The Struggle Against the Single Certainty of Life-Death
From time immemorial, all traditions, all civilizations have been trying all possible ways to conquer death. Scientists try through medicines, which is responsible for the birth and growth of allopathy.
Siddhas, the ayurvaidyas (traditional Hindu doctors), tried through herbs, which gave birth to the siddha tradition and kayakalpa (anti-ageing medicine). The yogis tried through mantras, which gave birth to the mrutyunjaya mantra (chat to overcome fear of death) and pranayama (breath control) techniques. The Lamas tried through meditation, which gave birth to our Mahamantra meditation technique to energize the heart energy center, anahata chakra. Almost all traditions, all cultures have tried to conquer death, to go beyond death. Why?
Why is all of humanity struggling against the one thing and that too, the only thing that is a certainty in all our lives? Can we make the whole earth flat? No! It is a proven fact that the earth is round. But if we struggle against this fact, then there is something wrong in our struggle, in our understanding. It is the same with death too. Why are we struggling to accept the truth when even after such a lot of struggle, not a single human being has been successful in mastering or overcoming death.
There was this person in Tamil Nadu, Bharat, who claimed to be a great spiritual figure. In Bharat, one needs nothing more than a few pamphlets to proclaim that one is a spiritual teacher! In other religions, one would need to get the agreement of the headquarters or the organizational president. In Hinduism, we don't need anything: just a small amount of money to print pamphlets is more than enough.
This man claimed that in the year 2000, the whole world would be destroyed. He predicted that he would be the sole human being who would survive the pralaya (final dissolution). Being a good orator, he convinced thousands of people about the impending doomsday through mass meetings and popular media. He claimed that if they aligned with his preaching, they would be saved from this horrible fate that was sure to be theirs otherwise. What happened finally? One fine day, the papers carried the news that he had died! Instead of the world dying, he was dead!
What did this man do? He played with the emotions of people. He tried to exploit fear in people. He capitalized on their fear that was born out of ignorance. Almost every tradition, every religion and every science, be it allopathy, pranic healing, reiki, homeopathy, siddha, or ayurveda, have worked extensively on prolonging life. Why? Why are we so anti-death? Why are we so against death? It is because we have not understood the truth or the fact behind death. We have never given ourselves the time to look into it.
Our entire society lives in denial of this one glaring truth: that dying is as much a part of our lives as living! It is this deep fear, this painful insecurity, this constant denial that is responsible for the mushrooming of so many insurance companies all over the world! How can we plan for the next fifty years when we may not be around the next fifty seconds? I tell you, life insurance is not life insurance as we are led to believe. It is actually death insurance! It is insurance for others, so many of whom may actually be waiting for us to die!