Bhishma swore to remain a bachelor and never be drawn by the charms of women. This was an oath he took, so that Satyavathi would agree to marry his father King Shantanu. As a reward, Shantanu gave Bhishma the boon of deciding when he wanted to die. Bhishma had been hit in the battle, but did not give up his life, until the moment of his choice. And what was that moment he awaited? It is said that a person attains mukti if he dies during Uttarayana, Sukla Paksa, said P.T. Seshadri, in a discourse.
Even if a man has observed bhakti yoga, only death at this time will liberate him. And so Bhishma waited for this time, lying all the while on a bed of arrows. But who else but Bhishma has had such a boon of choosing the time of his or her own death?
So what happens if people have meticulously observed bhakti yoga, but do not die in the prescribed period? Will they not attain mukti? There is an interesting answer to this question in the life of the Vaishnava preceptor Peria Nambi. His eyes were put out by a fanatic Chola king and Nambi’s life was ebbing away. His daughter Athuzhai urged him to walk some distance, so that he would die in Srirangam, in which case he would attain mukti.
Peria Nambi said that nowhere do the Sastras say that God will welcome a soul to His abode, only if a person dies in a certain place.
One can infer from this that a true jnani will attain moksha wherever he dies. Wherever he dies, that becomes a punya bhumi.
Conditions about the time and place of death do not apply to jnanis. They only apply to ordinary people.
