We don't like to think about it, but death is coming at any minute. This material world is a cosmic death row situated in one corner of the vast unlimited spiritual sky. Everyone here must die sooner or later. There are no survivors. Since we know that death is surely coming, we should do everything possible to be fully ready for it, so what when it comes, it will not defeat us. For those who die in material consciousness death is a defeat because they are dragged down into the animal or plant kingdom in their next lifetime to fulfill their materialistic desires. And those who die in Krishna consciousness are the supreme winners. They attain the supreme perfection of going home, back to Godhead to live eternally in the sweet transcendental pastimes of Lord Sri Krishna in the unlimited spiritual sky.
Why should we foolishly allow death to defeat us? It is, after all, nothing more than a change of garments. Changing garments is not a big deal. It is something that we do without any anxiety several times a day. So why should death be so much dreaded? It is dreaded because we foolishly think that we are the garments, that we are these material bodies. Someone is thinking, " I am an American female." Someone else is thinking, "I am a Russian male." In this way the illusion of bodily identification is going on and causing us so many unnecessary anxieties.
All we really have to do then to properly prepare ourselves for death is to be 100% convinced that we are not these bodies. To have this degree of conviction requires that we understand positively what we are and that we engage ourselves always in the thinking, speaking, and acting in a manner that reinforces our eternal spiritual identities.
Some argue that when death comes, everything is finished. They say that there is nothing beyond the chemicals, that everything we experience is nothing more than a chemical reaction. But if this were true, why we would be so much in anxiety about the death of the physical body? Why would a dead lump of chemicals be any less valuable or meaningful than a living lump of chemicals? We will spend lavish sums of money and even go into heavy debt to try to save the life of a friend or a family member. We clearly make distinction between a living body and a dead body. Why is this? It is because the spiritual spark, the living entity, is present in the living body but is absent in the dead body. What we actually then is the spiritual spark, not the material body. But yet throughout our lives by the influence of the illusory energy, Maya, we give all importance to the temporary material body and neglect the needs of the eternal spirit-soul within.
Intelligent human life means to give the material body the minimum comforts it requires to stay strong and healthy while at the same time we put the major portion of our energy into awakening the dormant God consciousness, which is currently sleeping soundly within us. If we will properly prioritize our lives in this way we will be solidly situated on the spiritual platform. When death comes we simply accept it as another opportunity to expand our Krishna consciousness.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari
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