CONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE OF DEATH AT MANIKARNIKA

Autobiography Of The Avatar from KAILASA

7 min readJul 27, 2019

His Divine Holiness had the most mystical and profound conscious experience of going beyond the identity of His body and ultimately, beyond death itself at the age of around 21 at the Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi, the spiritual capital of India in North India. His Divine Holiness gives this very same experience to His disciples in the form of the most powerful initiation and meditation called “Death meditation process”, in the Nithyananda Spurana Program and the 21-day Inner Awakening Program. This is an important happening in the revival of “Kailaasa”, the ancient enlightened civilization established originally by Paramasiva — Primordial Hindu Divinity. Millions have since been initiated by His Divine Holiness into this mystical process of simply moving beyond the body and the inherent fear of death that exists in their biomemory and start entering zones of higher conscious living, radiating their infinite possibilities fearlessly.

Following is a firsthand narration of His Divine Holiness of the Conscious Death Experience at Manikarnika:

“I always used to think that I should have the experience of death and face death directly, face to face. But some how that thought never became a priority. Somehow it was getting postponed till I went to Varanasi. Varanasi is the holy city for Hindus. It has a huge floating population of pilgrims. Nearly 300,000 people per day enter and go out and every day 300 dead bodies are burnt in one place. This burning place is called Manikarnika Ghat. It is traditionally believed that if somebody dies or somebody’s body is burnt in that area their spirit will be liberated and they will have direct enlightenment.

I DECIDE TO WATCH THE ‘UNBROKEN FIRE’

I had the fortune of going to the Manikarnika Ghat. Traditionally it is not only believed, but it is true that, for last 2000 years the fire in that ghat has never been put off. Whether it rains or shines or floods or what ever it is, the fire to light the funeral pyres burns constantly. People will not bring fire when they come to the Manikarnika Ghat with the dead body. From the fire that is continuously burning in one point in that Ghat, the fire will be taken to light the funeral pyre. It’s an unbroken fire.

From all around the place from wherever whoever dies, they will start walking, carrying the dead body from their place. They will be chanting the mantra, ‘Ram naam satya hai, Ram naam satya hai’, which means that ‘the only truth is God’s name’. By evening they will reach the Manikarnika Ghat.

If you see one body being burnt rarely once in a while, you will have that fear, but there what you see is unimaginable. No ritual or anything, they will bring the body, straightaway they will dip the body in Ganga three times chanting, ‘Ram naam satya hai, Ram naam satya hai, Ram naam satya hai’. They will bring the body out from the water, by which time fire will be ready and the wood will be arranged for the pyre.

Actually they will be continuously arranging the wood even if the bodies are not coming; I asked them, “Why you are arranging continuously?” They told me, “You don’t know Swamiji, in half an hour 200 bodies will come!” Their accounts are correct, they know for sure! The bodies come, they arrange, and they give tokens based on the entry. One funny thing, no relatives stay there and do any ritual. They dip the body in Ganga and then throw the body on the wooden pyre and go away, that’s all. The people who maintain the Ghat take care of the rest. They don’t know how long it will take for the body that was brought to be put in the fire. It’s like a queue system, continuously going on!

All I did was to decide, ‘Let me sit here and see what goes on’, and I sat. In just an hour, death was no more a strange incident that happens once in a while for some relative or friend. It became like, ‘Ok, next, that’s all. Next, that’s all’. All sizes, all genders, all ages, all kinds, all colors, all communities, and all religions also come here.

I lose my respect for death itself!

When continuously you see the dead bodies being burnt, you actually lose respect for death. Now you have too much of respect, too many fearful ideas about death. It is nothing but that the breath that went inside did not come out, that’s all. Nothing much can be done about it. You cannot rewind it or fast-forward it. When you know for sure that everything is going to leave you, then the respect for ego just drastically drops. I am too sharply intellectual and honest, so straight away the respect for ego dropped.

I DECIDE TO EXPERIENCE DEATH CONSCIOUSLY

Then I decided, “After all I am going to die. Let me have the death experience now itself and live without the death fear. Either that or let me die. That’s all. But I have to experience death.”

There is a small Shiva temple around the corner and a small tower above the temple, I went and sat in that tower so that nobody will disturb Me. From there I started seeing the dead bodies being burnt. I still remember the strong click that happened in Me when one elderly lady’s body was being burnt. She had a big belly, the cloth was burning and the fat that was in the belly started burning and melting and flowing. I apologize for describing too vividly. I could see clearly, because of the fat flowing the fire was burning intensely. That gave a very strong click into Me and said, “God! Yes, it is the same way that it’s going to burn when I die and the same thing is going to happen to this body also. Let it happen.”

That click, that realization opened up a deep fear of death in Me. When that fear spread all over My body, I faced it consciously. I could experience very clearly the fear spreading all over the body and when the fear met My awareness, when it hit My awareness that became ‘death experience’.

Fear with awareness is ‘death experience’. Fear with unconsciousness is ‘fear stroke’

Whenever your fear is suppressed, it stays inside you as a suppressed fear. Whenever it comes out and you are not consciously facing it, it becomes a fear stroke. The fear stroke shakes your whole nervous system and breaks it down. If it is faced consciously it becomes death experience.

I was able to see very clearly that when I faced the fear that rose in Me consciously with awareness, it became death experience. The body is dead, it’s not moving. For two and a half days I stayed up in that temple upstairs without food, or water, or thoughts or questions. No doubt, My body was still there. Only after the experience I realized that two and a half days had passed. I could see with closed eyes that My body was dead and there was no movement.

I REALISE I AM BEYOND THE BODY.

I experience Lord Vishwanath as living energy!

Suddenly after two and a half days the click happened, “God! Body is dead but I still exist. I am still here.” That clarity, when it clicked became such an intense ecstasy. The fear of death left Me once for all. It becomes such a deep ecstasy, such a joy, such bliss, and I slowly opened My eyes and I was able to move the body. The first thing I felt was such a deep ecstasy and gratitude. I went down to the Ganga, sprinkled little Ganga water on Me, and filled some Ganga water in the water pot and, and collected a little ash from the pyre. I went to the Viswanath temple, put that ash on the Śivaliṅga and did the pūjā with deep gratitude. I saw that Lord Viswanath was alive!

Understand, because I died, Viswanath became alive! Till the day before, because I was alive, Viswanath was still a dead stone. I always felt, to touch this stone 300,000 people are coming everyday from all the way, what foolishness? It is a strange thing, but when you touch the deity by yourself you start losing respect. In South India you can’t touch but in North India you can touch the idols yourself. I always felt it was a stone, because I was alive. But when I died, I saw clearly that he is alive. I can say this is one of the strongest experiences that transformed Me leading Me towards My enlightenment.”

The pictures below show Manikarnika. The picture of His Divine Holiness was taken on 7 Jan 2006 when He led a group of followers to Varanasi and surrounding shrines. Here, He sitting inside the very same tower where the conscious death experience happened almost 7 years earlier. In taking the spiritual aspirants to such high energy centers, His Divine Holiness continuously keeps alive the seeking and inspiration alive in them for enlightenment.