T he quality of the first breath imprints the pranic body and affects how life is experienced from the start. It can reflect the psyche of the mother, the state of projection created at conception by both parents, and the cumulative emotional state from the experiences in the womb.
The last breath and the thought that accompanies it projects the soul into different after-death realms. The mind is unfettered at the moment of death, so its projection is very effective. Because of the power of thought at death, many traditions practice a death mantra, prayer or praan sutra. This phrase spoken at the last moment guides the soul regardless of past actions.
This last breath is also a last chance. As you die, you assess your actions and their karmas. According to the frequency of your last breath and your last thought, you can project beyond the reactions to your karmas or into and through them. You create an attitude and a projection in your aura at death that is effectively an identity card. Whatever is projected in that moment is read by the magnetic field and the Universe responds accordingly. Your projection pulls the Infinite into merger out of love and radiance. The Infinite and God are fundamentally neutral in nature just as life is fundamentally ruled by polarity. So in the act of dying, the projected frequency of your last breath establishes your relationship with the Infinite.
"What is happening is this. This is what the story is: you have come from death, you have to go to death, this is the only sensitive period, and in this sensitive period you feel you are permanently here. You do not understand. You are afraid of death. Why are you afraid of death? Because you do not understand death. What is death? Death is that constant calm. It’s nothing more than that in which you do not have the sensitivity of the sexuality, the sensitivity of the sexual body (which means) you do not have desires. And then when you come here, you feel that this is permanent.
Whatever you have to do here to relate to earth, you forget your relationship to the ether that you came from. You have to go to ether and we have created this havoc of, “Death. Death. I am going to die!” What does it matter? So what we are creating is something where a non-reality has become reality and reality has become non-reality and it is very painful to a lot of people.
Our approach is toward the earth rather than to the God. I don’t think we can be made to believe easily but my personal feeling is if we can be made to believe that we have come from ether to go to ether, and this earth is just a window, then just to look at it that way will be a much finer life than anything else. But nobody believes that this earth is temporary. Everybody thinks it is permanent. We will do what we can. As Thy will is, so it will be."
What attitude do you have about death? Are you willing to practice – to put death at the center of your life – so that you can truly live?
Compiled from The Aquarian Teacher: Life Cycles and Life Styles. KRI International Teacher Training in Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan. Level 2 Transformation Practitioner. Kundalini Research Institute. 2007.