Coming To Terms

How does one deal with death? I have been asking myself this question for a long time now and I do have some answers. They are kinda foggy and I am writing this post to try and sort it out.

Given my belief in Indian/Hindu philosophy and its underlying principles, I am completely convinced that death is only part of a cycle – a cycle that one breaks by achieving moksha/nirvana…

So when someone I know dies, I tell myself that the person has only discarded his/her present form and returned to God, maybe for a brief period or for ever, depending on his/her karmic balance. My understanding of Adwaita and the concept of ‘Aham Brahmasmi’ in its entirety gives me enough reasons not to grieve. Instead, I could interpret it as a reason to rejoice that the ‘departed’ soul is one step closer to achieving its ultimate goal.

Yet, I do grieve. There is still some pain when a near/dear one dies (to put it bluntly). And it overshadows the supposed feeling of joy by far. There still remains the ‘longing’ for that person – even if he/she wasn’t really close to me physically. There is still a small void that is created; that takes a long time to fill. Sometimes it’s never filled, only hidden.

Maybe, I need to have more faith, more conviction in my own beliefs, in what I believe to be true and those principles which I verily espouse and swear by. It’s not the toughest thing in the world, yet there is a considerable amount of ‘self realization’ that needs to be done before I truly achieve that state.

I couldn’t quite make it for the trek to Makalidurg. I woke up on Saturday morning with a heavy head. To add to it, I guess it had rained and the route would be a tad slippery/dangerous. So I decided to chuck it.

I guess there’s some jinx on my travel outside Bangalore at the moment. Am making an attempt to break it this weekend, let’s see if I succeed.