Final Heart Reflections

Mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā: at the time of leaving this world, smaran bhāvaṁ (Bg: 8.6) Means what? You can say it’s what you’re thinking of that time, or it can also mean the remembrance in the heart. [Final Heart Reflections] And there’s two schools of thought about this, one is that literally what you’re thinking of at the time of death … and then there’s the other notion that the cumulative effect of life-long thought and remembrance and culture, and we would be more inclined to accept that. Śrīla Prabhupād, he used to like to quote this verse, I believe it’s from King Kulaśekhara, where he says, “Kṛṣṇa tvadīya-pada-pańkaja-pañjarāntam adyaiva me viśatu mānasa-rāja-haḿsaḥ prāṇa-prayāṇa-samaye kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ kaṇṭhāvarodhana-vidhau smaraṇaḿ kutas te” (Mms: 33). He says, “Mānasa-rāja-haḿsaḥ”, which is an interesting concept; “May the swan of my mind dive into the stem of the lotus of Your holy lotus feet”, something like that. Kṛṣṇa tvadīya-pada-pańkaja. Pańkaja means the lotus, pańkaja. It’s like the … it’s taking its birth from the mud. A lotus has many different names … ambuja, sitting on the water; padma; kamala … there are many different words to indicate lotus, but … So, there— kṛṣṇa tvadīya-pada-pańkaja-pañjarāntam adyaiva me viśatu mānasa-rāja-haḿsaḥ prāṇa-prayāṇa-samaye kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ (Mms: 33) —saying, “It may be very difficult to remember you upon leaving this world.” Because very often that’s a condition where the kapha-pitta-vāyu of the Āyurveda is all out of balance— the lungs are filling with mucus, whatever we’ve seen, observed thus far, it’s very dislocating, imbalancing. So at that time one’s got to have the presence of mind to remember Kṛṣṇa in some profound way. King Kulaśekhara is saying, “Maybe not”, or he’s even suggesting, “Most likely, not.” So, what he’s saying in this śloka, “Now, while I’m relatively healthy, let me … If I can remember Your lotus feet now, that will be good. Because at that time, I think it’s gonna be very difficult.” And there’s also a śloka in the Īśopaniṣad, something along the lines where the devotee is praying, “It’s likely that I may forget you, but you please don’t forget me.”