Though it invariably happens to everyone, death remains a mystery. Here, Sadhguru explains what actually happens upon leaving the body. Excerpted from a conversation between leading orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Rajasekaran and Sadhguru at the Annual Meet of the Indian Orthopaedic Association (IOACON) on 29 November 2018 in Coimbatore.
雖然死亡不可避免地會發生在每個人身上，但它仍然是個謎。在這裡，薩古魯解釋了離開身體時具體發生了什麼。文章摘選自薩古魯與知名骨科醫生Dr. Rajasekaran在2018年11月29日於哥印拜陀舉辦的印度骨科學會年會中的談話。
Dr. Rajasekaran: Sadhguru, you spoke about life, and that brings a big question that doctors have about life. Now they say, we have one trillion cells in our body, and each of these cells is living by itself. And when you say a patient is no more, it’s just that the brain dies after two or three minutes, but a large part of his body is still alive. His skin, his muscles, his bones live for many hours. So what dies when we die? That brings the question what leaves us... Where is this life in our body? Is it in our brain, our heart? And what is this life you’re talking about? Is it in the spine? Where does it reside?
Dr.Rajasekaran：薩古魯，你談到生命，而它引發了醫生們對於生命的一個很大疑問。如今他們說，我們體內有數以萬億的細胞，而每個細胞都是獨立存在的。並且你說一個病患死亡時，只有大腦在兩三分鐘後會死去，但他身體的大部分依舊存活著。他的皮膚、他的肌肉、他的骨骼會繼續存活數小時。所以當我們死去的時候，是什麼死了？這就引發了一個問題……我們體內的生命在哪裡？是在腦中或心臟裡？你所說的生命又指的是什麼？是在脊椎中麼？它位於哪裡？
Sadhguru: There’re so many living people – you can ask them, where are they. I think the religious beliefs have screwed up human mind so badly that people cannot even know what is happening within themselves. They know the geography of heaven, where God is sitting, how many children he has, when his birthday is – everything they know. How come they don’t know where their life is? Isn’t it ridiculous?
Sadhguru（薩古魯）：世界上有這麼多活著的人——你可以問問他們，他們在哪兒。我認為宗教信仰把人類的頭腦攪亂了，以至於人們連自己內在發生了什麼都不明白。他們知道天堂的地理位置，上帝坐在哪兒，他有多少孩子，他生日是哪天——他們無所不知。怎麼他們會不知道他們的生命在哪裡？這豈不荒謬？
Dr. Rajasekaran: Because we were told about the birthday of gods, but nobody is telling us where our life is.
Dr. Rajasekaran：因為我們被告知了上帝的生日，但沒人告訴我們我們的生命在哪裡。
Sadhguru: I’m asking all of you – are you really life?
Sadhguru（薩古魯）：我問你們所有人——你真的是生命麼？
Participants: Yes. Yes. Yes.
聽眾：是的、是的、是的。
Putting Things in Perspective
正確看待事物
Sadhguru: No, most people are just a bundle of thoughts, emotions, ideas, opinions, belief systems, and prejudices. They’re not life – their thought and emotion has overtaken their life process. The most dominant thing that’s happening in their life is their own thought and emotion, not life process. What this means is, your own silly little creation in your head has become larger than the Creator’s creation. That’s a stupid way to live. See, today morning, the sun came up on time. And the planet is spinning on time. And out of these hundred billion galaxies, not a single accident – everything is going perfect in this cosmos today. Isn’t that great?
Sadhguru（薩古魯）：不，大多數人只是一堆想法、情緒、理念、觀點、信仰體系和偏見。他們不是生命——他們的想法和情緒佔據了他們的生命進程。他們生命中最佔主導的是他們自己的想法和情緒，而非生命進程。這意味著，你自己腦中的那些愚蠢渺小的造物變得比造物主的創造還更大。那是一種愚蠢的活法。瞧，今早，太陽準時升起。星球照常旋轉。在這數以萬億的星系中，沒有一件意外發生——今天宇宙中的一切都完美運行著。這不夠棒嗎？
But one nasty little thought is crawling in your head, and it’s a bad day. This is because you have lost perspective as to who you are in this universe. This solar system in which we are, if it evaporates tomorrow morning, nobody will even notice it in this cosmos – it’s that small; just a speck. In this speck of a solar system, Planet Earth is a micro speck. In that micro speck, Coimbatore city is a super micro speck. In that, you are a big man. This is a serious problem.
但有一個不愉快的小想法在你頭腦裡蠕動，今天就被毀了。這是因為你對你在宇宙中是誰失去了正確的視角。我們所在的太陽系，如果它明天消失了，宇宙中根本無人會注意到——它是如此渺小，宛若塵礫。在這如塵礫般的太陽系中，地球是一粒微塵。在那微塵中，哥印拜陀市是一粒超級微塵。而在那之中，你是一個大人物。這就是個大問題了。
When we have completely lost perspective as to who we are, what we are, how do you think you will grasp anything? Getting perspective on our life is very, very important. How come we know so many things but we don’t know what the nature of our life is?
當我們對我們是誰，我們是什麼完全失去了概念時，你如何能去理解其他事呢？把握對生命的正確視角極其重要。我們為何所知甚多卻不知我們生命的本質是什麼呢？
Now, you asked why if somebody is dead, still some of the cells are active. Why this is so – what we’re calling 「life,」 physically, is a mechanism on many different levels. There is hardware, and there is software. The core of hardware is the bones. The software is equally important. Otherwise, how does a cell know that it is a human cell – that it is not a pig cell, a tree cell, or something else? It knows because there is an entire software.
現在，你問為什麼如果某人死了，一些細胞依然活躍。原因是——我們所稱為「生命」的，物理上，在很多層面上是一個機器。有硬體，也有軟體。硬體的核心是骨骼。軟體同樣重要。不然，一個細胞如何知道這是一個人類細胞——而不是一個豬細胞、一個樹細胞，或者別的什麼？它知道是因為有一整套軟體存在。
There is memory – evolutionary memory, genetic memory, karmic memory. There are varieties of memories imposed on every cell in the system, so that it never gets confused. If you eat dog food for three days, you will not become a dog, because the memory is entrenched in your system. The software package is actually much bigger than the hardware. And it is energized by what we are considering as life force.
那裡還有記憶——進化過程中留下的記憶、基因上的記憶、業力上的記憶。各種各樣的記憶被加諸於系統內的每一個細胞中，確保它永遠不會感到困惑。如果你吃了三天的狗糧，你不會變成一隻狗，因為那記憶已經被深植於你系統中。那個軟體包實際上比硬體龐大得多，而且它還被注入了能量。
Five Dimensions of Prana
Prana的五個維度
In yoga, we call this prana. It manifests itself in five basic dimensions. These are called prana vayu, samana vayu, apana vayu, udana vayu and vyana vayu. They have different functions.
在瑜伽中，我們稱之為Prana。它表現在五個基本維度中。他們分別被稱為prana vayu、samana vayu、apana vayu、udana vayu和vyana vayu。它們各司其職。
Prana vayu is related to breath, respiratory action, and thought process. If the prana vayu depletes, your respiratory action will go away. Immediately, they』ll try to pump your chest; if the breath doesn’t come back, the doctor will say you’re dead. Respiration and pulmonary action are very directly connected – once respiration stops, the pulmonary process will naturally come to an end. So prana vayu is gone. If samana vayu starts receding, which is in charge of generating heat in the system, the body starts getting cold, and it also starts becoming stiff.
Prana vayu和呼吸，呼吸作用和思維活動有關。如果prana vayu耗盡了，你的呼吸就會消失。他們會立即嘗試給你做心肺復甦，如果沒能恢復呼吸，醫生就會說你死了。呼吸和心肺活動直接相連——一旦呼吸停止，心肺活動會自然停止。所以prana vayu消失了。如果負責產生系統熱量的Samana vayu開始耗竭，身體就會開始變冷，也會開始變得僵硬。
Once apana vayu starts receding in a major way, then the sensory aspect starts receding. We must understand this – you may check somebody’s breath and declare them dead, but they can still feel sensations. There have been any number of cases where people got terrified because a dead body moved a little bit, because the sensory activity is still on. Still, life is not fully convinced that it is finished – it is still making an effort of its own.
一旦apana vayu開始大量地消退，那麼感官活動也會消退。我們必須明白——你或許檢查了某人的呼吸並且宣布他們死亡，但他們依舊有感覺。有許多人們因屍體移動而受驚嚇的案例，因為感官活動依舊發生著。生命依舊沒有全然相信它已經結束了——它依舊做著自己的努力。
Udana Vayu – the Buoyancy Factor
Udana Vayu——浮力因素
When udana vayu goes away, then the buoyancy is gone. When I say buoyancy… You may weigh seventy or eighty or maybe fifty kilograms – whatever is your weight; let’s say you’re very happy and alive right now – you don’t feel those fifty kilograms on you. If you stand on the scale, it is there. But when you walk, it is not there, simply because the udana creates a buoyancy – it makes you less available to gravity. There are yogic practices to activate it.
當udana vayu消退的時候，浮力也消失了。當我說浮力的時候……你或許重70、80或50公斤——無論你多重，假設你現在很開心活潑——你感受不到你身上這50公斤。如果你站在稱上，重量會顯示在那兒。但當你走路的時候，它不在那兒，僅僅是因為udana創造了一種浮力——它讓你不那麼受重力影響。有些瑜伽練習可以激活它。
There are whole schools of udana in China. You might have seen those movies like Crouching Tiger – these are udana schools, where they have mastery over udana and can float around a little bit. Well, a little exaggerated in the movies, but the body becomes lighter, more buoyant. For a martial arts fighter, to be buoyant is important. There have been many cases where certain ballet dancers and martial arts experts have done something, leaping up to heights, which physicists believe is simply impossible. They』ve gone beyond that level simply by creating more buoyancy.
在中國有許多udana流派。你或許看過那些例如《臥虎藏龍》之類的電影——那些是udana流派，在那裡他們掌控了udana，可以漂浮。嗯，電影裡有些誇張了，但身體變得更輕盈。對一個武術鬥士來說，身輕如燕很重要。有許多某些芭蕾舞者和武術大師，跳到物理學認為毫無可能的高度的例子。他們只是通過創造更多的浮力，去超越那個（正常的）水平。
So udana is in charge of buoyancy. Once udana starts receding, suddenly, the body becomes heavy. The weight does not increase, but you can feel the weight much more, simply because udana is receding. People who work in hospitals may know there’s a big difference in carrying a live person and a dead person – simply because once udana is gone, there is no buoyancy.
所以udana管控浮力。一旦udana開始耗竭，身體突然變得沉重。體重並沒有增加，但你能對重量的感知更強烈了，只是因為udana在消失。在醫院工作的人或許知道抬一個活人和一個死人差別很大——完全是因為一旦udanda消失了，浮力就消失了。
Vyana Vayu – The Last to Leave
Vyana Vayu——最後離開的
The fifth dimension is called vyana vayu – it is preservative in nature. If vyana recedes, even when you’re alive, the body will begin to rot. There are certain types of snake venoms which can do this. If they bite you, you will not die, but literally, parts of the body will start falling apart, simply because vyana will recede. So, once vyana recedes, the rotting process will begin.
第五個維度稱作vyana vayu——它本質上是防腐劑。如果vyana消失了，即使你還活著，身體也會開始腐爛。有一些特定種類的蛇毒有此效。如果它們咬了你，你不會死，但毫不誇張地說，身體的組成部位會開始分崩離析，只是因為vyana會消失。所以，一旦vyana消失了，腐爛過程就會開始。
There are systems in yoga where we want all the five vayus to go reasonably together, within one and-a-half hours. In normal death, depending upon the age of a person, how vibrant a particular body is, vyana may take up to fourteen days to leave. This is the reason why in this culture, you have rituals running up to fourteen days – because they feel the vyana may still be there. When you bury a person, the vyana may still be hovering there.
在瑜伽的有些體系中，我們想要這五大vayu在1到1.5小時內，差不多同時消失。在正常死亡中，取決於這個人的年齡，這個身體有多活躍，vyana可能得花14天才能離開。這就是為什麼在這一文化中，你們有最長達14天的儀式——因為他們覺得vyana或許依舊存在。當你埋葬一個人的時候，vyana或許還縈繞在那兒。
That is the reason why in this culture, that was the rule – if somebody dies, within an hour-and a-half, you must cremate them. But then mistakes happened – when they were still alive, somebody put them on the funeral pyre. So they stretched it to four hours – within four hours, you must cremate the body. But today, there are all kinds of issues, so people are waiting for one, two, or three days. The daughter is in America and she has to come, so they are waiting – things like that.
這正是為什麼在這一文化中，規矩是——如果一個人死了，在1到1.5小時內，你必須火化他們。但這麼一來錯誤發生了——當他們還活著的時候，有人就把他們放到火葬堆裡。所以他們把期限延長到了四小時——在四小時內，你必須火化這個軀體。但如今，有許多問題，所以人們等1、2天或者3天。女兒人在美國，而她必須到場，所以他們就等著——諸如此類的事。
The Rationale of Quick Cremation
快速火化的原理
We must understand this – you don’t diagnose people as dead, you declare them dead – there is a difference. So when you declare them dead, for you, they’re dead. As far as that person is concerned, in a way, all that has happened is he has lost his body. All his life, he lived thinking he is a body, never realizing the physical mass that he carries is just an accumulation from this planet. When he suddenly slips out of the body, he tends to hover around the body, because he has lost his discriminatory intelligence. Once he leaves the body, the discriminatory intellect is gone, so he tends to hover around that body.
我們必須明白——你並不診斷人們是否死亡，你宣布他們的死亡——這兩者有所不同。所以當你宣布他們死去時，對你來說，他們死了。就那個人而言，某種程度上，所發生的一切不過只是他失去了他的身體。他窮盡一生，認為自己是一具軀體，從未意識到他攜帶的這個軀殼只是來自地球的累積物。當他突然離開身體，他傾向於在軀體周圍流連，因為他失去了他的辨別力。一旦他離開身體，辨別力就消失了，所以他傾向於流連於那具軀體周圍。
That is why in this culture, we said the moment we are sure that somebody is dead, you must immediately cremate them. It’s good for the dead, so they know the game is up, and it’s also good for the living. If somebody very dear to you just died and their body is there in front of you, you keep on hallucinating, 「Maybe they’re just sleeping. Maybe they will sit up. Maybe some miracle will happen.」
這正是為何在這一文化中，我們說一旦我們確定某人死了，你必須立即火化他們。這對死者有益，這樣一來他們知道遊戲結束了，這對生者也有好處。如果一個對你而言非常親近的人剛死了，而他們的身體在你面前，你會一直幻想，「或許他們只是在睡覺。或許他們會起來的。或許某些奇蹟會發生。」
This will go on unnecessarily. You will see people are crying and big emotional drama is happening. But the moment you cremate the body, everyone becomes silent, because now everyone knows the game is up. It’s good for the living and for the dead. So about life leaving the system, life is so entrenched in the system, it will not go away just like that. In stages, it came in; in stages, it will go away.
這會毫無必要地持續下去。你會看到人們在哭泣，巨大的情感戲碼會上演。然而一旦你火化了屍體，每個人都變得沉寂，因為現在大家都明白遊戲結束了。這對生者和死者都好。所以關於生命如何離開系統——生命是如此深深根植於系統中，它不會這麼簡單地離開。它階段性地進場，也將階段性地離開。