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To Die is to Come Back
In the Bible I read, “Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord.” I used to
wonder, you see, why God says vengeance is his? Because we have no right
to have vengeance, He can punish and re-create. He can kill and give
life again to what he has destroyed. But we can only destroy, we cannot
fulfill. If I say, “Arise Thomas.” That Thomas will not arise.
So one in whom this capacity to give life again exists, for him there
is no life and death, for him there is no killing, because he does not
kill. He changes in some way, by transforming that life which was apparently
alive into that which is only an apparent death, so that he can re-create
something out of that raw material. This is what death does to all of
us. Death is an opportunity to renew life in a more positive,
more productive, more evolutionary way. Death is not a final,
shall we say, full stop to this life as the Occidental people are generally
afraid. They think, “What after death, I cease to exist!” Nihilism,
you see. If I am not here what is this life for? But who said you are
not going to be here? It is like every day is a new opportunity, every
life is a new opportunity.
So one who is fed up with this life, who has frustrated himself by
not utilizing the opportunities given to him properly, must sooner expect
death. And say, “God, put an end to this life so that I may have the
new beginning quicker. Why wait sixty years more in this foolishness,
in this stupidity, in this crass ignorance. Terminate my life, my Lord,
so that I may begin new, quickly.” But we are wishing for a longer and
longer life; what for? See, the only man who has a reasonable right
or justification to want to live longer is one who can himself grow
and help others to grow.
Babuji Maharaj used to tell me there are only two types of long-lived
persons, the sinner and the saint. The sinner because he is condemned
to a long life by virtue of his samskaras, of which he has to undergo
the bhoga. And the saint because he has to be here to help
those who are thus condemned. It is like a jailer in a jail. He is longer
in the jail than any of his prisoners. If he is serving fifty years,
he is fifty years in the jail. Others may come, one for two days, one
for two months, one for two years, but he is in the jail longest. For
the rest, there’s an old proverb that “Those whom the gods love, die
young.”
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