Death ~As already said, the two ordinary forms of death are the positive through the brain, and the negative through the heart. This is death through thesusumna. In this all the tatwas are potential. Death may also take place through the other nadis. In this case there must always be the prevalence of one or moretatwas.Thepranagoes towards different regions after death, according to the paths through which it passes out of the body. Thus:(1) The negativesusumnatakes it to the moon; (2) the positivesusumnatakes it to the sun; (3) theagniof the othernaditakes it to the hill known asRaurava(fire); (4) theapasof the othernaditakes it to the hill known asAmbarisha, and so on, theakasa, thevayu, and theprithivitake it toAndhatanusra,Kalasutra, andMaha kala(SeeYoga Sutra,pada111, Aphorism 26, commentary).The negative path is the most general one that thepranatakes. This path takes it to the moon (thechandraloka) because the moon is the lord of the negative system, and the negative currents, and the negativesusumnathe heart, which therefore is a continuation of the lunarprana. Thepranathat has the general negative color cannot move but along this path, and it is transferred naturally to the reservoirs, the centers of the negativeprana. Those men in whom the two hours lunar current is passing more or less regularly take this path.Thepranathat has lost the intensity of its terrestrial color energizes lunar matter according to its own strength, and thus establishes for itself there a sort of passive life. Here the mind is in a state of dream. The tatwic impressions of gathered up forces pass before it in the same way as they pass before it in our earthly dreams. The only difference is that in that state there is not the superimposed force of indigestion to render the tatwic impressions so strong and sudden as to be terrible. That dreamy state is characterized by extreme calmness. Whatever our mind has in it of the interesting experiences of this world, whatever we have thought, heard, seen or enjoyed, the sense of satisfaction and enjoyment, the bliss and playfulness of theapasand theprithivi tatwa, the languid sense of love of theagni, the agreeable forgetfulness of theakasa, all make their appearance one after the other in perfect calm. The painful impressions make no appearance, because the painful arises when any impression forces itself upon the mind that is out of harmony with its surroundings. In this state the mind lives inChandraloka, as will be better understood when I come to speak of the tatwic causes of dreams.Ages roll on in this state, when the mind has, according to the same general laws that obtain forprana, worn out the impressions of a former life. The intense tatwic colors that the ceaseless activity ofpranahad called into existence now fade away, until at last the mind comes upon a chronic level with theprana. Both of them have now lost the tinge of a former life. It may be said ofpranathat it has a new appearance, and of the mind that it has a new consciousness. When they are both in this state, both very weak, the accumulated tatwic effects ofpranabegin to show themselves with the return of the stars to the same positions. These draw us back from the lunar to the terrestrialprana. At this stage, the mind has no individuality worth taking account of, so that it is drawn bypranato wherever its affinities carry it. It comes and joins with those solar rays that bear a similar color, with all those mighty potentialities that show themselves in the future man remaining quite latent. It passes with the rays of the sun according to the ordinary laws of vegetation into grain that bears similar colors. Each grain has a separate individuality, which accounts for its separate individuality from others of its brothers, and in many there may be human potentialities giving it an individuality of its own. The grain or grains produce the virile semen, which assumes the shape of human beings in the wombs of women. This is rebirth.Similarly do human individualities come back from the five states that are known as hells. These are the states of posthumous existence fixed for those men who enjoy to an excessive and violent degree the various impressions of each of the tatwas. As the tatwic intensity, which disturbs the balance and therefore causes pain, wears off in time, the individualpranapasses off to the lunar sphere, and thence undergoes the same states that have been described above.Along the positive path through thebrahmarandhrapass thosepranathat pass beyond the general effects of Time, and therefore do not return to the earth under ordinary laws. It is Time that brings backpranafrom the moon, when he is even the most general, and the least strong tatwic condition comes into play with the return of identical astral positions; but the sun being the keeper of Time himself, and the strongest factor in the determination of his tatwic condition, it would be impossible for solar Time to affect solarprana. Therefore, only thatpranatravels towards the sun in which there is almost no preponderance of any tatwic color. This is the state of thepranaofYoginalone. By the constant practice of the eight branches ofYoga, the prana is purified of any very strongly personifying colors, and since it is evident that on such apranaTime can have no effect, under ordinary circumstances, they pass off to the sun. Thesepranahave no distinct personifying colors; all of them that go to the sun have almost the same general tinge. But their minds are different. They can be distinguished from each other according to the particular branch of science that they have cultivated, or according to the particular and varying methods of mental improvement that they have followed on earth. In this state the mind is not dependent, as in the moon, upon the impressions ofprana. Constant practice ofYogahas rendered it an independent worker, depending only upon the soul, and molding thepranato its own shapes, and giving it its own colors. This is a kind ofMoksha.Although the sun is the most potent lord of life, and the tatwic condition ofprananow has no effect upon the prana that has passed to the sun, the planetary currents still have some slight effect upon it, and there are times when this effect is very strong, so that the earthly conditions in which they have previously lived are called back again to their minds. A desire to do the same sort of good they did the world in their previous life takes possession of them, and impelled by this desire they sometimes come back to earth. Snakaracharya has noticed in his commentary of theBrahmasutrathat Apantaramah, a Vedicrishi, thus appeared on earth as Krishna-dwaipayana, about the end of theDwaparaand the beginning of theKaliyuga.