Samsāra (worldly bondages) does not mean possessing wife, children, house and others. It is this ‘life’ which is the foundation of everything. Getting rid of this is called liberation (mukti). In the worldly life, a samsari (one who is in samsāra) who is fully habituated to the sensory pleasures will not forget the samsāra even if death has approached him. He will not at all think of chanting the divine names at least at this point of time.
Once, a man (samsāri) was travelling in a forest. At some point of time, he heard the sound of cruel animals. He saw a big tiger at some distance. He soon started running. He was hurt on his way but soon gathered stamina and resumed running. Seeing the man, the tiger followed him. He ran much faster and fell into a well which had thorny shrubs. The man was hanging upside down in the well. There was a venomous snake which was hissing at him, watching over him. The man was trembling with fear trying to safeguard his life amidst the thorny shrubs.
On top of the well is the tiger and on the bottom is the snake. Because of the movement of the shrubs, the beehive around it got disturbed and the bees pierced him on his body. Only God knows the difficulty of that man! Surprisingly, the honey started to ooze out from the hive and dripped into his mouth. He gradually started to sip the honey and felt happy for its delectable taste. He got the desire of taking the honey to his wife and children. How foolish he is! This is māya (illusion).
Inspite of struggling with death, he is still dreaming. If he slips down; he will be gulped by the snake. If he goes up, he will become prey for the tiger. Meanwhile, he does not know when he will fall down. On top of that, the honey bees are hurting him. In such a situation, one must involve in singing the names of God. If one does not remember the divine names despite knowing that death is certain, then one has to meet the downfall.
When King Parakshit got to know that he would die in a week’s time; he gave up all the luxuries and spent his time in listening to Bhāgavatam. We know this story very well. Let everyone inculcate such good traits. Despite knowing that death is fast approaching, many people have lot of desires. During the time of death, we must fearlessly chant the mantra given by Guru, follow righteousness or chant the divine names of God. Instead of that, we wish to live for two more days just because the share market would come out of losses and that it would bring more money for us. We wish to live for few extra days to see our daughter getting married. We want the grace period of two days only to buy an apartment. This is how many people think foolishly. They do not want grace period for chanting God’s names. It is just to buy apartments, to get the child’s marriage done or to witness the growth of share market. This is not good.
