depends upon those principles. But the idea that there is a courtroom and a judge and God watching down and all of that - this is just a human construct, a way to explain something. Most likely, it all happens in some way that we can't even imagine. What's important is that there are guiding principles behind creation and what happens after we die is interconnected with that.

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2. how does the above fit in ...cos in manay answers i have read it says that u urself will be the judge

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Reply: So - is it God or is it You? "God." I was reading from the Guru today, and there was a line about how God's light is in all beings and all lights are in His light. So - let us say that your ego will not be your judge, but the piece of you that is already One with the Divine will assess how your life went and what needs to happen next.

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3. after the 3 seconds when u die ...u have 17 days to travel to ur ether...there are 7 ..can u describe what the seven are ...and is it like going throught them or u go past them ?? and the 7th is that Sach Khand ?

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Reply: Different people talk about the after death experience in different ways, but the structure of the after-death experience isn't important. That's why the Gurus didn't spend a lot of time on the issue. The Guru teaches us very clearly that God is the doer. What happens after we die is up to God, not up to us. There must be some mechanism in place to take a soul through the cycle of death and re-birth. But, for a Sikh, liberation from this cycle is an act of grace and not something we can pursue with our ego and our effort. If you want to have a comfortable experience dying, then you need to spend your time while alive developing a conscious soul-connection to God. Something real, something that you can experience. Then, even if the body drops away, you have that connection to take you through the death process. That's why the Guru says - if you spend your life pursuing worldy attachments without cultivating your experience of the Truth within you, then you've wasted your life and you'll get caught in the last moment. In the last moment the only thing you can take with you is your conscious connection with God. So - don't waste time while alive getting distracted. Enjoy your life, but make meditating on the True Identity of God an integral part of it.

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4. if a person has led a bad life and casued others a lot of stresss...what happens to them do they only go to the first or second ether? and then go into human form again?

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Reply: The Guru teaches that the robe of human form is earned by many positive acts and is a rebirth of good fortune. If you use this form to harm others, to lead a "bad" life, you won't get the human form again - but come back as something else. A dog, for instance, or a tadpole.

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5. how long do u stay in the ether for ?? like the 17 days ? what do u do there ? **what is the purpose of each ether, its significance**is it after that u go back into earth to pay off karma and try to reach the next level ...until u evnually reach the 7th?

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Reply: I wish I could help you there, but I just don't have any experience of it. I suspect that the soul just hangs out until its time to be reborn somewhere. Maybe the seven levels are like different style of waiting rooms - depending on the consciousness of the person who died.

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6. sometimes in the Hukamnama Guru Ji states that the ignorant person will be beatan by Dharam Raja's Club ?? does this mean that one will endure suffereing immediately after leaving the body if they have been bad?

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Reply: Well, death probably comes as a bit of a shock to someone who isn't ready to die, and that is what the Guru is talking about. Imagine this. A person is going along in their day, has plans for dinner, is working really hard at work for a promotion, gets in their car and BAM - dies in a car accident. That would be a little disorienting. So the ignorant one doesn't mean the person is "good" or "bad," "right" or "wrong." The ignorant one is the person who remains ignorant of the fact that this life is impermanent and that death could happen at any moment.

This is truly a profound understanding. When you think that you have all the time in the world to do whatever you want, you organize your priorities a certain way. You spend your time a certain way. But this is a state of ignorance. The state of knowledge is knowing that today could be my last day on earth. If you woke up every morning and really understood that you could die today - that, yes, you have to assume that you will live for a long time and plan appropriately, but it still isn't a guarantee - you will see yourself beginning to make completely different choices about what to do with your time. And this is what the Guru is trying to wake us up to. Hey, folks. The human rebirth is precious. You only have a brief amount of time here and there's something for you to do, to understand about the Divine while you're here. Don't waste time, because if you waste that time - when the inevitable Death comes around - you won't be prepared and it'll cause you confusion and pain.

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7. i have read many times in the SGGS that it is best to try and be dead whilst still alive...how do u achieve this...?

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Reply: What dies when you die? Beside the body? Your ego dies. Your personality dies. Your desires die. Your hopes and fears of the future die. But there is something in you, His Light, your True Identity, that does not die. So to be dead while alive means that you meditate in order to let go of all the things that are going to die when you die anyway, and by the Guru's grace, find what it is in YOU that will never die at all. If you can live from that place within you where God's Light is - then you will be Jiwan Mukht - liberated while alive. And the Guru promises us that this isn't difficult to achieve. If we meditate upon Gurbani with DEVOTIONAL LOVE (and the devotion and love is really key here) - God can guide us in His way and His time to that experience of being dead to maya and alive to the Cosmis Truth of Creation.

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8. what are the 10 bodies and their purpose ?

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Reply: In the tradition of Kundalini Yoga, we describe the human experience through the terms the ten bodies. The first body is the soul. This is God's Light within you. The soul sends out its command and that command gets filtered through the second, third and fourth bodies - which are the negative, positive and neutral minds repsectively. The negative mind warns you of dangers. The positive mind tells you about opportunities. And the neutral mind allows you to take the input of both and negative and positive minds and make a neutral decision about something. The fifth body is the physical body. The sixth body is the intuitive body - which relates to a higher-level, wholistic approach to receiving information and seeing what is happening in the world. The seventh body is the aura, or the electromagnetic field of the body. The eight body is the pranic body - this relates to how breath and air sustain and heal us. The ninth body is what is known as the subtle body - and it relates to that very subtle, sophisticated ability we have as humans to sense things. Music is different than sounds because of the subtle body. The tenth body is the radiant body, and it relates to what kind of impact you make on another person, how they remember you even if you are not in front of their eyes anymore. Kundalini Yoga gives you a way to understand these different aspects of being human, how to master them and integrate them so that you can live to your total potential as a human being.

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9. Is God still with u as u travel through the ethers? Is His Light still in u when u die?

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Reply. Yes. He's with you. His Light never leaves you. And through meditation you can experience this consciously and clearly.

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i know i have asked a lot of questions, please please please answer them i will be grateful and awaiting for ur response

Many thanks for ur incredible service

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Reply: Apologies that it has taken so long to get back to you on this. Hope you have found some of this helpful.

All love,

GPK