Death as guru

[Guest guest]

Birth, death, old age and disease. The 4 evils right? The cause of all our sufferings. But not really. If we look closer it is the attachment to the idea of body as self that really is our problem. The self realized are not bewildered by all these bodily changes.

 

But at our stage we can take good lessons from such as the impending forced exit from the body. The first thing is to allow ourselves to really face the fact of it on a deep level. Not just the intellectual accent to the idea itself.

 

"For one who dies birth is certain..." But don't the self realized also undergo the transformation we call death? Does this mean they also must take another birth? No, because they have died to the attachment of bodily identification before their bodies drop off.

 

The Buddhists have this practice of death awareness-maranasati- in which they try to remain aware of the coming test of death and which spurs within them a sense of urgency in their practice. They call this heightened state of urgency samvega.

 

I can see where this would be helpful for me as well in my practice to become self-realized and Krsna consciousness. Myself and I suspect others have taken up Krishna consciousness as a kind of hobby that we include in our lives.

 

This is living in a stupor and a little samvega would be helpful in bringing us out of our complacency. Like some ice water in the face.

 

So let's heed the lesson guru deathji has prepared for us. Dying daily to bodily attachments will make remembering Krishna at that point that much easier.

 

Hare Krishna