Ask The Master: 20 Nov 2007

What actually happens after death? What is death? It is the most mysterious thing!

Let me answer this question first: Why should we analyze death? (continuation from an earlier post)

Your idea, your understanding about death will change your understanding about life.

In Los Angeles, more than a hundred years ago, Vivekananda was asked by a young lady, 'What is life?' He replied, 'Come with me to India and I will teach you.' She was confused and asked, 'What will you teach me?' Vivekananda said, 'I will teach you how to die!'

It seems strange that the question is about life but the answer is about death!

Actually, if you know the secret of death, your quality of life will be different! Your quality of life, your understanding and attitude to life will change.

Understand that death is not an incident that happens at the end of your life. It is actually happening at every moment of your life! When the understanding of death permeates your consciousness, you will have a clear idea of life. You will realize that living and leaving are just two sides of the same coin.

The renowned painter, Leonardo da Vince once said, 'While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.'

As Khahil Gibran writes:

If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, Open your heart wide unto the body of life.

For life and death are one,

Even as the river and the sea are one.

Albert Einstein, arguably the greatest scientist of them all, was deeply distressed when his scientific discoveries were out to highly destructive use. He turned spiritual and nearer his death, fully believed in the reality of rebirth. He could not otherwise reconcile the purpose of this highly intelligent Universe in creating highly intelligent beings who had such a transient existence.

Serious enquirers of this purpose of Existence in creating humans eventually turned to the Eastern religions of Hinduism and Buddhism to dissolve their doubts.

The Eastern philosophy is based upon the experiences of the great enlightened masters and rishis. They believed in many births. They believed in a continuous flow of life and death that Khalil wrote about. Instead of the limiting scientific tradition of the West borne out of the limited space of life, this idea of unlimited space and time of life and death of the Eastern religions gave birth to spirituality. When you keep taking birth again and again, enacting the same drama of a brother, sister, husband, friend, parent, you eventually feel fed up of this drama. When you die, you leave these co-actors and go. Again, when you come back, you have a new setup. It goes on and on. After some time, you are fed up of going through the same cycle over and over. You start looking for liberation. The moment you start thinking about liberation, you start thinking about moksha or enlightenment. Spirituality is all about this. Your understanding of death makes you understand about life.

According to me, your concept of death is the one basis on which you live. (to be contd.)

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Beyond Life And Death