Look Within – Talks on the Bhagavad Gita by Swami Venkatesananda

[Guest guest]

Jaatasya hi Dhruvo mrityuhu

 

Death is inevitable. What is inevitable cannot be stopped and therefore

it is silly and stupid to resist, fighting and battling against that

which is inevitable.

 

What gives the inevitable such a power?

 

Why does this create fear in me? Because I am afraid of it..

 

Death doesn't jump on my shoulder and threaten me.

 

The fear does not come from death or disease, but from me – the fear

arises in me.

 

And what is this fear?

 

This fear is merely a resistance, a fighting, and a rejection of truth.

All rejection of truth must generate fear and suffering.

 

The opposite of rejection of truth is not acceptance of truth. People

often say " Alright… I accept " .

 

Oh no, you are not accepting – you are fighting, you are rejecting:

you don't have to accept the truth.

 

It is night now – you don't have to accept it, you see it. You

neither reject, nor accept it; you become aware of it, you realise it.

 

If you have been rejecting it or struggling to accept it, in both cases

there is a division, some part of you has shut itself to this truth.

 

Open up and then this become totally real to you. That is realisation.

 

Jaatasya hi Dhruvo mrityuhu

 

Unless and until we clearly see the fact of the life (which includes

what we have called death), the fear will not go.

 

It's neither in the acceptance nor in the rejection – we are not

anticipating or wishing for it, we merely see this as the inevitable

truth.

 

So that when I see the death as inevitable, I am not anxious to die.

 

What for? Why must I go on calling upon the inevitable?

 

We would all be crazy people if we jump on the roof and say " Oh sun,

please come up! "

 

You can go on chanting until tomorrow morning, the sun will certainly

come up – not as a result of your prayer, but it is time for the sun

to come up.

 

It is not necessary for me to go looking for death, praying for death;

nor is it wise on my part to reject it.

 

So I don't welcome it, I don't fight or fear it; I neither

accept nor reject it. None of these things.

 

I merely see that it is there.

To be continued..