This is the answer to a question regarding a devotee dying while being in a coma.
We have three specific quotes from Guru and Scriptures about dying during a coma and the fourth one concerning Krishna’s mercy upon those who do not achieve perfection.
“If you practice, it is possible that when you are sleeping you will chant, because the mind is not inactive even when you are sleeping. So if you become practiced in the mind and intelligence platform of your life, then even when you are sleeping, even when you are dreaming, you will be chanting
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna,
Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare.
And if this perfection is attained, then in the coma stage of life also, even if you cannot speak at the time of death, internally you will be able to chant the Hare Krishna mantra, and that will guarantee your transformation from this material world to the spiritual world. That is the process.”[1]
“Ordinary men, there is nothing to be lamented. This change of body is just like changing clothing. But with a devotee, his case is different. If he had finished his Krishna consciousness, or at the time of being unconscious, in coma, he remembered Krishna, then he has gone to Krishna.”[2]
“Sometimes, when a person is dying, he falls into a coma and lies unconscious. We do not know what kind of fearful test this person is undergoing. He may be dreaming so many things, or he may be crying. He cannot express what is going on. Those who are very sinful especially die in that way.”[3]
adi vatadi doshena mad bhakto mam na cha smaret
aham smarami mad bhaktah nayami parama-gatim
“If My devotee is unable to remember Me at the time of death because of disturbances felt within the body at that time, then I shall remember My devotee and take him back to My supreme abode.”[4]
[1] Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.2.45, Māgha-melā, lecture given on January 29, 1971, in Prayaga, India, by Srila Prabhupada.
[2] Srila Prabhupada class on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.1.18
[3] Srila Prabhupada in Teachings of Lord Kapila
[4] Varaha Purana
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