Death brings to surface your personality
It is very difficult to predict how different people's unconscious minds will react. Their whole life will be reflected in their reaction, that much is certain. But everybody's life has moved through different paths, different experiences, and the culminating point is going to be different.
Death brings to the surface your essential personality.
An old man was dying -- he was a very rich man. His whole family was gathered there. The eldest son said, "What should we do when he dies? We will have to rent a car to take him to the graveyard."
The youngest son said, "He always longed for a Rolls Royce. In life he could not sit in one, but at the least, dead, he can enjoy a ride -- a one-way ride of course -- to the graveyard."
But the eldest son said, "You are too young, and you don't understand a thing. Dead people don't enjoy anything. It does not matter to the dead person whether it is a Rolls Royce, or just a Ford. A Ford will do."
The second son said, "Why are you being so extravagant? Anyway, a dead body only has to be carried. I know a person who has a truck -- it will be more comfortable, and cheaper also."
The third son said, "I cannot tolerate all this nonsense. What is the need to be worried about Rolls Royces and Fords and trucks? Is he going to be married? He is going to die. We will just put him outside the house where we put all our garbage. The municipal truck will take him automatically, no expense at all."
At this moment the old man opened his eyes and said, "Where are my shoes?"
They said, "What are you going to do with your shoes? You just rest."
But he said, "I want my shoes."
The eldest son said, "He is a stubborn man. Perhaps he wants to die with his shoes on. Let him have his shoes."
And the old man, as he was putting the shoes on, said, "You need not be worried about expenses. I still have a little life left; I will walk down to the graveyard. See you there! I will die exactly by the grave. It hurts me that you are all so extravagant; even in my life I only dreamt about a Rolls Royce, or some other beautiful car. Dreaming is inexpensive, you can dream about anything."
And, it is said, the old man walked to the graveyard, his sons and his relatives following him, and he died exactly by his grave -- to save money.
The last thought in a dying man is very characteristic of his whole life, his whole philosophy, his whole religion. It is a tremendous exposure.