478
Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 1, Ch. 9]
tadā —at that time;  upasaṁhṛtya —withdrawing;  giraḥ —speeches;  sahasraṇīḥ —Bhīṣmadeva (expert in thousands of sciences and arts);  vimukta-saṅgam —completely freed from everything else;  manaḥ —mind;  ādi-pūruṣe —unto the original Personality of Godhead;  kṛṣṇe —unto Kṛṣṇa;  lasat-pīta-paṭe —decorated with yellow garments;  catur-bhuje —unto four-handed original Nārāyaṇa;  puraḥ —just before;  sthite —standing by;  amīlita —widespread;  dṛk —vision;  vyadhārayat —fixed.
TRANSLATION
Thereupon that man who spoke on different subjects with thousands of meanings and who fought on thousands of battlefields and protected thousands of men, stopped speaking, and being completely freed from all bondage, withdrew his mind from everything else and fixed his wide-open eyes upon the Personality of Godhead Śrī Kṛṣṇa who stood before him, four-handed, dressed in yellow garments that glittered and shined.
PURPORT
In the momentous hour of leaving this material body the glorious example set by Bhīṣmadeva is the important function of the human form of life.  The subject matter which attracts the dying man becomes the beginning of his next life.  If, therefore, one is absorbed in the thoughts of the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, he is sure to go back to Godhead without any doubt. This is confirmed in the  Bhagavad-gītā  (Bg. 8.5-15):
5: And whoever, at the time of death, quits his body, remembering Me alone, at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt.
6: Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, that state he will attain without fail.
7: Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Kṛṣṇa and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt.
8: He who meditates on the Supreme Personality of Godhead, his mind constantly engaged in remembering Me, undeviated from the path, he, O Pārtha [Arjuna], is sure to reach Me.
9: One should meditate upon the Supreme Person as the one who knows everything, as He who is the oldest, who is the controller, who is smaller than the smallest, who is the maintainer of everything, who is beyond all material conception, who is inconceivable, and who is always a person. He is luminous like the sun and, being transcendental, is beyond this material nature.