The Wedding Night

Dear Ashwini,

I was also awe-struck when I first came in contact with Rumi. Several hundred years after his death he is still a live wire. I conservatively estimate that it may require about a dozen life times to fully understand this true lover of God.

There have been cases of many monks who have predicted their death. Many tibetan monks would say that they would die within three days. At the appointed hour they would say something very loving, wise and brilliant and go away. some monks even die a rainbow death leaving nothing but their hair and their nails.
You need to read the classic book The Tibetan Book of the Living and the Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche to appreciate death.

Thanks for the nice words, Ashwini.
sridhar

 

Shanthi,
I have been wanting to write about death for a while. Because the last blog on Life is done and what is death was a little scary. The Last Lecture gave the format. I created a Randy Pausch and give him my name and make him speak about some of my most intmate thoughts about death. To show my gratitude to Randy I gave my namesake the same disease Randy had, pancreatic cancer.
Randy's insights were into life. That's why Last Lecture became a best selling book. This blog is all about death.
Another inspiration is Osho's talk on death. Especially when one of his disciples died and how the entire commune celebrated the death of the person. I happened to translate those passages.

I bow down to your strength and determination, Shanti. To teach independence to children.. that's the richest legacy we can leave for them.
thanks for coming in.
sridhar

 

Thanks a lot, Lalitha. Thanks for coming in and thanks for your kind words.
sridhar

 

That's not barging in, bas. You can never barge into your own house.
boost

 

Thanks a lot, Chithra. Nice to see you after a long time.
sridhar

 

Thanks Srisai. Death wears a positive look when it happens to a person full of love. The trick is love and not death per se.
thanks for coming in, Srisai
sridhar

 

that's a great compliment which I can live on for years.
sridhar

 

Thanks Suresh for your kind words. the reality is that death has chosen us whether we like it or not. The choice was made on the day we were born.
thanks for coming in.
love,
sridhar

 

thanks santhi. That phrase is not exactly mine. It has been used by masters many times in the past.
thanks for coming in.
sridhar

 

Thanks epandian for agreeing to disagree. Just to restate my views, God created the world with a system of sins and good deeds, punishments and rewards. As every act has a consequence so does every sin and every good deed.
However grave may be the sin to condemn someone to burn in hell for ever does not jell with God's love.
To take the case of your extreme example (Honestly God forbid, epandian, such things would never happen. may your daughter be happy, healthy and safe for hundreds of years) the offender would be punished by the act itself. What exactly is the punishment? The offender should feel what his victim went through. The offender should feel what the victims close relatives went through. God has an excellent system to ensure these things do happen.
But the problem, epandian, is that we want a comfortable balcony seat to view the punishment meted out to our aggressor. Now that's our ego. let's leave it to God and believe in God's system. Seeing the offender suffering, they say, is not good for our spiritual growth.

I belong to a brotherhood where we are literally made to walk through the valley of shadow of death and then are coaxed to rise and shine as stars for ever and ever.

This man in the story is the ultimate. He is concerned with love, with how to help people and how to reach to even unrelated people.
May his tribe increase.
thanks for your comments, epandian.
sridhar