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Swami Suddhananda |
(The end of three friends – Satyananda Sethi, IAS,
my college mate, Swami Tattwananda from Madurai, my friend in the
pursuit of Vedic knowledge in Sandeepany, and Shrikant Jichear, the
young dynamic educationist, politician, social activist, scholar, all
in my age group – triggered this article) The death – the end of the
body, seems to remain the single greatest reminder of the uncertainty
of life here. There is no more ‘if’, ‘but’, pause or a comma. We may
or may not speculate about the hereafter with familiar acceptance or
dismissal of various possible ideas. But the one most
incontrovertible conclusion is that the body is no more available for
any transaction. The body that was facilitating the expression of the
qualities, emotions and the ideas of various kinds is no more visible
and, therefore, the naturally invisible emotion are no more there to
be seen or felt. Thousands of people ‘die’ everyday. But the billions
of human beings as well as every single little or big thing in
Creation are constantly ‘dying’. The death brings finality to the
dying and the person is seen, heard, touched or experienced no more.
Death is very much more than the mere absence of
a person. When a person is absent from home in your immediate life,
there is a ‘hope’ that the person will return. The ‘hope’ keeps the
absentee alive in the hearts of the friends and the members of the
family. Death kills that ‘hope’ too, after which there is no more a
chance of the person returning to your life again. When he is absent
you may listen to his live voice over the phone or see his latest
photographs or a picture of him live on the video. But, in death,
the tangible physical body is gone once and for all. At that time,
the thoughts, the memories can create a flash back where the voices
are heard and the pictures are seen within, but the body is no more
there to be touched or experienced.
Hence, the death of a person touches and affects
but in different ways to different people. When it is a real loss to
the lover or beloved, it is a divine justification for the person who
felt persecuted or deceived by the dead individual. To a stranger it
is just another incident with no consequence for him.
The same varieties of emotions can be felt towards
one’s own death. The only difference is that the person is not left
behind in this world to experience the aftermath of his own death. He
has to only imagine as to what will happen in his absence. The
consequences will mean nothing to him as he/she will not be there.
But the very important universal factor that will touch everybody is
the very permanent ‘physical’ absence in the shape of the existing
body. Again there too the reactions will vary according to the
information, the knowledge, or the maturity that the persons enjoy.
Some live life as if they are never going to die.
Some live as though the very living is a meaningless disaster. Some
are oblivious to all possibilities. Some are constantly afraid. Both
of these are extremist views and in-between there are as many
billions of shade as there are people in this world. Each one has his
or her own concept and one’s own ways of managing death.
And everyone must learn to manage if one wants to
make the maximum use of the present life. Even the person who is
aware of immortality, the deathlessness of the Self, must learn to
manage the inevitable reality of the end of the body. Deathlessness,
the imperishability, the universal immortality need not be ‘managed’
as ‘it’ is ever existent. The individual, the individuality, the
body, the thoughts, the roles of every kind need to be managed as all
these are existing ‘only for sometime’ and are constantly changing.
If we know how to manipulate the sound, the silence automatically
fills in to create the part of the music. It we know how to build a
structure, the space effortlessly falls in. We do not have to manage
the silence or the space. We must learn to manage the sounds and the
forms.
Similarly, we do not need to manage ‘the’
immortality, ‘the’ Self. But everything that is identified with the
Self - the riches, the body, the senses, the thoughts, the ‘I’ – is
to be managed and managed long before the death of the body.
In fact, apart from the death of the body, which
happens only once and once and for all, there are many more varieties
of deaths like the death or the end of childhood, youth, marriage,
job, wealth, poverty, emotions like anger, love, hatred etc., and the
end of the faiths of various secular and religious kinds. Unlike the
body, the deaths of these varieties, including the conditions of the
body, mean a continuity and not the end of everything. However,
everything, including the body is to be handled, managed. The deaths
of every kind must be appreciated and are to be made use of in order
to learn to live life to the fullest.
How to live the life to the fullest ? ‘Being
Happiness itself’ is to enjoy life to the fullest. Having the sense
of happiness because of a possession or a condition being fulfilled
may appear to be fun but is always followed by misery in the
inevitable event of the things in possession changing, the person
himself changing or the conditions continuously changing. This change
or death makes everything uncertain and that triggers total
uncertainty in life. Most of the people strive to forget that
uncertainty by escaping into various emotions or sensations. Hence,
the entertainment industry has become so prosperous. That includes
religions or religious practices that entertain rather than awaken
the individual to the Self. The Awakening may be an entertainment of
some sort, but mere entertainment of the secular or religious type
can never be equated to awakening. But that is where the world is
lost, the humanity is lost. Therefore, managing life seems to mean to
manage the imaginary sources of entertainment.
In fact, when one recognises the Self, the
Absolute, the Happiness, one has to strive to share that with others
as that is the only pursuit which is ultimately meaningful. Of
course, that cannot be done and should not be done at the cost of all
other pursuits, but the importance of the pursuit of Self-Knowledge
must be very clearly understood. This is the only knowledge, the
insight, the vision, the awakening, the absolute entertainment that
no death can ever annihilate.
Hence, long before death claims the body, the best
knowledge must be shared with the maximum minds. The death of
emotions for such a mind has no significance as all the changing
emotions happen in the changeless Self! With the death of an emotion,
the thoughts continue. But with the death of the body nothing remains
the same again. Even with the death or the understanding of the ‘I’,
everything becomes beautiful and the dying or changing thoughts are
adopted again to live through life. But with the death of ‘the’ body,
there is continuity, but the sense of the continuity in a relative
sense comes to an end. That usually frightens and makes living
sometimes a nightmare. Hence the need to know one’s Self, the
Immortal, the Absolute to make life meaningful and a continuous
celebration! Everything must be managed and never neglected either in
the name of mindless austerity or indulgence.
Self-Knowledge is the guide!
Swami Suddhananda
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