December 30, 2024
This is the ABC of truth in relation to the body: This is A body. Let it B body. Then you C body - but not 'my' body. "I am neither mind nor body. Immortal self I am." Mortal life is a straw caught in a gale and yet its immortal essence is the space unaffected by the gale. Mortal life is bounded by life and death, but the immortal is unborn and deathless. A glimpse of the immortal makes you fearless, and realization that all life is mortal makes you equally fearless. We are dying all the time. There is a lovely couplet in The Bhagavatam: "You have only one constant companion. He was born with you - Death." Whatever is born must die. Our body is dying constantly, but 'I' cannot die.
O Life! What are you? With the ticking of the clock, the rising and setting of the sun, the changing of the calendar, where are you leading me, unborn, deathless, immortal soul? You are unbearably exacting in your demands, yet those who have eyes can see that eating is not to appease hunger (hunger is never appeased), but to rediscover the Self which is beyond hunger and thirst, sin and suffering. Life is for Self-realization, the antithesis of selfishness and self-aggrandizement. Life's goal is immortality, beyond the world. Be good, do good are the way of preparation; serve, love, meditate, realize, are the steps. Cosmic love is the key. This is the truth, this is the Self. This will make you free, here and now.