THE DESIRE TO LIVE ! November 30, 2007

The desire to live, the desire to do and the desire to acquire - these are three main desires of man. To the extent that these desires are strong, to that extent we will remain entangled in worldly things, and will have difficulty in understanding the Truth. If our desires are rooted out, then our task will become easy.

We have a keen desire to live forever. But will this desire prolong our life? If we have lived one fourth of our life, in reality it means the body has died 25%. We do not understand this because of our desire to live. Let us take the example of a tank full of water. Day by day, it empties and one day it dries up completely. On the day that it is completely empty, one may say that it has dried up today. In the same manner, a person begins to die, the day he is born. When he finally dies, the process of death is complete. Similarly, the entire Universe is perishing and ceasing to exist every moment.

In the Vanaparva of the Mahabharat, the genie asks King Yudhisthira - “What is the greatest wonder in the world?” King Yudhisthira replied - “The creatures of the world are going to the abode of death each day, yet those that are alive contine to desire to live on forever. What greater wonder can there be than this?”

Living beings, begin to die the moment they are born. They continue their journey to the abode of death from that very moment of birth. On the last day of life, they complete the process of death. The seen is merging into the unseen, and one day all will be invisible (unseen). By accepting this truth that the existing is ceasing to exist, we can very soon attain emancipation and God Realization.

From “Let Us Know the Truth” in Hindi pg 32 by Swami Ramsukhdasji

Ram Ram

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