Getting out of the vicious cycle of birth and death

“The most surprising thing of this world is that everyone sees every other person is dying but they never think that they would also die one day.” These words of wisdom were spoken by Yudhisthira, the righteous India ruler who is revered worldwide for his honesty and intelligence. How true this statement is!  As mortal beings our right to exist can be taken away at any moment.  All our aims, ambitions, goals, desires, material positions and possessions we have to leave behind and we (as souls) will move to a new destination.

As a product pack has an expiry day written on it; similarly our body comes with an expiry date. For each of us the expiry date is different but it is guaranteed that one day our body will certainly perish. Death is painful not just for the one who dies but also for his near and dear ones. Although death comes to us without any intimation but we can’t complain that we were never informed about it. All the sacred Vedic literatures have been loudly informing us that this world is not a permanent place for us to live. In Gita Krishna says that this world is temporary and filled with miseries – duhkhalayam asasvatam (Bhagavad Gita 8.15).

So as a concerned father of all living beings, he constantly asks us to get out of this painful world which is characterized by repeated birth and death.  In Krishna’s kingdom, the spiritual world, there is no death, no disease and no suffering. There is unlimited happiness! And once we reach there we would never return again to this material world (Bhagavad Gita 15.6). It isn’t difficult to achieve that supreme destination. Krishna explains that by performing pure devotional service unto him we become eligible to go there (Bhagavad Gita 2.51).  In this age of Kaliyuga, the age of downfall, the process prescribed is chanting the holy names of the Lord like the Hare Krishna Mahamantra. This chant of deliverance will reawaken our dormant love for Krishna and cleanse our heart of all the impurities. And then upon leaving this body we won’t take birth in this material world again but will go back home back to Godhead. 

So, let us not waste our life in running after the things of this world which will be taken away from us at the time of death but instead we should strive to develop love of God which will guarantee us a transcendental future and supreme destination.