Life after Death

Before we proceed further in our study of Life after Death, I would wish you to cultivate friendship with death. Death is truly a friend: death is not an enemy. Imagine what would happen if there were no death. If no plant died and no animal died and no man died since the emergence of life on earth, what a mess we would have been in today! If every seed grew into a tree and every young of an animal grew to maturity, we would have to find living space over forests of huge trees and over thick layers of mosquitoes and wasps. Death comes as a release to the sick, the tired, the worn-out body, the body that has no energy left to participate in the joy of work, the body whose limbs are aching with pain, whose organs have become weak, the body that can make no contribution to the life of humanity. The soul that dwells within such a body regards it as a prison: and he turns to death for release from the prison of such a body.

Death is truly a friend and I would wish every one of you to cultivate friendship with death. Death is coming closer to us with the passing of each day. We live in an uncertain world— a world in which we can be certain of nothing. But of this one thing we all are certain, that one day we shall die, i.e. our physical bodies will drop down. We are here on a return ticket. The probable dates of our return are stamped on the ticket: we are unable to read them. We do not know when and where death will come and claim our body. But of this we are sure that everyday that passes draws us closer to the day of death. So I would wish you to cultivate friendship with death. Once we have made friends with death, we shall not be afraid of death but in the face of death we shall continue to smile.

In ancient India, this was the teaching that was passed on to every student. The student, in ancient India, was called a jignasu, a seeker after truth. And to the jignasu, the seeker after truth, the Rishi, the Teacher, said: “My child, everyday, for sometime, meditate on death!” I would wish everyone of you to do likewise! The day is coming when this body will drop down— the body, of which we make so much, the body of which we are proud, the body with which many of us have identified ourselves— we think we are no more than the bodies we wear— the day is coming when this body will drop down. Where will I be then? Where will you be then? We shall continue to exist. We have existed before our bodies were born. For we, all of us, we are more ancient than the hills, more ancient than the earth on which we have built our temporary habitation. If we meditate on death, we shall no longer be afraid of death. We shall then know that death is only an illusion, death is only an appearance. In reality there is no death. We cannot die.