From jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca Sun Aug 15 01:29:12 1999
Newsgroups: alt.meditation.shabda
Subject: The Mystery of Death (4/6)
From: jamesjs@unixg.ubc.ca (James Shannon)
Date: 15 Aug 1999 08:29:12 GMT





                             MYSTERY OF DEATH

                                   by

                              Kirpal Singh 

                              [Part 4 of 6] 



                                   III

                             LIFE IN FULLNESS


            This earth, the arena of so many struggles and
        strifes, full of sharp antinomies and contrarieties,
        presenting, as it does, a vast panorama of life in its
        variegated forms and colours, is but a speck in the
        boundless creation of the great Creator:

            There is no end to the creation;
            There are countless forms of life with varied
              names, species and colours;
            Writ on the objective world by the ever-flowing
              pen of the Creator.
                                                - Nanak

            With all its seeming imperfections, this world
        serves a useful purpose in the divine plan, just like
        an apparently insignificant cog in the machinery of a
        great powerhouse. Nature, the handiwork of God,
        is not the least extravagant in its design and plan.
        This world is a penitentiary, a house of correction, a
        sort of purgatory, a plan of expiation, a training
        ground where souls get chastened by experience. It is
        a half-way house between physical planes and spiritual
        realms. The powers that be of the earth are hard
        taskmasters, believing still in the ancient Mosaic
        Law of 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'
        Here all kinds of third degree methods are employed
        and hard knocks are administered, rendering less
        than justice, untempered by compassion and mercy,
        so that one should take his lessons seriously, and by
        degrees turn away from the way of the world to the
        Way of God. Life on the earth-plane then is a
        dreadful thing 'dark with horror and fear,' and we
        are long lost children of God in the labyrinthine
        wilderness of the world.

            Evolution is in the nature of living monads and
        consists in moving towards its source and becoming
        one with it, for true happiness lies in 'fellowship
        divine; fellowship with Essence; till we shine; fully
        alchemised and free of space.' But the tragedy of life
        on earth is that 'we do not know what we are and
        much less of what we may become' for 'what we are
        we do not see; what we see is our shadow.' The
        'inner being' in us is so constituted after the fashion
        of God that it knows no rest until he rests in Him.
        "A truly religious experience," says Plotinus, "consists
        in the finding of the true Home by the soul exiled
        from heaven." And this experience can be ours if
        only we know how to unhook the 'self' from the
        trammels and trappings of body and mind.

            Self-realisation and God-realisation are the
        highest objects of mundane existence. Self-realisation
        precedes God-realisation. 'Know Thyself' has
        ever been an article of faith with the ancients. First
        the Greeks and then the Romans in their turn laid
        great stress on 'gnothie seauton' and 'nosce teipsum'
        as they called it respectively and both these terms
        stand for 'self-knowledge' or knowledge of the 'self'
        in us. The knowledge of the self or 'Atam Jnana'
        of the Hindu Rishis and 'Khud Shanasi' of the
        Muslim darveshes comes first. Next comes the
        realisation and experience of the Overself or God -
        Parmatman or Rab-ul-almeen and this is called
        Khuda Shanasi or Knowledge of God.

            The process of self-realisation whereby the self
        can be separated from the mighty maze of mind and
        matter, begins with introversion - receding of attention,
        the outward expression of spirit in the world
        outside. It is an art of inversion from the world of
        senses to the world within, and beyond the physical
        senses, technically called Pra Vidya. Real life or
        Reality is something that is cognised only in a death-
        like state, a state that intervenes on conscious
        withdrawal of the sensory currents from the body to the
        eye-focus. Life is 'an active principle, however
        removed; from senses and observation.'

            In the workaday world, we are prone to all kinds
        of lusts - lust of the flesh, eyes, ears and other sense-
        organs - and we are being constantly swayed by countless
        attachments, myriads of aspirations and desires,
        springing from the diverse longings of the heart and
        unknown latencies lying hidden in the folds of the mind.
        All types of likes and dislikes, prides and prejudices,
        loves and hatreds and many other things unwittingly
        keep creeping into our consciousness, personal
        consciousness, frittering our energy, and keeping us away
        from the ultimate goal and purpose of life; to wit,
        self-realisation. This ignorance of the aim of life is a
        serious malady we are afflicted with, and it is the cause
        of bondage, - bondage of the soul to a world 'bursting
        with sin and sorrow.' Yet, there is a Power within
        us that resurrects the soul. We have, therefore, to
        take a turn from this drama of hectic activity and
        find the still-centre of our being within the human
        body where the All-pervading and All-free Power
        resides. This body is verily the temple of God, and
        the Holy Ghost dwells therein. So all this present
        activity has got to be reversed and geared back into
        the opposite direction. This is termed by Emerson
        as 'tapping inside' and 'going into the fox-hole in the
        brain,' as once remarked by President Truman, for
        it was into this fox-hole that he repaired whenever
        he wanted peace and relaxation from the burden of
        his high office. The Vedas call it 'Brahm-rendra'
        or the hole through which Brahman could be contacted.

            "Knock and it shall be opened unto you,"
        St. Matthew says significantly enough. It shows that
        a door within the body leads into the realm beyond
        - the Kingdom of God. And of this inlet it is said:
        'Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which
        leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.' To
        locate this gate and to have an experience of the
        ingress makes for personal conviction, for nothing
        becomes real till it is experienced. Intellect is finite
        and so is reasoning based on intellect. Scriptural
        texts speak of Truth but do not demonstrate It, much
        less give a contact with Truth. Logical knowledge
        is all inferential and cannot be depended upon with
        certainty. Certitude comes only when 'the eternal
        Word speaks.' The shortest, the swiftest and the
        surest way to plumb Truth is through a mortal leap
        (into the Unknown), says Henri Bergson, the great
        philosopher. Perception, intuition and reasoning
        just help in understanding the Reality to a certain
        extent at the level of the intellect; but seeing is
        believing, seeing within with ones' own eye, the
        'Single Eye' as it is called. Of this inlet or ingress
        little is known to the people at large. Nanak
        emphatically declares: "The blind find not the door."
        In order to find the 'strait gate' and the 'narrow way'
        leading unto life - life eternal - the life of spirit
        as distinguished from the life of the flesh, we have
        of necessity to recoil from the present downward and
        outward expansion, gather-in the outgoing faculties of
        the mind at the seat of the soul, behind and between the
        eyes. In other words, we have to change the centre of our
        being from the heart-centre as at present to the eye-
        centre (Tisra Til or Nukta-i-sweda) and develop the
        'Single Eye' of which Jesus speaks : "If, therefore,
        thine eye be 'Single,' they whole body shall be full of
        light." This 'Single' or 'Third Eye' variously called
        by the sages as Shiv netra, Divya chakshu or Chashm-
        i-batin provides an ingress into the spiritual world -
        the Kingdom of God - now a lost realm to most of us.
        It is here that one has to tap within, and to knock
        and knock hard with fully concentrated and single-
        minded attention, as an undivided individual, in
        order to find the way-in and gain an entry into the
        astral world. Hence the exhortation: 'Now is the
        time to awaken and lovingly remember the Lord.'
        But how? We have not seen Him. And one cannot
        concentrate on and contemplate, the formless void as
        He is. In the same breath comes the sage's counsel
        as well. 'Learn of this (approach to the Absolute)
        from some God-man.' What does the God-man
        say? 'Fix thou thy attention at the eye-focus, the seat
        of the Lord Siva (the Shiva-netra), for then every-
        thing will follow of itself in due course, as you will
        gain experience of the 'self' in you.

            The Masters tell us that the entire world is
        blindly groping in the dark, chasing the fleeting
        shadows, ever eluding and ever fading away into airy
        nothings as we draw nigh to them; while the fountain-
        head of all bliss and harmony lies untapped
        within at the eye-centre which is the seat of the soul
        in the body in the waking state. This centre, when
        located, gives an access to, and provides a supra-
        conscious contact with, the realms that lie beyond the
        farthest ken of the human mind. Equipped with the
        sense-organs, our only means of knowledge is through
        them. The soul is perfect without the senses for its
        action is direct and immediate and not indirect and
        mediate depending upon outer aids as knowledge of
        the world is. After obtaining this contact, one is led,
        step by step, to the true Home of the Father. This
        is life in fullness. Thrice blessed is man for it is
        given unto him the power to traverse the regions,
        both astral and causal, and to go into the Beyond
        (Brahm and Par Brahm), the region of eternal
        bliss outside the pale of repetitive creation,
        dissolution and grand dissolution. But so long as one
        does not withdraw himself from the world and from
        himself as well, from his body, mind and intellect, he
        does not draw any the nearer to God. "It is only
        when the outward man perisheth (the human in the
        body is transhumanised), that the inward man
        (spirit) is renewed, and the dizzy heights of the
        mount of transfiguration are gained and one becomes
        a living spirit freed from the body and its
        impediments; capable of getting inner experience of
        meeting the ancient Masters like Moses and Elijah"
        (Matt. Ch. 17), "and joining the Lord in the feast of
        Passover." (Matt. Ch. 26 and Mark Ch. 14). It is at
        this place that the Lord awaits his disciples: "Behold,
        I stand at the door, and knock, if any man hears my
        voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and
        will sup with him, and he with me." (Rev. 3:20). All
        this experience that St. John reveals to us, he had
        when he was transformed into 'spirit,' and he speaks
        of the coming in of the Lord 'as a thief in the night'
        (in the darkness of the soul). Hafiz, a Persian mystic
        of great repute, also testifies: 'The Murshid comes in
        the darkness with a lantern in his hands.'

            "The way Godward," says Prophet Mohammed,
        "is narrower than hair and sharper than the razor's
        edge." It is described by Nanak as 'khande-di-dhar'
        (sword's edge) and thinner than a hair; and one has
        actually to pass through a death-like experience. In
        this context St. Plutarch says: "At the moment of
        death, the soul experiences the same impressions and
        passes through the same processes as are experienced
        by those who are initiated into the Great Mysteries."
        But how many of us are prepared to experience the
        death processes while living? We are all mortally
        afraid of death. And why so, particularly when we
        know, and know so well that it is the necessary end
        of all created things ? The reasons therefor are not
        far to seek. In the first place, we have not yet learnt
        'to die at will' while living. And secondly, because
        we do not know what happens after death? Where
        do we go? What lies beyond the death-trap? This
        is why we have a horror of death; and the mere idea
        of death holds us in a state of mortal terror:

            The entire world is mortally afraid of death,
            And everyone desires to have an endless life,
            If by the grace of the Guru one learns of death-
              in-life,

            He becomes the knower of divine wisdom.
            O Nanak! he who dies such a death,
            He gains for himself the gift of life eternal.

            Death, after all, is not a dreadful incident. 'How
        charming is divine philosophy; not harsh and crabbed
        as the ignoramuses suppose; but sweetly melodious as
        Apollo's lute; and a perpetual feast of nectared
        sweet.' It, in reality, opens new vistas and new
        horizons of life beyond the grave, and the flames of
        the funeral pyre, that engulf, entomb and extinguish
        the mortal remains. 'Dust thou art and to dust
        returneth' was not spoken of the soul. The life-
        principle in us or in fact in any other living thing
        never dies. It is only the elemental parts that go
        through a process of change which we erroneously
        call death, and wrongly understand it to be an
        extinction.

            'In nature, death feeds life and life illumines
        death.' It is the universal law that operates every-
        where and on all planes of existence. 'The wise men
        discover that the perception of Reality comes with
        the annihilation of the self (the bodily self in which
        the spirit is incarcerated).' The moment the spirit
        voluntarily breaks through the fetters, something
        breaks in upon the spirit with a 'terrible illumination
        from the world behind the world' making It 'the Prophet
        of the Most High God.' 'It is at the Mt. of
        Transfiguration that one gets revelations and sees the
        mingling of heaven and earth.' It is here that one finds
        'the dark grows luminous and the void fruitful.'

            Everyone has, as a matter of course, to die some
        day - man, bird, or beast; rich or poor, healthy or
        diseased, young or old. The soul which takes on the
        physical raiment has to shed it one day. Death alone
        is certain and real, while life (in this world) is
        uncertain. We seldom pause to think about the long
        journey which lies ahead of the inner being in us.
        We usually lament the death of others and mourn for
        them for days on end but are not wise enough to care
        for our own end and prepare ourselves for the final
        journey into the great unknown that lies beyond life's
        end. Before an analysis is offered of the death-
        process, practical and informative as it may be, it
        would be worth our while to know at least what we
        are? Who we are? Whence we come? Whither we go?
        And above all what is the meaning or purpose of life?

            Man, as at present constituted, is an aggregate
        of body, mind and intellect with a great motor-power
        working from behind) called soul. Formed and environed,
        as we are, through the ages, our attention is
        continuously flowing outwards and downwards through
        the nine portals of the body - the eyes, the ears,
        the nostril nares, the mouth and the two passages below
        the waist. It is not that we wish it or do it
        voluntarily but it has just become a habit with us.
        We are not yet master of the house in which we live.
        We are being constantly dragged out by mind and the
        senses through the various sense-organs, into the vast
        and varied fields of sense-enjoyments. It is this
        constant association of the self in us (attention)
        with the mind and the material objects that has not
        only debased us, but defaced us beyond recognition,
        and now we do not know what we really are. We have
        become so identified with our limiting adjuncts that
        we do not know anything independent of, and apart
        from them. Unless the self gets depersonalised by
        throwing off the mask of dross personality with which
        it has covered itself and becomes disrobed self, pure
        and simple; by dissociation from these countless
        limiting agents: (1) the mind comprising the faculties
        of hoarding impressions (chit), thinking (manas),
        reasoning intellect (buddhi) and egotism or self-
        assertiveness (ahamkar); (2) the sheaths or coverings:
        physical (ann-mai), subtle (pran-mai and mano-mai),
        causal (vigyan-mai and anand-mai); (3) the inborn
        and natural propensities of righteousness (satva),
        mercurial restlessness (rajas) and inaction born of
        ignorance (tamas); (4) the five elements (tattvas):
        earth, water, fire, air and ether of which the entire
        physical creation is made and (5) the twenty-five
        compounded elements in varying degrees of proportion
        (prakritis) which prepare the physical moulds or
        bodies in different shapes and patterns, shades and
        colours as a result of karmic reactions; the self
        imprisoned in so many meshes, cannot know its own
        real nature, much less its divine ancestory and
        the rich heritage, all of which come to light only
        when it comes to its own and realises itself as the
        self-luminous 'Self.'

            Let us see what some of the English thinkers
        have to say in this context:

            Man is a little world in himself, made cunningly
              of elements and angelic spirit. His God-like
              qualities have depraved by the fall, and he is
              constantly visited by divine wrath-mars,
              plagues and thunder-storms. Yet, he can enjoy
              a civilised happiness, provided he treats the
              world a preparation for the next, and keeps
              the body subject to his soul.
                                                - J. Donne

            What is it to trust on mutability,
            Sith that in this world nothing may endure.

                                                - Skelton

            There is within the all-comprehending ambit of
              animal instinct, some secret urge which
              drives the chosen men towards transcending
              of animal impulse. This transcending animal
              impulse manifests itself as complete
              disinterestedness (of all that is in the
              world without).
            The urge of animal ego is completely
              disregarded; and the evidence of this disregard
              is a willing submission to a 'self-sought death,'
              an acceptance of the annihilation of the animal
              instinct is arrayed against this acceptance...
              (till) nothing remains on the subjective side
              but pure consciousness, and one is transformed
              into a Superior Being whom he imagines
              (contemplates)...

            Nothing ever becomes real till it is (actually)
              experienced - even a proverb is no proverb till
              your life has illustrated it. But how many
              philosophers have made this acquisition?

            For this, the mind has to be reintegrated (made
              an undivided whole), as a faculty of sense,
              integrating which is a prelude to and a necessary
              condition to total detachment from it. The
              self must be whole before one can wholly
              detach oneself from it (body, mind and intellect).
              It is an all-seeing mind which embraces the
              totality of being under the aspect of eternity.
              As we gain our entrance into the world of Being,
              a total vision is ours.
                                                - Middleton Murray

            There is a communication between mystery and
              mystery, between the unknown soul and the
              unknown reality; atone particular point in the
              texture of life the hidden truth seems to break
              through the veil.
                                                - Ibid

            How then is this inner urge to be fulfilled? The
        process of getting fully into, and staying completely,
        in the eye-focus (the gateway to the so-called death),
        is akin to a part of the process of death. The process
        of withdrawal of the sensory currents from the body
        below the eyes is a voluntary one, and one comes to
        experience the mysteries of the beyond into which a
        Master-soul (Sant Satguru) initiates a disciple during
        his lifetime. He gives a first-hand inner experience
        of conscious contact with the holy Naam - the Divine
        Light and the holy Sound-Current (Holy Ghost) as
        coming from the right side, as the lowest expressions
        of the divinity within. One cannot by one's own
        unguided and unaided efforts have an access into the
        spirit world when one cannot hold on by himself even
        in the physical world without the active aid and
        guidance of many teachers from the cradle to the
        grave. Herein lies the paramount need and importance
        of Satguru or Murshid-i-Kamil (Perfect Master,
        an adept in the science and art of soul), competent
        enough to disentangle the spirit-currents from every
        pore of the body, the plane of sensations as it is, and
        to raise it above body-consciousness to witness for
        himself the inner divine splendiferous glory.

            With the process of withdrawal of the sensory
        currents from the body, the death-like process commences.
        You have not to do anything but simply to sit in a
        calm, composed and fully relaxed position with attention
        fixed at the eye-focus and engage in Simran or repetition
        of the charged names, which carry the life-impluse of
        the Masters through the ages and serve as passwords into
        the regions beyond. While so established in an easy
        posture (asan) in healthy surroundings, you forget
        yourself, entirely forgetting even the life-giving and
        life-sustaining pranas (vital airs) which will of
        themselves gradually slow down and grow rhythmic; and so
        do the entire respiratory and circulatory systems of the
        body. At first, the sensory currents begin to gradually
        withdraw from the extremities of the body - tips of the
        hands and feet and come upwards and gradually pass
        through the various bodily centres, each of which being
        the region of one of the five elements of which the body
        is composed, until taking off from the heart-centre they
        reach the throat-centre, the seat of Shakti, the Mother
        of the universe (the all-pervading energy); benumbing
        the entire bodily system below the eyes; and then
        proceed directly to the centre behind the eyes (Agya
        Chakra). This is where the spirit-currents get collected
        and gain an entry into the fox-hole within (Brahmrendra
        or the hole of Brahma) and have a peep into the Brahmand
        or the cosmic universe. This is the tenth aperture in the
        body, the only inlet, apart from the nine outlets. This
        is the place where you have to knock and get admittance
        into the realms above - realms more vast, more glorious,
        self-luminous and self-resounding with rapturous strains
        of celestial Music, unheard of anywhere in the physical
        world which has been left below; now no more than
        a great slum area fraught with miseries and tribulations
        'fading into a faint reflection of the world of ideas'
        as Plato puts it. At this stage man becomes truly blessed,
        blessed at having access to the aerial region, the world
        of spirits. He is now at the threshold of the astral world
        in company of the Radiant Form of the Master (Guru Dev)
        with Gur-bhakti complete in every respect. When a disciple
        reaches the Radiant Form of the Master, his job of
        self-effort is over. The Guru Dev now takes charge of
        the spirit and trains the spirit in Shabd-bhakti in the
        real sense, or devotion to the Sound Current, which is
        his own real form (Shabd Swaroop). From here He
        takes the spirit along with Him on the spiritual
        journey that lies through countless regions of varying
        spiritual sublimity: the causal or instrumental plane,
        the seed-world, the ever pregnant Mother with vast
        and countless creations lying involved in its womb;
        and then into the Super-cosmic Beyond (Par Barhmand)
        planes of Silence (Sunn) and Great Silence (Maha Sunn),
        and finally Sach Khand where dwells the Formless One of
        ineffable radiance (the Ocean of Consciousness) called
        Sat Purush, the primal manifestation of the Supreme Being.
        This holy process is simple, natural and does not involve
        any onerous austerities. It does not involve drastic
        control of pranas. The Masters have evolved this rare
        technique and termed it the 'Science of Soul' which can
        best be learnt under the able and competent guidance of
        some Master-saint, well versed in the theory and
        practice of life-current that exists in all created
        things, the creative and sustaining principle upholding
        all.

            All the scriptures of the world bear testimony to
        this fundamental truth:

            In the beginning was Prajapati (the Supreme
              Being),
            With him was Vak (the Holy Word),
            And the Vak (the Word) was verily the Supreme
              Brahma (Param Brahma).

                                                - Vedas

            In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
              was with God, and the Word was God. The
              same was in the beginning with God. All
              things were made by Him; and without Him
              was not anything made that hath been made.
              In Him was life; and life was the light of
              men.

                                                - John 1:1-5

            Kalam or Kalma is the All-creative principle.
              God Spake: "Kim-fia-kim," let there be and
              from this fiat the whole creation sprang into
              being.

                                                - Al Quran

            Shabd is the Creator of the earth,
            Shabd is the Creator of the firmament,
            Shabd is the Source of light,
            And Shabd resides in the heart of all.

                                                - Nanak

            It is on this basic principle in all existence (Light
        and Sound of God) that the Master gives a practical
        experience to all those who come to him in search of
        Truth. The rare boon of holy initiation, explanation
        of the theory and demonstration thereof (shiksha and
        deeksha), into the esoteric knowledge and experience
        of the saving life-lines within, is not an end in itself
        but just a beginning, a preliminary step for starting
        on the long journey for the soul to the true Home of
        the Father. Those who have chosen to undertake
        this course of life are indeed fortunate and experience
        this rare phenomena of 'death-in-life' and thus
        become jivan-mukat or the liberated beings, while
        yet in flesh, leading life in fullness on whatever plane
        they like, but always remaining within the Will of
        God. Such a lucky one, fully entrenched in God-head
        is in full control of his intellect, mind and senses.
        He is the master of the house and not a handmaid of his
        mind and intellect. Like a good charioteer, sitting in
        the chariot of the body, he directs his intellect aright
        which in turn gives a correct lead to his mind, and mind,
        when trained in the path of righteousness, refuses to be
        swayed by the senses which gradually lose their potency
        and cease to be attracted by the glamour of the sense-
        subjects. Thus is reversed the primal process of
        expansion and one gets settled in himself with the result
        that the still waters of the mind begin to reflect the
        Light of God, fulfilling the ancient maxim: Unless the
        senses are subdued, the mind is stilled and the intellect
        too is in a state of equipoise, one cannot witness the glory
        of God.

            This rich experience of life in fullness is variously
        called the second birth, the birth of the spirit as
        distinct from the birth of the flesh. Led by the spirit,
        one now lives and walks in the spirit, abandoning
        the lusts of the flesh and cuts right across the
        inexorable law of cause and effect or karma, which
        keeps all others in perpetual bondage. With the
        day to day progress on this path, new vistas of
        indescribable joy and beatitude open up and new
        horizons loom into view, encompassing the totality of
        all that is, thus giving greater and greater awareness,
        first personal, then supramental, next cosmic and
        super-cosmic.

            Hereafter the liberated souls, liberated from all
        the shackles of mind and matter, enjoy perpetual
        bliss in the life of the spirit with an outlook on life
        entirely changed; the vast creation now becoming
        the manifestation of the One life-principle pulsating
        everywhere in him and around him and in all things,
        animate and inanimate. The world that he now witnesses
        is totally different from the world known to him before.
        It now looks as the veritable abode of God and one sees
        God truly dwelling in it, nay in every constituent part
        of it; for all created things appear like so many bubbles
        in one vast ocean of life. Hereafter he lives unto the
        Lord and dies unto the Lord. Like St. Paul, he gets
        'crucified in Christ' (fana-fi-sheikh) and Christ lives
        in him, and with repetitive experience of the death
        process he triumphantly swallows death in victory -
        the Father and the Son becoming one. Though the outward
        man of flesh and bones still persists and continues to
        exist to spin out what remains of the web of life, yet
        the inward man (the spirit in man) is renewed - growing
        stronger and more sublime with time. Thomas A.
        Kempis therefore says :

            Forsake the flesh for the spirit. Learn to die
              so that you may begin to live.

        In this context, we have from Kabir:

            While the people are mortally afraid of death,
            I welcome death as a harbinger of bliss.
            Die and be thou dead to the world,
            Such a death I experience many times a day.

            In all the four Gospels, we come across so many
        references of like nature:

            He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that
              loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
                                                - Matt. 10:39 & 16:25

            For whosoever will save his life shall lose it:
              but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake
              and the Gospel's the same shall save it.
                                                - Mark 8:25

            For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but
              whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the
              the same shall save it.

						- Luke 9:24 & 17:37

            He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that
              hateth his life in this world, shall keep it unto
              life eternal.
                                                - John 12:25

        Dadu, a celebrated Saint says:

            O Dadu! learn to die ere death overtakes thee,
            What will it profit thee, when die thou must?

        Guru Nanak also says the same thing:

            O Nanak! practise such a yoga as may teach
              thee to die in life.

            Prophet Mohammed too exhorted his ummat, or
        the faithful, to practise the art of dying before death:
        'Before thy death, do thou die - Mautoo-qibalantumautoo.'
        The mystic Muslim divines like Khawaja Hafiz, Shamas
        Tabrez and Maulana Rumi greatly emphasised the importance
        of such unique experience:

            So long as you do not transcend the plane of the
              senses, you remain unaware of the inner life.

            Thou hast raiments besides the outer (physical)
              one without;

            Why then dost thou fear to come out of the body?

            One can go on multiplying any number of
        apothegms on this subject. We may close it with
        a passage from Earl R. Wassermann:

            Many are only imperfect individualisations of
              the One; and death permits the unindividualised,
              and hence unbounded, spiritual life.
              The post-mortal life therefore is a spiritual
              existence for death destroying the many
              coloured dome allows the soul to 'out-soar the
              shadows of night' instead of working inwards
              to destroy organic existence. What then
              appears to be physical destruction, proves to
              be spiritual immortality ... What we call 'life'
              is a decay; therefore earthly confinement, the
              mortal atmosphere stains the radiance of
              Eternity...On the other hand, the resurrected
              soul, reincorporated in the One, not the
              shadow of death or physical matter, is
              discovered in the true sense, spreading itself
              throughout nature, for the final reality every-
              where is spirit ... Were the atmosphere of
              mortality removed, man would perceive that
              the 'One remains' and that 'Heaven's light
              forever shines;' and that day and night are one
              and so life and death, Lucifer and Vesper,...
              and that the ultimate reality of both earthly
              life and the post-mortal eternity is the Spiritual
              One; ... and this realisation of spiritual identity
              of mortal and post-mortal life finally ceases
              the pairings of opposites like life and death...
              Since One glows 'through time and change,
              unquenchably the Same.'

        He then goes on to say:

            Learn to go unterrified into the gulf of death,
              for where mortal existence ends, the spiritual
              existence begins. With death the resurrected
              soul out-soars the shadows of night, and is
              reincarnated into the changeless One.

            Prophet Mohammed also speaks of death in life
        in much the same strain:

            A death like this will not take thee to the grave,
            But it shall lead thee from darkness to light,
            Learn then to die every day by transcending the body.

            When a man learns to transcend the human in
        him, the Master in His Radiant Form comes in to help
        the soul onwards to its true Home, guiding it on the
        higher planes, both in one's lifetime and even after
        when the mortal coil is finally cast off. In this
        connection Nanak says:

            O Nanak! snap all the ephemeral ties of the
              world and find thou a real friend in some
              Saint;
            The former shall leave thee while ye live but the
              latter shall stand by thee even in the hereafter.
            Following the instructions of a Satguru, take
              hold of Truth,
            Be thou true to Him and He shall stand true to
              thee unto the last.

        A Muslim darvesh likewise says:

            O brave soul! take a firm hold of His hem,
            For He is truly above all the worlds, here and above.

        So we find in the Gospels:

            Lo! I shall be with thee till the end of the world,
            I shall not leave thee nor forsake thee.

            In this way the highest mission of human life is
        achieved and the fullness of life experienced. This is
        the subject of contacting the 'Self' by the 'self' which
        disengages from the thorns and thistles of the worldly
        life, under the proper guidance and help of a Master-soul
        who vouchsafes this experience to all alike irrespective
        of sex, age, avocation, religious affinities and social
        orders based on blood, caste, colour and creed. The spirit
        has got to be divested of the false halo of the self-
        created and self-projected personality that one unwittingly
        weaves around himself. Unless one becomes a pure spirit
        divested of the love of all created things, one cannot enjoy
        the life of the Creator which is a life of fullness in beatitude.


                          [End of Part 4 of 6]

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