Doorway to Life and Death

 A STORYTELLER’S EXPERIENCES WITH DIVINITY

DOORWAYS TO LIFE AND DEATH

BY

GEETA RAMANUJAM

If you have to understand the true meaning of life we have to also understand that the end of Life is Death. It is a normal process a reality that I have to accept as long as I remain in this earthly existence.

The pandemic era has given us the space and time to contemplate and reflect an unknown being slowly take us away. It has also helped us to understand what it may mean to die to things and habits we have held on to. Would it be a time for us to transform change our ways? A lot of answers come from our memory sack which has been accumulating- the seeds of thought you have felt from childhood isn’t it? Even the way we think has been patterned by us.

 Cat’s dog’s pebbles, mountains, rivers- all exist as they are: they reveal our whole Truth and the miraculous cosmic beauty- the mystery and Maya when we pause and look. A great sage Ramana Maharishi could speak to all creatures’ plants animals and human beings alike- He was constantly in touch with the Universal heart –One heart in all of us connecting us together.

This seeing happens only when we see begin to travel beyond our physical self deeper into our selves. As we begin to wonder it helps you to slowly let go of many preconceived ideas and listen to the natural and formless inner voice. You then realize that as human beings we have been cruel, kind, warm, cold, creative, peaceful and destructive all at the same time.

 Having felt it during this Covid time don’t you think this Corona virus is actually helping us do what we are doing now? Pausing and reflecting?

As for myself I have plenty of time now to reflect on all my travels. Flashes of bodies burning and the sound of the pyres crackling as the human bones crack at the Ghats of Benares, Rishikesh and Puri keep recurring. Watching the sunset on a boat with the pyres burning in the foreground is to experience a different way of thinking about life and death.

 One body after another led into the rivers where Fire and Water meet. The flames go up with a lot of sound and cackling- Are they the bones or the flesh? Does it matter because the soul has already left the body and the Elements are slowly returning to their sources? The fire sometimes surges upwards and I wonder if that if the body of a tall man or is it a man who had a lot of desires? Then I move on to the horizon where I watch the dark mountains a witness to the existence since it is almost the twilight hours.  

 There are near death experiences that I have felt almost drowning in Thailand in the Koh Chan Island when I visited the place with my daughter in 2002. As she slipped into the silent water with not a soul nearby except the two of us I remember the fear and emotion of losing her engulf me and foolish and thoughtless as I was I stretched my hand and body to save her. I was also dragged into the depths of those beautiful blue waters and the water sunk me in.

We had come in a jeep from the Cruise anchored in the middle of the sea. The other three men with whom we left decided to drop us and went over to the waterfalls yonder.

As I drowned I saw the vast blue expanse of the limitless skies and threw my hands up in surrender for I knew I could do nothing.  And then….saw a flash of something blue and the next thing I passed out and found choking and breathing and getting the water out of my system helped by the people who had left us earlier.

What had happened? There was a ship suddenly that was crossing the sea and a sailor saw me from the top mast drowning. He dived into the waters and saved my life. I did not see him and ran before getting into the jeep to return to the mainland. He was about to dive into the waterfall and I just had only two words to tell this stranger “Thank You”. What a trivial thing to say to a man who had revived my life. “Any time” he said with a smile and jumped into that water fall.

That was one lease of life I had in 2002 and then again in 2004  when a new Air Deccan the flight that took d off from Goa to Bangalore in India suddenly had technical problems and had to land in an emergency at Goa after 45 minutes of take off. We all had to run towards the airport before the flight went up in flames. I was reading “Hermit in the Himalayas” a book by Paul Brunton and had it across my stomach.     

When you close encounters with death you nearly touch the gates of the World of Afterlife. In both instances I just FROZE. 

These moments get etched in your memory and when your life gets a lease period of extension and this gut feeling returns when there are scenes and experiences in your life.

Man will never be able to see the true nature of life and death, as long as he believes himself to be an independent entity- by product of our ego. This is a gross illusion and the cause of all the disasters wars and diseases.

How and by what means then, can we break though and transcend our Habitual ways of life which is also Non creative? It is for each one of us to seek and strive for that little cosmic way to help ourselves and our fellow citizens and to strengthen our positive thoughts dying to the past meaningless ways of living.