5/19/2014 Fear of Death The What and Why of It

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Fear of Death The What and Why of
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16 May 2014 2 Comments
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Everyone dies. Why then do so many have a fear of death? Lyricist and
writer Prasoon Joshi seeks Sadhgurus answers on why we see death as a
sinister process.
Prasoon Joshi: Why is death always portrayed as dark and sinister? You
called it somewhere cosmic joke, but most civilizations refer to it with
some sort of heaviness. Why is there a fear of death in most people,
Sadhguru?
Sadhguru: If we look at how we have perceived and portrayed death in
India, you will see that death is not seen as sinister. The dark thing about
death is the loss for the living. If people lose something precious to them
it could be things; it could be people they will break down. So it is
darkness only for the living, but death itself has always been portrayed as
a grand event in this culture. It is only now that Indians are imitating the
West and walking with heads down when someone dies.
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5/19/2014 Fear of Death The What and Why of It
http://blog.ishafoundation.org/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/fear-of-death/ 2/6
Death is a cosmic joke. If you get the joke, falling on the
other side will be wonderful. ~ Sadhguru
3:30 PM - 8 Aug 2013
Sadhguru
@SadhguruJV
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Above all, there are wonderful stories. The legend goes that Shiva has
made the Maha Shmashan his earthly abode and is waiting there. Every
time somebody dies, he dances in celebration. What kind of a pervert is he
that if somebody dear to me dies, he will dance and celebrate?
The soap bubble
Lets look at the fundamental aspects of life. In the experience of most
human beings, life is just their body, their thoughts, and their emotions. If
we pay some attention to the nature of our lives, we can clearly see that
both the body and the mind are accumulations. Beyond these
accumulations, there is life. To use an analogy when you were a child
and you blew a soap bubble, the bubble was real, but what was inside the
bubble was just the same atmosphere that is all over. When the bubble
burst, a drop of soap water fell on the floor, but where the content of the
bubble went, you could never see, because it is part of everything.
This is the nature of life. The whole cosmos is a living mass of life. When
the bubble burst and this air or this life that was trapped in the bubble got
released, what is happening on the other side is way bigger than what can
happen within the trap of physicality. Shiva is laughing, singing, and
dancing because one life got released from the mortal coil.
Fear of death Social conditioning
Prasoon Joshi: Once, there was a death in the family and I went there.
There was a kid playing and he happened to go over the dead body, as if it
was a thing lying there. People pulled him away, but the child did not
register why. Is fear of death a conditioned process. Is it inculcated into us
that we should perceive the fact that somebody is gone as such a big event
or a calamity?
Sadhguru: Seeing death as a tragedy is physically, mentally, emotionally,
and socially a reality existentially, it is not. A child is an offspring of life
he is not yet a slave of social conditioning. He would even play with the
dead; it would not matter. But because adults feel this is inappropriate,
they will try to condition the child. When somebody very dear to them
dies, most people actually feel as if this is the end of the world. But after
some time, they will come around.
Children do not have this time-lag they come around quickly, because
they are less influenced by what is happening in society. How society
handles death has a purely mental and emotional basis, which means, it is
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5/19/2014 Fear of Death The What and Why of It
http://blog.ishafoundation.org/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/fear-of-death/ 3/6
our making we could make it whichever way we want. Maybe the so-
called educated people have given it up, but otherwise, if somebody dies in
this country, they will beat the drum and have a party. I am not trying to
belittle the loss that a person goes through. But all mental factors your
thoughts, your emotions, your social opinions and situations are only
relevant to a certain extent. Existentially, what you think, what you feel,
what your society thinks, is absolutely irrelevant. That is why we always
position Shiva, one who we consider as the highest, on the edge of society.
He is always on the cremation ground.
This mortal coil
This is how every yogi starts his life. From the age of eight to seventeen, I
spent an enormous amount of time in the cremation ground it simply
intrigued me. I would just sit there. People would come and set fire to the
body. You know, firewood is expensive, so some people want to save on
the wood. I do not know if any of you witnessed this when the body gets
cremated, the first thing that burns up is the neck, and unless they made
the wood arrangement very large, invariably, the halfway burnt skull rolls
off. This happens after three-and-a-half to four hours. By that time, no
relative is there they are all gone within one or two hours. So I would
pick up the skulls and put them back on the pyre.
Everyone talked about so many things I wanted to see it myself. I spent
days and nights in the cremation ground, not even knowing why. Today,
we send those who are seriously on the path to the cremation ground to
spend a certain amount of time there, because mortality has to sink into
you. You must understand the essential nature of your life. Only when
you realize you are mortal, the longing to know that which is beyond will
arise.
If you think of God, you will not become spiritual you could actually
become very stupid. You will think that you can do idiotic things in your
life, and with a prayer, everything will be fixed. You do not do your job
properly, but you think you will produce good results. You do not study for
your exam, and you think you will be first in class because of your prayer.
The moment you address the mortal nature of who you are, the longing to
know what this is all about, and what is beyond this thing that people are
here today, gone tomorrow, will become a natural quest. That is the
spiritual process.
Editors Note: Over the last few years, Sadhguru has made the
Kalabhairava Karma process available to everyone. This process is a
ritual for the deceased, done within a particular time span after death. It
brings a certain ease and pleasant transition for both natural and
unnatural deaths.
This article is based on an excerpt from the May 2014 issue of Forest
Flower. Pay what you want and download. (set 0 for free). Print
subscriptions are also available.
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Ceekaykay 3 days ago
Like a fly stuck to the honey pot
We tasted life, but cannot let go
And thence we suffer by the lot
Missing the freedom of winds that blow...
We are all but brief actors but too caught up with the roles we play and are unwilling
to leave the stage when the whistle blows. Sadhguru put it in the right perspective.

1
Reply
Sanjaih Bokaria 2 days ago
Death helps you burn an old robe, that's tattered, sheared, torn, ripped into tiny
threads of misguided attachments, senselessly dipped into humongous arrays of
liquid diaspora that got the original color so mixed up, that even the biggest
photoshop edit in the universe is unable, transfixed, bemused, shocked, in utter
disbelief to what they have done to the minds of this world which were supposed to
make this point of entry into a body totally mechanised, synthesised, evolved to be
available for the residentship of the ultimate, the highest in the order of the divine...
Each one, a Human Body capable of being a witness to the residentship,
ownership, fellowship, relationship with the the lord of the Universe... & look what
the mind that got conditioned to the process of its own limitation, gave to its own
identity.. A moronic reflection in the mirror that kept saying " I, Me , Mine" and forgot
the You' in it so casually that death became a scary word, a monster, instead of a
facilitator, a moderator, a guru, a guide, a friend, a gateway, an exit point to reach
HOme !!!
To life then, to awareness, to stillness, timelessness, to eternity, to forever, to the
mind that has no body, to the body that is capable of such a fine mind, to them both,
that bow to the one that is Not !
Love light and abundance
Pranams
thank you


Reply
Guest 3 days ago
Oh Surya deva when will you seek mukthi enteranl tools are being implanted on
earth. Become cool guy now :-)


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