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"There is no death;
It is only a temporary absence of life from this body;
the body is dead, not life."
According to our tradition of Yogic Sadhana, death is something from
which we return. That is why it is said in Yogic literature that we
have died so many times, innumerable times, uncountable number of times
and we haven't yet learnt how to die. I mean it's a logic that the American
will understand, that if you have to go on doing something again and
again, it means you haven't mastered it.
In Hinduism, we have this idea that the moment a child is born, it
has begun to die. I mean, it's a fact. It is not going to die 60 years
later or 100 years later. It has already begun to die. It is like when
you wind up a clock, it has already begun to unwind itself. So, when
is death? It is the moment you are born. Effectively this is death.
Birth is death. Of course it may take time. That is all it takes. There
is nothing else. It may take 60 years; it may take three days; it may
take 17 years; it may take 124 years. But death is over. The moment
you are born, you are literally dead. But, we think this is life. Now,
per contra, the moment I am dead, my life has begun. So, that we are
afraid of, this we are happy about. How foolish it is. So you see, the
topsy-turvyness of the world.
To me death is nothing but the unutilisable part of time; it is taken
away from us; like when you are put in prison for some wrong deed, you
are not able to use space or time. What is imprisonment except removing
your freedom to do anything? Of course, if you are like Shri Aurobindo
or I do not know, some of these great saints who were imprisoned, you
can still meditate there and liberate yourself! But you have to be that
before you go to prison. I think that is how these great saints are
born in this world as our Gurus, as our Guides, as our Masters. Because
they are able to come here, imprison themselves voluntarily and help
the other prisoners to escape, may be not physically, but in every other
possible way. Therefore the prisoner remains a prisoner but he is no
longer that which he came in, no more a criminal, no more a murderer.
He does not have to be imprisoned any more but the law takes its course.
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