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  1. Swami Shailendra Saraswati
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    2020-11-03T07:00:29+05:30
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    Meditation is an art of dying in the inner space. It is an art of dying in awareness. It is a deathless death. We reach the same point, the core of our being, in death as well as meditation. But in death we become unconscious, where as in meditation we enter consciously, touch our center, and resurrect. Every meditation is a death and a resurrection.

    After experiencing death of my false identities in meditation, I am no more afraid of death. It has become a well-known path. I have traveled on it many times. I can go into it rejoicing, dancing, and singing, because I know that it is going to lead me into eternity, into the cosmos.

    It is my realization that only meditation can take us beyond the fear of death. To the meditator there is no death. There is only life, a life divine, and a life eternal.

    Meditation is like fire. It burns our thoughts, our desires, and our memories. It burns the past and the future. It burns our mind and the ego. It takes away all our false identities. It is a death and a rebirth, a crucifixion and a resurrection. We are born anew with a new vision of life.

    Meditation means becoming conscious of consciousness itself. The moment we know who is residing in the body, and who we are, in that very revelation we transcend death and the world of death.

    Meditation is total death, voluntary death, death less death. One dies into oneself. A mystic dies many times before actual death. He dies every day. Whenever he meditates he goes into death. Each moment he dies to the past and remains fresh, because the moment he dies to the past he becomes alive to the present.

    That is why a mystic looks always fresh. He dies continuously and remains as fresh as dewdrops. His freshness, his youth, his timelessness, depend on the art of dying. And then when actual death comes he has nothing to fear, because he has known this death thousands of times. He is thrilled, enchanted; he dances, he welcomes when death comes. He knows the secret of death. Knowing it, he has the master key that can unlock all the doors. He has the key that can open the door of Existence.

    Death is going to come sooner or later. Before death comes, let us learn how to die in meditation. Death takes everything away, but it cannot take our meditation. If we can become rooted in our being, alert, conscious, watchful, we will see that we are not the body, not the mind, not the heart. We are simply the witnessing soul, and that witnessing will go with us. Then we can witness even death.

    Meditation is an effort to encounter death voluntarily. That experience of encountering death makes us deathless. Suddenly we transcend death. Suddenly we know that the one, which is going to die, is not I.  All that can die are not we. We are neither the body nor the mind, nor the ego. We are simply pure space — which is never born and never dies.

    Meditation simply means to drop slowly all our desires. It is a preparation to celebrate death, because everything is complete. Nothing is pending. We are ready. In our meditative consciousness, death disappears just as darkness disappears with appearance of light.

    I consider life an ongoing match. Sometimes we score on others, some other times others score on us. It is only at the time of death that result of the match is decided.

    If we can celebrate our death, we have won the match. If we feel miserable at deathbed, we have lost the match, regardless of what wealth we have accumulated, what laurels we have received, and what awards we have won.

     Meditation teaches us how to celebrate death and win the ongoing match of life.

     Science and spiritualism, both agree on one point that everything moves in a cycle. Everything, which moves away from the source, returns to its original source. Life is a forgetfulness of the original source, and death is again a remembrance. Life is going away from the original source; death is coming back home. Death is not ugly; death is beautiful. But death is beautiful only for those who have lived their life beautifully, with love, laughter, dance, and celebration.

    Death becomes celebration if our life has been a celebration. In fact death is mirror of life. Whatsoever our life was, it is revealed in death. Death is a great revealer. If we have been miserable in life, death reveals misery. If we have been happy in our life, death reveals happiness.

    One, who lives unconsciously, also dies unconsciously, and is born again in unconsciousness. It is a vicious circle, which goes on and on for millions of lives. Unless we become alert and awake in life, we can’t be conscious in death.

    We need some acquaintance with death, before it actually comes. Meditation is meeting death before we actually die. For this we have to start loving the beauty of it, start falling in love with it. Death need not be treated as unwanted guest. It brings our greatest beloved, the divinity, closest to us. Death is a welcome guest. In fact we can know when it is coming and get prepared to receive it.

    There are two methods to know if somebody is going to die within six months or not. The day, we stop seeing the tip of our nose; that means only six months are left. Similarly, when we look at our wrist bringing closer to our eyes, it thins out. But six months before death, it is completely cut off.

    For great meditator death is a homecoming. Many times they have traveled on this path leaving their body, mind, heart far away. The same happens when we die. The death is not a new experience for them. In our meditation we have been dying and coming back to life every day. Such a person dies very consciously, because he knows what death is. And one who dies consciously knows that death is nothing but changing the house. And it is always for a better house because life always goes upwards; it is an evolutionary process.

    Life is not the end. It is just a route to know our real home. But we are afraid, we are scared, at the very word death we start trembling. That means we have not yet known life. Life never dies. Life cannot die. Somewhere we have become identified with the body, with the mechanism. The mechanism will die. It can not be eternal. It is born some day. So it has to die some day. But awareness is never born, so it can never die.

    It has no roots. It can float like a cloud in the sky. The real life is eternal. It is never born, never dies. It is like an ocean. Waves come and go. But if we look deep down into the wave, there is an ocean. If we look deep down into our own being, we will find the ocean. This is the miracle of meditation. Death is the highest peak of life, the Everest. It is the most beautiful thing in existence. But we can know the beauty of death only if we know the beauty of life. The people who miss it have not lived at all. One, who knows life in such intensity, in such ecstasy, knows that there is no death. Ignorance of life creates death. Life full of joy and awareness prepares for joyful and conscious death.

    If one can dance, sing, and celebrate his life in full awareness, with no complaint, no grudge, but in immense gratitude towards Existence, he has fulfilled his mission in life.

    He has arrived in his real home, eternal home.

    The meditator dies voluntarily many times before the actual death. Each moment he dies to the past and remains fresh, because the moment he dies to the past, he becomes alive to the present.

    We are part of the Existence. We arise out of the ocean of the Existence as a wave and we disappear back into the ocean. As wave we can enjoy the sunlight and the wind for the moment, and then disappear. Like a wave, we can also appear beautifully, joyously, dancing, and disappear beautifully, joyously, dancing. We can live with immense joy and die with immense joy. A meditator knows the art of living as well as the art and ecstasy of dying. Only he knows that death is not death, but the beginning of an eternal pilgrimage.

    We have to learn the art of dying a death less death. We have to learn this through love, music, poetry, dance, meditation, and prayer. Then life becomes a continuous celebration. Then God lives in us.

    The body is like an electric bulb. The vital force is the electricity, the energy that keeps the body alive, lighted.  In Samadhi the seeker himself meets death. He comes to know the truth that he is separate from his body. Once the separation between the body and the being is known, experience of divine nectar, divine life, eternal life, deathless life has begun.

    — Swami Shailendra Saraswati

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