During the process of death the soul withdraws from the nine portals of the body and comes to the eye center, from where it proceeds further, leaving the body dead. Those initiated by a Saint into the mysteries of Shabd go through the same process of death during their spiritual practice. Consciously withdrawing their soul to the eye center, they leave the body and enter the inner spiritual regions; but they return to the body after the period of meditation is over. Saints have called this practice 'dying while living'. The devotee who thus dies while living conquers the fear of death, subdues his ego and becomes impervious to the lures of the world. He is freed from the chains of cause and effect; he rises above the law of karma. Kabir says that one who has died while living finds death sweet, but one can only experience such a death through the guidance and grace of a Master.

If one dies while living,
For him death is sweet;
Death is sweet for him
Who has experienced it
Through the Master's grace.

Cause has died for him,
So too has died effect;
The coquette has also died
With all her alluring ways.

If one dies while living,
For him death is sweet.

His rank and honor are dead,
So too is dead his I-ness;
His pride is dead, with it
All his deceptive desires.

If one dies while living,
For him death is sweet.

Those who while living die
By merging into the Lord
Become immortal, O Kabir.

If one dies while living,
For him death is sweet;
Death is sweet for him
Who has experienced it
Through the Master's grace.

K.G., p. 80:46
Je ko marai maran hai meethā