Before I present to you my 10 reflections, I need to stress on the fact that this book changed my perspective towards Death completely. I no more look at Death as the Society conditions us to - something bad. Something "evil". Something you do not even mention at home, because talking about Death means an open invitation (an unwelcome one of-course) to Yamraj, the God who takes you away after Death.
Now I look at Death as the most beautiful thing. If you think about it, Life exists only because of Death. If there was no Death, there would be no life. Just how light cannot exist without darkness. If there was nothing as darkness, we would not have anything as light because for us everything would be lit all the time.
The following is a list of ideas I found really fascinating after reading the book Death: An Inside Story by Sadhguru:
1. How to eat your food.
Sadhguru says that from an early age, the moments of eating food have always been of enormous depth to him. The food that you are eating is slowly becoming a part of you. Something that was not you is becoming you. Something which was in the ground somewhere else, in the market, in the vessel, on the stove, is suddenly becoming a part of you. It is a huge love affair, actually. After learning about this, I have made attempts to show more respect towards my meals and try not to watch a YouTube video while eating my food (frankly though most times I end up watching something or the other).
2. The easiest way to figure out who you are.
Simply see what you are not because even if you are unable to see what you are, you can easily see what you are not.
3. The dead should not come back.
When someone very dear to you dies, you wish that they could come back. But Sadhguru says that it is not just a good thing but a very important thing that the dead do not come back. Because it is not just about your relative coming back. Imagine, if all the dead, including the dinosaurs and extinct creatures came back to life. It would be a nightmare for those who are alive.
4. How can there be certain movement in the corpse?
When the corpse is brought for cremation, there is still some life energy in it. It is not good enough to beat the heart, make the circulation happen, make the brains work and all that, but in the cellular level there is energy, lots of energy. When the fire touches it, it inflames that in a certain way. Like how when your phone’s battery goes dead, you can still make an SOS call.
5. How should your experience of life be like?
According to Sadhguru, living well means this:
When you are able to sit in a place as if nothing matters. When you are just fine regardless of whether there is food to eat or not. Nothing else decides who you are right now. Not the kind of garments you are wearing, Not the kind of house you are living in, how someone else treats you, if you are looked up or looked down upon. Wherever you sit, your experience of life is beautiful.
6. What is the spiritual path in terms of karma?
If you are a brahmachari, we not only want you to empty your Prarabdha Karma (the karma allocated to you in this lifetime – to learn more about this, read this post https://www.clickreflect.com/post/do-ghosts-exist where we talk about karma in detail ), we want you to expend the Sanchita Karma, or the entire stock, too. The idea of being on a spiritual path is to put life on fast forward. We don’t want you to take ten lifetimes to handle this warehouse of memory. We want you to finish it now.
7. Does death has a smell?
Dogs, cats, cobras and many other carnivorous animals can smell death. In a way, death has a smell. All the subtler aspects of the physical have their own smells. All carnivores have a special sense of smell because their entire survival process is in their nostrils.
So, because they have such a keen sense of smell, most carnivorous animals know the onset of death. They can even smell death in advance.
Once the vayus start exiting, there is a certain smell to them. This is something even modern science is finding out. They have found that humans have a unique ‘death smell’ which can be used to train dogs to find human cadavers.
When there is a ghost, dogs start barking because they can smell the ghost. They cannot see, but they can smell it, so they get confused. They go and sit in one corner, put their tails between their legs and bark. They can see that nothing is happening around, but there is some activity going on, which makes them very nervous.
8. What is the difference between happy people and miserable people?
Happy people are loosely attached to life. They are willing to drop off at any time. People always think that miserable people want to die. It is not so. Miserable people cling to life more than anyone else.
A happy person does not cling to anyone. When a person is blissful with their life, they are not bothered whether they are going to be reborn or not. They are not even bothered whether they are going to be alive or dead tomorrow. They are so blissful. When you are really happy, you don’t need anyone.
In the past, every king, every powerful person on the planet always sought to somehow become immortal. But, in reality, if you really want to curse someone, don’t wish them death; wish them an endless life.
9. Is there a connection between sleep and death?
Moving from wakefulness to sleep is just moving from dynamism to inertia. If you are able to move consciously from wakefulness to being asleep, you will be able to consciously die as well.
Let us say, you make the moment of falling asleep very loving or happy within yourself, you will see that quality will continue through the sleep also. That is exactly what will happen with death also, but far more enhanced. If, at the final moment, a certain quality is brought in, then that quality will continue.
10. How should one live every moment of their life?
Every day of your life, you need to be aware that you are mortal. It is not that you want to die today, but if you do, it is all right with you.
You should do everything to protect yourself, to nurture yourself and to take care of yourself, but you I have to die today, it is okay. Only then can you step out and live. Otherwise, you cannot live.
Death does not need your assistance. Death is super-efficient. On the other hand, life needs your assistance. If you notice, whatever you do with life, no matter how much you do with life, there is still something more you can do with it. Life needs all your attention and efforts. Death does not need your support. It will anyway happen and it will happen with absolute efficiency. There is no failure here, as all shall pass.
Thank you for reading. Please feel free to check other blogs on this website.
Support ClickReflect by:
Subscribing to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-njzbd1G9px4VnOVitGYyg
Follow us on Instagram: @clickreflect
Hey there! Just letting you know: You can watch an animation video of this blog on our YouTube Channel here:
Comments