Page 28 - NAMAH-Jan-2025
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Namah                                  Vol. 32, Issue 4, 15th January 2025





        even a kind of trust in destiny, then generally  harming a beautiful inner movement that
        one copes with the enigma of death with  is building up. Sometimes the best help is
        courage. On the other hand, when we are  not to interfere, the best thing to do is not to
        too identified with the body, then death  do anything, apart from gently assisting the
        comes as a cruel blow. None experience  departure.
        death until they die, rarest of rare yogis
                                                                           u
        apart (the Mother, for example) and hence  Let us then close with some sutras on old age
        the fear of the unknown looms large like a  from the Mother.
        shadow. At its bottom, it is an extreme form
        of ignorance, the fear of the Unknown. And  “Only those years that are passed uselessly
        then there are all kinds of stories associated  make you grow old.”
        with it. The simplest way to cope with it is   “A year spent uselessly is a year during which
        to learn as much as possible about death,   no progress has been accomplished, no growth
        through books of course. Knowledge is  in consciousness has been achieved, no further
        always empowering. The Mother, a supreme  step has been taken towards perfection.
        occultist, has revealed many details about
        death, the reason, the mechanism, the process,  “Consecrate your life to the realisation of
        the journey thereafter and eventually the  something higher and broader than yourself
        return. All that is too vast a knowledge to be   and you will never feel the weight of the passing
        compressed here. But the important thing  years.”
        to remember is that death is a moment of
        intense concentration and if we know, we   “From birth to death, life is a dangerous thing.
        can use that moment, through concentration         “The brave pass through it without care
        upon the Divine, into a means to leap beyond  for the risks.
        lives. The only problem is that the people          “The prudent take precautions.
        around keep reminding the person of their           “The cowardly are afraid of everything.
        physical miseries or display sorrow even            “But ultimately, what happens to each one
        while the person is withdrawing. We need to   is only what the Supreme Will has decided.”
        understand that the sharp distinction that
        we make between the living and the dead   “Some of the living are already half-dead. Many
        is really not so. There is a time, over nearly  of the dead are very much alive (5).”
        24 hours, when the consciousness of the
        person is lingering around the dead body  References
        and we need to respect that. Secondly, we
        should be careful that sometimes our so-  1.  The Mother. The Collected Works of the Mother,
        called help, such as rushing to the ventilator   Volume 3. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram
        or pushing a host of medicines that stun the   Trust; 2003, p . 238.
        consciousness, is not necessarily a help. We
        have seen people suffering from dementia,   2.  Sri Aurobindo. The Complete Works of Sri
        having that little soul spark in their eyes as   Aurobindo, Volume 2. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo
        well as the psychic smile upon their face.   Ashram Trust; 2009, p. 216.
        In our over-eagerness to treat, we end up


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