Understanding Death

Article 38 - Understanding Death

 

Death is the epitome of life, the finale, and at the same time our greatest fear. In sleep we lose our conscious identity but there is no fear because we know that it returns to us on awakening. However, in death, we know we are losing it forever. Further, we have so many unfulfilled desires and the very thought of death means they remain unfulfilled.

 We will understand four energies that make up our psychic life. The first is that of thought or ‘vicharshakti’. Though it works at a very high speed, it is the slowest of the energies we use. Thoughts are digital and this energy can only perform one function at a time. That is why we blow our circuits when we are talking on the phone and someone interrupts, we can hear neither of them. The next is emotional energy or ‘bhavashakti’ which works at twice the speed of thought. This energy is not digital and can perform multiple tasks simultaneously. The best thing to do in the morning when we reach our office is to shift from the thinking brain to the feeling brain. This energy is soft, receptive and more accommodating. It is always in the present and so its very use brings joy and pleasure in the act of working without worrying of the fruits of actions.

The third which works at double the speed of emotions is sex energy, ‘sarjan shakti’. Life is a movement between polarities and it is this basic energy which causes all attraction and repulsion. It works very fast and we do not realise that we have been attracted to something till we say that we like it, which is a feeling. This energy penetrates time and space and allows something from an unseen dimension to be born in the manifest. It brings sets of materials from two parents together and joins them to create a new form. It is the energy of creativity expressed in art, literature and even creating a garden.

The energy of death or ‘yama’ is the fastest. It breaks down the psychic elements in the manifest world and throws something into the unknown. The guru teaches the student to work on this energy so he can enter death with awareness. (To be continued)