HOW IT WILL BE

In his play "Our Town," Thornton Wilder has his character Emily Webb lamenting her immanent death.  She says, "Goodbye to clocks ticking---and Mama's sunflowers.  And food and coffee.  And new-ironed dresses and hot baths--and sleeping and waking up."

We all wonder what it will be like after we're gone, if not, as Wilder was exploring, what we will be thinking when we're about to go.

As for what it will be like, for the Vedantist there are two scenarios.  If the Atman in a person has not yet awakened, there will be a quick turnaround.  The individual will be reborn as someone or something else, depending upon his karmic load.  This transfer, however, will occur automatically and without the person being aware of it.

The other possibility is liberation.  This comes after the Atman has awakened.  Here, the Atman is no longer a consciousness that is an individual, but is just consciousness by itself.

As for what we will be thinking when we are about to go, we will be like Emily if we still identify with the world, are still attached to the world.  We will regret death.  If we no longer identify with the world, are no longer attached to it, we will have no regrets.