Why
fear death ?
Even as a living body passes
through the stages of boyhood, youth and
old age, death too in realty is no more than a phase of the body. It is the
parting of this body and the soul which is known by the name of death. Really
speaking death is no bugbear, it is a mere change of body. Even as a man puts
on a new garment, changing the old, the jivatma (the soul seated in Prakrti)
seeks another body casting off the former. In fact the soul remains unchanged
in substance.
You are afraid of death
simply because you regard the physical body as your own self. The body is material;
it is brought into being in the mother’s womb. And that whichever comes to be
will surely perish. Like its creation its dissolution too is quite natural and
normal. Your real self, however, who is spiritual in essence, is eternal; it is
free from boyhood, youth, old age, disease death and so on. Hence you no cause
for fear of death. Such fear is sheer ignorance.
This death of the body too
takes place only so long as the soul remains seated in and falsely identified
with the mutable and transient evolutes of Prakrti and continues to recognize
them as its own self. The moment it flashes on the soul, the moment he comes to
know that all these changes are nothing but transformations of Prakrti, that he
is only their witness ever unaffected by them, you will be freed from the
shackles of birth and death—shackles which do not exist in reality but are
fancied.
This prakrti (matter) and
its evolutes too do not really exist in the form you perceive them. They are
all Maya (illusion) or a mere sport of the Lord. Taking the form of the play,
the playthings and the player He Himself is carrying on this play. Birth too is
a form of the Lord assumed for sport and so too is death. He alone appears in
the form of death. If, knowing this fact and recognizing the most beloved Lord
arrived in the form of death, you embrace Him, all the horror of death will be
transmuted into supreme bliss. Meeting the Lord you will become highly blessed
and eternally happy. Therefore do not fear death, see God concealed behind it.
You will have Him the moment you see Him. So long as you gaze on outward charm
He remains concealed from your view, though open to view. once you recognize
Him He is ever visible, He alone exists-everywhere, at all times, in all forms,
in all circumstances and in all names and forms
The fulfilment of human life
too lies in this alone. Human life has been vouchsafed to us for this very
purpose that in this the soul may be freed from the false bondage of matter,
that, realizing its true nature, it may rise from Jivahood to the state of
eternal Spirit. The eternal Self, it ever is; it is the role of a Jiva assumed
by it that is withholding from it the realization of its true self. It is for
this reason that, though ever existing in its own self.
He alone is out of sorts,
who are Prakrtistha-established in Prakrti; while he alone is healthy who is
established in the self. The criterion of health is to see God, to discover God
alone even in spite of diversity in dealings on established in the Self is the
goal of human existence and true sadhana or spiritual discipline consists in
thoughts and actions leading the goal alone.
- what is Death
- what is Death