Talk:The Process of Dying - The Sense Organ Functions merge in the Mind
By Vishal Agarwal
The Sense of Speech merges (i.e., the power of speech withdraws from the tongue and other organs and responses) with the mind and the dying person is no longer able to speak physically. He weakens physically and becomes listless.
Speech combines with the mind because it is so seen and also there are scriptural statements to that effect. Brahmasūtra 4.2.1
When a person departs from here, his speech reaches the mind….Chhāndogya Upanishad 6.8.6
And for the same reason, all other sense organs follow speech. Brahmasūtra 4.2.2
Therefore, with the bodily heat extinguished, he goes for rebirth, with his senses resting in the mind. Prashna Upanishad 3.9
Each sense of knowledge and action, one after the other, loses its physical function and is now confined to the mental realm[1]. Typically, the sense of hearing is last to cease functioning. Therefore, when a person is breathing his last, his friends and relatives gather around him to talk to him, sing devotional hymns, and chant mantras.[2] In a similar way, the other four subtle organs of action (speech, grasping, locomotion, reproduction, and excretion) also merge with the mind and cease function.
It should be noted that the subtle sense faculties are separate from the physical organs (tongue, ears, skin, eyes, nose) and it is the former that withdraws from the latter and then coalesces around the mind.
References[edit]
- ↑ The five senses of knowledge are: sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing. The five senses of action are: locomotion, speech, excretion, grasping, and procreation).
- ↑ In fact, individuals in a prolonged state of coma often report having heard what was being said around them when they regain their consciousness.