Who Among Us – May 24 2019

Who Among Us – May 24 2019

[I]n my childhood… death… was seen as a brief stopping point on an endless soul journey that could turn a peasant into a king and vice versa… Death ended nothing; it opened up limitless adventures… A drop of water becomes vapor, which is invisible, yet vapor materializes into billowing clouds, and from clouds rain falls back to earth, forming river torrents and eventually merging into the sea. Has the drop of water died along the way? No, it undergoes a new expression at each stage. Likewise, the idea that I have a fixed body locked in space and time is a mirage.

Deepak Chopra, Life After Death: The Burden of Proof

In the Vedic worldview, Consciousness is all that there is. Consciousness is primary. Consciousness is the base, the Ground, of everything and everyone. All this abundant diversity of the relative world is merely Consciousness expressing Itself in a multitude of forms.

The metaphor we use to illustrate this for ourselves is that of the ocean and the waves upon the ocean. Each wave is unique, special, different, but each is made up entirely of ocean. There is no point at which ocean ceases being ocean and becomes wave. It is ocean as the wave just begins to form, it is ocean as the wave peaks, it is ocean as the wave dashes itself upon the shore and is no more.

Like this, we are individual expressions of Consciousness. We are Consciousness before we are born, Consciousness during the course of our life, Consciousness as this body breathes its last and Consciousness after that last breath has been taken. This never changes. We never change. We always are this thing. Consciousness.

Life is to be celebrated. Joy and celebration are to be found in all aspects of life. If death is an aspect of life, as opposed to an ending of life, then joy and celebration must be possible with respect to death–our own, or that of our loved ones.

This idea may seem anathema to anyone facing death at this moment – their own or that of a loved one. But to this I would counter with the question: who among us is not facing death?

Today I will celebrate life–my own, and that of my loved ones, those who are here and those who have passed on. I will be grateful for all the moments we have shared, and I will insist on being present to all the moments I have left in this body.

Road to Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India