Everyone seems to fear death. In fact, fear of death is the root of all the different fears that people have - be it the fear of darkness, the fear of animals, the fear of future or the fear of old age.
Nature has given us the fear of death for a specific reason. Understand this through an analogy. Suppose a school gate has a beautiful picture on its outer side and a frightening picture on its inner side. While entering the school gate, the child will see the beautiful picture. Once he has entered, if he ever tries to run away from school before he has learnt his lessons, he will see the frightening picture and this will make him run back towards the school instead of towards the gate. Thus he will spend his entire lifetime in the school and will never approach the gate (contemplate suicide). This is why the fear of death has been instilled in our minds.
Without this fear, the number of suicides would have increased manifold. Many would have left the earth without fulfilling the purpose of their birth. However, those who have acquired the necessary maturity must outgrow this fear too.
The main reason behind the fear of death is incomplete knowledge. At some point or the other, you must have heard the following:
Once you die, what was dust goes back to dust.
Death is the only truth.
Death is the biggest illusion.
The soul never dies.
Death is a forecast that never proves wrong.
Owing to such beliefs, the concept of death has remained a mystery. The lack of knowledge about death makes death appear frightening. If we truly understand what death is, then death itself can teach us the art of living. To live life well, one must understand death.
When we fall asleep, we lose all awareness of the body. We actually go through a mini-death. However, we are not afraid of falling asleep because we understand sleep. Once we understand death, we will stop fearing death too.
Sleep is a short death that happens every day. Death is a long sleep that happens once.What we call death is actually a stage in life. Just as childhood, adolescence, adulthood, middle age and old age are various stages of life, death is also a phase.
Our body has five layers. When we die, only the outer two layers are shed. The inner three layers (astral body and other bodies) remain. The astral body is not visible to the naked eye and hence we declare the person dead. But in reality, the death of our body is not our death but the beginning of life after life.
The astral body continues its onward journey and after a long period the astral body dies too. This should be considered as true death. Since these facts are beyond the comprehension of our mind and senses, we fear death.
A warningBy reading the above facts that have been explained just briefly in this book, one should not contemplate suicide so that the astral body can be experienced. Incomplete understanding is very harmful. As essential as understanding death is, more essential is to understand the purpose of human birth. Until we have learnt all that we are to learn in this physical form, trying to go prematurely to the astral form is wrong and harmful. The understanding of truth acquired while in the physical body proves most helpful in the onward journey of the astral body. We must understand that the wisdom acquired here continues with us in the life after death. The bliss achieved here is multiplied manifold in our onward life after death. ( You can read in detail about life after death in the book titled 'Life After Death' published by Tej Gyan Foundation).
The purpose of telling the above is to drive away the fear of death. Death is a natural, necessary event in the evolution of each individual. It should neither be feared nor embraced prematurely. Some normal fear of physical injury is natural and is necessary for our safety.
What has been said above is only an indication. Do not conclude this as the whole truth about life. Only on understanding the Bright Truth (Tejgyan), can you be liberated in the true sense.
Question in a management class Boss : Do you believe in life after death? Employee : Why Sir?
Boss : While you were away yesterday afternoon to attend your grandmother’s funeral, she dropped in to see you.