The Spirit Of Spirituality: The mystery of Death

Saturday, September 10, 2011

The mystery of Death

This is one of the articles in a book I have written on spirituality. The book is available on Amazon.com.

The Spirit Of Spirituality

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Death is one taboo word across almost all cultures. The fear of death is overwhelming for almost everybody. At the same time, there is a curiosity as to what happens after death, leading to an army of so called experts,

who help communicate with the dead. But what is death? Is there life after death?

There can never be a conclusive proof whether there is life after death or not. We obviously cannot attach a tracking device to a person about to die and track what happens after he dies. We can go by anecdotes of people who have experienced near death and try to understand what death can be and what could be beyond death. There are several books about this and one of the interesting books I read is “many masters, many lives”.

How about asking Mr. Death himself as to what happens after death. For this, I would like to introduce you to a young boy, Nachiketha, a character in the Hindu mythology, who as per the story I am going to tell, met Death and asked him the questions that trouble us and got back satisfactory answers.

Nachiketha is a young boy who is watching his dad performing a ceremony. As part of this, his father is giving away a lots of alms, cows etc. as charity. The boy repeatedly asks his father as to whom he will be given off to. The father as it is stressed with the ceremonies angrily tells him that he will give off Nachiketha to Death. The innocent boy thinks that is real and walks all the way to the home of Death.

Death is away from his house and so Nachiketha stays outside the house without any food or water for 3 days. Death comes back after 3 days and sees that his guest has been without food or water for 3 days. As per Indian customs, it is a great sin to keep a guest hungry. So Death asks Nachiketha to ask for 3 boons. Nachiketha’s first request is that his father should be peaceful. The second request is that Death should teach him about the secret fire sacrifice which is beneficial to the whole world. Death readily agrees to these two. The third request is that Death should tell him the secret of what happens after death? Is there life after death?

Death tries to tempt Nachiketha with offer of gold, horses, kingdom etc. and tells him not to ask the third question. But Nachiketha is totally focused only on that question. Finally seeing Nachiketha’s resolve, Death gives in and tells him the secret of death and life after death.

Now, what is death? I have covered in an earlier blog about our transitioning from infant to child to youth to adult to old age. Once I become an adult, can I again become an infant? The infant in me had to die for the child to come. The child had to die for the youth to come, etc. But has death really occurred. I am still around. Death is only a transition from one state to another. So after old age, when the physical body falls, there is a transition to another state. In this material world, we do not have the equipment to see the transition when the physical body itself falls. But that does not mean transition did not happen.

I have covered in various blogs that our reality is consciousness or Brahman, which never dies. Just as energy can neither be created nor destroyed, the consciousness can neither be created nor destroyed. It is always there and hence there is no death for my true essence. A wave arises and seems to die. But is it dead? If it thinks it is just a wave, it dies. However if it realizes it is the ocean, there is no death. Similarly for me as a conscious being, whose essence is consciousness, there is no death.

But we take birth again and again to meet our unfulfilled desires. For more details, please refer my blog on Karma, the inexorable law of the universe. What happens between death of one body and birth in another is a transition. What happens between our end of a day and sleep, till we wake up next day? There probably are good and bad dreams and then probably a phase where there is no dream, but just deep sleep. Similarly, when a body dies, till the next body arises, there is a phase where the individual could experience good or bad, this being heaven or hell respectively. Just as no good dream or bad dream lasts forever, heaven or hell do not last forever. Depending on the type of actions/desires and their relative strength, we take a new birth in a new body to fulfill those desires.

Is death to be something to be afraid of? We are afraid of death to our loved ones because their departure would leave a void in our lives. We want an ailing parent to keep on living even though they suffer, because we are afraid of losing that source of happiness for us. So our fear of death of loved ones is actually a fear of losing a source of happiness. Isn’t this selfish in a way? How about fear of our own death? What are we afraid of? We are afraid that we can no longer get pleasure from the series of objects of desire we have accumulated, our house, car, family etc. When are we the happiest? It is when we do not have any worries and that is in deep sleep. During deep sleep, if someone called me stupid, would I know? If I was abused would I know? Does the office tension bother me? Does my nagging wife bother me? Isn’t this in a way, bliss? Now, during this state, if I die, would I know I am dead? So if I don’t know I am dead and if death can be blissful and provides a gateway to another life where more of my desires will be fulfilled, why should I fear death?

When can I really conquer death? The answer is obvious. When I realize I am consciousness which has neither life nor death, there is no concept of death and hence no fear of death.

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.

1. My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality