REMEMBER THE MOMENT OF DEATH

[Guest guest]

by Vinoba Bhave From Talks on the Gita

We should direct the current of our lives in such a way that we

strengthen the samskara in which we wish to be firm at the last

moment of our lives. Our whole attention should be turned in that

direction, day and night. The thought that is uppermost at the moment

of death prevails in the succeeding birth. The soul sets out for the

journey ahead, with this provision for the way. Taking today's

earnings with us after a night's sleep, we begin tomorrow. In the

same way, with the accumulations of this life, after a heavy sleep of

death, we resume the journey in the next birth. The end of this janma

is the beginning of the next. Walk through life having in mind the

hour of death.

This is necessary also because we should conquer the fear of death

and make it easy to cross over. There is a story about Eknath. A man

asked him, "Maharaj, your life is so simple and sinless. Why is our

life utterly different? You are angry with none, you quarrel with

none, you hate none. How calm, how loving, how pure you are!" Eknath

replied, "Never mind me, I have found out something about you. In

seven days from now, you will die." Who could disbelieve Eknath's

words? Death in seven days? Only 168 hours left. Oh, God, what a

calamity? He ran in haste to his house. Nothing seemed clear to him.

He was talking of disposing of his affairs and preparing for the end.

Then he fell ill. He lay flat on his bed. Six days passed. On the

seventh day Eknath came to visit him. He greeted the saint. Eknath

enquired, "How are you?" He said, "All is over. Now I am going."

Eknath asked further, "In these six days how many sins did you

commit? And how many sinful, evil thoughts came to your mind?" And

the man who had been awaiting death answered, "Lord, where was the

time to think of thoughts? Death stood ever before my eyes." Eknath

said, "Now you know the reason, don't you, why our lives are

absolutely sinless? When Death, the lion, stands always before us,

how can evil thoughts appear? Even to sin, one needs freedom from

anxiety. Constantly thinking of death is the means of avoiding sin.

If death is always staring him in the face, with what strength can

man commit sin?"

But man tries to push away the thought of death. The French

Philosopher, Pascal, says in his Pensees (Thoughts), "As men are not

able to fight against death, misery and ignorance, they have taken it

into their heads, in order to be happy, not to think of them at all…

To be happy he would have to make himself immortal; but not being

able to do so, it has occurred to him to prevent himself from

thinking of death."

"Death is always standing behind us. But man's effort to forget it

goes on all the time. He never considers how to live remembering

death." Man does not like even the word "Death". If at dinner the

word is uttered, we cut it short saying, "How inauspicious!" But

every step we take, is a step that takes us towards death. Once we

buy a ticket to Bombay and sit in the train, though we keep sitting,

the train will carry us to Bombay and leave us there. At birth we

take a ticket to the destination, death. Whether we sit still or run

about, death is certain. Whether we think of it or do not think of

it, it will come. However uncertain all other things are, death is

certain. As the sun sets on the western hill, it has devoured a

portion of our life. Thus our days decrease, life tapers off, drop by

drop the cup is emptied - but man takes no notice of all this.

Jnaneswar says, "How curious!" He wonders how men could be so

thoughtless. Man has become so frightened of death that he cannot

bear even the thought of it. He tries to keep off all thought of it.

He sits down banding his eyes.

Keeping a round laughing face, if it is withered, applying cream and

powder, and dyeing grey hair - all this man does. Death is dancing on

our chest, but we try endlessly to put it out of our minds. We are

ready to talk about all other things, but not about death.

The Professor of Logic begins deduction at College; "Man is mortal.

Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal." But why bring in

Socrates; why not cite his own example? The Professor too is mortal.

But he never says, "All men are mortal. Therefore, I, the Professor,

am mortal, and you the students too are mortal." He passes on to

Socrates the liability to die, for Socrates, luckily, is already

dead. He is not likely now to stand up and protest. So the teacher

and the pupils establish the mortality of Socrates, and as for

themselves, enter into a conspiracy of silence. They fancy that they

have warded off danger thus.

In this way, people are all the time making heroic efforts to forget

death. But can one ever get rid of death by such means? Only the

other day, when my mother died, death stood before me. But there is a

way of conquering death by thinking fearlessly about it; but this way

we dare not seek and find.

When death comes, man takes stock of his life's accounts. The stupid

and lazy candidate dips his pen in the ink-pot and takes it out, but

he cannot collect enough courage to blacken the paper. My fellow, do

you mean to start writing, or don't you? Surely, you don't expect

Saraswati to take the pen out of your hand and write for you? Alas,

the three hours are over; and he folds and submits the paper blank,

or with a few lines scrawled on it. It does not occur to him to try

to understand the questions and answer them. He wastes his time

looking this way and that. Our plight too is no different. Therefore,

remembering that death is the crown of life, we should constantly

practice the means by which we can make our last moments holy, pure

and sweet. From now on, we should think what we should do to impress

on our mind the most noble and beautiful samskaras. But who worries

about acquiring good samskaras? Instead of this, day and night, the

training in bad ways goes on. We teach the tongue, the eyes and the

ears to be greedy. We should give a far different training to the

chitta, the mind and the heart. We should steep and dye the chitta in

good things. From the instant we discover an error, we should try and

correct it. Once we know it is a mistake, how can we go on doing it?

The moment we discover a mistake, we are reborn. Then begins for us a

new childhood, a new dawn in life. Now we are truly awake. From now

on, we should examine our life day and night and walk warily. Else,

we shall slip, and fall into bad habits again.

Many years ago, I went on a visit to my old grandmother. She

complained, "Vinya, I remember nothing these days. I go to fetch the

ghee pot, and then come back forgetting all about it." But she talked

to me about some trouble about a jewel which occurred fifty years

earlier. She could not remember what happened five minutes before,

but something fifty years old was still fresh in her memory. How to

account for this? She must have been talking about the jewel affair

again and again to a great many people - and therefore, it had become

a part of her life. I said to myself, "Oh God!, don't let my

grandmother think of the jewel at the time of death!"