Dharma Kshetra

From death to Immortality

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad's Shanti Mantra (Mantra of peace), explains a man's path as below.

Asato ma sadgamaya Tamasoma jyotir gamaya Mrityorma amritam gamaya Om Shanti Shanti Shanti

From ignorance, lead me to truth From darkness, lead me to light From death, lead me to immortality Om peace, peace, peace

One may ask, "Everybody dies. What is the difference?" But there is huge difference. The mother cat carries her kittens in mouth to transfer to a safer place. She may also catch a rat and carry it in her mouth. It is the same mouth, but whereas the kittens are comfortable and safe, the rat suffers in the jaws of death. Similarly, at the time of death the enlightened persons reach their ultimate home, whereas the ordinary people suffer through cycles of rebirth and death.

In fact death is a great boon. It urges us to understand the value of life and make the best of every minute.

Decades of persistent efforts of Gandhiji and other freedom fighters yielded fruits. The British agreed to give independence to India on 15th August of 1947, but divided it on religious grounds. The whole country celebrated the day. There were singing and dancing processions and parades everywhere. Free India's Tricolour flag fluttered proudly on the historical Red Fort in Delhi.

But Gandhiji was in faraway Calcutta striving for peace between Hindus and Muslims. Riots had again broken out there and he was in the midst of that fire. He stayed in a poor hut in a poor area. He moved from street to street and house to house requesting people to stay calm. At last he went on fast. This had the desired effect on the minds of the people. The leaders of both communities assured him that they would control their people. Gandhiji accepted that assurance and broke the fast.

Few religious fanatics accused that he was a traitor who had sacrificed Hindu interests to appease Muslims. There was an assassination attempt from which he escaped unhurt, and continued his mission.

On the evening of 30th January 1948, Gandhiji walked out of his temporary residence at Birla House to reach prayer house. Weakened by fasts and tours, he walked slowly with the support of his two grandnieces. Hundreds of followers gathered to touch his feet, to get his blessings and join him in prayers. Gandhiji paused and folded his hands in traditional Namaste salutation.

A person stepped out from the crowd greeting Gandhiji with folded hands. Then he drew a pistol and shot Gandhiji three times at close range. With bullets in chest and abdomen, Gandhiji died instantly saying “Hey Ram”.

His funeral was attended by one million people and dignitaries from several nations. Today, there is no town in India without either his statue or a road named after him.

The last eighteen verses of the second chapter of the Gita which are recited at the prayer give in a nutshell the secret of the art of living. It is given there in the form of a description of a sthitaprajna or the man of steady wisdom, i.e. a Satyagrahi in reply to Aijuna's query to Lord Kirshna:

The art of dying follows as a corollary from the art of living. Death must come to all. - A man may die of a lightning stroke or as a result of heart failure or failure of respiration. But that is not the death that a Satyagrahi can wish for or pray for himself. The art of dying for a Satyagrahi consists in facing death cheerfully in the performance of one's duty...

I believe in the immortality of the soul. I would like to give you the analogy of the ocean. The ocean is composed of drops of water; each drop is an entity and yet it is part of the whole, ' the one and the many'. In this ocean of life, we are little drops.

My doctrine means that I must identify myself with life, with everything that lives, that I must share the majesty of life in the presence of God. The sum-total of this life is God. We may not be God, but we are of God.

I want to say emphatically that we should not at all grieve over the death of one whom we consider a saintly man; and we should have a firm faith that it is only after his death that his true work commences, or rather begins to bear true fruit. What have been considered to be his great achievements during his lifetime will pale into insignificance before the future ones. Of course it is our duty to follow, up to the extent of our capacity, the good steps of those whom we respect as saints”.

Albert Einstein, a famous scientist said, “Generations to come, will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.” Gandhiji's achievements were many. Each one of them, judged by the manner of its execution or by its results, would have made his name honoured anywhere in the world.

Gandhiji brought liberation from foreign rule to a fifth of the human race. And India's freedom was, in a way, the harbinger of freedom to many countries of Africa and Asia. Several world renowned leaders such as Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar, Junior Martin Luther King of America and countless others drew inspiration from Gandhiji.

Of no less significance was what he did for those who were once despised as 'untouchables'. He broke their centuries-old shackles of caste tyranny and social indignity. He insisted that freedom should be measured by the all- round social, moral and economic well-being of the millions who live in the villages.

His very death was an achievement in itself, for the martyrdom shamed his people out of hysteria of hatred and fratricide, and helped the new-born nation to consolidate the secular and democratic principles.

The scriptures tell stories of battles between the devas (gods), and the asuras (demons). But these words should not be taken too literally. The scriptures

dramatize the struggle between the forces of good and evil in the world and present them in artistic ways.

The Bhagavad Gita says that there are two paths for humanity - divine or demonic. Cultivating divine attributes lessens the presence of demonic attributes. We need to pay attention to demonic attributes - not to dwell on negatives, but to guard against them.

The attributes and practices of a person with divine tendencies are: love, absence of negative emotions and fears, self-control, selfless service, truthfulness, humbleness, forgiveness, evenness of mind, etc.

The attributes and practices that make a person demonic are: hatred, anger, dominating ego, jealousy, arrogance, cruelty, hypocrisy (double standards for self and others), fears and negative emotions, absence of discrimination between right and wrong, etc.

People with demonic tendencies argue that the scriptures are a lie, that the world is a dog-eat-dog place with no moral foundation. Holding to such distorted view points they cause suffering to others and eventually to themselves. They will not hesitate to resort to any means to achieve goals. If left alone to their self-indulgence they would heedlessly destroy the world, the way Adolf Hitler did. They may attain their goals for a while but their destination is a hell of their own making - often in this very life.

In puranas (mythology) demons are described with ferocious forms but indicate that they do penance to get boons from either Brahma or Siva and usually consider Vishnu as enemy. They are the persons who are ignorant of divine presence within them and also under the influence of arishadvargas - kama, krodha, lobha, moha, mada and matsarya. Siva's cosmic dance form Nataraja is depicted with a dwarf demon called Apasmara under his feet. Apasmara is a symbol of tamasic ignorance which can never be completely destroyed but kept under control by God.

Sanathana Dharma doesn't condemn non-believers or evil doers for eternal punishment in hell, because for hell to exist there should be a place where God is not present. Since God is present as Atman even in people of demonic nature, they are not condemned for eternal damnation. The choice to choose the right path is always open for them.

Arjuna asked Krishna an important question. “What happens to a person who believes in a spiritual goal but lacks self-discipline and wanders from the

path, not attaining success? If he were to fail, would he have lost everything - all that he had given up in worldly life as well as his goal of self-realization?”

Krishna assured him that no effort to improve his spiritual condition could be a wasted effort. Even looking ahead to the next life, he has nothing to lose but a lot to gain. He will be reborn in a household suitable for taking up his quest where he left off. In his next life, he will be drawn to the spiritual pursuit once again, and he will have an early start.

Divine path lifts us to liberation while demonic path throws us into bondage. Being hurled into darkness as a beast is an example of consequences for evil actions. Taking birth as a human is an example of mixed reward.

Being born as a noble being is an example for consequences for noble actions. But wise people know that even riches and pleasures are part of nature and hence eventually perish. When the merits they earned in this life are spent, they must return to yet another ordinary birth-death cycle. This is path to bondage. So our goal should be to attain liberation and merge with Truth, Brahman, Imperishable Pure Consciousness.

I am easily attained by the person who always remembers Me and is attached to nothing else. Such a person is a true yogi (The Bhagavad Gita 8:14).

Great souls make their lives perfect and attain Me. They are freed from mortality and the suffering of birth and death (The Bhagavad Gita 8:15).

Every creature in the universe is subject to rebirth, except the one who is united with Me (The Bhagavad Gita 8:16).

Those who realize life's supreme goal know that I am beyond senses and Eternal and Supreme. Having come home to Me, They never return to separate existence (The Bhagavad Gita 8:21).

This supreme Lord who pervades all existence, the true Self of all creatures, may be realized through undivided love (The Bhagavad Gita 8:22).

Only one in many thousands truly seeks God. And of these, only one in many thousands truly attains God. Despite these odds, all beings are destined to reach this degree of perfection, in the course of time and evolution. Whatever form of deity people choose to worship, they are destined to evolve phase by phase towards ultimately reaching God.

God is Time - both death and Immortality; Being and non-Being. There is no end to God's Divine manifestations, because He is Omni pervasive and nothing exists outside of Him.

I give you both knowledge and wisdom. When both these are realized, there is nothing more you need to know (The Bhagavad Gita 7:2).

A group of six blind men heard that a strange animal, called an elephant, had been brought to the town. But none of them were aware of its shape and form. Out of curiosity, they said: "We must inspect and know it by touch". So, they sought it out, and when they found it they groped about it.

The first person touched the trunk and said "This animal is like a thick snake". The second person reached its ear, and said it is like a fan. The third person touched one of the legs and said, the elephant is like a pillar. The fourth person who placed his hand upon its side said, "elephant is like a wall". The fifth person, who felt its tail, described it as a rope. The sixth person felt its tusk, stating the elephant is like a spear.

Gandhiji commented on the above story as under

To get a glimpse of God, we need both knowledge and wisdom. The difference between them is; we gain knowledge through senses and mind - perceiving and thinking; we gain wisdom through direct experience and intuition. Knowledge 'knows' God, theoretically. Wisdom 'realizes' God and is able to apply this knowledge in every moment of living.

Enlightened persons devote themselves with full hearts to this 'Truth'. All those who realize God come to this ultimate 'home', never to be separate and born again. The purpose of years of their evolution will have been achieved. The immortal Atman completes mortal journeying and merges again in Brahman.

Gandhiji once warned some of his co-workers who had formed a Society named after him to promote his ideals.

My uniform experience has convinced me that there is no other God than Truth. And if every page of these chapters does not proclaim to the reader that the only means for the realization of Truth is Ahimsa, I shall deem all my labour in writing these chapters to have been in vain. And, even though my efforts in this behalf may prove fruitless, let the readers know that the vehicle, not the great principle, is at fault.

After all, however sincere my strivings after Ahimsa may have been, they have still been imperfect and inadequate. The little fleeting glimpses, therefore, that I have been able to have of Truth can hardly convey an idea of the indescribable lustre of Truth, a million times more intense than that of the sun we daily see with our eyes.

In fact what I have caught is only the faintest glimmer of that mighty effulgence. But this much I can say with assurance, as a result of all my experiments, that a perfect vision of Truth can only follow a complete realization of Ahimsa.

To see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face one must be able to love the meanest of creation as oneself. And a man who aspires after that cannot afford to keep out of any field of life. That is why my devotion to Truth has drawn me into the field of politics; and I can say without the slightest hesitation, and yet in all humility, that those who say that religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion means.

Identification with everything that lives is impossible without self- purification; without self-purification the observance of the law of Ahimsa must remain an empty dream; God can never be realized by one who is not pure of heart. Self-purification therefore must mean purification in all the walks of life. And purification being highly infectious, purification of oneself necessarily leads to the purification of one's surroundings.

But the path of self-purification is hard and steep. To attain perfect purity one has to become absolutely passion-free in thought, speech and action; to rise above the opposing currents of love and hatred, attachment and repulsion. I know that I have not in me as yet that triple purity, in spite of constant ceaseless striving for it. That is why the world's praise fails to move me, indeed it very often stings me.

Conquering the subtle passions is much harder than the physical conquest of the world by the force of arms. Ever since my return to India I have had experience of the dormant passions lying hidden within me. The knowledge of them has made me feel humiliated though not defeated. The experiences and experiments have sustained me and given me great joy.

But I know that I have still before me a difficult path to traverse. I must reduce myself to zero. So long as a man does not of his own free will put himself last among his fellow creatures, there is no salvation for him. Ahimsa is the farthest limit of humility.”

There is a Sanskrit adage 'Atmano Mokshardham Jagat Hitayacha' meaning that by serving the society we purify ourselves towards achieving Self- Realization and also improve the living conditions around us. Amruthabindu Upanishad says 'Manayeva Manushanam Bandha Mokshaya' meaning it is mind that either binds or liberates us.

An ordinary person who identifies with body and mind is called 'Jiva'. A person who realizes that he is above these two and one with Self, is called

'Jeevanmukta'.

Because karmas are performed through physical body, rebirth is required to bear the karmic results. A Self-realized person may still have his karma sesham (karmic residue) to be depleted. Karmic results can be compared with the pots made by a potter's wheel. As long the wheel is spinning, karma-pots are being produced and they stop generating new pots when the spinning of wheel comes to a complete stop slowly.

After Self-realization too a person has to be confined by his body until all past karma is depleted. Then when he leaves body, he will have no more birth to be taken and submerges in the Supreme Self. Such a person is called 'Videhamukta'.

According to the four purushardhas liberation is the ultimate goal of human life. But we should aspire to be born again and again to serve God and His Creation. That is the true mark of divinity.