Staring at the face of Death

It is said that a crisis brings out the best as well as the worst in a human being. When we look at the danger in the face – what is it that is causing so much panic and fear, is it the fact of staring at Death as a possibility? In that case let us remember that this is neither the first time nor the last that we are witnessing it. The age-old answer of the Pandava King designate Yudhisthira stands vindicated that the most surprising thing is that men die every day yet we somehow believe that we shall not. Of course, one should not wish for death nor ask for it. But if and when it stares at us, we should be able to look into its eyes with the light of our soul and conscious of our immortality be able to say: ‘However hard you may try you are not real.’ This is not denial but another way of looking at the phenomenon of death. Seen from the bodily point of view, death not only exists but is the last judgment on the futility of life and all its efforts and struggles and dreams and hopes. But seen from another angle it is a passing appearance, a dismantling of the outer bodily frame for the soul to breath its infinity. No doubt this material casement is a self-choice. The soul of man has chosen it for a purpose; there is a work to do, a mission to fulfil. The soul is not compelled to be bound to the body. It has chosen thus since thus alone it could rescue the fallen nature, typified in the story of Adam and Eve, wherein tempted by nature (the feminine element), the soul (the masculine element) ate the forbidden fruit and thereby fell from the skies. But the temptation is not of the devil but the evolutionary Energy represented by the iridescent serpent. It tempts the soul to taste the adventure of birth and death in the great game of life. For thus alone it can find itself and grow in the fullness of self-knowledge. What it knew innocently must be lost so that it may rediscover it, so that it may know it consciously.