Finding Happiness – 5
10 May
In Search of Happiness – Part V
By Mumu Thuja
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Continued from Finding Happiness Part 4
The so-called possessions accumulated by us cannot stop death, cannot help in any way to keep a person from dying. And the fact is that after death, we neither know our destination, nor we know about it when death knocks on the door, or when death approaches. It is a journey from which we will not return to the same place – it is unlike any journey we undertake only to return to our home.
It is seen that most of us are afraid of death; we are afraid to die. Even the word ‘death’ makes us cling more and get attached to the material world. Fear of death can be seen in the eyes of everyone.
I am quoting a very short incident here from the Mahabharata.
The Lord of Death, Yamaraja, asked King Yudhisthira, “Can you tell me what is the most wonderful thing in the world?”
The king thought for a moment and replied, “Daily countless people die; but those who are living believe that death will not happen to them. With this believe in mind, they carry on as if it does not matter. What could be more wonderful than this!”
Lord Yamaraja nodded in agreement.
Srimad Bhagavatam (1.13.19-20) says, “This frightful situation cannot be remedied by any person in this material world. It is the Supreme Personality of Godhead as eternal time that has approached us all. Whoever is under the influence of eternal time must surrender his most dear life, and what to speak of others such as children, wealth, honor, land and home.”
Srimad Bhagavatam (1.13.25) goes on to say, “Despite your unwillingness to die and your desire to live even at the cost of honor and prestige, your miserly body will certainly dwindle and deteriorate like an old garment.”
It is said that a wise person, who always remembers the real purpose of life and thinks of life as nothing but a moment of our great path towards spiritual self-realization, always lives thinking each day to be his last.
The goal of our life is to regain our constitutional spiritual position – the highest of all levels of existence.
To be successful in this materialistic/material world, it is said that we must complete our work within this lifetime for the simple reason that ‘we cannot take it with us when we go’. But, our spiritual activities stay with us life after life till the cycle completes, till we merge into Pure Consciousness. For example, if we have made 20% of spiritual progress in the lives lived till this life, we have to attain the balance 80% in the coming lives till we reach our goal of Pure Consciousness.
In Bhagavad Gita (2.40), Lord Krishna has said it well, “In this endeavor, there is not loss or diminution, and a little advancement on this path can protect one from the most dangerous type of fear.”
What is this ‘most dangerous type of fear’? The fear of not knowing where death will take us. We don’t know whether our next life will be good or bad. So, we must prepare ourselves for it.
How? By winning fearlessness… not fearlessness of knowing the unknown or facing death on its face, but to attain knowledge and realization by which ‘unknown’ becomes ‘known’ to us. Then, we cannot be fearful.
To conquer death and to make our next birth and births thereafter to be fruitful, we need to develop virtuous spiritual assets that will surely guarantee our future advancements in this life, and the next, and the next, till we return to the spiritual atmosphere.
Lord Krishna in Bhagavad Gita (2.72) has said, “This is the way of the spiritual and godly life after attaining which, a person is not bewildered. Being so situated, even at the hour of death, one can enter into the kingdom of God.”
Copyright © 2011 vedagyan.com
Next article in Series
The Material World – Part I
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