Swami's thoughts on Death 

Following are some quotes on the topic of Death, picked from the Divine discourses of Swami.

The baby weeps as soon as it is born because the individual being has no desire to get entangled in the objective world once again. Science describes it as the process of breathing for the first time and clearing of the air passages. But why should it weep? The process can be started by some other way, say, shaking or shivering, is it not?              

This life which begins with a wail must end with a smile. When you were a little baby, all around you smiled though you kept on wailing. But when you die round you weep at the loss, you should smile in peace and quiet resignation.

Reduce your wants. Minimize your desires. When death deprives you of resistance, your kith & kin take off the nosestud and in their haste, they may even cut the nose to retrieve it. If you go on heaping desire upon desire, it will be impossible to depart gladly when the call comes.

Do not attach yourself too much to the body or to the things that bring comfort to it. You earn three friends in this life:

• The first: the riches you accumulate, which refuse to come with you when you move out of this life.

• The second: the kith & kin who accompany your body only up to the burial ground or cremation ghat.

• The third: the merit and demerit you have earned, which accompany you to the last.

When once Brahma asked sage Naaradha what was the most amazing thing he noticed on earth, Naaradha replied, 'The most amazing thing I saw was this: The dying are weeping over the dead.' Those who are themselves nearing death every moment are weeping over those who have died, as if their weeping has an effect, either to revive the dead or prevent their own death!

Grief sends you to God. When a child dies, ask yourself the question, 'Is it for my sake that he was born?' He had his own destiny to fulfil, his own history to work out. Gauthama Buddha's father was so overcome with grief when he saw his son with a begging bowl in the street, that he told him thus: 'Everyone of my ancestors was a King. What misfortune is this that a beggar was born in this line?' Buddha replied 'Every one of my ancestors had a beggar's bowl, I know of no king in my line.'

Feel that you are born with the dawn of every day; that you nestle in the lap of death when your eyes close in sleep. For, what happens in deep sleep? The body, the senses, the mind, the intelligence – all is negated and there is no trace of awareness of the world. Know that waking from sleep is but birth and going into sleep is death.

Forgetting the primary goal of life, man wastes his time. Time is precious. Death is dangling its sword over every head. Our life span is fast diminishing, like water leaking through a broken pot or a melting block of ice. Death overtakes man even before he realizes his mission in life.

When we want to go to a cinema, or for an evening walk, we get ready by putting on our shoes. When we want to visit a nearby town, we pack our clothes in a bag. But what preparations do you make for the ultimate journey, the voyage of death?

All are beggars at the gate of God. The hero is he who does not beg or cringe or flatter or fawn. He knows that the Lord knows best.

Source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/saibabanews/message/7078