History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.19

v5.c72.19

From ancient times it was a firmly held belief that the thoughts that a dying man entertains at the time of death determine what will happen to his spirit after physical death (this is expressed in the well-known words 'ante matih sā gatih'), that therefore a man should, when death approaches, give up all thoughts of mundane affairs and all earthly attachments, should think of his favourite deity (Hari or Śiva), should inaudibly recite such *mantras* as 'om namo Vāsudevāya'. Several texts insist on making the dying man listen to holy Vedic texts. The Gautamapitr-medhasūtra (I. 1-8) prescribes that one should at the time when one's father, mother, brother, teacher or a brāhmana friend is on his death-bed make the dying man hear the first and last verses of the Veda and certain *sāmans* and should mutter in the dying man's right ear (one sāman) The Ṛgvidhāna provides that one should repeat at the time of death the *sūkta* beginning with 'trātāram'⁴³¹ (?)