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In many cultures around the world, there is a strong traditional caution against wearing the clothes of a deceased person, particularly intimate garments. Sadhguru, the renowned yogi and mystic, offers a profound energetic and spiritual explanation for this practice that goes far beyond superstition. According to him, such clothing can carry lingering impressions of the departed, potentially affecting the wearer’s well-being.
### The Process of Death in Yogic Understanding
Death, from a yogic perspective, is not an instantaneous event. When a person dies, their life energies — known as prana and its various manifestations such as samana, udhana, and vyana — do not leave the body all at once. This withdrawal happens gradually, often taking 11 to 14 days for a normal death.
Even after clinical death is declared:
– The body begins to cool as samana (the energy responsible for maintaining temperature) exits.
– Other vital energies follow in stages.
– Until the udhana energy fully leaves (typically within 6 to 12 hours), there remains a theoretical possibility of revival in certain tantric processes.
Once these energies completely depart, the being loses its intellect and discernment. It then functions purely on the basis of its ingrained tendencies and impressions. At this stage, the departed may linger in places or objects where strong physical memories remain.
### How Clothes Absorb Human Impressions
Clothing, especially items worn close to the skin like undergarments, absorbs not just physical traces such as sweat and DNA but also subtle energetic impressions or “vasanas.” These are the mental and energetic residues left by a person’s life experiences, emotions, and habits.
Yogis of the past understood this deeply. Many would burn their minimal belongings, including their huts, upon leaving the body to avoid leaving behind fragments of their own energy. Modern science supports this idea indirectly — DNA can be extracted from old clothing for identification or even cloning purposes.
For an ordinary person who has not consciously prepared for death, their intimate clothing can become a kind of “habitation” for residual energies. Without discretion, the departed being may remain attached to these items instead of moving on smoothly in its journey. Wearing such clothes transfers these impressions to the new wearer, which can subtly influence their energy, mind, and overall state of being.
### Practical Guidance from Sadhguru
Sadhguru offers clear, practical advice for handling the belongings of the deceased:
– **Intimate and close-contact clothing** (underwear, innerwear, and items worn directly on the body) should ideally be burned. This helps the departed detach more easily and prevents unwanted energetic residues from lingering.
– **Other clothing** can be widely distributed among many people, preferably far and wide. Spreading them out dilutes any concentrated impressions rather than passing them on to a single individual.
– Burning everything is not always practical in today’s world due to the volume of possessions people accumulate. However, special care must be taken with personal items that carry the strongest imprints.
This is why sannyasis and serious spiritual practitioners keep very few possessions — it makes the transition at the time of death far simpler and cleaner.
### A Matter of Energy, Not Superstition
Sadhguru presents this teaching not as blind belief but as a practical understanding of how life energies and physical memory function. Everything we touch and wear carries a piece of our energy. Traditional death rituals across cultures are designed both to support the departed soul’s smooth transition and to protect the living from unnecessary energetic entanglements.
While modern society may dismiss such practices as outdated, they stem from a sophisticated observation of life and death that yogic science has preserved for thousands of years. Whether or not one fully subscribes to this view, it invites us to treat the belongings of the deceased with respect and mindfulness — for the sake of both the living and the departed.
