Why do some people come close to death but escape death?

Answer Podcast:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
what you are asking is many times we come close to death but somehow we don’t cross over that door so is that happening by our karma that we come close but don’t cross over or is it Krishna’s arrangement is that what you are asking? life is actually very precipitous it’s dangerous, at any moment it can end at any moment we may just die right now the roof may crash and I may die or my heart may get a heart attack and I may die but there is also a normal way we live, we are young we are middle aged we have a family, we grow old and eventually we die so now just as when we take a rented house, usually we have a contract I may stay in this house for 1 year, 2 years, 3 years like that when we get the body this body we have got based on our past karma from previous lives, so this body comes with a particular time duration the time duration is not just in terms of seconds or minutes it’s actually in terms of breaths so for that breath the soul will be in this body and during the course of that life, depending on the kind of karma that we may have done, we will experience different events in our life so for example some people throughout their life they are always very sickly some other people they are very healthy some people they eat a little bit maybe too spicy or too oily and their stomach gets upset some other people they treat their tongue like a conveyor belt laughing whatever they eat and still they stay healthy so this difference or what we go through in our life that is also based on karma so our karma determines not just when our lifespan will end when our body will end but also the broad patterns of events that we will experience in this life that is determined by karma now what is not determined is how we respond so it’s like say from here if I take a flight to go to New York now based on the kind of weather that is there along the way as soon as I decide to go to New York then I will experience that kind of weather sometimes it may be turbulent, sometimes it may be peaceful so similarly so when I decide to go to New York not only is my destination determined but also to some extent the turbulence that is going to there is determined but at the same time what I respond to how I respond to with that turbulence I may become panicky and sometimes when the plane starts moving up and down some people become so panicky, they start screaming, crying and some may get a heart attack because of that or some people may say calm down, okay this plane is turbulent but the pilot is competent, they will get it back in control so what happens to us is destiny how we respond to it is freedom so our response is never determined that response is up to us always so some of us by our past karma by the kind of karma that we have we may have more danger filled lives lives which take us many times close to death and get us back others may have not such adventurous lives not such dangerous lives that’s actually the result of karma now what we should see is not what happens to me is not in my control but how I respond to it is in my control and if I can respond wisely whatever happens, if I come close to death and then I am pulled back from there then I can see it is that death was so real, I was so close to death and this is going to happen so therefore let me focus on the eternal let me not get so infatuated by the temporary so the art of living wisely is to actually translate whatever happens into a way that is favorable for our growth so if I have a very peaceful life where there is no danger then I can think that actually Krishna is so kind to me that he has given me a peaceful material life so that I can focus undistractedly on my bhakti on the other hand if I have a danger filled life then I can think you know Krishna is so kind that Krishna is giving me constant reminders of the dangers that await us in this world of the ultimate danger that is going to come to me at the time of death and therefore let me intensify my bhakti so what we should do is whatever kind of events happen in our life we need to translate them in a way that helps us to go closer to Krishna does it answer your question?