Uncertainty of Life

Divine Life Society Publication: How To Get Vairagya by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda

Only your actions, good and bad, will follow you after death. And God will judge you according to your deeds.

The attraction for external objects ceases, but there yet remains the internal craving or sense-hankering or thirsting which is called Trishna. That is why the Gita says: "The objects of sense, but not the relish for them, turn away from an abstemious dweller in the body, and even the relish turns away from him after the Supreme is seen."

Friend! Is there any limit to the number of fathers, mothers, wives, sons, daughters, uncles and aunts you had in the countless incarnations in the past? And yet the clinging and false relationship has not gone. Discrimination has not dawned. What a great pity it is!

Are you not ashamed to repeat the same acts of eating, drinking and sleeping day by day? You are proud of your titles and honours. Have you improved your life even a bit? What lessons have you learnt from the recent Bihar and Quetta earthquakes? Are you attempting to reach the Imperishable Seat wherein all desires and Trishnas will be utterly annihilated? Are you endeavouring to attain the highest end of life, Divine realization which confers immortality, bliss and peace?

In the recent Bihar earthquake (this was written years ago, when the earthquake took place there) a rich banker had to beg for nine rupees just to protect himself and his family from death by starvation. A Pundit earned slowly twenty-five thousand rupees by selling his books. But he had to spend that money in a short time in the treatment of his chronic chest complaint. He tried all sorts of medicines, but all in vain. He had to leave the house to lead a life of a hermit.

Life is quite uncertain here. Diseases of various sorts attack the body. Yet man clings blindly to this ephemeral life! He forgets the truth. O man, seek everlasting peace and bliss in the Atma or Soul within you by purifying your mind and practicing intense meditation. This is the right royal road to extricate yourself from the pains of Samsara. Be quick in taking to spiritual practices. Hairs are becoming gray. Teeth are failing. Indriyas are getting cold. Practice meditation and Japa while you are young. You can do nothing in old age, when you retire from service.

It is extremely difficult to have a pure and calm mind. But you must have such a mind, if you want to have progress in meditation and Yoga.

Lord Buddha had Viveka from his very boyhood. He was one who had been profoundly impressed from his early youth by the transient and impermanent nature of all conditions of worldly existence and by the sufferings and wretchedness in which he saw all beings immersed. Will you not become another Lord Buddha?

You have spent eight hours in sleep, and the rest of the day in idle gossiping, telling lies, deceiving others, in selfish activities, in amassing wealth. How can you expect spiritual good, how can you expect immortality and peace, if you do not spend even half an hour in the service of the Lord, in singing His Names and in divine contemplation?

Excerpts from: Uncertainty of Life - How To Get Vairagya by Gurudev Sri Swami Sivananda