by Sri Bimal Mohanty
VOL No. 48
February : 2005

 


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UNDERSTANDING DEATHLESSNESS OR AMRITATTVA

Part1

"Based on the lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty"

All living creatures have one natural urge that drives them. The natural urge is to resist ending of life as we see and understand it. The fear of being driven out of physical existence – which we call death or mrtyu is resisted by all at any cost.

Has anybody achieved it? No body has. Yet why we want to live forever and want to be amar? Yudhisthira wondered about it:

Aharni aharni bhutani gacchanti yamamandiram
Apare jivitum icchanti kimAscharyam atahparah.

Day in and day out people die, yet people go to all lengths to overcome death. What could be stranger than this?

Nachiketa also did not know and therefore he asked Yama the god of death and came to know the secrets of the world beyond death. The great Kathopanishad chronicles that.

But the fact is, we are all afraid of death. Why it is so? The primary reason for this is our ignorance of the true nature of these two states of death and deathlessness- mrtattva and amrtattva. We do not know what lies beyond death. And what is not known, instills within us the great fear. This fear is what unsettles our mind whenever death is spoken of.

But to have the knowledge contained in a scripture like Kathopanishad is one thing, and to comprehend its meaning within the common human intelligence is quite another. The secret of death and deathlessness- mrtattva and amrtattva, still remains an enigma. The fear remains and every creature resists death and wishes to remain alive longer and longer, if possible for ever.

Our scriptures advise us that this fear, born out of the dark depths of ignorance, has to be pierced with the light shaft of knowledge. We have to understand if what lies beyond death is really a matter to be afraid of.

In front of us we have this fear of the unknown. The ‘being’ simply does not know if a better state is awaiting him on the other side of the gate. The ignorance is the cause. If by some means he becomes aware of the treasures that lie beyond his ignorance, he will not hesitate to cross over the inferior state that ties him to ignorance.

Obviously the answer lies in our probing the true meanings of both death and life. With our hazy knowledge of why we die and also why we live, or what is living and what is dying we do not comprehend even the basic explanations behind these.

The great Isavasya Upanishad has an explanation. One of its slokas says:

VidyAm ca avidyAm ca yah tat veda ubhayam saha

AvidyAyA mrtyum tirtvA vidyAyA amrtam asnute. (isa. 11)

AvidyA or opposite of knowledge is associated with death. Understand avidyA to understand death and by that overcome it. VidyA or true knowledge gets you to the state of deathlessness. Therefore, both avidyA and vidyA are required to be understood to go beyond death and achieve deathlessness.

There is this concept from the spiritual view point that – the end of a physical state of existence is not death and mere physical existence is not life.

The understanding of both these states is the key to ending this fear of death. It implies that the true difference between living and dead is vidyA or knowledge.

Anyone who is endowed with vidyA or true knowledge can only be acknowledged as living and sustained by vidyA, he remains alive. He alone has conquered death and anyone wrapped up in avidyA, or who has not acquired the true knowledge, is as good as dead.

So for those, who wish to be amar or wish to live long by conquering death, constant engagement with the pursuit of knowledge or vidyA is the solution.

Having said this, the next step before us is to differntiate, what is vidyA, and what is avidyA.

But how can we differentiate between the two, unless we know both? What we call avidyA, lack of knowledge or opposite of knowledge is also to be fully understood in order to acquire vidyA.

The common understanding is that, avidyA is to be discarded and vidyA is to be embraced. But again, unless we understand what avidyA is how shall we discard it?

The sloka in discussion from Isavasya Upnishad also says vidyAyA amrtam asnute. By knowledge alone one acquires amrta. So only by understanding both, this achievement can be ours.

VidyA is jnAna. What then is the definition of jnAna?

A very direct statement is made by Lord Krishna, the great preacher, in the Bhagavad Gita on this issue in Kshetra kshetrajna vibhAga yoga:

He says:

AdhyAtma jnAna nityatvam tattva jnAnarthadarshanam

Etat jnAnamiti proktam ajnAnam yat ato anyathA

The primary requirement of true knowledge is nityatvam. It has to be ever established, unchangeable and not the fleeting type information education, which is accepted today and discarded tomorrow or replaced in the name of progress. True knowledge again is all about the essence of all, the ‘tattva’, and not the superficial information or apparent truths. And then, the knowledge should be occupied with the very purpose of existence and not purposeless information gathering. The artha or the perception of knowledge should have no ambiguity.

All these definitions, inter-alia point to one thing only, which is the ‘absolute truth’. The absolute truth being Brahman alone, the adhyAtma, or the supreme knowledge is, BrahmajnAna or Brahman knowledge.

Only that knowledge that leads us to the Absolute truth being jnAna or vidyA, everything else is considered to be ajnAnatA or avidyA. AjnAnam yat ato anyathA.

Further more, jnAna leads us to the source of all jnAna or the Brahman. Brahman is immortality. Hence it is jnAna that eventually delivers us to the real state of immortality or amrtattva.