What happens in the last hours of life?

Questioner: Please tell us exactly what happens in the final hour of the life of a dying man.

Dadashri: In the ultimate end, whatever has been 'deposited' (into one's karmic account) thus far will carry forward. In the final hour of his death, his next life is decided based on his spiritual evolutionary status, which is determined by the result of the final analysis of his balance sheet. This balance sheet is not an accounting of his entire life's activities, but his coming life form and the middle portion. The middle represents the last hour, the current final event. For example, if he is preoccupied with the welfare of his young unmarried daughter, a dominant theme in the last hour of his life, he will bind a life in the animal kingdom. This preoccupation is part of the balance sheet.

People have been taught to utter holy words and scripts in the ears of the dying man but in reality the dying person will only be able to make a positive use of this if he has bound the merit karma to do so, otherwise he will be preoccupied with worries about his daughter who he leaves behind.

The summary of the balance sheet will carry forward. In this regard, the good done in older age is much more effective and carries more weight compared to the same done in youth.