Namaste.
In the Bhagavad Gita series,
We're going to speak on death.
Death in the Bhagavad Gita is looked at as something to be celebrated,
Something that marks the evolution of the soul.
A lot of the times in our lives we look at death and we fear it.
We fear it because we don't have a true understanding of our nature.
We view ourselves as very,
Very limited.
Freud used to say that subconsciously all humans are afraid of death.
They're afraid of their own mortality.
So what they would do is carry out what he would call eternity projects,
Where they would have children,
They would have jobs,
They would create things in the hopes that these things would carry on their names long after they die.
In the same way in our lives,
Mortality is something that subconsciously haunts us.
We're afraid of the unknown.
What is going to happen when this body finishes?
And because of this fear we act in ways that cause us anxiety,
That cause us depression,
Sadness,
Anger.
But when we drop into the space of the heart and we realize who we truly are,
When we understand that we are the eternal Atma,
Then that fear naturally goes away because we see that this life is just one life of many that we have lived and we will continue to live.
And these lives are opportunities for us to experience duality,
To experience all that this world has to offer,
Ultimately understanding that at some point in time we go back to our true nature.
We go back to that realization of our relationship with the Divine.
Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita says in chapter 2 verse 12,
There was never a time when I did not exist,
Nor you nor any of these kings on the battlefield,
Nor will there be any time in the future when all of us shall cease to be.
This verse is a meditation in itself.
Krishna tells Arjuna,
You are eternal,
Arjuna.
You have always existed and will always continue to exist.
Arjuna is afraid of killing his enemies.
He is afraid of death.
But Krishna reminds him that what is death?
Death is just another experience in the journey of the soul.
The soul cannot be touched by death.
The soul is eternal.
Krishna continues in chapter 2 verse 21.
He says,
Arjuna,
If one knows the Self to be indestructible,
Unborn,
Unchanging and eternal,
How and whom does one cause to be killed and whom does one kill?
As a person casts off worn out garments and puts on new ones,
So does the embodied Self cast off its worn out bodies and enter into new ones.
Weapons do not cut the Self.
Fire does not burn it.
Water does not wet it.
And wind does not dry it.
As long as we don't have a higher understanding of who we are,
We will always fear death.
We will always see death as a finality.
But death is just another door for the soul to walk through,
For another experience,
Waiting for it on the other side.
So all of the meditations that we do,
All of the self analysis,
Is to allow us to connect to that eternal self,
That eternal Atma.
And when we drop from the mind to the heart and we connect to that eternal Atma,
We will see death in a different perspective.
We won't see it as something to fear,
But something to welcome,
As it is the beginning of the next journey in the life of our true nature,
Of our true self,
Which is the Atma.
With that,
Much love,
Take care.
