08 Sep 2024
[18.02.2003] The human life span is only a minute when compared to the great flow of time of this creation. That is, a person who lived for 100 years is equal to an insect that lived for one minute. He, who died at the age of 50, lived half a minute. He, who died at the age of 25, lived a quarter of a minute. We see an insect living for a minute in front of our eyes. Another insect survived only a quarter of a minute. The first insect did not undergo any agony and died. The second insect lived for a quarter of a minute and at the end, suffered momentarily and died. The first insect lived for a minute, did not undergo any sufferance and died, but was tortured for billions of years after death. The second insect lived for a quarter of a minute, experienced torture for a moment, but floated in bliss for billions of years after death. Which of these two insects should you feel sad about? Certainly the first insect and you should say “Alas! What an unlucky creature it is" but not about the second insect.
Therefore, there is no need to think and sympathize with Adi Shankara, who lived for only 32 years and died suffering from Bhagandara (fistula) disease at the end for four days during His short life span. In other words, due to His sufferance through the disease, He attained permanent close association with Shiva (Shiva Sāyujya) till the creation exists. Another man lived like a crow for a hundred years, died in a big hospital and then fell into hell for the entire duration of creation. It is about this second person that one should be wept and sympathized with. In the view of God, the first one lived for 32 seconds. The second one lived for 100 seconds. In this one moment, there is nothing one can gain and there is nothing that can be lost. It is considered very wise for the individual soul to try for the permanent eternal fruit, which comes after this one moment of time. He who falls into these momentary pleasures and destroys the eternal fruit by falling into the passions of the bonds of father, son, money and wealth, which are only meant for this moment, is very foolish. The cause of this foolishness is the lack of knowledge of the value of time (Kāla Jñāna).
So, a yogi who has knowledge of the value of time, makes use of this momentary time with spiritual effort to acquire eternal happiness. Therefore, this individual soul need not think about death, not about the agony at the time of death and not about the losses that happen in this lifetime. One's life may be good, but there is no need to worry that your life is not good. Similarly, no need to say that one has a short span of life and the other has a full span of life. These are only momentary differences of varying life spans. The fruit obtained after death is eternal. We should pray to God about such permanent fruit only and why should we pray about related things and beings that are false and momentary? Not only that, at the end of this one moment, your body also perishes and merges into the five elements. Why should you beg God for removing ailments of your such momentary body? If you think of asking any such thing, then you should beg about the eternal fruit that you will get after death.
Therefore, the intellectuals, those who know the value of time, get the divine fruit of the association of God Brahmā (Brahma Sāyujyam) through the spiritual effort done in this momentary life. This is the true knowledge of limited time at one’s disposal. But it is not about the knowledge of time that will happen in the future. Actually, the present worldly things are enough to totally destroy you. These worldly things are like the deadly poision (Hālāhala) in your hand that can reduce you to ash in a moment. Furthermore, you are running for pots and pots of poison, which are in the form of worldly discussions with neighbors, T.V., movies, novels, fiction and future predicting, as if the above were not sufficient. God is shedding tears seeing your foolishness. You, even in such a pitiable state, say, "Oh, what a pity" about the short life span of Shankara and about His last four-day suffering. But God is uttering a million times, "Oh, what a pity" about your previous generations who have fallen into eternal hell, further about you and about your future generations. Jesus Christ lived for 34 years. He was tortured for four hours. As He was carrying the cross, those who saw Him wept out of sympathy for the difficulties being faced by Him. It is like a person who was going to receive a lakh beatings cried when he saw the one who was receiving four beatings. Immediately, Jesus stopped and looked at them and said, "Don't cry for Me. Cry for yourselves and your children" and proceeded forward. Therefore, if somebody worries about this life, spanning a moment, regarding momentarily materialistic things, or about health and life, or about death, there is no fool greater than him. He is foolishly worried about the momentary sufferings, but does not know about the permanent sufferings that will come later.
According to Christianity, there is a final judgment for the individual soul at the end of human life. The liberated reach God permanently. Those bound by bonds will go to hell forever. The doctrine of the Hindu religion also says the same. Hindu religious tradition says, "Jantūnāṃ narajanma durlabhamidam". It means that human birth is rare (Duralabham). What does it mean that potable water is rare in the desert? It means that there is no potable water in the desert. So, idaṃ narajanma = this human birth; jantūnām = for animals; durlabham = not available again. So, truth is truth, whichever religion says it. A diamond is a diamond, whether found in America or India. Gravels are gravels only wherever they are found. But there is another truth. This truth is not contrary to the previous truth. That is, the liberated souls who have reached the Parabrahman will take human births along with the Him to uplift human beings. But those who have fallen into permanent hell are not reborn as human beings.
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