We all know that death is inevitable; whether we like it or not, we all have to die one day. Yet many people in this world have fear of death, for death is a mystery, a mystery of ‘What happens to me next?’...

When one learns about the facts related to death, his fears get eased.The mystery of death that creates fear, when gets solved, one is able to face death with confidence and clarity. Gnani Purush, the Enlightened One, is able to see everything as it is, and therefore can candidly explain the mystery behind the cycle of death and rebirth, He can show us the way how to get free from this cycle and can also liberate. So come let us try to solve this mystery with the help of His teachings, today...

The inherent nature of anything that begins is that it always comes to an end.Our mind, speech and the body are in the form of three batteries that are fully charged with the power of karmas, at the time of a person’s birth.

As these batteries begin to discharge, they present their first effect (karmic effect) in the womb, and continue to do so throughout life in every moment of it, until their final effect comes to an end and the batteries go dead. It means death takes place when all the effects of karma, he had bound for the current life, get exhausted through the medium of these three batteries.

However, while these batteries are discharging, new batteries for the coming life are being charged simultaneously. In this manner the discharge (effects of karma) and the next charge (causes of karma) continue to take place, giving rise to birth after every death.
This is the reason why when there is death, there is also a rebirth following the death.

And where will our birth take place next, depends on...
After death, there are only four life-forms that one can be born into i.e. in heaven, human, animal or hell; and this gets decided during the time of death, when the balance sheet of our deeds throughout the life gets generated.

Whatever we do for others without any selfish interest in our heart, whenever we give happiness to the deprived through charity of food, medicine or knowledge, despite being hurt by others, when we do not retaliate and remain benevolent, and if we live a life of non-violence such that no single being experiences fear from us, we charge good karmas (punya) and we reap the rewards of these deeds in our next life, where we are born as a human or a heavenly being.

On the other hand, the conflicts we created with those we met in this life, the wealth we accumulated in this life by taking what did not rightfully belong to us, anything that we tried to acquire by devious use of intellect or our life when lived for our own gain alone, result in charging of bad karmas (paap) and take us to the lower life-forms such as animal or even hell.

This is why all Gnanis ask us to use our mind, speech and body for others. Using them for our own self makes us reincarnate in lower life forms, and this is one of the deeper reasons for fearing death.

To save ourself from landing into lower life form, Gnani shows us the way.In case, we are reminded of any bad deeds that we may have knowingly or unknowingly performed in our life, while we are still alive, we must do pratikraman for all the faults that we remember.

There is tremendous strength in pratikraman. It weakens the power of the karmas charged and therefore in the next life when they get due for discharge, they will crumble away and not cause us suffering of a great magnitude. Hence any free moment that we find in our life, we must best utilise it by doing pratikraman.

How to do Pratikraman?
Recall the pure Soul residing within the person whom we have caused hurt or damage in our life. And then confess our mistakes before this Soul. With all the repentance in our heart, honestly ask for forgiveness for all the mistakes made towards that person and resolve not to repeat these mistakes ever again.

Is there a way to stop charging karma altogether and break free from the cycle of birth and death?
Yes there certainly is! Let’s see what it is...

The charging of karmas takes place because of the person’s ignorance of his real Self. As long as his wrong belief of ‘I am John (reader may put in his name here)’ prevails, attachment and abhorrence over every little thing in life continues to occur, giving rise to new causes of mind, body and speech. However, once this wrong belief is replaced with the right belief, ‘I am pure Soul’; attachment and abhorrence, and consequently new causes too cease to occur.

A Gnani Purush is one who can make this happen!!
Gnani has experienced the eternal Soul i.e. the Self, which is free from the bondage of birth and death, and has the divine power to make others experience it too by gracing them with Self-Realization of ‘I am Pure Soul’. With this, Gnani Purush thus puts a stop to the creation of new causes. And the effects of old causes, no matter how strong and hard, when eventually come to an end, we get liberated from this cycle of death and rebirth.

Thus, the answer to your question, ‘How did you overcome the fear of death?’ is... ‘By realizing my Self with the grace of Gnani.’As long as we have not realized our Self, which is the Soul, we will experience fear. It is because of our conviction and belief that ‘I am John and this body is mine’ that there is death. This conviction and belief is called the ego. It is this ego that that fears death, not the Soul.

The birth and death are of the ego. The Soul is immortal, it was never born and therefore it has no death, and therefore when we realize ‘I am Pure Soul’, we become immortal. When one becomes immortal, he obviously cannot have death, which eliminates the question of fearing death altogether.

At the time of death, we do not want to sit up and fearfully pray, ‘Dear Lord, please extend my life for two more hours, so that I can meet Gnani and liberate myself’, do we?
So let’s get awakened now, when we are alive; run to Gnani to find the answer to the question of really ‘Who am I?’; and thereby overcome the fear of death forever!!

Read more on: https://www.dadabhagwan.org/path-to-happiness/spiritual-science/ways-to-...

Author's Bio: 

Ambalal M. Patel was a civil contractor by profession. In June 1958, spontaneous Self-Realization occurred within Ambalal M. Patel. From this point on, Ambalal became a Gnani Purush, and the Lord that manifest within him became known as Dada Bhagwan. A Gnani Purush is One who has realized the Self and is able help others do the same. Param Pujya Dada Bhagwan used to go from town to town and country-to-country to give satsang (spiritual discourse) and impart the knowledge of the Self, as well as knowledge of harmonious worldly interactions to everyone who came to meet him. This spiritual science, known as Akram Vignan, is the step-less path to Self-realization.