At least among the humans, I think there are 3 major types of deaths that can manifest for an individual.
Please refer to my blog on Panchakoshanas if you are not familiar with them already - https://www.mayoan.com/post/26-the-panchakoshanas-or-5-sheaths .
I also request the reader to be familiar with the workings of the law of karma at my other blog –
They are:
1. Internally Induced Death:
Post the previous death (of any type), the karmic engine recalculates the karma for the soul and decides upon a particular skin and stage. Please remember that at this point of entry to the womb, the Karmic engine may have done the below:
· Decide a suitable skin/stage for the next birth of the soul and allocate the karmic load to be expended by the soul for that skin/stage. It is prudent to expect that the Karmic engine would make the soul expend its most significant loads to be emptied first. This Karmic load that is attached to this skin/stage, that is expected to be expended in this birth-death cycle, is called Prarabdha Karma.
· The remining karmic load (+ ve or - ve) if any, will be set in the Karmic account of the soul that is expected to be expended later. This Karma is called Sanchita Karma.
It is possible that because of the choices made by the soul or by divine intervention in the current skin/stage, some of the Sanchita Karma can also be released in the current birth-death cycle.
It is possible that because of the choices made by the soul in the current skin/stage, some of the new Karmas may also be added to the Karmic account of the soul. This new Karma in the new skin/stage is called Sanchiyamana Karma.
It is possible that, even some of the Sanchiyamana Karma may get released in the current skin/stage phase, due to the soul’s actions or divine intervention.
Together, the Sanchita and Sanchiyamana Karmas are called Anarabdha Karma.
Whatever is the karmic load for that birth-death cycle, at the end of the expending, the below happens:
· The time, by now, may have stared the desolation of the gross physical body (old age) and the ghost body (if the being is ignorant) of the soul.
· As the final karmic load (as set at the birth or as modified during the birth-death cycle) of the soul is expended, the karmic engine stops feeding the dark energy from MAHAT into the consciousness.
· Panchapranas are withdrawn too.
· Physical death happens to the current being however good the health of the gross body is.
In my opinion, this is the best form of death for a health-conscious human, because there is definitely dignity in death as the person is possibly healthily living independently till the last moment. So, it is important that, we keep our good health in our mind always, and change our food habits and lifestyle suitably as we age.
Good actions and certain faith based and meditative spiritual practices can definitely help in reducing the store of negative karma and suffering. And certain sacraments like chanting, fasting, personal sacrifices (like giving up meat eating) can also help in healing the soul.
I also firmly believe that, if the divine energy foresees benefit to the mankind/other species, it may intervene and extend the life of a good soul. After all, the collective goal of all the souls is to realise the blissful state of the divine energy and to get to the awakening moment at which it's consciousness cries out of joy that- 'I am God'!
2. Externally Induced Death:
This kind of death may happen due to capital punishments, sabotage operations, accidents or sudden adverse health conditions. Several reasons can be behind this event, and we cannot possibly know the exact reasons as the inner workings of the Karmic engine remains ADHRST (unseen) to us.
But I think some of the reasons for this sudden death event may be the below ones:
· Unacceptable accumulation of negative group Karma in a certain place/time in a given context.
· The souls karmic account being adjusted (as mentioned in the 1st point) due to its current actions or
divine intervention.
· Capital punishments meted out to certain souls due to the workings of the criminal justice systems.
( I do not believe that Karmic load is planned with an execution by criminal justice system in mind , as
the related criminal actions by the perpetrator violate one or more value systems that the karmic
engine may regard in its workings and hence cannot be a pre-planned set of actions)
· Abuse of the current gross physical body by overindulgence and poor lifestyle.
· I think that, rarely, sometimes, certain deaths happen due to cyclical nature of applying karma with
retribution. Some times, due to the nature of karma, some souls are made to meet this type of death
too.
The sudden deaths happening in this type of dying, results in the condition where the gross body is dead but the full karmic load (possibly set at birth and corrected during the birth-death cycle) is not fully expended. Hence the ghost/astral body may live a little longer before the desolation is complete.
I believe that the existence as a astral-only ghost body is a state of suffering since,
it is just a transient state not capable of performing any useful karma and
it is not possible to experience even the basic functions like thinking, eating, sleeping and having sex.
3. Suicidal Death:
This is the worst kind of death a soul can suffer. As neither the full karmic load is expended, nor it relives the soul from the current suffering. Besides, I believe that, if any soul commits suicide, it may possibly live longer in its astral body which is again a state of suffering.
I also believe that the quality of living and death is decided by the soul’s thoughts/actions in the current life. So, one should be good at heart and be in pursuit of excellence and in the modern economic setting, should be mindful about where his source of money is coming from. Also, the karmic engine is believed to reverse the role of souls sometimes to expend karmas. We should, therefore live decently as much as possible and not harm any living beings by thought or deed. We should also be mindful about our group affiliations and the group karma that is incurred.
Hence, we should have a fresh look at our meat consumption habits too and I, for one, strongly recommend, stopping of mechanical mass culling (automated means of killing) of animals/birds meant to feed the meat industry. We, as humans, should not have rampant consumerism habits in meat consumption and indulge in mindless/excessive (say, by using monstrous fishing trawlers) killing and wastage.
Another important take away, is that I believe that the great divine energy always plans for the 1st type of death, for all souls when they start a new life. (for argument sake I am ignoring the effects of manifested evil designed by the antagonist to keep the idea simple and clear) Being a benevolent blissful energy, how can we expect the other 2 types of deaths (2 & 3) to be part of the plan to release the soul in a new womb? Then comes the logical question on the violence that we see in this world. I believe that the other 2 types of deaths (2 & 3) are due to either group karma or self-inflicted or both.
If the reason is group karma, the following holds true:
The value systems adopted by the group is not good. (implementation faults) and/or
The justice system adopted by the group is either weak or ineffective or both (enforcement faults)
The group, to which the individual belongs is not fair in treating its individuals (participation and integration related faults)
More individuals in the group are not aligned with the good value systems at various levels.(identity faults)
If the reason is self-inflicted, the following holds true:
The personal value system (or lack of it) of the individual is weak or corrupted.
If the individual's value system is strong, perhaps it diabolical and/or does not accept any other value systems and hence the individual becomes vulnerable to take wrongful decisions.
The group, to which the individual belongs is not fair in treating its individuals and the group is perhaps providing convenient stages for confrontation (like a crime filled neighbourhood activities)
Hence, by the above groups of reasons, other types of death (2 & 3) happen which may be - death by violent confrontation, death by state, death by unhealthy lifestyle, death by self-harm etc.,
As mentioned before, I also think that, rarely, sometimes, certain deaths happen due to cyclical nature of applying karma with retribution.
Then, finally we are aware that, humans and certain wild animals/birds kill for food and evil always plans for mayhem.and death. These deaths do not fall under the 3 types mentioned above. I vaguely remember that the dharma of wild animals are blessed by nature and hence they will not incur karma when killing for food.
Hari Om!