Thursday, April 10, 2008

DEATH AND SALVATION

Disclaimer: This is a controversial topic. All the ideas, examples and statements in the blog are purely personal. This is purely irreligious. Treat any idea which contradicts yours, as purely fictitious.
Until we are alive, death never comes to us and once it comes, we will not be there to see it. How simple? What is death? In simple words, death is the cessation of life in us. Any living being (any object that has life) has life in it, by virtue of which it breathes, eats, moves, talks, etc. For any action to take place, one needs life. When life goes away from the object, we call death. Now the questions, why should one die at all? Why does everybody fear about death, etc?

As my previous blogs say that the total energy of the universe is constant, and since life is a part of this universal energy, this energy gets transformed or rather gets transferred from one form to the other. Let us consider an example. Energy is measured in terms of Joules / Ergs / BTU (British Thermal Unit) / Calories, etc. Suppose the total energy of the universe is 100 units. Human beings take 25 units; animals, birds, insects, flies, under water creatures, micro organisms, etc. take 65 units and the remaining 10 units by plants. But the converse is not true. Not all the objects that have energy have life. Air, water, fire, for example have energy but no life.

For example, if there is a rule that in a class, if a student gets an A grade, he is double-promoted to two classes higher; if he gets a B grade, he is promoted to immediate higher class and if he gets C grade or below, he is retained in the same class. To start with, every student would try to achieve an A grade. But slowly as the classes progress, the syllabus might be so vast and the schedules might become so tight that students would aim to just pass by getting a B grade. If they flunk in the unit tests, they need to retake the tests to clear them. They join in some coaching center or private tutorials, etc. to get better knowledge about the subjects. However, in due course of time, students get de-motivated, discouraged and get contented with the lower grades. If there is a narrow failure by say, 1 or 2 marks, they would request the teacher to add grace marks and pass them. Finally out of say, 100 students, 1 or 2 might get A grades, 10 might get B and the others C and below. Actually, everybody had the same energy, same enthusiasm, same confidence and same level of intelligence in the beginning. But during the course, who ever had the determination, strategy, planning and commitment, got succeeded. But why all this?

In our lives, we all also are students in a class. All the living beings take birth to get an A grade, a.k.a attaining liberation (moksha). But after our birth, we become so busy with our studies, food, job, money, relations, movies, etc. that we fail to get the A grade and hence we take re-births until we are liberated. Everybody is just passing their time in their own way, by defining success in their own way. For some, success might be to get an admission in the best college, for some it might be to get a job in a good company, for some it might be the amount they earn, etc. At each stage, one defines his/her own success. But what is the net success at the time of death is what governs the real success of salvation.

An electron continues to revolve in the same orbit or falls down to a lower orbit by losing its energy. Unless it attains a high energy, it cannot move to higher orbits and gets liberated. In the same manner, we also keep taking births in the same human form or animal form until we attain higher energy levels to get liberated. So the life in us needs to be energized to a very high level in order to get liberated from the birth and re-birth cycles. This is called salvation.

In the journey of our lives, we keep facing difficulties, troubles and miseries. Then we join some coaching center to get knowledge. Every coaching center teaches the same subject, in their own way. There are students in every coaching center who get succeeded. These coaching centers are the religions. Hence we have so many religions, disciplines, paths to learn, practice and follow. But we fight among ourselves about religions and miss the main essence of learning.

In an exam, there would be a teacher to evaluate the answer papers. But who is the evaluator in the real life? Common word, God, which I describe, is one self. Every body on this earth has conscious, sub-conscious and super-consciousness in him/her, which are the best evaluators. Though there are no hard and fast rules to determine what is good and what is bad, one is answerable to one-self.

If we flunk in a subject by a mark or two, we would request the teacher to add grace marks and hence pass us. In real life, if we commit mistakes, who has to forgive us? We, ourselves (Paschatthapam). And we should never ever repeat such mistakes (Praayaschittham).

There are three cases.
1. You can work hard and get an A by your own
2. You can copy in an exam and then pass
3. You can bribe your teacher to pass you.

Which one would you prefer? Are you 100% satisfied with your inner-self if you followed 2 or 3? If you went to the higher class with no knowledge, can you pass the exams in that class? Only if a person follows the 1st path, would he be able to succeed throughout. And this is what self-realization is. You have religions, books, preachers, swamis, yogis, etc. who help you in getting knowledge, that’s all they can do. But it is you, your own self, who has to realize the truth and the purpose of life.

There is a universal truth. Universal power. This is the one that evaluates the deeds, thoughts, actions of the living beings and determines the grades. You may call it God, or what ever. But that power can be visualized only from within one self, and that is what is called self-enlightenment. All the living beings are evaluated right from the time of their conception and until their physical death. If a person X dies, and if his result is a C grade, he takes a re-birth, which need not be in the human form. So did X die? Or do all the living beings die? They die in their physical forms. But the life does not die. It just gets transferred to other forms. What if all the students get A grades. i.e. there are no living beings at all? This is Utopia.

Suppose you got promoted from class 8 to class 9. If you had not acquired correct knowledge in class 8, you will not be able to perform well in class 9. Inversely, if you had learnt the concepts of class 9 when you were in class 8, you would need very less time to learn the subjects of class 9 and you would become a master in them. This is what is the miracle of some prodigal children, who demonstrate various talents at their very early stages of life.

Suppose you passed class 8 by clearing all the subjects with excellent marks but just managed to pass in Mathematics. In class 9 also, you would face difficulty in clearing Mathematics. It would still remain the toughest subject for you. Challenges and difficulties in life are not only the outcome of the present life and mistakes, but also due to the carry forwards from previous births.

Did a student discontinue being a student when he got promoted from class 8 to 9? No. He is still a student until he finishes all the courses and classes. Then he no more belongs to the school. Similarly, when we die, we still carry the same life in a different class (different form), and this keeps on repeating until we clear all the courses with A grade, i.e. until we realize the truth and attain salvation. Then we can graduate and be free, i.e. we can get liberated from the cycle of births-rebirths. So, which class are we studying in? No one knows. But this human life is the only life where one has lot of opportunities to know the truth and self. Although certain animals were liberated in their forms, as humans it is easy among all the forms, to get liberated.

Now tell me, is death a thing to be worried about, feared about? Now don’t kill me. The reason why we are worried about death is the fear of detachment. We do not want to get detached from this world. What are the reasons people die? I would classify the types of deaths into 3 categories.

1. Ill-health: The human body, in which the life is embedded, has to be taken care of so that it protects and saves the life, it has within. But if the body ceases to function, life cannot remain in it. So one needs to take utmost care in keeping the body healthy.
2. Accidents, misfortunes: These are to be considered as failures in the exams. They might be the result of the deeds that are performed, knowingly or unknowingly. If you misbehave in the class or violate the rules of the school, you are suspended from the class, how ever intelligent you are. But this does not mean that you are liberated. You are given another chance to prove your self. But even then, if you fail to achieve, then you are dismissed, which is again not liberation. You might be sent to lower classes as punishment.
3. Natural death: Any substance would have its own decay period. Human body also, has wear and tear since we use it as we feel like, and hence after certain period of time, it gets deteriorated, thereby causing death.

In whatever form we die, the evaluation process and the rules that govern remain the same. Hence one has to make use of the existing form to the optimum level in realizing the truth and get A grades, rather than passing time and letting the life take many other re-births to realize.
Liberate your inner soul. Our soul is like a bird in a cage (our body). The bird is happy if it is freed and not in the cage. Allow the bird to fly. Leave it to the nature. Salvate it. This is the essence of life.

5 comments:

chinni said...

Vishwanath garu, naku oka doubt ..meeru intha chinna vayasulo inta pedda pedda vishyala gurinchi ..inta baga ela rayagalugutunnaru ...any tips for fellow bloggers like me ..please ...

Shruthi said...

Hi Visu, the way you tried to explain the TRUTH is really superb. Especially I liked the the definition of salvation.

Satish Pasupathy said...

Are you 100% satisfied with your inner-self if you followed 2 or 3?

YEAH YEAH!!... ;) ... sometimes i think it is.... :)

Buddha said...

Good One...

Gayatri said...

Perfectly said..