In this edition of his exclusive column for iGlobal, the Founder of the world-renowned Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur (SRMD) spiritual organisation reflects on how death can be transcended, and one can attain the eternal Self in this life itself.
Laziness means you are not using your human life for spiritual welfare. Morning did arrive, but you did not wake up. You are still asleep and unaware. There seems no difference between you and one sleeping in the grave! You are losing this precious opportunity. Where your energy must flow and throb, you lie like a dead body. It is better to live a moment like the Enlightened Ones than to live aeons in darkness. In one moment of enlightenment, all mysteries get revealed, all veils disappear, and everything is attained. You need earnestness in your efforts. Do not think, ‘I still have a long life left. What is the hurry? I will do it later.’
Wake up
Who are you? Where have you come from? What is your nature? What is your duty? If you don't know about any of these then how can you say you are alive! Can there be more unawareness than this? There is no difference between your states of sleep and wakefulness; both have unawareness. You are drifting like a piece of wood in a river – no destination, no direction, no understanding. You get dragged wherever situations take you. Your life has been reduced to a mere tragedy. Spiritual pursuit is to rise above this tragedy.
Know thoroughly your inner aspiration. Think of what you should achieve to be happy. Don’t set your goals looking at what others have accomplished to become happy. You cannot determine whether others are happy with that attainment. Don’t consider someone who owns a big house as happy. Those who own a house smaller than you think that you are happy, but you are not. Don't think that someone is happy because he has a big car; he is wearing a mask of happiness. The mask is for others. At home he removes it and then the truth gets revealed. See how much is the disease of desire in him? Does he live in the present or wander into the future with the impulses of his imagination?
Know your need so as to avoid tragedy, otherwise life will be nothing but a mishap. You will start walking in the direction you don't want to go and after reaching you will realise you never meant to come here; this was not your destination. You will be sorrowful. Then it will be too late and difficult to return.
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Build a home in the eternal
Not a single moment is worth wasting. It is worthwhile when lived according to the commands of the Enlightened One, if not then it is futile. Do not waste time in the pursuit of wealth and desire fulfilment! The Enlightened One says create your home in the eternal, not in the ephemeral. You have forsaken the permanent and fallen for the transient. What you are running after is like a reflection of the moon in a lake. A waft is enough to shatter the reflection. This world is fleeting. Do not get attached to it, because by the time you fall for it, it will change.
One who understands the ephemeral nature of life begins the remembrance of the eternal in his heart. He finds it futile to create anything in this fleeting world. Give up the attraction for the impermanent elements. Familiarise with the Eternal. Whose company do you seek here? Everything here is subject to death. No association shall remain forever. Therefore, do not seek the association of those who will die, but of that which will never die.
Dharma is the name of that process by which immortality is attained. It is that method by which you slip away from time and come closer to the eternal. Dharma is that science that ends the impurities. There are many sciences in the world, but spiritual science is the best among them because even after studying other sciences one remains unfamiliar with oneself. Religion is that science by which you detach yourself from others and come closer to yourself. Even one moment of such religious life is better than a hundred years of an indolent life.
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Transcend death
If you die while alive then you don't have to die again. If you can see death in life, death cannot see you. Currently death is invisible to you. You can’t see death, you only see life. You haven’t yet understood its transitoriness, that is why you are wandering in a mirage. The distant scene still attracts you, but it is all your projection. It is a matter of vision. If you have been able to see death in life, you can see life in death. If you believe a lie to be the truth, you will keep seeing lies in the truth. If you see a lie as a lie, you will begin to see the truth in the truth. Knowing a lie as a lie will create eligibility for knowing the truth. If you know the worthless as worthless, then that will bring eligibility for knowing the worthwhile.
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The world is but a dream
All dreams seem real when they appear and you realise they were false when you wake up. If you awaken to reality and see, the world will seem like a dream. Ignorant beings are attached to this world, the Enlightened Ones are not. They are so awake that they don’t see anything, person or situation worth getting attached to. The lamp shines so bright that there is no place for darkness to enter.
What you call a dream and what you call reality, both share the same quality. One is with closed eyes at night and the other with open eyes during the day, but both are dreams! Some dreams you see while awake and working, and others when you are asleep. So, understand the truth, be diligent and don't be indolent.
He who has realised that this life is but a dream will not fear death. Even death is ultimately an event of the dreams. When this is understood, a new journey begins. The name of this journey is Dharma.
The life of the Enlightened Ones is inspiring for they demonstrate true freedom while being in the body. Even the death of such Enlightened Ones is worth remembering and desiring; it is an invitation for the seekers of liberation to inwardness, to awakening to the true Self. Their spirit of Self-abidance at the time of death inspires us to turn towards the pure Self. Their death is a clarion call that beckons us towards the shores of the permanent. But the noise of this shore of the temporary seems charming to you, so you do not hear the profound call or it does not strike you to move speedily in that direction. On reading, thinking, contemplating the lives of the Enlightened Ones, the sound of that call becomes stronger, and you move about in that direction.
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May all beings listen and awaken to that call coming from the shores of the eternal, put in efforts to move in that direction and realise the Supreme Self.
Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji, an enlightened master and an ardent devotee of Shrimad Rajchandraji, is the founder of Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur (SRMD) – a spiritual organisation with 206 centres across six continents advancing the path of Lord Mahavir. In June 2024, he will be in the UK for a series of life-transforming discourses.