Let my praṇa merge with the universal all pervading praṇa, let the body be burnt by fire and reduced to ashes. Now, o mind! Remember, please remember all that has been done, remember all that has been done.

This beautiful mantra, in referring to praṇa, manages to explain the climax of Sanātana—dharma and of Adwaita—vedānta, the fusion of the drop with the ocean, of the private with the universal, of the part with the Whole, of the soul with God...

"Let the body be burnt by fire and reduced to ashes".

Both brahmacārins and those who accept the sacred order of renounced life, wear orange—colored clothes, which are the color of fire. When a body is entered into the fire, whether it is the body of a criminal or of a saint, of a thief or of a religious person, only one substance will remain, without any differences: ashes. In this sense, fire is the great revealer. Similarly, when bodily desires, the inclination to satisfy bodily senses and the search for bodily pleasure, are all burnt in the flames of wisdom, what will remain is the same Brahman... our authentic nature, which is one and the same as the one which lies in everything and everyone...

"Now, o mind! Remember, please remember all that has been done, remember all that has been done". The ṛṣi addresses the mind, and implores it not to forget all that has been done. What the mind has done is all that has occurred, that is, from the ego, which is "the doer" or ahaṅkāra, to the entire story that shapes this dream, this illusion. Remember, dear mind: vanity, pride, all that you have planned to enjoy, your enemies, your attachments, your rancor, your misery... Do not forget, mind, because if you do, you will probably commit the same mistakes; you will fall asleep and dream once again. It is true that the words of the sage are being uttered at the moment of his death, but not of his physical death. In spiritual life, it is spoken of as "dying before dying", because surrendering to God is a suicide, and enlightenment is a kind of death. It is the end of the dream, the evaporation of the "I", the disappearance of the part, the death of the ego... enlightenment is to remember not to forget... and illusion is to forget to remember...