INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

his bed to make him prepared for the journey after this life. As the man predicted he
died two days later.
A good death occurs when the person has completed a life-time and fulfilled all
social responsibilities. At the moment of death the person should dissolve all bonds
to relations and be free from desires to the world to only think of God. “You will not
even feel when that person is gone”, a Sikh man illustrated how a good death is a
controlled relinquishment of life and worldly attachments. As is the Hindu custom,
the dying will control their consumption of food and be given Ganga amrit in their
mouth to prepare the body for the final departure. In Varanasi the Sikhs will bring
this water from the well in Nichibagh Gurdwara. The most significant means to secure
a good death is to die to the sound of gurbani. Persons who envisage their own
death will commit themselves to recitations of Sukhmani Sahib, as this particular composition
is believed to destroy sins and bring a good destiny after death. In case the
dying person is too weak to recite, family members will read and sometimes whisper
the sacred words in his or her ear. Many would also say that listening to recitals and
singing of any gurbani hymn will assist the dying in the life after death. A Sikh
woman told a story about a Muslim imam who hid in a gurdwara when the messengers
of death came to seize him. As she noted, the messengers of Yama ‒ the Lord of
Death ‒ normally beat the dying terribly but they never touch those who are reciting
gurbani and never enter sacred spaces like mandirs or gurdwaras. The imam died
while listening to Sikh kirtan. When he reached the divine court to have the books of
his actions closed, Chitra Gupt ‒ the accountant of Yama ‒ could not find any good
action registered. Because the imam listened to kirtan at the time of death he was,
however, reprieved from punishment and granted permission to choose his future
destiny.
A “bad death”, by contrast, can be when a person at old age is suffering from
diseases and pain for a long time without getting a release from life. It also signifies a
premature and involuntary death often caused by violence. Homicide and accidents,
such as drowning and burning to death, belong to this latter category. Suicide is also
regarded a bad death as it is considered an act of violence that relinquishes life before
the prescribed life-time has been fulfilled. The deaths of martyrs and soldiers are
exempted from this rule as they voluntarily sacrifice their lives for a just cause. In
case the dying had some desires at the hour of death or did not get a proper cremation
ritual performed there are possibilities that the spirit will be caught between the
earthly domain and the divine abode and become a bhutpret, a ghost. The fear of
ghostly existences, I was told, is one reason as to why people are conducting postmortem
rituals and prayers for the peace of the departed soul.
Although Sikhs in general accept a medical-legal definition of death when the
brain and heart cease to function and a doctor is called in to declare the person dead,
many still believe that the spirit is present in the world until cremation. An elderly
woman explained:
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008