Bhagavatam-daily 178 – 11.10.20 – Expose the tricks by which the mind denies our mortality

11.10.20 the theme here is continuing of how material existence is ultimately futile konvartha what artha is there what uh use is there of any metal object what satisfaction can any metal object provide even if the desire of the object is desired and even if we get pleasure from that object but when death is just nearby means that here refers to the place of execution just like a person who is being led to this place of execution who is condemned to be killed so that person was about to be killed even if that person is offered everything usually one last desire quite often it is that when a person is about to die a person is offered a good one one last meal that has been a tradition that is more or less a custom all over the world so now the point is that that person while eating the meal doesn’t can’t really enjoy that meal because although that the food may be delicious but the very taste of the food is a chilling reminder in their commentaries give this example that when a person is being led to execution at that time no matter what that person is provided that doesn’t satisfy even no matter how enjoyable the food may be because the point is not whether the food is enjoyable the point is whether the death is inevitable and the death at that point is just waiting to happen it’s soon going to come and the person simply knows that what is going to befall me is so horrible and i can’t avoid it and what is the point of this food enjoying it the same way for a person who is aware that death can come at any point material objects lose their desirability and that’s why the whole pursuit of sense gratification is based on an implicit denial of death now when we live in society today we don’t disbelieve the existence of death because because technically the daily news tells us about bomb blasts here and hurricanes there and wars there and so many deaths occurring because of so many causes so death the reality of death is a matter of daily reminder for us but we somehow subconsciously rationalize that death is something that happens to others not to me and even if it is going to happen to me it will happen to me sometime in the distant future not in any time immediately and that’s why it need not be a matter of concern for me at all at least not now so by these two oh mental prestidigitations mental tricks we do one of the two tricks one is that death happens happens but not to me and death may happen to me but not soon not now and not not in the near future the distant future by these two mental sleeves of hand we delude ourselves into a sense of comfort and complacency where we go on with our pursuit of worldly fame worldly worldly positions worldly pleasures and we think that okay death need not concern me in fact the pursuit of sense gratification becomes so pervasive so insidious insidious in terms of how it distorts our perception that we even use death to aid in the pursuit of sense gratification that means when people watch movies at that time people delight in say the bad guys the villains being beaten to death and naturally we identify with the hero in the movie and the hero is the good guy and the villains are bad guy and the bad guys deserve to die but and that way that which is a reality for us for all of us we ascribe that reality to those who are opposed to us or those who are opposed to those whom we identify with that means we identify with the heroes and the villain is villains are opposed to the heroes so we we actually get joy in how the hero is beating the villain and how the villain villain bleeds to death very slowly or is pounded to death with great pain or is suddenly shot by one arrow and is fatally and that arrow turns out to be fatal whatever we actually appropriate we could say misappropriate death into our program our intention for sense gratification and in this way again we deny the reality of death as something that is going to happen to us so we if we are to realize the gravity and the urgency of practicing spiritual life by which we can raise our consciousness to the spiritual level by which we can minimize the trauma of death death as an event will happen to everyone even to us even if we become spiritually serious but death as a catastrophic will not happen to us in the sense that death will not be catastrophic for us but if our consciousness is elevated to the spiritual level if our consciousness is elevated to the to the realization of our spiritual identity and the realization of our relationship with Krishna which continues even beyond death then death can even become seen as a welcome step onwards in our journey towards Krishna if not a direct direct attainment of Krishna so if we are sufficiently spiritually advanced then we will go to Krishna if you’re not so advanced then we may then we will go to some destination where we can move onwards towards Krishna but this can happen only if we have a if we have strived to raise our consciousness to the spiritual level if we haven’t done that then we will surely face uh the face death as a we have to undergo death as a traumatic devastating excruciating event which will rip a rip away from us everything that we hold here including the very body which is the source of whatever enjoyment we get in this world so we need to recognize the the inevitability of death and inability of death as an event that is going to happen to us and it can happen any moment and by by noting which are the tricks by which the mind distance denies the reality of death as an event happening to us now so whenever we read the news whenever we hear in class wherever we perceive death we can observe our own thought process and try to check how the mind is distancing itself from this and avoid that as a mental trick and forcefully remind ourselves of the inevitability of our death and thereby in sustain and increase our impetus for raising our consciousness to the