02

TheV edantaK esari

~~
JANUARY2017
8
Editorial

Resolve to Evolve
A new year can be a new beginning in two dimensions—in our personal journey through life and in our
relationship with the world. What New Year’s approach or resolution can ring in real strength, happiness, and
fulfilment in our personal lives and in the world around us?
To Awaken
‘What is the grandest of all the truths in life?’ Swami Vivekananda asked a group of college students sitting
around him in Belur Math.
When they could not reply, he answered, ‘We shall all die!’
Can our first resolution for the year be to meditate on this commonplace yet grand truth—Death?
Is that a morbid thought? And why should Swamiji ask young men to think of death!? They have a long
life ahead of them. Why not instead, think of the deathless Atman—our own immortal spiritual nature?
True enough. But bound as we are to body-consciousness, contemplating death is an easier way for many
to awaken into the life of the Spirit. Furthermore, some of us may not be around to plan a New Year resolution
next year!
Continuing his advice to the students, Swamiji says, ‘We shall all die! Bear this in mind always, and then
the spirit within will wake up. Then only meanness will vanish from you, practicality in work will come, you
will get new vigour in mind and body, ….’
Constant reflection on death will bring nobility, practicality, and strength!! But yet our hearts quake at
the thought of death. Swamiji agrees and still insists, ‘At first, the heart will break down, and despondency and
gloomy thoughts will occupy your mind. But persist, … then you will see new strength has come into the heart,
that the constant thought of death is giving you a new life, and is making you more and more thoughtful and…
the spirit within is waking up with the strength of a lion… Think of death always and you will realize the truth
of every word I say.’ 1
A new attraction in China is called ‘Xinglai’ which means ‘awaken.’ It is a death simulator machine which takes
people through the experience of cremation and rebirth. Participants play a game where they have to make the
right choice in a life-or-death hypothetical situation. The loser is the first to go through the death experience.
He lies down on a conveyor belt, and goes through a dark tunnel that simulates cremation. He is then ‘reborn’
out the other side through a latex womb. Participants feel that it gives them a chance to calm down, think deeply
and come out with a new perspective on life.
Sri Ramana Maharishi went through such a simulated death experience as a 16 year old lad. Sitting in his room
at Madurai, he was suddenly overcome by the thought ‘I am going to die.’ The shock of the fear of death drove
his mind inward and he mimicked the experience by lying down stiff and holding his breath. Almost without
any conscious effort on his part, he soon became absorbed forever in his ‘I’ consciousness. He came out a perfect
Jnani.
Of course, contemplation on death is not usually such an easy, one-time process.
 Our weak mind has to be repeatedly cajoled to deliberate on the realities of death. Unlike Raja Parikshit,
who knew he would die in seven days, we do not know when and how death will approach us. And when it
comes, all our possessions and our beloved ones cannot help us. Deep reflection on such simple facts of death
can prepare us to live wisely and value every moment of life. It will evoke in us a sense of urgency to achieve
our purpose in life. It will empower us to see life afresh not simply on New Year’s Day, but on every day. Our
priorities will become clear and we will find it easier to transform our thinking and let go the piteous clinging
to life.
Most of us go through life mechanically by force of habit. As a result we tend to fix labels on ourselves and
others and cling to them for years. When the labels are negative like, ‘I’m bound,’, ‘I’m weak,’ ‘I know
everything,’ ‘He is cunning,’ ‘She is arrogant,’ and ‘They are uncultured,’ it thwarts our personal growth and
adversely affects our relationships with others. We then also obsess about how badly so and so behaved with
us and take every opportunity to tell others about it. But if we contemplate death, we can give up the vanities
of the world and see the world as it is, unmasked by our assumptions, prejudices and fanciful imaginations.
To Serve
And what indeed is the world as it is? How should we approach it? Swamiji advices, ‘Never approach
anything except as God; for if we do, we see evil, because we throw a veil of delusion over what we look at, and
then we see evil.’2
But how does one discard old habits of thinking and feeling and develop a new outlook on life? Sister
Nivedita describes how she replaced her Occidental perception of man as a body having a soul, with the Oriental
understanding of man as a soul having a body with the mind as the pivot of life. She writes, ‘I began to speak to
people, first postulating to myself experimentally, that I was addressing the mind within, not the ear without.
The immense increase of response that this evoked, led me from step to step till twelve months later, I suddenly
found that I had fallen into the habit of thinking of mind as dominant, and could no longer imagine its beings
extinguished by the death of the body! Every new practice deepened this conviction, and I became gradually
possessed of a conception of the world about us as mind-born.’3
Indeed, from seeing the world as mind-born to seeing it as God is but a natural step. As Sri Ramakrishna tells
us, ‘the superior devotee sees that God alone has become everything; He alone has become the twenty four
cosmic principles. He finds that everything, above and below, is filled with God.’4
Can our second resolution for this year be to overcome ‘the separativeness of a self-centred life,’ and ‘serve all
beings with gifts, honour and love, recognising that such service is really being rendered to’ Him ‘who resides
in all beings as their innermost soul’?5
The onus is on enlightened citizens to strive continuously to create in their own personal lives and in the
society, an atmosphere of noble aspirations and spiritual inclinations that will fulfil our national destiny—to
awaken the Spirit, the Lord in the lives of men and women in every society. Let us resolve to evolve together.