Chitra And Chinta

"Chita" (funeral fyre) and "chinta" (anxiety) are very similar sounding words.  Chita will burn your body when you are dead.  Chinta will burn you alive.

#SwamiTejomayananda

Life is a Gift

Life is a gift... Living an Art. From where do we get life? It was given to us from #God, and we must give thanks to Him. What you have is His gift to you, but what you do with what you have is your gift to Him.

Have a Blessed #Thanksgiving!

#SwamiTejomayananda

Pitris Message

Pitru Yagna

In the Yaksha Prashna of Mahabhrata there comes a Yaksha who takes away the four Pandavas and asks Dharma Raja questions about the nuances of dharma.
Indriyartha-ananubhavan buddhim-alloka-pujitah |
sammatah sarva-bhutanam ucchvasan-ko na jivati ||
Is there a person who enjoys all pleasures of the senses?

Is their one who is intelligent, respected by all creatures and worshipped by the world, who breathes and yet is not alive?

devatatithi bhrtyanam
pitrnam atmanashca yah |
nanirvapati pancanam  ucchvasan-na sa jivati ||
The person who fails to do his duty towards  Bhagavan god,
devatatithi bhrtyanam
Athithi guests, Maanav fellow human beings, Pitrus Ancestors and his own self by gaining knowledge, may breathe but is not alive.

This shows the importance of the Panchamaha Yagnas that include pitru yagna or duty towards one’s forefathers.

The word pitru denotes our parents, forefathers, mentors and people who have served as guides to make us who we are.

We owe them our respects for two reasons.

One is a sense of gratitude. For what we have acquired so far.

Second is to learn and imbibe the virtues that they have lived by.

The scriptures order us not to neglect this pitru yagna.

deva-pitr-karyabhyam na pramaditavyam - May you not neglect your duty towards the devas and pitrus.

yani asmakam sucharitani, tani tvayopasyani. no itarani. - Imbibe the noble and virtuous actions of your preceptors and not the other.

See We owe a large part of who we are to our parents and forefathers.

Taking care of them, imbibing their virtues and imparting them to future generations is all a part of pitru yagna.

Our culture and value system that we have gained from the Saintly 9nes the Rishi's have been passed one like a perennial river from generation to generation that enriches our lives today.

We owe a great deal of gratitude towards our forefathers for imparting this to us.

We also have the responsibility to pass this along to future generations.
The
Paying respect homage to dead ancestors by tarpana and sharda is an important part of pitru yagna.

The performer evokes a sense of gratitude and peace towards his diseased parents by these rituals.

By offering emancipation, one is actually trying to free oneself from various predispositions that one has as a result of the debt incurred.

Our forefathers have attributed so much importance to pitru tarpana that it is one of the few rituals that has been passed on to us from the age of the rishis with little modifications.

Great personalities in Ramayana and Mahabharata show the importance of pitru tarpana by giving it the care that is needed and performing it without fail even in times of distress.

Sri Rama never misses a tarpana even in the heights of grief having lost Sita.
सप्तानाम् च समुद्राणाम्
तेषाम् तीर्थेषु लक्ष्मण |
उपस्पृष्टम् च
विधिवत् पितरः च
अपि तर्पिताः || ३-७५-४
saptaanaam samudraaNaam teshaam tiirteshu lakshmana |
upasprishTam cha vidhi vat pitaraH cha api tarpitaH ||
Shri Ramchandra says "Oh, Lakshmana, holy is our taking a bath in this holy Pampa Lake, for it is formed by the waters of seven seas.

And even holier is our oblation of this holy waters to those who have  ascended before us.

To learn how to perform this ritual according to one's tradition and Veda shaka and to understand its significance is a very important duty.

Here the opportunity has been given. ........

Death, the Greatest Wonder

Hare Krishna.

Dandavat pranams.

The following is a fantastic article by vraj vihari prabhuji. No doubt its a long article but teaches us all a very powerful lesson.

Back to Godhead January/February 2012

By Vraja Vihari Dasa

For the one appointment no one can cancel, it pays to be prepared.

Recently a college friend of mine was diagnosed with an incurable cancer; his doctors told him he would live for only another year. The family panicked and consulted a wide range of doctors as well as healers from various alternative fields of medicine. They approached astrologers, prayed to demigods in temples, and even consulted a mystic tantric. Many people keep telling them that a cure may be available that they haven't yet tried.

I was sad to learn about my friend's disease. I wanted to help him during his crisis and suggested the Krishna consciousness process of chanting and hearing Krishna's holy names. But I failed to convince him that, while trying various treatments, he also needed to face reality and prepare for his next life. I was unhappy to see that even his eighty-year-old father was disinterested in the spiritual dimension to life and determined only to save his son.

Death, the Greatest Wonder

I remembered the observation of a devotee friend: "One may be admitted to the best hospital, treated by the best doctors, administered the best medicines, but if he is destined to die, he can't avoid an appointment with Mr. Death."

The philosophical writings of Vedic India compare the inevitability of death to the inescapable visit of someone who will get us one day. When Mr. Death strikes, a rich man can't bribe him to go away; a beautiful lady can't charm him to excuse her; a strong man can't wrestle him to submit; a wise person can't defeat him in a debate. Mr. Death gets us all, with no exceptions.

In the ancient epic Mahabharata, King Yudhishthira is asked what is the greatest wonder in the world. The wise king replies, "Every day thousands are sent to the abode of death. Yet those who are living lead their lives as if death will never happen to them." These words of wisdom helped me come to terms with the stubborn reluctance of my friend's family to understand Krishna consciousness, and with their refusal to accept the inevitability of death.

First Lessons in Spiritual Life

One of the first lessons I learned in spiritual life is the inevitability of death. Friends in college ridiculed me for subscribing to what seemed to them the fatalistic philosophy presented in ISKCON teachings. Their taunting made we wonder whether the Hare Krishnas were only pessimistic, but I soon realized that the acceptance of the unavoidable reality of death equips us with an internal fortitude and calmness. The Hare Krishnas were learning to see the world and its fleeting promises in a detached manner.

A devotee of Krishna faces tragedies, including death, with grace and dignity. Still, devotees don't ignore their bodily conditions or make no attempt to avoid death. A spiritualist cares for the body with a desire to serve God and others. Since the goal is service and not bodily maintenance, the devotee is detached even while caring for the body, and is prepared to face inescapable death.

Teachings of the Vedas

The Vedic tradition explains that our existence doesn't end with death. We are not our temporary body, but the eternal soul residing within. When the body dies, the soul continues to live, although in a different state of existence. By cultivating Krishna consciousness, we nourish the soul and our consciousness transcends petty material pursuits; we learn to live on the spiritual plane of reality and connect to God, Krishna through spiritual practices. Hearing and chanting God's holy names helps us attain spiritual happiness, which helps us transcend material happiness and distress. Hearing and chanting also guarantees us a divine journey after death.

The Vedic literature gives many examples of persons whose lives teach us how to prepare ourselves to face death. The Srimad-Bhagavatam begins with the enquiry of King Parikshit on the duty of a person about to die. Cursed to die in seven days, the king happily accepted his fate; he could now immerse his consciousness in remembrance of the Supreme Lord without any distractions. King Khatvanga, another exemplary person, on learning that he had only a moment to live relinquished all his riches and welcomed death.

Srila Prabhupada's Appeal

Srila Prabhupada taught that life is a preparation for an exam: death. The time of death tests all our cherished values and principles, as well as our attachment to our body and to people and things connected to our body. A devotee of Krishna leads a life centered on service to God and carries out his worldly responsibilities maturely, knowing that the unpleasant vicissitudes of this world can bring the end at any time. Even if the devotee lives a long life, eventually time in the form of disease, old age, or death will threaten to take away all of the devotee's possessions and positions. But because they have invested their consciousness in remembering and loving God, they are prepared to meet Mr. Death cheerfully.

Srila Prabhupada often quoted a verse from the Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.14.58) that says that in this material world there is danger at every step. Death can come at any moment. He urged his readers and audiences to spend every moment remembering God so that at the eventual moment of death they would be fixed in an inner state of bliss, ready to enter the divine realm of God.

Srila Prabhupada was himself such an example. In October 1977, when he realized that his body would give away soon, he retired to Vrindavan, the holy place of Lord Krishna's appearance and activities, to engage in exclusive remembrance of God. When he was asked if he had any unfulfilled desires, he calmly said, "I have nothing to desire or hanker for." Srila Prabhupada led a dedicated life of loving service to Krishna, and when Krishna came to take him back, he was ready.

Facing Death Cheerfully

At a festival of hearing and chanting the holy names last year, I had a sobering educational experience. During the daylong kirtanas and discourses at ISKCON Mumbai, I was seated next to thirty-year-old Rohini Tanaya Dasa, who had been diagnosed with a malignant bone cancer. Like my college acquaintance, he had only months to live. But his response to the crisis inspired all the members of our community. He was absorbed in devotional activities; his face was beaming with happiness springing from a deep internal connection with Krishna.

While sitting next to him during the program, I caught my mind feeling sorry for him. But I soon realized he was in the best state of consciousness, and I wished I had the same faith in the holy names and the process of devotional service. Later we spoke together about chanting the holy names and various aspects of the Krishna consciousness process.

"I welcome this disease," he said, "and consider it Krishna's calling. Now my definition of what's important or irrelevant has changed; I seek to make Krishna my exclusive goal."

I was humbled and enlivened in his company, and wished my dying college friend and his relatives could take a cue from him.

Rohini Tanaya reminded me that for a sincere spiritual seeker, death is not the end; rather, it's the beginning of entering into the realm of eternity, knowledge, and bliss. For materialists, death is the end of everything they identify with; therefore they are in great distress at that moment. On the other hand, a lover of God doesn't mind getting old or nearing death, because he knows that as the body is coming closer to death, the soul is coming closer to its eternal spiritual youthful form. Death for a devotee means joining Krishna in the spiritual world for an eternal life of service and bliss.

The two contrasting experiences, with a college friend and with a devotee, convinced me that the process of devotional service makes a person mature beyond his age. A thirty-year-old with a spiritual connection to God can have sagacity and maturity far beyond the myopic vision of an eighty-year-old bereft of spiritual knowledge.

Postscript

Rohini Tanaya Dasa passed from this world in the loving association of Krishna's devotees chanting the holy names. He had been living as a resident brahmachari at the ISKCON temple in Nigdi, outside Pune.

During his last moments, Rohini Tanaya desired to be with the deities and devotees, so he was rushed to the temple, a four-hour drive from the hospital. On his arrival, all the resident devotees and more than five hundred congregation members performed an intense kirtana for more than an hour. As the evening arati started and the deities were greeted amidst loud chanting and the blowing of conch shells, indicating auspiciousness, Rohini Tanaya cast his last loving glance at the devotees and, while prayerfully looking upon the deities, departed from his body.

Devotees cried and rejoiced simultaneously, for this was an extraordinary, inspirational departure. Devotees had witnessed that Krishna consciousness is not simply a theory but a practical science. Rohini Tanaya had just shown by his example how a devotee fixed in Krishna consciousness receives Mr. Death cheerfully. 

Thank you very much.

Your servant,

Disha

The Journey of the Soul After Death

The Journey of the Soul After Death

The Eighth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita deals with the subject of life after death. 

The Puranas, the Upanishads, the Yoga Vasishtha and the Bhagavadgita contain many varieties of descriptions of the condition of the soul after it leaves this body. 

The Puranas, especially, go into a detailed, lurid description of the condition in which the soul finds itself—particularly if it has not done any merit, or if the merit it has done is so negligible that the wrongs it has committed outweigh the good or are on an equal footing with it.

The stories in the Garuda Purana and such other scriptures, even in the Bhagavata, are really frightening. 

When the soul departs from the body in the case of these lower, unpurified and negligibly religious souls, it is taken away by the messengers of Yama and placed before the Lord of Death for judgment.

It is said that Yama asks the soul, “What have you done?”

Ordinarily, it cannot remember anything. It will say, “I don’t know.”

The shock of separation from the body removes all memory, and it cannot remember what it has done in the previous life. 

It is said that then a hot rod, called a yamadanda, is kept on its head, and immediately it remembers its entire past. It knows every detail of the actions that it did, both good and bad.

The soul says, “I have done a little good, but have also made many mistakes and performed so many erroneous actions.”

Yama asks, “What do you have to say about it now?”

The soul replies, “I have got relatives. They will expiate them for me. They will conduct yajnas, charities, worship, sankirtans, bhajans and meditations in my name, and I shall be free from the consequence of the sins that I have committed or the mistakes that I have made.”“Go then!” says Yama, “And see what they do.”

Apparently, it takes ten days for the soul to be brought back, so some ceremony is usually done on the tenth, eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth days. The soul hovers around, observing what the relatives are doing, and Yama’s messengers stand behind like policemen to see what is done. 

If an expiatory ceremony is done in the name of the soul, such as the Bhagavata Saptaham, the Rudra Yaga, the Narayana Bali and the Vishnu Yajna, and varieties of charities are done, and all those things that were dear to the soul are also given in gift, the effect of these good deeds is credited to the account of the soul and it is exonerated to that extent.

But suppose this is not done and, like modern boys, the relatives do not believe in these observances: “If our father died, let it go, that’s all. We won’t bother about it,” and there is no charity, no goodwill, and they behave as if nothing has happened; or, they do not even believe that something happens after death because they think that there is no life after death. 

If that is the case, the soul is dragged back. When the policemen know that someone is a culprit, and it is confirmed, they deal with him very severely. 

If they know that he is going to be released and nothing is going to happen to him, they do not bother much about it. 

But if his relatives have done nothing, it is certain that he is going to be punished, so for one year they drag the soul to the kingdom of the Lord of Death.

 At first they brought it within ten days because they wanted to know what was happening. When it is certain that it is going to be punished, they drag it, pull it, scratch and beat it, and it will be hungry and thirsty and bleeding. That is why another ceremony is done after one year; it takes one year for the soul to return to the abode of Yama. 

The varshika (annual) ceremony is very important. If nothing has been done on the tenth to thirteenth days after the passing of the soul, at least something should be done on the anniversary so that some mercy may be granted by Lord Yama before the sentence is passed.

If the soul has no merit at all, it will be sent to the land of punishment, whatever the punishment be. 

In the Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana, the Garuda Purana, etc., the type of punishment and difficulties that the soul has to undergo are described in such gory language that we would not like to be born into this world again.

When the soul is expunged of all its sins by suffering in the prison of Yama’s hell, it is released. It is said that then it is sent to Rudraloka, and will not be allowed to leave. 

To release the soul from Rudra’s clutches, Rudra Yajna is done. 

Then it is sent to Vaikuntha, so Vishnu Yajna is done; and after many, many years, the soul attains moksha. 

This is how a bad person gets purified in a very painful way, and then finally attains blessedness.

Or, if the soul has a tremendous attachment to relations and to wealth, it can be reborn into this world. 

A Muslim gentleman lived near a house in which a Hindu family had a little baby. The baby was very beautiful. The Muslim wanted to fondle it, sit it on his lap, but the Hindus would not allow the Muslim to touch the baby, which greatly disturbed him. 

The child grew up, and then the Muslim died. This child, which had grown up, started talking in Persian.They asked, “What is this matter? Who are you?”He replied, “I am that Muslim gentleman who wanted to caress this child, and you didn’t allow it; and now I am possessing it!”This is the effect of attachments. 

And very intense attachments, which do not even give the soul time to take birth in this world, convert it into a ghost. 

Preta yoni is the outcome and, as described in the Bhagavata Purana, it hovers around in space, hungry and thirsty.Here the Bhagavadgita describes the more glorious paths to the higher realms. 

Those who are not spiritually awakened but have done immensely good deeds reach a lower kingdom called Chandraloka, the realm of the moon, where they stay invisibly and enjoy the fruit of their good deeds. 

When the momentum of their good deeds, charitable deeds, etc., is exhausted, they come back into this world. But if a person is spiritually awakened and is not merely a good man—not merely a charitable or a philanthropic person—then the path is different. 

These two paths are called the northern path and the southern path.

Yatra kāle tvanāvṛttim āvṛttiṁ caiva yoginaḥ, 

prayātā yānti taṁ kālaṁ vakṣyāmi bharatarṣabha (8.23):

 “I shall now tell you,” says Bhagavan Sri Krishna, “about that path treading which one returns, and that path treading which one does not return. These two paths I shall describe to you now—

uttaramarga or jyotirmarga,and dakshinamarga or dhumamarga, as they are called.”Agnir jotir ahaḥ śuklaḥ ṣaṇmāsā uttarāyaṇam, tatra prayātā gacchanti brahma brahmavido janāḥ (8.24): 

Everything is filled with light, everything is filled with divinity, and everything is superintended over by a divinity. The fire of cremation—that is the agni, the physical fire, which has a divinity of its own—assumes a divine form in the case of a person who is to rise up to the celestial realms. 

Then there is a divinity superintending over the daytime, in contrast with the night. If a person passes away during the daytime, and during the bright half of the lunar month, and during the northern movement of the sun, he shall reach the solar orb—Suryaloka. From there, he will be taken up further.

The Upanishads describe many more stages than the ones mentioned here. And at a particular stage beyond the sun, a superhuman entity is supposed to come and take the soul by the hand. 

Up to the solar orb, or even a little beyond, is called the realm of lightning. That is, beyond the sun, the lightning of Brahmaloka flashes forth. 

The individuality consciousness of the soul slowly gets diminished at that time, and it is not aware of any self-effort. It does not know that it is moving at all, inasmuch as the ego is almost gone. It is said that at that time an amanava purusha deputed by Brahma himself comes down in a luminous form, and leads the soul to the abode of Brahma, the Creator. 

This is the path of krama mukti, or gradual liberation, in which the soul is supposed to be glorying in Brahmaloka until Brahma himself is dissolved at the end of time—at the end of a hundred years of his life—and then the Absolute Brahman is reached.

But there is a possibility of immediate salvation without passing through all these stages—a hundredfold promotion, as it were. It is the dissolution of the soul in the supreme Brahman at this very spot. 

The soul need not have to travel in space and time because it is a jivanmukta purusha, one who has attained to a consciousness where there is no distance to be travelled. For him, there is no solar orb or anything else. 

He has spread his consciousness everywhere, in all beings: sarvabhūtahite ratāḥ (12.4). He is the soul of all beings, like Suka Maharishi, Vyasa, Vasishtha, etc. When his soul spreads itself everywhere in the cosmos, where is the question of moving? Na tasya prāṇā utkrāmanti (B.U. 4.4.6): His pranas do not depart, as is the case of other people. Brahmaiva san brahmāpyeti: They dissolve here, just now. 

That is, the moment the soul departs the body, it enters the supreme Brahman, the Absolute, then and there, without having to pass through all these stages. But in the case of krama mukti, the graduated steps mentioned in the Bhagavadgita, it is different.The divinity of fire, the divinity of daytime, the divinity of the lunar month’s bright half, and the divinity ruling over the northern movement of the sun will take care of the soul and bring it up. 

In the Moksha Parva of the Mahabharata there is the story of a great ascetic who rose up from his body, and a little flame rising up through the sky could be seen. It rose higher and higher until it reached the orb of the sun, where a divine being emerged from the solar orb and received it. According to our tradition, the sun is not a material substance. 

It is a divinity—hiranmaya purusha—in which a golden-coloured Narayana is seated. Just as a human being is not a body, the sun is also not a body; and just as we see only the body of a person and do not see what the person is on the inside, we do not see divinity of the sun. 

We see only its outer appearance, which we call helium, atomic energy, etc., in just the same way as we call a person bone and flesh, nerves, blood, etc.—which is not a correct description. 

So there is something beyond the human concept here. Divinities are everywhere in the cosmos, in every atom, which is also controlled and enveloped by the universal God. If God is everywhere, why should 

He not be in every atom and in everything? In the case of such a realisation, there is immediate dissolution.

Dhūmo rātris tathā kṛṣṇaḥ ṣaṇmāsā dakṣiṇāyanam, 

tatra cāndramasaṁ jyotir yogī prāpya nivartate (8.25). 

There are those who have not spiritually awakened themselves, have not done spiritual meditation, and have an insufficient devotion to God. Even if they are very good people, highly charitable and humanistic in their approach, they will not be allowed to move along this northern path to the sun. 

They will not go to Brahmaloka. They will go to a lower realm, called Chandraloka. The smoke which rises from the fire during cremation will be their guiding principle. The dark half of the lunar month, and the southern movement of the sun, signify a deficiency in divine powers and a lesser chance of the soul going up along the path of brightness. 

It will reach Chandraloka, where it will enjoy the fruits of the good deeds it has done. Whatever good deeds were done will have their effect. Every action produces a reaction. Any good, charitable deed will bring the soul an abundance of joy in Chandraloka; but the soul will come back, because anyone who has not realised the universality of God will come back. 

Only a soul who is totally devoted to God will gradually pass through these stages of divine ordinances to the Ultimate Being. But if we are united with God here itself, we will immediately merge into God.

Śuklakṛṣṇe gatī hyete jagataḥ śāśvate mate (8.26). 

Broadly speaking, these are two paths of the soul after death. Either we go that way or we go this way, according to our karma and our spiritual status. 

Śuklakṛṣṇe gatī hyete jagataḥ śāśvate mate, ekayā yāty anāvṛttim anyayāvartate punaḥ: 

By the one path, one does not come back to this world; by the other path, one returns.

Naite sṛtī pārtha jānan yogī muhyati kaścana, 

tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu yogayukto bhavārjuna (8.27). 

Having known clearly that these are the two paths, who would like to tread the lesser path? “Therefore, be a yogi, O Arjuna, and try to tread the upper path.” Whoever knows the merits and demerits of these two paths will certainly pursue the path of merit rather than the path of demerit. 

It is the lack of knowledge that prevents us from working for our own salvation. But if we know that such a thing exists, and that even after death our karmas will pursue us wherever we go—that even if we go to the nether regions, we will be caught by the nemesis of our actions, the results of what we have done, because there is a law which punishes us—we will obey the law. 

And if we know that there are these two paths, and there is a chance of our entering into the lower one, we will certainly work to attain the higher one. Knowing this, we will certainly become wiser and, therefore, work for a state of establishment in yoga—union with the divinities in the various graduated scales of development, or with the Supreme Absolute itself, whatever the case may be. Either way, one will be a supreme yogi who is united with the Absolute now, or one will be a graduated yogi who will move systematically through the stages mentioned. Anyway, knowing this, one will not come to grief. 

Tasmāt sarveṣu kāleṣu yogayukto bhavārjuna: 

“Therefore, become a yogi, Arjuna!”Vedeṣu yajñeṣu tapaḥsu caiva dāneṣu yat puṇyaphalaṁ pradiṣṭam, atyeti tat sarvam idaṁ viditvā yogī paraṁ sthānam upaiti cādyam (8.28). 

These discourses that you are hearing now as satsanga—the knowledge of these wonderful things beyond this world that you are gaining—is greater than all the good deeds that you do by way of charity, and all the sacrifices that you perform. 

All the merits that you will accrue by doing charity, good deeds and even the study of scriptures like the Vedas, and by doing austerity and living an abstemious life will bring you some good results. 

But this phala of satsanga, the blessing of this highly purifying training that your soul is undergoing by listening to these glorious eternal realities, certainly has a greater capacity to produce an effect than all the charities, studies and scriptures, etc. It transcends even the Vedas, and you attain to that place, that abode, which is the Ancient One. With this, we conclude ...................

Alexander

The great king Alexander, after conquering many kingdoms was returning home. On the way he fell ill and he was bedridden for months. With death drawing close, Alexander realized how his conquests ,his great army, his sharp sword and all his wealth were of no use. He called his generals and said “I will depart from this world soon.

But I have three wishes. Please fulfill my wishes without fail.” With tears flowing down their cheeks, the generals agreed to abide by their king’s last wishes

1. - “My first desire is that.” said Alexander, “my physicians alone must carry my coffin.”

2. - “Secondly, when my coffin is being carried to the grave the path should be strewn with gold, Silver & precious stones which I have collected in my treasury. 

3. - My third and last wish is That both of my hand should be kept dangling out of my coffin.” 

The people who had gathered there wondered at the king’s strange wishes. Alexander’s favorite general kissed his hands and pressed them to his heart.” O King we assure you that your wishes will be fulfilled but tell us why do you make such strange wishes?”

At this Alexander took a deep breath and said “I would like the world to know of the three Lessons I have just learned..

I want my physician to carry my coffin because people should realize that
No doctor can really cure anybody. They are powerless and cannot save a person from the clutches of death **So let not people take life for granted*.

The second wish of strewing gold silver and other riches on the way to the graveside is to tell people That not even a fraction of gold can be taken by me **Let people realize that it is a sheer waste of time to chase wealth*

And about my third wish of having my hands dangling out of the coffin, I
want people to know that I came empty handed into this world and empty
handed I go out of this world.” Alexander’s last words: keep my hands outside So that the world knows the person who won the world, had nothing in his hands when dying.”