Forum: hinduism.stackexchange.com
Tags: <identification-request><death><rebirth>
Title: Is it true that the next life depends on our thoughts while dying?
Question: I heard from many preachings that whatever the person thinks while dying, will eventually decide the persons next life.  Is it true?

Answers:
sents: text: Yes .
text: BG 8.6 —
text: Also [when] the body is left remembering whatever "Nature" at the end, O son of Kunti, [it] always approaches towards establishing those nature(s) only.
text: This is further confirmed by below verse, which though said in the context of the Yogi-s, is applicable to all.
text: i.e. we carry forward the practices/ samskAra -s of our past births.
text: BG 6.44 -
text: For, by that very past practice, he is carried forward even in spite of himself!
text: Even a seeker of Yoga transcends the result of the performance of Vedic rituals!
text: (tr: Gambhirananda) Also refer my answer in:
text: According to Hinduism, what do we carry into afterlife and next birth?
text: Out Mann / mind is carried to the next life.
text: Also as per Gita, if a person dies thoughtless, then attains liberation.
text: The other way of calling thoughtless mind is, the mind which is concentrated in the thoughts of "Me" alone.
text: Refer BG 8.5 in this answer's context.
answer_details: author: hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/1049/iammilind
score: 6
sents: text: Actually it's Yes
text: and No.
text: If you always have happy thoughts and you were a good person spiritually then in your last moment also you would be good and hence the conjecture holds true, and on the other hand you are a wicked man during your lifetime and since we don't know when we will die, its highly likely that a wicked man has wicked thoughts when he dies, hence its how you live that defines the thoughts you have when you die.
text: There is a Pasuram in Tamil by Periyazhwar that says I'll say the gods name now and that you consider it as my last words as I die, but if you analyse it, he goes to say that I'll say it now and if I have the habit of saying it always only will I be able to think of you in my last moment as well. thuppudaiyaarai_adaivadhellaam
text: sOrvidaththuththuNaiyaavarenRE oppilEnaakilumn^innadaindhEn
text: aanaikkun^ee_aruLseydhamaiyaal eyppu_ennaivandhun^aliyumpOdhu angu_Edhumn^aanunnain^inaikkamaattEn appOdhaikku_ippOdhEsollivaiththEn arangaththaravaNaippaLLiyaanE! Periyazhvar Thirumozhi 423 Translation The meek surrender to You, confident that You will save them when their strengths are gone; I am of no merit, yet I surrender unto You, with unshakable faith that You will save me, like You saved GajEndran.
text: O!
text: the Lord of Sri Rangam, slumbering upon the snake-bed, when old age is upon me, I won't think of You; So, let me surrender unto You, right here and now
answer_details: author: hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/15549/Giriprasad Raghuraman
score: 3
sents: text: One example for this is mentioned in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (Bhāgavata Purāṇa)
text: » Canto 5:
text: The Creative Impetus
text: Although he was able to give up his opulent kingdom, he became attached to the deer.
text: Thus he fell down from his mystic yoga practice.
text: Once when the deer was absent, Mahārāja Bharata was so disturbed that he began to search for it.
text: While searching and lamenting the deer’s absence, Mahārāja Bharata fell down and died.
text: Because his mind was fully absorbed thinking of the deer
text: , he naturally took his next birth from the womb of a deer.
answer_details: author: hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/12304/YDS
score: 3
sents: text: Yes, it is told by Shandilya in Chhandogya Upanishad: सर्वं
text: खल्विदं ब्रह्म
text: तज्जलानिति शान्त उपासीत । अथ खलु
text: क्रतुमयः पुरुषो
text: यथाक्रतुरस्मिꣳल्लोके पुरुषो भवति तथेतः प्रेत्य
text: भवति स
text: क्रतुं कुर्वीत ॥ ३.१४.
text: १॥ III-xiv-1: Verily, all this universe is Brahman.
text: From Him do all things originate, into Him
text: do they dissolve and by Him are they sustained.
text: On Him should one meditate in tranquility.
text: For as is one's faith, such indeed one is; and as is one's faith in this world, such one becomes on departing hence.
text: Let one, therefore, cultivate faith.
answer_details: author: hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/277/Pandya
score: 3
sents: text: अन्ते
text: मति
text: : सा गति: | Yes.
text: It is true.
text: That's why 'Pitamaha Bheeshma' requested Lord Krishna to be in front of him and while watching him and chanting 'Vishnusahasranama', he left his mortal body.
text: (ref.:- Mahabharata - Yuddha Parwa Anushasana Parva).
answer_details: author: hinduism.stackexchange.com/users/15425/Vineet
score: 2

Summary of the answers:
Yes, what the person thinks when dying influences their next life. Also [when] the body is left remembering whatever "Nature" at the end, O son of Kunti, [it] always approaches towards establishing those nature(s) only.   
When the body is left remembering whatever "Nature" at the end, O son of Kunti, it always approaches towards establishing those nature(s) only.