{"id":3950,"date":"2013-07-13T01:52:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3950"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:52:26","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:52:26","slug":"19-old-age-and-death-vol-15-words-of-the-mother-volume-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/02-works-of-the-mother\/01-cwmce\/15-words-of-the-mother-volume-15\/19-old-age-and-death-vol-15-words-of-the-mother-volume-15","title":{"rendered":"-19_Old Age and Death.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n
\n


\n
\n
\nDeath and Rebirth <\/font><\/span><\/i><\/b>  <\/span><\/p>\n

OLD AGE AND DEATH<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Only those years that are passed uselessly
\nmake you grow old. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>A year spent uselessly is a year during
\nwhich no progress has been accomplished, no growth in consciousness has been
\nachieved, no further step has been taken towards perfection. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Consecrate your life to the realisation<\/span> of something higher and broader than yourself
\nand you will never feel the weight of the passing years. <\/span><\/p>\n

21 February 1958<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>From birth to death, life is a dangerous
\nthing. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The brave pass through it without care for
\nthe risks. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The prudent take precautions. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The cowardly are afraid of everything. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>But ultimately, what happens to each one
\nis only what the Supreme Will has decided. <\/span><\/p>\n


\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>19 June 1966<\/span><\/i> <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Some of the living are already half-dead.
\nMany of the dead are very much alive. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Dear friend, <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Your letter came bringing me news I knew
\nalready, because often your thought comes bringing me your remembrance and
\nkeeps me in touch with your tribulations. Everyone, in truth, has his own and you
\nknow as well as I that it is only in the inner attitude that peace is found.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage
\n<\/span><\/span>– 12<\/span><\/span>8<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/ins><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n\t<\/p>\n
\n

<\/ins><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>So long as we are in a body, whatever its
\nage and difficulties, it is certain that we have something to do or learn in
\nit, and this conviction gives the necessary strength to face all vicissitudes. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>I had hoped, in putting you into touch
\nwith the Tibetan refugees, that among them there would be one who would be
\nhappy to consecrate his or her life to have the opportunity to develop
\nintellectually and learn all that you would be able to teach him or her in
\nexchange for this service. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Would this not be possible? <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>For me the Grace is an active reality
\nwhich guides our destiny through the ages. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>One must not be in a hurry and hasten the
\ndeparture, even if it is for the eternal repose or the beatitude of nothingness.
\nAs long as we are in a body, undoubtedly we have yet something to do or learn
\ntherein. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>This suggestion of death comes from the
\n\u201cego\u201d when it feels that soon it will have to abdicate. Keep quiet and
\nfearless. Everything will be all right. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>You speak of absolute renunciation, but to
\ngive up the body is not the absolute renunciation. The true and total
\nrenunciation is to give up the ego which is a much more arduous endeavour<\/span>. If you have not renounced your ego, to give up
\nthe body will not bring freedom to you.  <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage
\n<\/span><\/span>– 12<\/span><\/span>9<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/ins><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n\t<\/p>\n
\n

<\/ins><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

(About the regions of night and sorrow
\ndescribed in Sri Aurobindo\u2019s<\/span> poem \u201cLove and Death\u201d) <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The vital world is
\nmostly like that and those who live exclusively in the physical and vital go there
\nafter death. But there is the Grace!\u2026 <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Death is not at all what you believe it to be. You expect from death the
\nneutral quietness of an unconscious rest. But to obtain that rest you must
\nprepare for it. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>When you die you lose only your body and at
\nthe same time the possibilities of relation with and action on the material
\nworld. But all that belongs to the vital world does not disappear with the
\nmaterial substance; all your desires, attachments, cravings persist with the
\nsense of frustration and disappointment, and all that prevents you from finding
\nthe expected peace. To enjoy a peaceful and eventless death you must prepare
\nfor it. And the only effective preparation is the abolition of desires. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>So long as we have a body we have to act,
\nto work, to do something: but if we do it simply because it has to be done,
\nwithout seeking for the result or wanting it to be like this or like that, we
\nget progressively detached and thus prepare ourselves for a restful death. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>If you wish to escape from death, you must
\nnot bind yourself to anything perishable. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>One can conquer that alone which one fears
\nnot, and he who fears death has already been vanquished by death.  <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage
\n<\/span><\/span>– 1<\/span><\/span>30<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/ins><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n\t<\/p>\n
\n

<\/ins><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>In order to be able to conquer death and win
\nimmortality, one must neither fear death nor desire it. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The target at which we are aiming is
\nimmortality. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>And of all the habits, death is surely the
\nmost obstinate. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>From the viewpoint of spiritual knowledge,
\ndecrepitude and decay − disintegration − are quite simply and
\nundoubtedly the result of a wrong attitude. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

1. Why are men obliged to leave their
\nbodies? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Because they do
\nnot know how to keep up with Nature in her progress towards the Divine. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

2. Should one respect the body of a dead
\nperson? If so, how? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

One should respect
\neverything, living and dead, and know that everything lives in the Divine
\nConsciousness. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The respect should be felt in the heart
\nand the inner attitude. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

3. Is the Divine there in the body of a
\ndead person? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

The Divine is everywhere<\/i>; and I repeat that for the
\nDivine there are no living or dead − everything lives eternally. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

4. What should we
\ndo to make the soul happy, so that <\/span><\/i>
\n
\nit reincarnates in good conditions, for
\nexample in a spiritual environment?
\n <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage
\n<\/span><\/span>– 1<\/span><\/span>31<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/ins><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n\t<\/p>\n
\n

<\/ins><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

Have no sorrow and
\nremain very peaceful and quiet, while keeping an affectionate remembrance of
\nthe one who has departed. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

5. Do souls weep? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

When something
\nseparates them from the Divine. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

6. How can one stop someone from weeping? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Love him sincerely
\nand deeply without trying to stop his tears. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Normally the consciousness of the departed
\nought to feel no pain for what happens to the body after his or her departure.
\nBut there is in the material body itself a consciousness called the \u201cspirit of
\nthe form\u201d which takes some time to get completely out of the aggregated cells;
\nits departure is the starting point of a general decomposition, and before its
\ndeparture it may have a kind of feeling of what happens to the body. That is
\nwhy it is always better not to be in a hurry for the funeral. <\/span><\/p>\n

13 November 1966 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>You say that it is through a newspaper
\nthat the news came of your nephew\u2019s death. So the child died a few days ago. Did
\nX and Y find any difference in their atmosphere, their feelings, their
\nthoughts, their sensations − a difference, an uneasiness or a sense of
\nloss, which would give a real ground for their sorrow? I am pretty sure that
\nthey did not. So their sorrow, if they have any, is not true <\/i>but the result of conventional thoughts and feelings; it is
\nall illusion coming from the family idea, which is one of the most artificial
\nand false of all conventions. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage
\n<\/span><\/span>– 1<\/span><\/span>32<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/ins><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n\t<\/p>\n
\n

<\/ins><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>In truth the child was not <\/i>in their atmosphere, otherwise they
\nwould have become aware of his death without needing to receive the news of it;
\nhe was no more in their atmosphere than any one of the two hundred thousand
\nhuman beings who die every day − for the average death of human beings is
\ntwo hundred thousand a day. Do they know that? Is not death the most common and
\neveryday happening and can they reasonably expect that none of those they know
\nwill escape this general law?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Your father died because it was his time
\nto die. Circumstances can be an occasion but surely not a cause<\/i>. The cause is in the Divine\u2019s will and nothing can alter it. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>So, grieve not and surrender your sorrow
\nat the feet of the Divine. He will give you peace and freedom. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

(To someone whose friend had died)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Now you are no
\nlonger able to bend over this body and take care of it, you can no longer
\nexpress through your acts your deep affection, and it is this which is painful.
\nBut you must overcome this sorrow and look within, look above, for it is only
\nthe material body that will be dissolved. All that you loved in her is in no
\nway affected by the dissolution of the material envelope; and if, in the calm
\nof a deep love, you concentrate your thought and your energy on her, you will
\nsee that she will remain close to you and that you can have a conscious contact
\nwith her, a contact more and more concrete. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Life is immortal. It is only the body that
\ndissolves. <\/span><\/p>\n

10 March 1969 <\/span><\/i>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage
\n<\/span><\/span>– 1<\/span><\/span>33<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/ins><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n\t<\/p>\n
\n

<\/ins><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

Why do we call Death a god? Is he not an Asura<\/span> like the Lord of Falsehood? <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

It is in the
\nconsciousness of man that he became a god and that is why it is so difficult to
\ntransform him. <\/span><\/p>\n

29 October 1972 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Page
\n<\/span><\/span>– 1<\/span><\/span>34<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Death and Rebirth    OLD AGE AND DEATH    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Only those years that are passed uselessly make you grow old. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A year spent…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-15-words-of-the-mother-volume-15","wpcat-114-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}