DEATH REALISATION FOR SELF-AWARENESS

1.MANY years ago, I met a spiritual master who told me that “if you realise that your life will end at any moment, then it is likely that you will not commit any sins”.

2.This statement stopped me from committing many mistakes.

3.Likewise, if we have thoughts that one day we will turn into dust, we would pause to think before committing bad deeds.

4.We often fail to see this definitive truth in life, which has led us to commit sins in life.

5.It could be in the form of greed, envy, lust, being untruthful and cheating someone.

6.In the rush for materialistic comforts, we often compromise and commit much immorality.

7.Human beings don’t realise that material gain or joy achieved in this life is temporary.

8.It is an undeniable truth that no joy or pain will remain forever.

9.We fail to realise that physical beauty, wealth, pride, fame, luxury, power or whatever material elements we possess will cease to matter after death.

10.We will lose our grip on joy from material matters the day we die.

11.The spiritual master told me that to maintain self-realisation, we must have death realisation.

12.We must realise that every moment is taking us closer to our death.

13.These thoughts will trigger us to move towards great self-realisation, which will eventually provide a true and new outlook towards our lives.

14.He asked me, will you do bad deeds if you know that you are going to die today?

15.We often think that death will come to us many years from now, without recognising that there is no such criteria or guarantee that says we can live up to a certain age.

16.Who said you can live for another 50 years?

17.Our lifespan is propelled by our belief system and we have to believe to live and succeed, but don’t disregard the reality of death.

18.If death is meant for us today, then today will be the day and nothing can be done on that.

19.Realisation of death can stop us from getting involved with negative matters and increase the love for people around us.

20.Awareness of death will lead us to live a more meaningful and truthful life and not a life full of falseness, pride or greed.

21.This realisation can make us love our loved ones more before it is too late.

22.Appreciate your relations, friends and close ones as worldly matters are for a temporary period only.

23.Most importantly, death realisation will make us do our duty without procrastinating and postponing.

24.Life is too short to fool around. Everything comes to an end on the day we die.

25.Therefore, live a meaningful life that is useful to you as well as to the people around you.

Written by Vigneswaran Kannan for The NST, Date: 5  Nov, 2015