LIFE AND DEATH
by Sri Shyamji Bhatnagar

Man the world over has sought to discover the purpose and meaning of life and death. In pursuit of knowing, he has created mythology, astrology, philosophy, religion, god, worship, Tantra, Samadhi and liberation. The yogis desire to know the nature of the Self led them to experience the Divine within themselves. The experience of Divinity caused their behavior to be ethical by nature.

They realized we have not just one lifetime, but many in a continuing chain of evolution. Each lifetime we take birth in order to satisfy particular desires and to resolve certain chakra drives.

It has been said that the cause of life is ignorance, the purpose of life is to be free, the tool of life is knowledge, the method of life is perseverance, the joy of life is bliss and the height of life is in stillness.

We can briefly discuss these concepts. The cause of life is ignorance; ignorance of one’s past, of the karmic seeds that are resulting in our present experience; ignorance of the forces that are operating at this present moment on earth and throughout the universe; ignorance of what makes us feel the emotions the way we do, what makes us feel the pains we do, what gives us the loved ones we have and then takes them away; ignorance of how to live in a human body and survive, love, accomplish, give and evolve spiritually in an often times difficult world.

The purpose of life is to be free. Not the pseudo freedom to simply be able to act out one’s desires as they bubble up in the mind one after another, but the genuine and lasting freedom of being able to transcend personal wants and desires. Mother Earth produces enough for her sons and daughters but fails to provide all one human being can desire.

To achieve an objective awareness to witness how the forces push and pull ourselves as they push and pull those around us; to be free to accept and tolerate the passing waves of emotions and energies and fix one’s mind on the absolute, to be free to let go of attachments to youth, to pleasures, to the body, to life itself. For the ancient yogis, the highest of all human virtues was the virtue of absolute un-attachment.

If a man be thoroughly un-attached, all other virtues will necessarily find a place in him. He will, thus by nature, be truthful, honest, just, upright, generous and charitable, for there is nothing to which he is attached. There is no interest uppermost in his mind, he will naturally be thoroughly selfless and absolutely disinterested in his action and conduct towards others. No joy can elate him, no sorrow can depress him, no suffering or despair can overwhelm. He is above all earthly joys and sufferings above all attachments to worldly things. Nothing can swerve him from the path of uprightness and virtue; no interest can distract his mind. He is thus far above all others. The great god Shiva is the highest personification of the virtue of unattachment. He is the highest ideal of all yogins and sannyasins.

To be free is to also be free of the fear of dying, not struggling to survive just a few moments longer. Rather than dying in a state of fear of what is beyond, or dying while regretting all the things one was not able to accomplish, one may die in a peaceful, accepting way. One is able to experience faith in the divine and full awareness of the transition process as it occurs out of the body into subtler realms of consciousness.

The tool of life is knowledge. Knowledge of what is required at each age and stage in life. Knowledge of what is the dharmic role for which one is best suited in this life. Knowledge of what kind of food should be eaten for health and clarity of awareness. How to use sex, how to relate to people, how to rear children, how to do Sadhana (spiritual work), to experience higher states of awareness.

The method of how to attain this knowledge is perseverance; following daily disciplines for retraining, developing and reconditioning old habit patterns of the mind and body to sensitize it and allow unfoldment of its vast potentials.

And what is the result of such spiritual perseverance—the joy of life. It is a feeling of deeper contentment and bliss than can be attained through any victory, achievement, vacation, sex or drug. Everyone seeks that state of inner peace and harmony whether consciously or not. The most pleasurable things are done again and again to get a brief glimpse or experience of that feeling of “Ahh! Hhaa!.” In that wonderful instant one feels satisfied and content. But quickly it passes and the next desire wells up—and we are off again to satisfy it.

Microchakra Psychology™ does not encourage renunciation from the world. In fact, the opposite is true. It is one of the most sophisticated and elaborately detailed systems for explaining how to optimize and enrich living in the world, in order to fulfill all of one’s duties to parents, to children, to friends, to society and to the planet as a whole.

Working in the world but maintaining a nonattached attitude and following a regular spiritual discipline brings contentment. When one reaches old age, the remaining years of life can be a very extraordinary experience. Instead of ending one’s life in loneliness and senility and fear of the approaching death, one is able to elevate and expand one’s awareness to planes of bliss detached from physical and emotional suffering. In India such persons are not uncommon and are sought out with the greatest respect and reverence for guidance and advice. By fulfilling all of one’s worldly responsibilities and duties while young, one has a clear conscience to sustain the highest awareness possible for the remainder of one’s years. For the height of life lies in the stillness of meditation, returning to the source within.