Death is separation of the soul from
the physical body. Death becomes the starting
point of a new and better life. Death does not end
your personality and self-consciousness. It merely
opens the door to a higher form of life. Death is
only the gateway to a fuller life. He who is born
begins to die. He who dies begins to live. Life is
death and death is life. Birth and death are merely
doors of entry and exist on the stage of this world.
In reality no one comes, no one goes. Just as you
move from one house to another house, the soul
passes from one body to another to gain
experience. Just as a man casting off worn-out
garments, takes new ones, so the dweller in this
body, casting off worn-out bodies, enters into
others which are new. Death is not the end of life.
Life is one continuous never-ending process. Death
is only a passing and necessary phenomenon,
which every soul has to pass to gain experience for
its further evolution. Dissolution of the body is no
more than sleep. Just as man sleeps and wakes up,
so is death and birth. Death is like sleep. Birth is
like waking up. Death brings promotion to a new
and better life. A man of discrimination and wisdom
is not afraid of death. He knows that death is the
gate of life. Death to him is no longer a skeleton
bearing a sword to cut the thread of life, but rather
an angel who has a golden key to unlock for him
the door to a wider, fuller and happier existence.
Every soul is a circle. The circumference of this
circle is nowhere but its centre is in the body.
Death means the change of this centre from body
to body. Why, then, should you be afraid of death?
The Supreme Soul is deathless, decayless, timeless,
causeless and spaceless. It is the source and
substratum for this body, mind and the whole
world. There is death for the physical body only,
which is a compound of five elements. How can
there be death for the Eternal Soul which is beyond
time, space and causation? If you wish to free
yourself from birth and death, you must become
bodiless. Body is the result of Karmas or actions.
You must not do any action with expectation of
fruits. If you free yourself from likes and dislikes,
you will be free from Karma. If you kill egoism only,
you can free yourself from Raga and Dvesha. If you
annihilate ignorance through knowledge of the
Imperishable, you can annihilate egoism. The root-
cause for this body is therefore ignorance. He who
realises the Eternal Soul, which is beyond all sound,
all sight, all taste, all touch, which is formless and
attributeless, which is beyond Nature, which is
beyond three bodies and five sheaths, which is
infinite and unchanging, self-luminous, frees
himself from the jaws of death.