13 Days after Death

13, cursed as an unlucky number and the storehouse of all the evil spirits in various religions across the world, marks its trademark from the ancient literary texts of supreme knowledge. The content in this has been inspired from the text of utmost reverence, the garuda purana. This text explains about the happenings after death. Most of us aren’t believers in anything of this sort, are we? True indeed, it sounds creepy and scary, no wonder one forbids to think about all this. Standing unbiased, and bound by my culture, i have gone through these texts and shockingly there are numerous living examples who have witnessed after death experience. To a Hindu there is needed no greater testimony than that of Yogi Yâjñavalkya who, in the Prâyaśchitta Adhyâya of his law book, mentions 21 hells.

Powerful death, unexpectedly, like a serpent, approaches an individual stricken with bodily and mental pain, yet anxiously hoping to live. Not yet tired of life, being cared for by his dependents, with his body deformed through old age, nearing death, in the house, he remains, like a house-dog, eating what is ungraciously placed before him, diseased, with failing digestion, eating little, moving little, with eyes turned up through loss of vitality, with tubes obstructed by phlegm, exhausted by coughing and difficult breathing, with the death rattle in his throat, lying encircled by his sorrowing relatives; though being spoken to he does not answer, being caught in the noose of death. In this condition, with mind busy with the support of his family, with senses unconquered, swooning with intense pain he dies amidst his weeping relatives. In this last moment, all the worlds appear as one, and he does not attempt to say anything. Then, at the destruction of the decayed senses and the numbing of the intelligence, the messengers of Yama come and life departs. When the soul leaves his material body, the moment seems to be an age, and pain like the biting of thousands of scorpions is experienced.

Two terrifying messengers of Yama come, fierce of aspect with nooses and rods, naked black like a buffalo, and with grinding teeth. As black as crows, with hair erect, with ugly faces, with nails like weapons; seeing whom his heart palpitates and he releases excrements. They drag him all the way to Yama’s kingdom where the soul cries and laments for all the misdeeds it has done while he was alive. Hungry and thirsty, roasting in the sun, forest-fires and hot winds, struck upon the back with whips, painfully he walks, almost powerless, along a road of burning sand, shelter-less and waterless. Having seen the fearful Yama, the man, after a time, by command of Yama, swiftly comes back through the air, with the messengers.

This is why, the body of the dead isn’t burnt right after his soul leaves his body. We wait for the soul to return from the kingdom of Yama back to his house where he spent his lifetime. In deep grief, he observes his funeral rites, and watches the piece of meat which he held for decades wrapped up in flames. Having returned, bound by his past tendencies, desiring the body but held back with a noose by the followers of Yama, tortured by hunger and thirst, he weeps. He obtains the rice-balls given by his offspring, and the gifts made during the time of his illness. Nevertheless, the sinful Denier does not obtain gratification. The Śrâddha, the gifts, and the handful of water, for the sinful, do not uplift. Although they eat the rice-ball offering, still they are tortured with hunger. Those who are in the departed condition, deprived of the rice-ball offering, wander about in great misery, in an uninhabited forest, until the end of the age.

For ten days the son should offer rice-balls. Every day these are divided into four portions. Two portions give nourishment to the five elements of the body; the third goes to the messengers of Yama; he lives upon the fourth. For nine days and nights the departed obtains rice-balls, and on the tenth day the being, with fully formed body, acquires strength. The old body being cremated, a new one is formed by these offerings, the man, the size of a hand (cubit), by this experiences good and evil on the way. By the rice-ball of the first day the head is-formed; the neck and shoulders by the second; by the third the heart forms. By the fourth the back forms; and by the fifth the navel; by the sixth the hips and secret parts; by the seventh the thigh forms, likewise the knees on eighth day and feet by ninth day. On the tenth day hunger and thirst are imbibed on to the doll manifesting the departed. On the thirteenth day the departed, bound by the servants of Yama, walks alone along the road like a captured monkey. It is on this day, when the son of the departed carries the soul of the departed from the house by making lot of noise by beating utensils and leaves it far off from the house.  This marks as the beginning of a year of continuous pain and sufferings till he reaches kingdom of Yama. It takes 86,000 yojanas to Yama’s kingdom. The details of this one year of suffering will be mentioned in my upcoming blog.

*Serious Note:  All the details mentioned in the above written blog are a piece of serious work attained after going through ancient texts and listening learned saints from across India.