Dying
- Clinical death is when the body ceases to function. You and I will thus die surely one day.
- People asked Swami Chinmayanandaji, “What happens after death?” to which he replied, “I am more interested in what happens BEFORE death.”
- Spiritual masters tell us of a different death. When we know how to die, we know how to live.
- Normally we seek a continuity of our status, position and of our relation with our children, spouse etc.
- The ending of such seeking (of continuity) is a form of dying.
- Normally we live for a cause, for something very dear to our heart. We are afraid to let go of that cause – work, person or object. Living in fear is no living at all. Ending of fear is to live fully.
- When we truly let go of that cause, there is a dying. There is in it a great renewal.
- To live without a cause – strange, as it may seem – has the purest form of love in it.
- Violence in our heart comes to an end when we let go of our attachment.
- A very respected ideal, a much praised institution or a revered life-style may also be the content of our attachment (cause to live).
- In unbiased observation, personal seeking ends. The seeker, the seeking and the sought dissolve in a silent understanding.
- In such dying we are born again. Every day is a fresh leaf – green, bright and tender.
We salute Pujya Swami Chinmayanandaji whose birthday falls on this Thursday.
Om Sri Chinmaya sadgurave namah
Swami Chidananda
Monday, May 05, 2003