isha upanishad in English | isha upanishad chanting verse 17 | ishavasya upanishad | What We Should Do Before Time of Death

Dear readers,

Welcome back to our blog. Today we will discuss seventeenth shloka of Isha Upanishad.

You can recite the shloka with me.

वायुरनिलममृतमथेदं भस्मांतं शरीरम्‌।
ॐ क्रतो स्मर कृतं स्मर क्रतो स्मर कृतं स्मर ॥

“vāyuranilamamṛtamathedaṁ bhasmāṁtaṁ śarīram | om krato smara kṛtaṁ smara krato smara kṛtaṁ smara ||” Translation in English:

Let my vital force now attain immortality and let this body end to ash. Om, O mind, remember all deeds, O mind, remember all deeds.

Shri Shri Ramakrishna Paramhansa was suffering from deadly throat cancer. Those days medical science did not have any treatment for cancer patients. The last one year of his life was painful. While any normal cancer patient repents for the bad actions in past years of life or cries for life or fears of death, he was on the contrary creating a force of young blood who can work for humanity in the coming years to come, in the whole world. He transferred his spiritual knowledge to Swami Vivekananda instead of keeping it with him. He was advised by the doctors to keep the strictest silence, but ignoring their advice, he incessantly conversed with visitors and disciples. He became Kalpataru (wish tree) for his disciples on the new year day and blessed them with all their wishes to come true. Finally, the last day approached fast, and he left his physical body. After his ‘Mahasamadhi’ the monastic disciples led by Swami Vivekananda formed the first Ramakrishna Math and the rest was history.

Before we understand this Shloka, we recommend you to read previous Shloka to understand the Sun and of course other shlokas if you missed them. Links to those blogs are given at the bottom of this page.

By reading this Shloka common readers will anticipate this shloka is for a dying person. Interestingly that is not the case. It is for the readers who are in their 20s or 30s or 40s or 50s or anything else but not for a dying person unless the person is a Sant or Mahatma. Why so? Because by remembering your deeds, you don’t have any time left to rectify them or learn from the mistakes. A dying person can repent for the bad deeds on the death bed. That will not help that person in any way. There is no time machine to go back in time and fix the incorrect actions. This Shloka is a reminder to everyone that time is ticking. Before leaving this body, gain knowledge, do good actions, behave nicely, do something to remember and cherish. At the end, distribute everything including your knowledge, which you acquired in your whole life, among others before leaving this world. Just remembering those and keeping with you will not be going to help you in any manner.

I heard from many young people that spirituality is for old people. Let us now enjoy our life by eating meat or any other delicious food, drinking alcohol, having sex, doing parties, going to pubs, taking drugs etc. They believe they have lots of time to indulge themselves in enjoyment first and later spirituality. At the end they will chant the name of Lord Rama or take a dip in the Ganges to clean up all the sins. But spirituality also comes with practice. If you never practiced chanting the name of Lord Rama, then how do you expect that you will utter that word when death will be in front of you! Even if you uttered, if you never understood the life of Lord Rama how will his name at the end save you or cleanse all your sins or give you a ticket to go to heaven? During old age you will remember only medicines’ names, doctors' names and diseases’ names. Common words of old age are Ah, Ooh, Ouch because of pain in different body parts and joints. See your surroundings, if you feel I am exaggerating. Every moment of life is an opportunity to gain knowledge and do the right action otherwise you never know when suddenly your heart will stop beating. Life is too uncertain. Mostly planning does not work with life. Remember the death trolls of COVID-19 pandemic or watch the videos of recent terrorist attacks in Israel in 10/2023 or 9/11 or 26/11 terrorist attacks on humanity or remember the earthquake of Nepal or sudden flood in Uttarakhand. Even every family goes through pain of sudden demise of their close ones. These incidents are a reminder for all of us, to start all the good actions from today, practicing spirituality from now, so that you have something to remember on your last breath and to offer something valuable to others before leaving and trust me that is the only way to become immortal.

Dear readers, be with us in this journey of Universal Vedanta movement.

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Readers' List

Isha Upanishad - Shloka - 16

https://universal-vedanta.blogspot.com/2023/10/isha-upanishad-in-english-isha-verse-16-aditya-l1.html

Isha Upanishad - Shloka - 15

https://universal-vedanta.blogspot.com/2023/09/isha-upanishad-in-english-isha-verse-15-discover-your-true-nature.html.html

Isha Upanishad - Shloka - 14

https://universal-vedanta.blogspot.com/2023/08/isha-upanishad-in-english-isha.html