7 Aug 2008 —
Question
Q74: What is Death?
Question 74:
“What is your belief about “Death”? To what extend do you succeed in living in harmony with this belief?”
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Whatever is born must die. That’s the Law of Creation.
Bhagavad Gita has enough details and needs no fact to prove or disprove it.
Amma said in the movie ‘Darshan’ it’s like a pause in once journey
so I take it so, it’s a pause. I live with it, for what else could I do as a part of life scenario?
Amma’s has said – Death is like a period after every sentence. The next sentence follows after that. Satguru’s words are the truth.
To what extend do I succeed in living in harmony with this belief? It helps me become more alert. I am trying to make this life the last sentence or at least make it a sentence in the final paragraph.
Death is the end of my personality, my memories, and my conscious associations. It is the end of the “me” with which I identify until I can learn to de-identify with my ego.
I’ll answer part two when, with Amma’s Grace, I can move past my current perception.
In reality there is no such thing as Death. It is just, as Amma says, a period at the end of a sentence, it’s just a pause before the next life begins. This body dies, or returns to the Earth because we have left it. We, the soul, are eternal and have no beginning or end.
I believe that death is simply a new start. It is when your soul leaves this body to enter a new body, living a new life based on karma and other things that need to be accomplished. It’s another way to reach self realization. To me, I think death seems to be very relieving. Yes you leave behind everything, but it gives you a new opportunity to start again and workout new karma, good or bad. When you die, it is the time Amma thinks you need to leave this body. It should never be a sad thing. Amma does this when she thinks it should best happen. To me death is a beautiful beginning.
There is no death. Regarding to body, death is time for changing to a new cloth.
It’s a full stop. then, “we” start again. 🙁
this is what Amma says.. 🙂
for me it’s still a belief, as i am ignorant of this experience, even though I might have gone through it several times, over and over again. 🙂
It may be like “just” another of these “experiences” that we experience every day, every moment of our so called “life”. may be it’s the “end”, the final Full (universal, eternal, all embracing) stop after all these meaningless “words” that we write on “this Big sheet” of paper. . . . . . called “LIFE”
Death is the end of a role we are playing at present and the beginning of a new role which would be awarded. When one has realised his own self, then the cycle of death and birth ends.
Death is another aspect of (our) existence with different dimension.
Death – a change from solid state to vapour.
Always living in harmony with this belief!!!!!
Death is a recurring aspect of life during the ups and downs of one’s life. Whenever one encounters a major setback or failures, he or she ‘dies’ temporarily and enter into the life again with some additional knowledge to ‘survive’ and goes on with the life until the next ‘virtual death’. A person dies finally one day to mark his or her ‘END’ from this planet.
I know what Amma says on death but I don’t actually know for myself; I just know that when my dad died, he looked in peace and I experienced a sort of peaceful satisfaction. In a way Amma is teaching me how to domesticate the idea of death; I am more and more aware I’m dying everyday.
In the western world, death is considered as something to be afraid of, as something that should not be spoken about in happy circumstances. But, death is neither good nor bad. We have no choice in the matter. It is something which is inevitable. Everyone has to make his exit someday; that moment should not be a moment of anguish or of despair; one should depart gracefully, with a smile. One should know that the real ”I” is deathless. Amma tells us that ”the best preparation for death is to become conscious that the soul is eternal. Just as we change our clothes, so the soul changes the body.” When one reachs this state of consciousness, one makes death a sublime act of liberation.
Whatever is born into this world and takes a form is sure to change, decay and pass away. One should not be afraid at any time that life will fly away from the body. As Sri Krishna has said: ”Self is never born nor does it ever die; nor, having once been, does it again cease to be. Unborn, eternal, permanent, and primeval. It is not slain when the body is slain.” One should get away, full of gratitude for the chance given to see God in everything that one saw, heard, touched, smelt and tasted. One must remember the Lord, with one’s last breath. Moreover, leaving all that has been accumulated during a long lifetime, is a hard task; so one has to prepare for it by discarding attachment to one thing after another from now on. If one cultivate this attitude, one can depart with a smile whenever the curtain falls on this dreamland stage.
Easy to say all this, but hard to put it into practice.
‘Avoiding death kills us.
Death drops us down to the knees then it wings us.’ Do we not come to Amma because we are deathing? Deathing to really live. Deathing to be real, to stop pretending that we are pretenders. Deathing to embody the truth of I AM. Surley living and deathing serve one another. Living and deathing are like the Yin/Yang symbol where living contains deathing, and deathing contains the living. Much of our life drama is seeing these as duality rather than aligning with the circle that contains both living and deathing with loving embrace.
the Gita says “What had been created will be inevitably destroyed one day.Once u know this, there is no need to grieve over what is lost”.
I never witnessed a loss of life….so i dont know what death is like.But i cannot bring myself to the idea that death means you no longer see the person,hear him,touch him.Soul never dies,it just changes forms.Death is the journey to the ultimate Truth,where in between we take a break called Life.
It is the nature of Devi to subdue the wicked. She conquers even death.
Death is the transition of the soul from one body to another, which is not under our control. But for realized souls, they can choose the body, time and place – for the benefit of the world. I believe that death is getting free from all negativities and/or realizing one’s self; those who are living untruthful life have to encounter death each and every moment.
If I follow the laws of the universe, death is just a change from one matter to another, one place to another. Maybe with a satguru we can plan our deaths and give our good karma to someone suffering and young – it can be that simple. We can then face death like we face the giving away of an organ or blood to help someone. But the way most of us live, the approach of death creates fear and pain in our minds. It is especially painful for those who are left behind. And then, the journey of the soul is also full of fear because we don’t know where we are heading in the huge space.
Uptill now I had not realize how central death is to living. I had perceived it as something dark and depressing. But this bloggers’ exercise has made me see why life is a preparation for death. If we smile and go, it gives people around us easy relief. After the smile, the soul takes leave. I imagine that, without the body and mind to hold the soul down, it moves at a great speed, pulled by a magnet of Life Force. Once our term with the magnet is over, we probably find ourselves hurtling down, flying past solar systems. star and other debris. Given the shock and the uncertainty after the soul departs, it is worthwhile preparing for death properly, and thus getting closer to liberation.
Just the other day there was a roaring thunder and lightening in my area. Out of fear I closed all the windows, the curtains, and crouched in a corner and started chanting my mantra. I realized how lucky I was to have a mantra from a God-realized Master like Amma, and soon I felt protected, and calmer. While life is bringing me closer to death, thought of death brings me closer to Amma.
As Amma has said, death is our greatest friend – the great motivator. We never know when it will come. If we want to be reborn with Amma in our lives in a human rebirth with the intelligence and circumstances that enable us to learn from her, we have to apply her teachings now!
My prayer is that I can die, feeling Her great love in my heart, flowing back to Her and out to All That Is. The only way I can do that is to learn to live like that now. Only with Her Grace is that possible. And knowing that Amma is the embodiment of compassion, I am learning to trust that it can be so.
Amma says something like we should live like birds sitting on a dry twig ready to fly at any moment. I don’t know the time of death but I know I won’t be taking anything with me. I don’t always remember it when I have to chose between several options. I wish I can detach myself more.
i think a lot about dying or someone else dying…death is showing us the nature of this world…illusory. I am about to loose a dear one and i feel like it wasnt real. I also feel thankful for all the things i could learn through this Maya.
Death can be detachment towards everything. In this I’m assuming it is to the body. My view is that the jiva is trying to learn detachment to the physical objects through death experiences. However due to desires we get attached again and again, until we get truly detached even while living. I am trying detachment in my daily life. With Amma’s Grace I can see things are not “ours” and am learning to attach less importance to objects.
When we see how attached we are even to things that are always changing, including our own bodies and personalities, we get a glimpse of the enormous significance of death. Still, it seems a cruel and grotesque process. Amma, and the other spiritual greats of our planet over the ages, give us our only hope that, beyond the threatening appearance and mystery of death there is a sanity superior to what we have experienced in this life on this small planet. Hers is a comfort beyond words that transcends what we can’t understand through our minds and limited senses.
I wasted time in childhood and I will probably in old age. And there is so much to do before this body gives way. I try everyday to remember that I should use this god-given body to fullest. I pray that Amma helps me while I try to be of more use to Her.
Death = Body giving way
Me living in harmony with this belief = Prayers to Amma to help me while I try to be of more use to Her with this instrument She gave me – my body.
Death is merely a change of body. I believe that, with wisdom, you can be aware of what you’ll choose to come back as in your next life. I believe that mahatmas who came back to teach us have reached a certain degree of wisdom in their past lives which allowed them to choose to come back as mahatmas. I am not afraid of death, it’s quite the opposite, i await it with joy.
All the things like the body of a human beings, animals, trees and plants everything has to undergo this function of Death. Whatever is born has to die. That is the law of the nature. But whatever died has to come again also. This also is part of the law. See when only the day dies the night begins. So we can see Death as a start of a new begining. When we put fullstop after a sentence, then only we can start a new sentence, no? So i think Deathday is a more important day than the Birthday. We can enjoy it!
Death is the only certainity in our lives. while everything else is a temporary, death is certain once we are born. Each breath we take is one closer to our death. To remember that we will all die one day can help us rise above our petty ego that traps us into the whirlpool of karma and set ourselves free from the cycle of birth and death unto eternal happiness in the lap of our Divine Mother… Jai Jai Ma Kali!!!
Agree with jagadambe29