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Samana
chasrityupakramadamritatvam chanuposhya IV.2.7 (503)
And common
(is the mode of departure at the time of death for both the knower of the
Saguna Brahman and the ignorant) up to the beginning of their ways; and the
immortality (of the knower of the Saguna Brahman is only relative) without
having burnt (ignorance).
Samana: common;
Cha: and; Asrityupakramat: up to the beginning of their ways;
Amritatvam: immortality; Cha: and; Anuposhya: without
burning, without dissolution.
There is no departure for the knower of Nirguna Brahman. His Pranas are
absorbed in Brahman.
The Purvapakshin maintains that the mode of departure from the body for the
knower of Saguna Brahman and the ignorant or the ordinary man ought to be
different, because they attain different abodes after death. The knower of
Saguna Brahman goes to Brahmaloka while the ordinary man is reborn in this
world.
The present Sutra says that the knower of the Saguna Brahman enters the
Sushumna Nadi at death and then goes out of the body and then enters the
Devayana or the path of the gods while the ordinary ignorant man enters some
other Nadi and goes by another way to have rebirth.
But the mode of departure at death is common to both till they enter on their
respective ways.
Chhandogya Upanishad VIII.6.6 and Kathopanishad II.3.16 declare "There
are a hundred and more Nadis in the interior of the heart, of which only one
leads from the heart to the head; by that, progressing upwards, the departing
soul attains immortality, i.e., emancipation; all the other Nadis are for the
egress of the ordinary people for undergoing bondage of frequent births and
deaths."
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