Dying

Terminal care refers to the management of patients during the last few months, weeks or days of life. Patients may be suffering from severe pain and other physical symptoms that must be controlled without unnecessary medical intrusion. Emotional and spiritual needs during this last stage of life are often pressing and must be met with love and compassion.
Grief grows as death draws nearer. Counsellors and spiritual advisors become crucial at this time. Family, friends and staff can help patients by remaining calm and loving, and above all, by placing the needs of patients before their own. The dying are looking to the future, so it is important for loved ones not to hold them back by showing them fears they might harbour about their own futures. The main goal of all carers at this time should be that patients make this great transition with peace and clarity.

' He who remembers Me in the last time, as he leaves his body, goes to Me without a doubt.'

( Srimad Bhagavad Gita )

Bereavement

When a close relative dies, especially a partner or a child, it can be very difficult for the bereaved loved ones to cope. Ganga Prem Hospice will provide bereavement services, which will continue as long as they are needed. The bereaved find solace in talking about their departed loved ones, so it is important that the staff and volunteers engaged in this service be prepared to listen with patience and sympathy for as long as the grieving relative needs to talk. In some cases there may be social and economic difficulties for the bereaved, especially when the departed relative was the only wage earner in the family. In these cases the bereavement services will include practical counselling and help to overcome these problems.

Death

Excerpts from the Katopanishad,
( the conversation between Naciketa andDeath.)

Naciketa said,

This doubt that arises on the death of a man, some saying 'It exists', and others saying 'It does not exist'. Instructed by you I would know this. (1.1.21)

Death said,

No mortal lives by prana or apana (ingoing and outgoing breath) but all live by something else on which both of these depend. (2.2.5)

O Naciketa, I shall tell you of this secret, eternal Brahman and also how the Self fares after death. (2.2.6)

Some souls enter the womb for acquiring a body and others assume plant form, in accordance with their work and in conformity with their knowledge. (2.2.7.)

The Self is this which keeps awake and goes on creating desirable things even when the senses fall asleep. That is pure; that is Brahman, that is, indeed, called immortal. All the worlds are fixed on that; none can transcend it. This indeed is that. (2.2.8)

Just as air, though one, having entered into this world, assumes separate forms in respect of different shapes, similarly, the one Self inside all beings assumes various forms in respect of each shape; and (yet) it is outside. (2.2.10)

Just as the sun, which is the eye of the whole world, is not tainted by the ocular and external defects, similarly, the Self, that is one in all beings, is not tainted by the sorrows of the world. It is transcendental. (2.2.11)

There the sun does not shine, neither do the moon and the stars; nor do these flashes of lightning shine there. How can this fire shine? Everything shines after that self effulgent one. By its light all this shines. (2.2.15)

Its form does not exist within the range of vision; nobody sees it with the eye. When this Self is revealed through deliberation, it is realized by the intellect, the ruler of the mind, that resides in the heart. Those who know this become immortal. (2.3.10)

When all desires clinging to one's heart fall off, then a mortal becomes immortal (and he) attains Brahman here. (2.3.14)

When all the knots of the heart are destroyed, even while a man is alive, then a mortal becomes immortal. This much alone is the instruction (2.3.15)

The Purusha, the indwelling Self, of the size of a thumb, is ever seated in the hearts of men. One should unerringly separate it from one's body like a stalk from the muñja grass. That one should know as pure and immortal. That one should know as pure and immortal. ( 2.3.17)

Ganga Prem Hospice pledges to provide services free of charge to any terminally ill cancer patient regardless of age, race, religion or financial status.

Ganga Prem Hospice, a project of Shraddha Cancer Care Trust, will provide medical, social, emotional and spiritual support for individuals and their loved ones as they face life threatening cancer and in their ongoing grief.