CHENNAI: Death is an eternal enigma. Even though humans have stretched the frontiers of science to invent every imaginable comfort for their body, they have failed to understand death and conquer it. Very few humans know when death will come and where it will lead to, because death is inevitable and keeps no calendar. Life may not be fair to all, but death deals equally with all. Dying for a noble cause such as for patriotism, or for social work brings glory to the dead. Such deaths win over a lot of sympathy and goodwill for the soul. Then there are those who die a silent death without suffering much illness or pain. Such deaths happen to fortunate souls who perform good actions. There are also violent deaths such as accidents, suicides and executions. Such deaths are preceded by suffering and bitterness and followed by more agony for the soul. So, are there any happy deaths or can death be a rewarding experience? Well, to understand this, we need to know about the ways of life.
In essence, life is a phenomenon that unfolds when a soul enters a body and death is simply a state, when a soul leaves one body and enters a new one. Hence, the person that passes away is the soul that was living in the body. A soul is a sentient energy that manifests itself in three levels — the mind, intellect and sanskars. A common saying goes that when you die, the world is dead for you. Hence, what ends with death is the soul’s connection or attachment to the limited world that it is related to whilst in the body, such as relationships and possessions. However, an amazing trait of the soul is, that it carries over the karmic debts and sanskars into the next life.
We all know that everyone has to die one day yet we never think about our own death. This may be because as souls, we have been living in different bodies birth after birth for ages. So, the experience of sensual pleasures and the attachment to people and objects pull our soul strongly to the body even when it is liberated from it. When a person feels that death is approaching they try every means to push their declining bodies to the limit, to enjoy more physical pleasures. They forget that death is not the end of everything but it marks a major turning point in the journey of the soul.
Death also means newness. It fills the soul with freshness and renewed zest for life and broadens the scope for the soul to evolve with new experiences in different bodies and places. This renewal is what makes the concept of eternity meaningful. The cycle of life and world drama could not go on eternally if there was no death. For a spiritually enlightened soul, death means final liberation from earthly bondage.
So, how does one get over the fear of death? The root cause of our fear is that it leads to sin and suffering. Hence the awareness that we are eternal souls is the key to conquer the fear of death. Immortality is the awareness of our eternity and mastery over body. A spiritually empowered soul becomes immortal by practising soul consciousness whilst living in the body. On the other hand, for sinful souls life itself is a living death for they die everyday out of fear and suffering but those who die alive — those who live in the world with no attachment with the worldly matters are indeed liberated even in life. So, don’t fear death, instead die alive to enjoy immortality.
