Kaal Bhairav means the dark one – that’s one aspect of him. It is seen in many different ways. It is a deadly form of Shiva. When he went into a destructive mode – not of destroying this or that – of destroying time. See, all physical realities exist within the span of time, isn’t it? If I destroy your time, everything is over.
All physical realities exist within the span of time
So, Kaal Bhairav means just that – because most people do not choose to live in a great manner. They have an aspiration, at least they want to die in a great way. That little aspiration brought millions of people to Kashi – to die. So, the last phase of their life people came, because they did not live gloriously – they have a dream of dying gloriously, at least – hope. Dying gloriously means – death leading not just to disposal of body, but death leading to an ultimate liberation. It was guaranteed – if you come to Kashi, you will attain to mukti. Doesn’t matter what kind of a lousy creature you have been, all your life. So all the lousy creatures started coming – because they lived badly, and they want to die gloriously. Only the population of the lousy multiplied.
It was guaranteed – if you come to Kashi, you will attain to mukti
Then Shiva said, the place is becoming lousy. With so many lousy people, the place itself will become lousy. He said – there needs to be some check. So, he established, what is known today as ‘Bhairavi Yatna’. You know what yatna means? Yatna means ultimate suffering, it’s something that happens to you in hell. He will make it happen to you here.
Last 40 seconds of one’s life, if one is either conscious or if he is in a consecrated space – this will distinctly happen to every human being. For whatever reason one may be dying. Whether one is dying of old age or disease, the last 40 seconds, many lifetimes of accumulated karma will play out in fast forward. At that moment, these 40 seconds only – if you lived a life of ignorance, if you lived a life of unawareness, lifetimes of unawareness – these 40 seconds if you can maintain some sense of awareness, he said, all the many accumulated lifetimes of karma, you will drop it. You will go through an intense phase for 40 seconds only, and you will be clean and you dissolve.
Whether one is dying of old age or disease, the last 40 seconds, many lifetimes of accumulated karma will play out in fast forward
Essentially spirituality means putting your life in fast forward. You may suffer much more because everything is happening at a fast pace. What you would have stretched for 10 years, is happening let’s say in one month. So the amount of intensity of suffering that you go through is big. There may be moments of ecstasy and joy, but there is so much suffering because things are happening rapidly within you. So at least towards the end of your life you want to hasten the process. So, Bahiravi Yatna – all this is because of a powerful consecrated space. Consecrated space means – one thing is just this – it’s concentrated life. That means life becomes so concentrated, that it burns karmic fuel at a tremendous pace. After some time, once you get used to it, there is no more yatna – it just burns, simply. Essentially you are at a higher rev. So, that is the purpose of every consecrated space.
Kashi is significant because of the enormity of the way they built it, the aesthetics, the beauty of it. In those times they say, there wasn’t another city on the planet which was that beautiful. All these things put together, it became a big draw. They created the atmosphere to get the people’s focus. So, Kashi is not all pleasure and beauty. It is a place where people go into most intense form of suffering, because he puts life on such a super fast forward – lifetimes of things burn in one moment.
