Dr. Rajiv Parti - Dying to Wake Up

Published: Sept. 15, 2016, 5 p.m.

Dr. Parti\u2019s near death experience took place Christmas Day, 2010, two years after surgery that successfully eliminated cancer from his body. A follow up surgery led to an abdominal infection that required several more surgeries, leading Dr. Parti to become addicted to pain pills and anti-depressants. Still the infection got worse.\n\nRushed 100 miles to UCLA hospital with a 105-degree temperature and an infection that had spread to his blood, Dr. Parti feared this may be his last night on earth. Dr. Parti checked-in to UCLA hospital where his doctor tried to fight the blood infection with powerful antibiotics. Deeply concerned by the infection\u2019s lack of response, surgery was ordered for the next day, a Christmas present that amounted to a lengthy abdominal operation and a near-death experience that changed his life.\n\nTwenty minutes after surgery started, Dr. Parti found himself floating near the ceiling of the operating theatre. With all of his senses intact, Dr. Parti watched as the surgeons cleaned infection from his abdomen. He even heard the anesthesiologist tell a dirty joke that he repeated back to him later. Dr. Parti\u2019s consciousness had left his body.\n\nHumor turned to horror as Dr. Parti went to a pitch dark realm, infused with the smell of burning meat and raucous with the sounds of crying souls. Hell! Dr. Parti had gone to Hell for neglecting the emotional needs of his patients and family. On the brink of Hell, Dr. Parti cried for help, and an unlikely soul appeared, his father.\n\nDr. Parti was transformed by the light. He resigned his job as chief anesthesiologist and began practicing for his new purpose in life. \u201cI had felt the power of the source, my own heart calling me. The divine Light Being\u2019s instructions were very vivid in my mind. I needed to follow my Dharma and help people with diseases of the soul.