Talk:The Process of Dying - The Prāṇas Merge with the Jīvātmā

By Vishal Agarwal

The Prāṇa is merged with the ruler (Jīvātmā) on account of statements expressing the approach to that. Brahmasūtra 4.2.4 All the Prāṇa-s approach the departing man at the time of death. Brihadāraṇyaka Upanishad 4.3.38

In the state of deep sleep, a person’s mind is non-functional but his vital functions like heartbeat, breathing, etc., continue. Likewise, in the case of the dying person, these functions continue for some time even after the conscious mind ceases its function, and eventually, these functions coalesce around the Jīvātmā because of which the person stops breathing, his digestive organs stop their functions, the heart stops beating and so on. In a nutshell, in all these stages, as the person is dying, the person’s senses, mind, and vital functions have withdrawn themselves from the extremities of the body and have coalesced around the Jīvātmā. As explained below,

“The simple way to know of birth and death is through the presence or the total absence of prana, the vital air. Many yogis can retain their breath for several days or months, through the technique of kumbhaka and pranayama, but as long as bodily warmth, heartbeat, and consciousness are present, the retained breath can be brought back. In normal cases, though the body dies mainly due to the absence of prana. Many might be dumb, deaf, blind, or lame, yet he could live if the life principle, prana, subsists. This life principle is therefore the subtlest vehicle of the soul; if one departs, the other just follows. Whether a man is unconscious, swooning, sleeping, or in yogic samadhi by retaining the breath or even stopping the heartbeat at will, or has entered into another’s body temporarily through yogic methods, as long as the most subtle pranic vibrations are present in all cases life returns to that body.”

As an illustration of this explanation, one can cite the following example from the first half of the 19th century that was witnessed by a Britisher named Sir Claude Wade. A Yogī named Hari Dās had been sealed airtight within a box, covered by a cloth sack, and then placed in an air-tight, sealed, and guarded building next to Maharaja Ranjeet Singh’s palace in Lahore for a considerable period (6 weeks) per his instructions, to demonstrate the powers of Yog. When the chamber was opened, and the body in the lotus position was exposed to Maharaja and Sir Claude Wade with the help of a servant of the Yogī, it appeared shriveled and lifeless. The nostrils of the Hari Dās had been sealed with wax and cotton and his mouth was firmly shut, with the tongue rolled back. It was completely cold and rigid, except for a region on the skull that exhibited some warmth. There was no heartbeat, no breathing, no dilation of pupils, and no other sign of life. The servant of the Yogī poured warm water on his master, applied warm wheat dough on the head, and followed other steps of a procedure till the Yogī’s body suddenly shook and started breathing, the heartbeat resumed, and the pupils became normal like that of a living person. Within a couple of hours, the Yogī was able to get up and walk with the Maharaja and the Britisher, demonstrating that he had exhibited the power of Yog and had been in a state of Samādhi all along.

The departure of the Prāṇas upon death has a caveat: The five major Prāṇas leave the dying body but a portion of one of the minor Prāṇas (‘Dhananjaya’) stays back and causes the body to decompose. In fact, the Dharmputrikā Saṃhitā, and ancient Yog scripture that is based on the Hairaṇyagarbha Yogshāstra of Sanaka, the primeval treatise on Yog, describes the role of the different minor Prāṇa-s in in the process of dying in the following words- When a foreshadowing of death is perceived, the abandonment of one’s body is undertaken. First, the five prāṇa-s called nāga, kṛkara, kūrma, Devadatta, and dhanaṃjaya are altered: a strong breath is a sign of the alternation, or more particularly degradation, of nāga; following the piercing of the vital points (marma points), the leaving of prāṇa-s from all joints one by one indicates the alteration of kūrma; a role in the throat while the body is immobile indicates the alteration of Devadatta; finally, when dhanaṃjaya is altered, the Jīva attains the other world after it has abandoned the body.