Does anyone who die in a dhama on a holy day go back to Godhead?

Thank you very much. It is up to the sadhaka to help the sadhaka to spiritualize their consciousness. At the same time, it is also up to the sadhaka, his free will, whether they spiritualize their consciousness and how much they spiritualize.

And if somebody is not a sadhaka, somebody is more or less living a materialistic life, then also spiritual impressions are there. Because of being in the dham, but they may not be very, they themselves may not be very receptive to those spiritual impressions. So, let's now consider some of the statements in some of the Sthal Puranas or other Mahatme of the local dhams that people who to achieve his free will is never superseded in absolute sense by anything external.

The soul definitely must have some desire to attain Krishna. If that desire is not there, then even departing most auspicious of circumstances or settings, that will have some positive result, but not the ultimate positive result. Krishna Prabhupada said that even the dogs and the hogs in Vrindavan were special.

Everyone in Vrindavan is special. At the same time, he also said that some of the yogis who or some of the people who renounce the world and go to Vrindavan, but in Vrindavan commit illicit activities. They take birth as these animals.

So, they are yogis. In that sense, they are not just ordinary animals. But even dying in Vrindavan, even living in Vrindavan, actions have consequences.

So, we see Bharat Maharaj when he developed attachment to a deer, at that time he had renounced the world and he had gone to a sacred place. A specific sacred place is not mentioned there, but could well have been Samdham. So, or rather the specific potency of that sacred place may not have been mentioned, but may not have been explicitly described.

But still, the point is if he had taken the radical step of renouncing the world, then why would he settle for something less than the best place for doing his bhajan. So, surely the place where he was would have had some glory, some Mahatmya associated with it. And yet we see that because of his attachment to a deer, he did end up getting a deer's body.

He did not lose human consciousness because he had cultivated spiritual practice. So, the human consciousness remained but because of the attachment to a deer body, he got a deer body. So, then he was a deer, he was a soul in a deer body with human consciousness.

So, we see through such examples that at one level the scriptural promise that spiritual practice was never lost. Neha, Bikram and Ashusti. That is true.

But another scriptural statement that Yam Yam Vapismarad Bhavam Tijatvinti Kalevaram Tam Tamivaiti Kaunte The state of being we remember we retain that. That also is true. So, therefore we need to recognize how best to understand not just the letter of scripture but the spirit of scripture.

So, the spirit of scripture is that we cherish all the spiritual support systems that are available for us. We treasure them seeing them as invaluable opportunities invaluable benedictions that Krishna has given us by which we can spiritualize our consciousness. So, being in a dham is immensely auspicious.

Being in a dham on Ekadashi is even more immensely auspicious. And these are all immense opportunities for us to spiritualize our consciousness. And yet it is up to us to choose whether we spiritualize our consciousness or not.

So, there are so many glories of the dhamvasis described in the Dhamahatmyas. Bhakti Siddhant Sahakur was clear that not everybody in a dham is a dhamvasi. Bhakti Vinod Thakur says that there is a subtle, just says there is a subtle covering in all the dhamahatmyas he says that there is a subtle covering on the dham because of which not everyone is able to access the dham.

They may be on the dham but they are not in the dham. Now if a devotee, a sadhaka, a brahmachari leaves the body in the dham on Ekadashi that is definitely auspicious. Now, exactly what destination one will get that will depend not just on the auspiciousness of the setting but also on the consciousness of the person.

In general at the time, by the time of death our desire for Krishna has to be stronger than our other desires. Even if we are not free from all other desires if at least our desire for Krishna has become stronger than our desire for worldly things then we will move towards Krishna. If that has not happened if that has happened and Krishna at the moment of death can just magnify that desire and reciprocate that desire by taking us to him if that has not happened then depending on whatever our prominent desire is we may go to that destination.

So, in my understanding these scriptural promises about the exaltedness of the dhams and the auspiciousness of leaving one's body in the dhams these are meant to inspire us to take to the process of bhakti wholeheartedly especially while we are in the dhams and to treasure the spiritual stimuli offered by the dhams. But they are indicative of the magnitude of the Lord's mercy. They reflect his compassionate heart.

So, we have to reciprocate with his compassionate heart, with a repentant heart. Oh my dear Lord, I have stayed away from you so long, please forgive me and please accept me, I wholeheartedly surrender to you. When the Lord is speaking with his heart, these promises through the scriptures then if we try to respond with a calculated head if somebody enjoys Sanskritification throughout their lives and then when they have had enough, they go to a dham on a holy day and they put a gun in front of their head and they shoot themselves saying Hare Krishna.

We cannot trick Krishna to take us back to Godhead. So, what the presence of the auspicious stimuli externally will do is they will offer us more opportunity for remembering Krishna and Krishna may also magnify whatever little spiritual desire or inclination we may have but we need to have spiritual desire and inclination ourselves. Without that, we cannot attain Krishna.

And with it, Krishna can immensely magnify whatever little desire we have and Krishna can elevate us to a destination far, far higher than what we may deserve.