When I was 21, a close college friend of mine died. Suddenly, just like that. And I felt like someone had cut the phone line and I could never speak to her again. It was over and I was shaken to the core.
That event, among others, made me rethink life. What are we all doing here, where are we going, and what really matters? It propelled me to continue my search, not exactly sure what I was looking for, but certainly something better than what was presenting itself before me.
This week again, when I heard the news that a dear and respected senior devotee passed away, I was again shaken. Just like that – it’s over, life is gone, and the body finished.
ISKCON’s Founder, Srila Prabhupada, said that the fact we don’t want to die, indicates we are eternal, that we don’t actually die. It’s unnatural and uncomfortable for the soul to leave the body, as it’s unnatural for the soul to even be in a body. So we fear death, the pain, the struggle, and the pain we leave behind for others – but in so fearing, we also end up fearing life. We fear to acknowledge life, that life is consciousness and that consciousness, the soul, actually animates the body.
“For the soul, there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.” Bhagavad-gita 2.20
My ‘just like that’ moments are like a loud alarm clock. They send me running to the Gita, for words to make sense of it all. They also slow me down and as I sit quietly at the kitchen table I see the large cobweb on the outside window for the first time. Death simplifies and makes the web of life clear – we all have to walk through that door, sooner or later. The promise of bhakti is that with Krishna, no matter how difficult the passage, for us and others, we can make it through with support, shelter, and loving kindness.
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