[Instructions to the Officiant]: Yet, again, it may be possible that because of the influence of bad karma one will not recognize even thus. Therefore, call the deceased by name, and speak as follows:
O nobly-born, (so-and-so), listen. That thou art suffering so cometh from thine own karma; it is not due to any one else’s: it is by thine own karma. Accordingly, pray earnestly to the Precious Trinity; that will protect thee. If thou neither prayest nor knowest how to meditate upon the Great Symbol nor upon any tutelary deity, the Good Genius,® who
was born simultaneously with thee, will come now and count
who was born simultaneously with thee, will come and count
wilt be greatly frightened, awed, and terrified, and wilt tremble; and thou wilt attempt to tell lies, saying, ‘I have not committed any evil deed’.
Then the Lord of Death will say, ‘I will consult the Mirror of Karma’,
So saying, he will look in the Mirror, wherein every good and evil act is vividly reflected. Lying will be of no avail.
will place round thy neck a rope and drag thee along; he will cut off thy head, extract thy heart, pull out thy intestines, lick up thy brain, drink thy blood, eat thy flesh, and gnaw thy bones ;? but thou wilt be incapable of dying. Although thy body be hacked to pieces, it will revive again. The re- peated hacking will cause intense pain and torture.
Even at the time that the pebbles are being counted out, be not frightened, nor terrified; tell no lies; and fear not the Lord of Death.
Thy body being a mental body is incapable of dying even though beheaded and quartered. In reality, thy body is of the nature of voidness;? thou needst not be afraid. The
‘But I have such-and-such justification; and the deceased deserves pardon on these grounds’. And so—as the Jamas explain—the Judgement proceeds.
(Cf. pp. 35-7-) 5 Meaning that the ‘astral’ or desire-body is incapable ot ordinary physical