Death - an essential subject

The soul is within the body and the body is changing at every moment. The last stage of this changing is called death. Death is nothing but the final change of this present body. That's all. No matter who we are, the troubles of birth, the troubles of death, the troubles of disease, and the troubles of old age are everywhere the same. We cannot escape death. But, we should not die like cats and dogs. Nobody can escape death, but before death we must know what is the Self and what is self-realization.

By death, everything is taken away by Kṛṣṇa. So this human life is meant for stopping this death. Krsna Consciousness means to be on the platform of deathlessness. Every sloka in Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam is informing us of this. If we read these books carefully we will understand this platform of deathlessness.

Srila Prabhupada's books, lectures, conversations and letters offer a comprehensive presentation of this essential subject as seen in the Vaniquotes Death category. An introduction from his books is given below in the following 9 quotes.

Quotes from Srila Prabhupada's books


vanipedia.org 		Apparently a devotee may grow old, but he is not subjected to the symptoms of defeat experienced by a common man in old age. Consequently, old age does not make a devotee fearful of death, as a common man is fearful of death. When jarā, or old age, takes shelter of a devotee, Kālakanyā diminishes the devotee's fear. A devotee knows that after death he is going back home, back to Godhead; therefore he has no fear of death. Thus instead of depressing a devotee, advanced age helps him become fearless and thus happy. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.27.24)



vanipedia.org 		The period of life just prior to death is certainly very dangerous because usually at this time people are attacked by the weakness of old age as well as many kinds of disease. The diseases that attack the body are compared here to soldiers. These soldiers are not ordinary soldiers, for they are guided by the King of the Yavanas, who acts as their commander-in-chief. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.28.1)



vanipedia.org 		In Bhagavad-gītā (10.34) it is said that the Lord in the shape and form of death destroys all a person's possessions. Mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham: "I am all-devouring death." The Lord in the shape of death takes away everything that is created by the conditioned soul. Everything in this material world is subject to perish in due course of time. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.24.56)



vanipedia.org 		The denizens used to drink nectar to become immortal, but actually they were not confident of their immortality. On the other hand, the boys who were playing with Kṛṣṇa had no fear of the demons. They were free of fear. Any material arrangement for protecting oneself from death is always unsure, but if one is in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, then immortality is confidently assured. (Kṛṣṇa Book, Chapter 12)



vanipedia.org 		We are spirit soul, and therefore we are eternal. Why then should we subject ourselves to death and birth? It is intelligent to think in this way. Those who are Kṛṣṇa conscious are very intelligent because they are not interested in getting promotion to any planet where there is death, despite a long duration of life there. Rather, they want to get a body like God's. (Easy Journey to Other Planets, Chapter 2)



vanipedia.org 		Since the creation of the material world, everyone has been trying to attain a permanent life, but the laws of nature are so cruel that no one has been able to avoid the hand of death. No one wants to die, nor does anyone want to become old or diseased. The law of nature, however, does not allow anyone immunity from old age, disease or death. Nor has the advancement of material knowledge solved these problems. Material science can discover the nuclear bomb to accelerate the process of death, but it cannot discover anything that can protect man from the cruel hands of old age, disease and death. (Sri Isopaniṣad, Mantra 11)



vanipedia.org 		Devotees who render continuous service to the Lord have already attained immortality, for whatever they are doing in this life they will continue to do in the next. They will simply change their material bodies for spiritual bodies. Unlike the demons, they no longer have to change material bodies, The Lord, therefore, is simultaneously death and immortality. He is death for demons and immortality for devotees. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.11.27)



vanipedia.org 		Foolish people accept unhappiness as happiness; therefore the King of the Yavanas decided to attack such foolish people imperceptibly by old age, disease, and ultimately death. Of course, after death there must be birth; therefore Yavana-rāja thought it wise to kill all the karmīs through the agency of Kālakanyā and thus try to make them aware that materialistic advancement is not actually advancement. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 4.27.29)



vanipedia.org 		Because death is a punishment imposed in the condemned life of material existence, the Vedic culture is based on avoiding death (tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti (BG 4.9)). Everyone should try to avoid death and rebirth by cultivating spiritual life and should not submit to death without struggling to survive. One who is not trying to stop death is not an intelligent human being. (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.1.48)




Death - explore more within this category.

Vanipedia has now over 903 introductory articles compiled from Srila Prabhupada's books under the series titled Essential Subjects. All these articles can be seen in the Table of Content on the right side of this article and also here in this Umbrella Category. Browse through them to relish the breadth and depth of Srila Prabhupada's teachings - There is a subject for everyone.


   
 

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