The Book of Chakras & Subtle Bodies

When a person approaches death and is on the verge of expiring their last breath, first the functioning of the prāṇas (vital airs) in his or her body become disturbed. Their force is weakened and they begin to subside. As a result, a gradual numbness starts to spread throughout the body to the limbs, muscles and the breathing apparatus – heart, lungs and diaphragm. In the book Karma and Reincarnation, Paramhansa Yogananda says: ‘When the heart begins to grow numb, there is a sense of suffocation, because without heart action the lungs cannot operate. This sense of suffocation is a little painful for about one to three seconds, and causes a great fear of death.’

Subsequently, the cognitive senses are disunited from the corresponding organs of perception. They begin to withdraw inward and become separated from the related sense organs. Then the association of the perception of objective things and cognition of forms of the external world becomes defunct. The principle of consciousness withdraws into the heart and the dying person falls into a state of subconsciousness.

In the next stage of death, there is a dissolution of the four gross elements in the dying person’s body. The elements in the body begin to sink one after the other, in the order of earth, water, fire, and air. These elements correspond with the centres of consciousness (chakras). First, the earth element (the lowest chakra called mūlādhāra) loses its coherence as matter, resulting in a state of coma or loss of body consciousness. Then the water element begins to dry out, causing the mouth and throat to be very dry. This makes swallowing difficult. This is followed by the fire element diminishing, causing the gross body to become cool. And finally, the air element ceases to function. The five vital airs leave the body. Of these five prāṇas, it is udāna vāyu that draws out the subtle body from the gross physical body at the time of death. The dying person becomes disorientated and there may be agonizing pauses between loud, laboured breaths. If there is fluid built up in the lungs, then that congestion will cause a sound known as the ‘death rattle’. As the cells inside a person lose their connections, the person may start convulsing or having muscle spasms.

The hands and feet of the dying person may become blotchy and purplish. This mottling may slowly work its way up the arms and legs. The lips and nail beds become a pale bluish or purple colour. Blood pressure and body temperature are lowered. The pulse becomes irregular and perspiration increases.

The person usually becomes unresponsive and, as the light within him or her begins to diminish, the sense of sight disappears even though the eyes may be open or semi-open. The last sense to leave is the hearing.

As the person is dying, the chakras open and cords of energy flow out. The upper chakras open into great holes into other dimensions; the lower energy field begins to separate from the upper parts. The link between the subtle bodies and the physical body is disconnected and the life force ceases to flow into it. The soul abandons its physical sheath and is carried away into the subtle body. All physical pain and disease are left behind. The suffering is only on the mental level, when the mind realizes it cannot live in that body any longer. The physical consciousness disappears but all the experiences of that lifetime are recorded in the subconscious mind of the soul, as saṁskāras or impressions of past karma.

The human being is consciousness with a body, not a body with consciousness. Like electricity expressed through a light bulb, consciousness or the real self is expressed through the physical body. And just as a light bulb has a limited and temporary life, so does the physical body. The sources of power and manifestation – the electricity that gives life to the light bulb and the consciousness that gives life to the physical body – do not die when the light bulb and the physical body are destroyed. Like electricity surviving innumerable light bulbs, consciousness survives innumerable bodies. Death does not end your self-consciousness, it merely opens the door to a higher form of life. Unlike the physical body, which is finite, the soul-consciousness is infinite, immeasurable, deathless and eternal. In reality no one comes and no one goes. Life is one continuous never-ending process. Birth and death are merely doors of entry and exit on the stage of this world. Just as as you move from one house to another house, every soul has to pass from one body to another to gain experience for its further evolution.

It is the nature of the body to disintegrate sooner or later, and it is the nature of consciousness to survive its body vehicle. The soul does not die, but passes over from one stage of life to another. There is a transition from one state of illusory consciousness to another dimension of greater awareness.

The last breath of the departing soul is expired as the life energy enters the piṅgalā nāḍī (one of the three subtle channels in the subtle spine) and flows deeply inward and back to the medulla oblongata, from where the soul leaves the body at death.

The departing soul journeys with great speed through a long and very peaceful dark tunnel, with a brilliant luminous light at the end. This tunnel experience is the soul ascending through the main power current channel of the subtle body through the inner spine (suṣumnā) and upward through the chakras and departing at the bright light of the medulla oblongata, the negative pole of the ājñā chakra.

There are many reported cases of people having a near-death experience (NDE) – a term which originated in 1975 in Dr Raymond Moody’s book Life After Life. People who have begun the process of dying or who have been pronounced dead during an operation in a hospital may have an NDE. Although such people may have been pronounced as being clinically dead, they return to their physical bodies and are able to report an NDE. Many of those who have had an NDE also report an out-of-body experience (OBE).

These reported cases of NDEs appear to have some common characteristics, including a great feeling of peace and wellbeing, a sense of separation from the physical body, and a sensation of moving through a long dark tunnel to enter light at the end. Phrases like ‘my whole life flashed before me’ and ‘I entered into a bright light’ are also common to those who have had NDEs. The experience of travelling through a tunnel into a bright light is also an experience common in deep meditation, when energy is withdrawn from body consciousness and expanded into cosmic consciousness.

When the heartbeat and breath stop, the person is clinically dead. There is no circulation, and no new reserves of oxygen are reaching the cells. The brain requires a tremendous amount of oxygen but keeps very little in reserve, so any cutoff of oxygen to the brain will result in cell death within three to seven minutes; that is why a stroke can kill so quickly. However, clinical death also denotes that this is a point where the process is reversible, by means of CPR, a transfusion or a ventilator. The point of no return is biological death, which begins about four to six minutes after clinical death. After the heartbeat stops, it only takes that long for brain cells to begin dying from lack of oxygen.

Out-of-body experience – the person feels that they have left their body and, floating above it, can see their own body and the medical team working on it.

Entering a dark tunnel – the sensation of travelling at great speed through a long dark tunnel to a pure bright light at the end of it.

Entering the light – At the end of the tunnel the person enters an intense pure bright light. A sense of floating rather than walking into the light has been recorded by many of those people having NDEs.

Entering into another dimension – The person experiences a heavenly realm in the light, where there is peace and joy. Death to that person is no longer a skeleton bearing a sword to cut the thread of life, but rather an angel who has a golden key to unlock the door to a wider, fuller and happier existence.

Encounter with spirit beings – In this light they encounter subtle beings of light who act as their compassionate spirit guides. They experience a profound and comforting sense of peace and joy, and usually a reluctance to return. Some people see the spirit guides, while others are only aware of beings of light by their sides. Some subjects report being told to choose between going into the light or returning to their earthly body. Others feel they have been compelled to return to their body by a voiceless command, possibly coming from God.

Life review – In the tunnel or in the realm of light the person sees his or her entire life in a flashback, like a movie film played backwards. This can be very detailed or brief. At this time a spirit being may tell the person that it is not their time yet and command them to return to their earthly or physical body. Others may have the choice either to enter the light or return to their earthly body.

What this NDE means is that the return to the physical body is always because the soul mission has not yet been accomplished. This results in the returning soul having a personality and life transformation brought about by the event.

There are certain ancient texts from India that describe the premonitory signs and symptoms of coming death. One of the most ancient medical texts in the world, the Charāka-Samhita, describes various indications of impending death in its Indriyā volume. These are observed in the patient or in natural phenomena by employing the three means of knowledge – perception, inference and authority – wherever appropriate. The signs, symptoms and indications are listed below:

1. Discolouration in nails, eyes, face, urine, faeces, hands, feet or lips, with diminished strength and sense functions.

2. Sudden change to abnormal colour in a patient going downhill.

3. Sudden change of voice to a feeble, subdued and indistinct variety.

4. Appearance of desirable or undesirable odours suddenly and without apparent cause.

5. Sudden appearance of loathsome or sweet smells in a deteriorating patient, which repel or attract insects.

6. Loss of a pulse in body parts which had one earlier, coldness of parts which were warm, hardness of what was soft, instability of joints, and wasting particularly of muscle and blood.

7. Very deep or very shallow respiration, absence of a pulse in the neck, teeth displaced and white concretions, matted eyelashes, sunken, unequal, glassy and permanently open or closed eyes, aberrant vision with the perception of intense and varied colours, discolouration of the abdominal wall, severe pallor or bluish hue of nails, absence of cracking sound when fingers are bent.

8. Mask-like face, fatigue, anxiety, confusion, restlessness, profound weakness, loss of appetite, urticaria, irritability, severe thirst and fainting in patients with insanity.

9. Jaws, neck, eyes become stiff and the back becomes arched and rigid.

However, the Ayurvedic sage Charaka says that it must be kept in mind that death may not always follow the appearance of premonitory signs just like a fruit may not always succeed the flower; but death seldom occurs without warning signs.

Another ancient text, Śivasvarodāya (a scripture in the form of a dialogue between Śiva and Śākti which begins by discussing the nature of the universe and the essential knowledge on living a happy, healthy and inspired life), one of the major tantric texts on the science of breath rhythms called svāra (pronounced as ‘swara’), describes the premonitory signs that indicate impending death within one year to the immediate future.

Svāra Yoga is the ancient science of prāṇic body rhythms which explains how the movement of prāṇa can be controlled by manipulation of the breath. The Svāra Yoga practices related to the breath were used to understand the governing forces of life, the nature of the universe, and effects of the elements on the body and mind by observing the different patterns of breath.

Do not confuse Svāra Yoga with prāṇāyāma (breath control). Although they both deal with prāṇa, there is a difference in purpose. Svāra Yoga is a precise science. It has an emphasis on the analysis of the breath and the significance of prāṇic rhythms: the flow of prāṇā, a very subtle and vital aspect of the breath. Prāṇāyāma is more concerned with techniques to redirect, store and control prāṇā.

The state of our health, body and mind is reflected in the alternation of the svāra cycles. These alternating cycles correspond to the alternating breath in the left and right nostrils, which in turn affect the nāḍīs (subtle pathways). The specific functions of the cerebral cortex of the brain (the twin hemispheres) correlate with the activities of iḍā and piṅgalā nāḍīs, which connect respectively with the left and right nostrils. When the left nostril is operating, the mental energy or citta predominates and prāṇic energy is weak. When the right nostril is operating, the prāṇic forces are stronger and the mental aspect is at a low ebb. When both nostrils are operating simultaneously, spiritual energy flows freely and the ātma is in control. For instance, before the onset of a disease in a person, the flow of svāra becomes disturbed. If one is aware of this then the imbalance can be rectified and the illness averted.

The nostrils are alternately active, each one dominating in turn for an hour or an hour and twenty minutes. This rhythm regulates all our psychological and physiological processes. An irregular svāra indicates that something is not functioning correctly in the body.

The Śivasvarodāya describes the premonitory signs that indicate impending death in verses 321–69. A few of the verses are shown below:

When the flow of one svāra is continuous night and day, death will come in three years. (331)

When piṅgalā flows constantly with full force day and night, then it is said two years are left to live. (332)

When the same nāḍī flows continuously up to three nights, one year is left to live. (333)

When the lunar svāra flows continuously at night and the solar svāra in the day, death will come in six months. (334)

In most cases of the preparatory stage close to death, the dying person is visited by loved ones on the subtle planes. They are compassionate spiritual helpers or guides in their subtle forms, who come to explain to the dying what will happen when they make the transition from the earthly realm to the subtle plane. This explains why those people dying from terminal diseases are often heard ‘talking to themselves’ or seem to be seeing others who are not physically there.

Physical death is attended by the disappearance of breath and the disintegration of fleshly cells. Astral death consists of the dispersements of lifetrons, those manifest units of energy which constitute the life of astral beings. At physical death a being loses his consciousness of flesh and becomes aware of his subtle body in the astral world. Experiencing astral death in due time, a being thus passes from the consciousness of astral birth and death to that of physical birth and death. These recurrent cycles of astral and physical encasements are the ineluctable destiny of all unenlightened beings.

After death, and preceding rebirth into a new life, there is usually an interlude period in which the departed soul remains resting in a healing state within the subtle and causal bodies. The duration of this depends on the latent impressions (saṁskāras), actions (karma) and desires of the soul in the life it has just departed from. This interlude state is like a prolonged state of dreaming, experiencing mixed feelings of pleasure and pain. All the merits and demerits that one has committed in one’s life must be faced and accepted. It is a time of introspection for the person to affirm positive intentions to correct the errors of their past deeds. The incarnating soul meets with its spirit guides and its tasks are considered to determine its next life circumstances – the tasks that it needs to accomplish to grow spiritually; the karma it needs to meet and deal with; and the negative belief systems it needs to clear. Parents are chosen who will provide the needed environment and physical experience for rebirth in the soul’s next life.

It is not a Day of Judgement as in the concept of God sitting on a throne in the clouds, sternly looking down upon us, a God who keeps an account of every sin and every good deed we have committed, so that an individual may be punished with damnation in hell or rewarded in heaven. This concept is steeped in ignorance. In fact there is a verse in the Bhagavad Gītā that firmly denies this concept of a judgemental God.

The All-pervading [God] is not concerned about people’s sins or virtues. Wisdom (though it is the natural state of every individual) is eclipsed by cosmic delusion. Mankind thus becomes bewildered [as to the difference between right and wrong].

Swami Kriyānanda (a direct disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda) explains the above verse in the commentary from his book The Essence of the Bhagavad Gītā:

Yogananda often said, ‘God is not worried about your mistakes. All he wants from you is your love, and that you love Him evermore deeply.’

. . . God (it should go without saying) is not touched by human wrongs. What is sin? It is nothing but error! Because it springs from delusion, it does not really exist. The thought that God could be ‘angry’ with anyone is itself an error – indeed an absurd one! How could the ocean depths be affected by even the most violent storm at the surface?

The caterpillar dies to become a chrysalis. In the slumber of the chrysalis, the energies incubate and rearrange themselves, and a butterfly is born. Is the caterpillar the same being as the chrysalis or the butterfly? It is the same intelligence that has become something else. And in that something else, every cell is different, every expression of the energy in its body is different. Nothing has really died; it has only transformed.

Death is nothing but a change of body. The soul throws the body off like a used garment. Human life is purged and perfected in order to attain the final bliss. This takes place through myriads of births. All change is only change of embodiment and environment. The soul is without form and is changeless and immortal.

Just as we move from one house to another, the soul takes one form after another on account of its own actions or karma. As the soul passes from one body to another it is enveloped by the subtle parts of the elements which are the seeds of the new body.

A soul, being invisible by nature, can be distinguished only by the presence of its body or bodies. The mere presence of a body signifies that its existence is made possible by unfulfilled desires. So long as the soul of man is encased in one, two, or three body-containers, sealed tightly with the corks of ignorance and desires, he cannot merge with the sea of Spirit. When the gross physical receptacle is destroyed by the hammer of death, the other two coverings – astral and causal – still remain to prevent the soul from consciously joining the Omnipresent Life. When desirelessness is attained through wisdom, its power disintegrates the two remaining vessels. The tiny human soul emerges, free at last; it is one with the Measureless Amplitude.

When a transmigrating soul is ready for reincarnation on the human plane the saṁskāras of its karma guide it to the parents from whom it can secure the genetic and environmental materials for its physical body. Led by its karma, the transmigrating soul moves into the body of the male parent suitable for its purpose, and enters into the requisite sperm, which turns into a potent seed for its development as an individual. The seed being united with the requisite ovum in the female parent turns into the zygote (fertilized egg) and becomes ready for germination. Behind this fusion of the sperm and ovum to create a new physical body is the universal law of cause and effect (karma).

Whatever the world to which an individual soul is granted admission to be reborn, the individual soul immediately rushes there to enter the womb that has been reserved for it. As the parents’ sperm and ovum meet, there is a flash of light on the astral plane. The soul seeking to be reborn, clothed in the subtle and causal bodies, accompanied with its unpaid balance of past karma and unfulfilled desires, enters the womb to begin yet another life in a new body. As the soul begins its new life with a new identity, it forgets everything that was acquired in its previous life. All memory of the past life and the identity of that self is lost. The only thing that is not lost is the old legacy of karmic deeds and desires carried over from the previous life in the form of saṁskāras.

Saṁskāras are the dormant impressions or imprints of our past lives. The desires (vāsanās) are stored in the mind as saṁskāras until they mature into action (karma). The saṁskāras are linked to the soul with the subconscious mind. Our past saṁskāras motivate our present actions by producing thoughts, desires, tendencies and images, creating an inclination toward the external choices we make.

Karma comes from the root kri, meaning ‘to do’, ‘to make’, ‘to act’. Not only is karma the cause and seed for the continuation of the life process after death (in rebirth), but even in this present life, our actions or karma produce results, having a decisive influence on our present character and destiny.

sañcita karma – those actions that have accumulated in several previous lifetimes.

prārabdha karma – results of past actions which are producing fruit in the present. This is also called ripe karma, because it is a debt which is overdue and it is time that it should be paid in the form of sorrow and suffering, gain and loss, whether we like it or not.

āgāmi karma – the actions which are being done in this present life that will bear fruit in a future life. It is this karma which preserves our free will, with certain limitations, and ensures our future success.

The sañcita and āgāmi karma are destroyed by attaining Self-realization/God-realization, but prārabdha karma can only be exhausted by experiencing its fruits in the present life.

We are all born with saṁskāras. The mind is not like a blank sheet of paper. It contains the impressions of thoughts and actions of our previous births. A human being’s birth and environment is determined according to the nature of his or her desires. Prārabdha karma places a person in such suitable environments as are favourable for the gratification of his or her desires. A woman may be born in Africa as a poor village girl. If she longs to become a multi-millionaire, she may get her next birth in the USA. This is karma – the eternal law of cause and effect. This law of karma governs on the plane of human life and consciousness with the same exactness as do the laws of cause and effect in physics. Karma is not a fatalistic idea, it is the expression of the rule of perfect justice within us. There is nothing arbitrary about karma; nothing happens by accident or chance. No supernatural power determines the events of a person’s life. There is no scope for chance in human existence. It is not blind nature that motivates human actions. Karma is ever associated with self-determination. No volitional action is possible without self-awareness. Whatever happens is both the result of previous choices and actions and is necessary for completing the experience of the individual. Every thought and action reaps its own corresponding rewards.

The doctrine of predestination is a dogmatic version of fatalism. According to this all that happens to human beings is predetermined by God; some are fore-ordained to everlasting happiness and others to everlasting misery. It makes God responsible for the human individual’s vices and sufferings. How can God be conceived as all-just and all-merciful in such a case?

Souls are ‘made’ in the image of God. Even the greatest of all sinners cannot be damned forever. A finite cause cannot have an infinite effect. Due to the misuse of his free will, a person might imagine himself to be evil, but within he is a son of God. A king’s son might, under the influence of alcohol or a bad dream, think himself poor, but as soon as he recovers from his state of intoxication, or as soon as he awakens, he forgets that delusion. The perfect soul, ever sinless, eventually wakes up in God when it remembers its real, eternally good, nature.

A benign father could never eternally burn a soul made in his own image for its temporary mistakes on earth. The idea of eternal punishment is illogical. A soul is forever made in the image of God. Even a million years of sin could not change its essential, divine character. Man’s unforgiving wrath against the evil actions of his brethren has created this misconception of eternal hell-fire.

Every circumstance in our lives, every characteristic, every habit, however much we now repudiate it, was something we ourselves created, whether recently or in the distant past. Each one is due to our misuse of the free choice God first bestowed on us . . .

Blame no one for the evils that beset you. Accept responsibility for your own life, and for whatever misfortunes you encounter. Do your best, with firm resolution, to eliminate the harmful tendencies in your nature.

Every individual is constantly accumulating within himself the subtle impressions of the diverse karma he performs. These are the factors that build his inner nature and character, and also serve as retributive forces leading to a favourable or unfavourable situation in this life or in the next.

Freedom of action is a special privilege of human life, but there is a penalty of the privilege – moral responsibility. We are accountable for our own actions; in every moment of our life we have free will or the freedom to choose our course of action. Whatever thoughts and actions we set into motion, we have to be prepared to take the full consequences of them. ‘We reap what we sow’ is the karmic law of cause and effect. The example of a bowman is sometimes used as an analogy to show how the law of karma affects an individual. The archer has no control over the arrows which he has already released from his bow. They represent his past karma, prārabdha karma. The arrow that is now loaded in his bow and is ready to shoot can be aimed where he chooses to do so. This is āgāmi karma, action which will bear fruit in a future life. The archer can also choose to discard the whole quiver of arrows. This is sañcita karma, actions that have accumulated in several previous lifetimes.

A farmer reaps rich harvests only when he labours in his field for a long time. Unless he cares to plough the ground, sow the seed, and nourish it with water and manure, he will not be in a position to enjoy the fruit of his toil. What he sows today he will reap tomorrow. This is an immutable law. To think that an individual’s capacity for fresh effort is paralysed by their past actions is as futile as to think that because one sowed yesterday, one cannot sow fresh seeds today.

Free will is never stifled and prevented by any past action. The only limitation is that a person cannot achieve what he or she wants all at once, and without delay. The karmic law pays every person according to his or her need and in due time. The law of karma runs its own course. The results of past thoughts, feelings and actions appear to us as effects we set in motion by our own free choice. Similarly, we have free will to choose a line of action which is certain to bring its fruit in due time. Although we have free will, we are conditioned to think and act in certain ways, and as a consequence we suffer or are happy because of this conditioning of our mind.

The collective karma of a race or nation is as much a fact in the law of nature as an individual one. The same principles underlying the karmic laws apply, without much difference, to national and collective karma. History, as recorded, shows nations rising and falling, states whose kings, queens, emperors and dictators flourish and are then brought down. The immutable law of karma operates everywhere on the physical and mental planes. No event can occur without having a positive, definite cause behind it. Earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, outbreaks of war and conflict, famine, diseases of the body, jet airliner crashes – all these have definite causes. There is no such thing as chance or accident.

Freedom is our birthright. Freedom is Sat-chit-ānanda (ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new bliss). Freedom is immortality and peace.

Consciously or unconsciously we are all attempting to attain this freedom from our own ignorance. Each and every person is the creator of their own happiness or suffering.

We cannot possibly live without creating thoughts and doing actions. When we perform actions, whether good or bad, we reap the fruit of those actions. The reaping of the fruits causes one to go on doing further actions and reaping the fruits again. The cause and effect cycle continues. We are caught in the bondage of karma.

One cannot gain freedom from activity by abstaining from action. Nor can one achieve perfection by merely ceasing to act.

How do we find freedom from karma, from the bonds of cause and effect? Freedom is not attained by inaction or action, but by surrendering the fruits of one’s actions. This means to perform actions skilfully and selflessly so that karma no longer remains a bondage. Unskilful and selfish actions lead to suffering and bondage. Freedom from activity does not mean inactivity but the absence of any sense of personal doership. Non-action is action without the ego-sense of ‘I’, whereas both deliberate action and deliberate inaction include the sense of personal doership.

Actions performed for selfish gain are karmically binding. Therefore, O son of Kunti (that is to say, of dispassion), perform your duty without attachment in a spirit of religious self-offering.

Our actions are determined and governed by our thoughts, by the thinking process, either at the conscious or the unconscious level. The subtle impressions carried from past lives in the subconscious mind motivate our desires. These desires in turn produce thoughts that lead to actions, which determine our happiness or sorrow.

To attain true knowledge and inner freedom, first we need to know and understand the true nature of the mind in order to become aware of our ignorance. We also need to practise introspection so that we can change our ingrained mental patterns and the habits that keep us in karmic bondage, thus transforming our conditioned character and personality to its true nature. If the faculties of the mind are not integrated it will not be able to perform skilful actions, because the ego and the field of consciousness with its saṁskāras and desires will remain obstacles in the path of freedom.

The mind can be understood by understanding vṛttis (waves of feeling and thought that create the disturbances of the mind). By controlling the vṛttis we can gain control over the saṁskāras, the subtle impressions stored in the citta, where all unconscious memories and emotions are stored. Thus by controlling the vṛttis we can gain control over our karma.

The word vṛtti means ‘to revolve’, or ‘whirlpool’, connoting the waves of feeling and circling thoughts that create the disturbances or fluctuations of the mind. These waves of feeling create our likes and dislikes, which in turn create karma.

Without the vṛttis the mind has no existence. The vṛttis are created when the reflection of the Self in buddhi (intellect) is mixed together with the reflection of an object in the buddhi. Vṛttis create saṁskāras from our experience in the outer world, and saṁskāras create vṛttis in our mental world within – together they create the cycle of karma.

According to Patañjali in his Yoga Sūtras, yoga is the ‘Neutralizing of the waves of feeling in the mind.’ Patañjali states that when the waves of feeling are neutralized, ‘Then the seer [Self] is established in its own essential nature.’ He then goes on to say that, ‘At other times [when the waves of feeling are not neutralized and brought to stillness] one identifies with the feelings and thought waves [vṛttis] in the mind.’

Contemplate the monotonous recurrence of death and rebirth. While still in this body, work to destroy the seeds of your past karmas. Remember, roasted seeds will not germinate. People who in deep meditation roast their karmic seeds in the fires of wisdom will never again need to reincarnate on earth.