Conquer Ego, Conquer Death.. J.S.NEKI

A great existential truth is the certainty and inevitability of death.  This frail body is destined to be overtaken by age.  Youth comes, but soon departs; when senility descends, it never departs -  only its victim does.  Guru Tegh Bahadur observed, "One might become anxious should something unexpected happen.  But on the worldly pathway, nothing is stable or permanent".

***

Yet, we live in this world ignoring the transience of life.  We want to live it the way our whims dictate.  Even the thought of leaving the world in which we have invested our desires, plans and programmes becomes a dread for us.

***

There are cultural nuances that determine the intensity of this apprehension.  Someone has said, "Life is for the European a career, for the American a hazard, and for the Indian a holiday".  In the Semitic cultures, one's soul after death is believed to wander around in the dark space until the Day of Reckoning.  That is a highly despairing and frightening prospect.  In oriental cultures that subscribe to the theory of reincarnation, death is at once the beginning of a new life.  So the dread is not always as intense.

***

The Sikh view is somewhat different.  It holds that at death, the body which is but dust, returns to dust; that which speaks therein is breath and that returns to wind.  Then the question arises: "Who, in reality, dies?" Guru Nanak tells us:

....What perish are man's sensorium,

His discords and his ego.

That in him, which observes all, perishes not.

And adds elsewhere:

Don't think, I have died - only the demon within me has.  The One who pervades all, does not die...

Guru Arjan Dev, in fact, believes that since atma (the soul is imperishable, no one really dies, no one really can die.

***

No one dies; none is capable of dying...

The soul dies not, it is imperishable.

That what you believe dies, does not even exists.

***

In the Guru's point of view, not only is life a play, even death is a play.  Isn't watching a good play until its final drop-scene, simply enjoyable?  Should it not be so for life, inclusive of its exit?  Where then is room for mourning?  Guru Amar Das asks:

***

For whom should we mourn, O Baba?  This world is but a play!

The mourner is therefore reminded:

The one who now laments will also arise and depart.

When he himself was about to depart from this world, Guru Amar Das summoned his family and, as reported by his nephew Baba Sunder in his famous "dirge", addressed them in the following words:

***

O my children, siblings and family, reflect in your mind: 

The pre-ordained death warrant cannot be avoided, the Guru is going to be with his Lord...

***

And then, the Guru in this own sweet will, sat up and further addressed his kin:

***

Let no one weep for me after I am gone.  That would not please me at all.

***

Such a placid departure can be the outcome only of an insight-fully lived life.
***
What, then, is insightfully lived life?  Not the one that begun crying, endured complaining and concluded in disappointment.  The aim of insightful life is to be aware - joyfully, serenely and divinely.  It does not hanker after life.
***
Hankering after life also subsumes hankering after commodities.  Isn't that simply a vain aspiration?
***
This weeping is all in vain; the world ignores the Lord, and weeps for maya.
***
Such evils as ostentatiousness, greed, pride, dishonesty and nepotism sprout from hankering after things.  This enhances our bondage to worldliness and pushes the chances for our liberation further and further away from us.  It is such hankering that also creates restlessness and generates fear of death. 
***
Those who do not cling to life and care not for its commodities remain spiritually blissful.  They not only live a blessed life, but also earn a blessed death.  Guru Nanak said:
***
THE DEATH OF HEROES IS HALLOWED, AND IT IS APPROVED BY GOD.
***
One might ask, who are the heroes referred to here?
***
Guru Amar Das informs us:
He alone is a brave warrior, a hero.
Who conquers and subdues his vicious inner ego.
"Conquering the ego is conquering the whole world", said Guru Nanak.  This, then, is the requirement for a heroic spiritual life.
***
We all think man fears death.  But, in reality, he fears himself.  The remorses and repentances of life haunt him.  One who has no remorse, nor any ground for repentance, has no reason to fear death.  Death, the most dreaded evil for many, is not so for those who are spiritually illumined.  For them it is of little concern.
***
Only right living can prepare us for safe or even joyous dying.  Let us, then, be of good cheer about death and know this that no evil can happen to a good man either in life or after death.  Death, be assured, is no evil.  It is impossible that a thing so natural, so necessary, and so universal should ever have been designed by our Creator as an evil to mankind.
***
Let us conclude with these lines from Karib:


PEOPLE SAY IT IS GOOD TO LIVE FOREVER,,,,, BUT WITHOUT DYING, THERE IS NO LIFE.  SO, WHAT WISDOM SHOULD I PREACH?  EVERYTHING WORLDLY IS PERISHING RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME....!

Why were the Pyramids built ?

The Pyramids were built as tombs for the pharaohs of ancient Egypt.

***

The early kings, or pharaohs, were buried in tombs inside roughly built stepped pyramids.  The greatest pyramids came later.  The largest is that of the pharaoh Khufu (also called Cheops) at Giza.  Over two millions blocks of stone were needed, each dragged into place by hundreds of slaves.  Inside the burial chamber, the pharaoh's body, preserved as a mummy wrapped is cloth, was buried in a stone tomb.  Around him were food, clothes, weapons: everything that he might need in the next world.

How can ice float on water..?

Ice floats on water because a piece of ice is lighter than the same amount of water.  The ice is not very much lighter than the water, so it floats low in the water.

***

When water freezes to ice, the water molecules line up in rows.  But as they do so, the molecules move apart slightly.  The ice increases in size as it forms and this gives ice a lower density than water, making it float in water.

***

The force between the molecules is very strong, and nothing can resist the expansion that occurs as the ice forms.  This is why water pipes sometimes burst in winter.  The ice expands and cracks the pipe.  Then when the weather gets warmer, the ice melts and water pours from the cracked pipe.  It is unusual for liquid to expand on freezing, but it is a good thing that water does so.  The layer of ice that may form over lakes and the sea in winter prevents the water beneath from freezing.

The End And The Means... Swamy Vivekananda...

One of the greatest lessons I have learned in my life is to pay as much attention to the means of work as to its end.  He was a great man from whom I learned it, and his own life was a practical demonstration of this great principle.  I have been always learning great lessons from that one principle, and it appears to me that all the secrets of success is there: to pay as much attention to the means as to the end.

***

Our great defect in life is that we are so much drawn to the ideal, the goal is so much more enchanting, so much more alluring, so much bigger in our mental horizon, that we lost sight of the details altogether.

***

But whenever failure comes, if we analyze it critically, critically, in ninety-nine per cent of cases we shall find that it was because we did not pay attention to the means.  Proper attention to the finishing, strengthening, of the means, is what we need.  With the means all right, the end must come.  We forget that it is the cause that produces the effect; the effect cannot come by itself; and unless the causes are exact, proper and powerful, the effect will not be produced.  Once the ideal is chosen and the means determined, we may almost let go the ideal, because we are sure it will be there, when the means are perfected.  When the cause is there, there is no more difficulty about the effect, the effect is bound to come.  If we take care of the cause, the effect will take care of itself.  The realization of the ideal is the effect.  The means are the cause: attention to the means, therefore, is the great secret of life.  We also read this in the Gita and learn that we have to work, constantly work, with all our power; to put our whole mind in the work, whatever it be, that we are doing.  At the same time, we must not be attached.  That is to say, we must not be drawn away from the work by anything else, but still we must be able to quit the work whenever we like.

***

If we examine our own lives, we find that the greatest cause of sorrow is this: we take up something, and put our whole energy on it; - perhaps it is a failure, and yet we cannot give it up.  We know that it is hurting us, that any further clinging to it is simply bringing misery on us; still, we cannot tear ourselves away from it.  The bee came to sip the honey, but its feet stuck to the honey-pot and it could not get away.  Again and again, we are finding ourselves in that state.  That is the whole secret of existence.  Why are we here?  We came here to sip the honey, and we find our hands and feet sticking to it.  We are caught, though we came to catch.  We came to enjoy; we are being enjoyed.  We came to rule; we are being ruled.  We came to work; we are being worked.  All the time,we find that.  And this comes into every detail of our life.  We are being worked upon by other minds, and we are always struggling to work on other minds.  We want to enjoy the pleasure of life; and they eat into our vitals.  We want to get everything from nature, but we find in the long run that nature takes everything from us-depletes us, and casts us aside.

***

That is the one cause of misery: we are attached, we are being caught.  Therefore says the Gita:  Work constantly; work, but be not attached; be not caught.  Reserve unto yourself the power of detaching yourself from everything, however beloved, however much the soul might yearn for it, however great the pangs of misery you feel if you were going to leave it; still, reserve the power of leaving it whenever you want.  The weak have no place here, in this life or in any other life.  Weakness leads to slavery.  Weakness leads to all kinds of misery, physical and mental.  Weakness is death.  There are hundreds of thousands of microbes surrounding us, but they cannot harm us unless we become weak, until the body is ready and predisposed to receive them.  There may be a million microbes of misery, floating about us.  Never mind!  They dare not approach us, they have no power to get a hold on us, until the mind is weakened.  This is the great fact: strength is life, weakness is death.  Strength is felicity, life eternal, immortal; weakness is constant strain and misery; weakness is death.

***

Attachment is the source of all our pleasures now.  We are attached to our friends, to our relatives;  We are attached to our intellectual and spiritual works; we are attached to external objects, so that we get pleasure from them.  What, again, brings misery but this very attachment?  We have to detach ourselves to earn joy.  If only we had power to detach ourselves at will, there would not be any misery.  That man alone will be able to get the best of nature, who having the power of attaching himself to a thing with all his energy, has also the power to detach himself when he should do so.  The difficulty is that there must be as much power of attachment as that of detachment.  There are men who are never attracted by anything.  They can never love, they are hard-hearted and apathetic; they escape most of the miseries of life.  But the wall never feels misery, the wall never loves, is never hurt; but it is the wall, after all. Surely it is better to be attached and caught, than to be a wall.  Therefore the man who never loves, who is hard and stony, escaping most of the miseries of life, escapes also its joys. We do not want that.  That is weakness, that is death.  That soul has not been weakened that never feels weakness, never feels misery.  That is a callous state.  We do not want that.

***

At the same time,we not only want this mighty power of love, this mighty power of attachment, the power of throwing our whole soul upon a single object, losing ourselves and letting ourselves be annihilated, as it were, for other souls-which is the power of the gods-but we want to be higher even than gods.  The perfect man can put his whole soul upon that one point of love, yet he is unattached.  How comes this?  There is another secret to learn.

***

The beggar is never happy.  The beggar only gets dole, with pity and scorn behind it, at least with the thought behind that the beggar is a low object.  He never really enjoys what he gets.

***

We are all beggars.  Whatever we do, we want a return.  We are all traders.  We are traders in life, we are traders in virtue, we are traders in religion.  Alas! we are also traders in love.

***

If you come to trade, if it is a question of give-and-take, if it is a question of buy-and-sell, abide by the laws of buying and selling.  There is a bad time and there is a good time; there is a rise, and a fall in prices: always you expect the blow to come.  It is like looking at the mirror.  Your face is reflected; you make a grimace-there is one in the mirror; if you laugh, the mirror laughs.  This is buying and selling, giving the taking.

***

We get caught.  How? Not by what we give, but by what we expect.  We get misery in return of our love; not from the fact that we love, but from the fact that we want love in return.  There is no misery where there is no want.  Desire, want, is the father of all misery.  Desires are bound by the laws of success and failure.  Desires must bring misery.

***

The great secret of true success, of true happiness, then, is this: the man who asks for no return, the perfectly unselfish man is the most successful.  It seems to be a paradox.  Do we not know that every man who is unselfish in life gets cheated, gets hurt?  Apparently, yes.  "Christ was unselfish, and yet he was crucified."  True, but we know that his unselfishness is the reason, the cause of a great victory, the crowning of millions upon millions of lives with the blessing of true success.

***

Ask nothing; want nothing in return.  Give what you have to give; it will come to you -  but do not think of that now.  It will come back multiplied a thousandfold - but the attention must not be one that.  Yet have the power to give; give, and there it ends.  Learn that the whole of life is giving, that nature will force you to give.  So, give willingly.  Sooner or later you will have to give up.  You come into life to accumulate.  With clenched hands, you want to take.  But nature puts a hand on your throat and makes your hands open.  Whether you will it or not, you have to give.  The moment you say, "I will not", the blow comes; you are hurt.  None is there but will be compelled, in the long run, to give up everything.  And the more one struggles against this law, the more miserable one feels.  It is because we dare not give, because we are not resigned enough to accede to this grand demand of nature, that we are miserable.  The forest is gone, but we get heat in return.  The sun is taking up water from the ocean, to return it in showers.  You are a machine for taking and giving; you take in order to give.  Ask, therefore, for nothing in return; but the more you give, the more will come to you.  The quicker you can empty the air out of this room, the quicker it will be filled up by the external air; and if you close all the doors and every aperture, that which is within will remain, but that which is outside will never come in, and that which is within will stagnate, degenerate, and become poisoned.  A river is continually emptying itself into the ocean and is continually filling up again.  Bar not the exit into the ocean.  The moment you do that, death seizes you.

***

Be, therefore, not a beggar; be unattached.  This is the most terrible task of life!  You do not calculate the dangers on the path.  Even by intellectually recognizing the difficulties, we really do not know them until we feel them.  From a distance we may get a general view of a park: well, what of that?  We feel and really know it when we are in it.  Even if our every attempt is a failure, and we bleed and are torn asunder, yet, through all this, we have to preserve our heart -  we must assert our God head in the midst of all these difficulties.  Nature wants us to react, to return blow for blow, cheating for cheating, lie for lie, to hit back with all our might.  Then it requires a super-divine power not to hit back, to keep control, to be unattached.

***

I know the difficulties.  Tremendous they are, and ninety per cent of us become discouraged and lose heart, and in our turn, often becomes pessimists and cease to believe in sincerity, love, and all that is grand and noble.   So, we find men who in the freshness of their lives have been forgiving, kind, simple, and guileless, become in old age, lying masks of men.  Their minds are a mass of intricacy.  There may be a good deal of external policy, possibly.  They are not hot-heade, they do not speak; but it would be better for them to do so; their hearts are dead and, therefore, they do not speak.  They do not curse, nor become angry; but it would be better for them to be able to be angry, a thousand times better, to be able to curse.  They cannot.  There is death in the heart, for cold hands have seized upon it, and it can no more act, even to utter a curse, even to use a harsh word.

***

All this we have to avoid :  therefore I say, we require super-divine power.  Superhuman power is not strong enough.  Super-divine strength is the only way, the one way out.  By it alone we can pass through all these intricacies, through these showers of miseries, unscathed.  We may be cut to pieces, torn asunder, yet our heart must grow nobler and nobler all the time.

***

It is very difficult, but we can overcome the difficulty by constant practice.  We must learn that nothing can happen to us, unless we make ourselves susceptible to it.  I have just said, no disease can come to me until the body is ready; it does not depend alone on the germs, but upon a certain predisposition which is already in the body.  We get only that for which we are fitted.  Let us give up our pride and understand this, that never is misery undeserved.  There never has been a blow undeserved; there never has been an evil for which I did not pave the way with my own hands.  We ought to know that.  Analyse yourselves and you will find that every blow you have received came to you because you prepared yourselves for it.  You did half and the external world did the other half;  that is how the blow came.  That will sober us down.  At the same time, from this very analysis will come a note of hope, and the note of hope is: "I have no control of the external world, but that which is in me and nearer unto me, my own world, is in my control.  If the two together are required to make a failure, if the two together are necessary to give me a blow, I will not contribute the one which is in  my keeping and how then can the blow come?  If I get real control of myself, the blow will never come."

***

We are all the time, from our childhood, trying to lay the blame upon something outside ourselves.  We are always standing up to set right other people, and not ourselves.  If we are miserable, we say, "Oh, the world is a devil's world."  But why should we be in such a world, if we really are so good?  If this is a devil's world, we must be devils also, why else should we be here?  "Oh, the people of the world are so selfish!"  True enough; but why should we be found in that company, if we be better?  Just think of that!

***

We only got what we deserve.  It is a lie when we say, the world is bad and we are good.  It can never be so.  It is a terrible lie we tell ourselves.  This is the first lesson to learn: be determined not to curse anything outside, not to lay the blame upon any one outside, but be a man, stand up, lay the blame on yourself.  You will find that is always true.  Get hold of yourself.

***

We re to take care of ourselves-that much we can do-and give up attending to others, for a time.  Let us perfect the means; the end will take care of itself.  For the world can be good and pure, only if our lives are good and pure.  It is an effect, and we are the means.  Therefore, let us purity ourselves.  Let us make ourselves perfect.........