Although far from being the cause of the highest number of deaths in the world (far from the rates of deaths from abortions and even deaths from traffic accidents), the virus crown pandemic has caused a huge media “outbreak” worldwide.
Sometimes I wonder, do we forget we are going to die? What is the difference between dying from any other situation or dying from corona virus?
Once an apocalyptic religious zealot asked me, do you believe in the end of the world? and, in some way or another, I was inspired to answer … Yes! the end of the world exists for anyone at any time … what is the difference if everyone dies or only you die?
Seeing the latest events on the world phenomenon that has even agitated the Vaisnavas, I dedicated myself to look for some more transcendental vision on the subject and then Srila Prabhupada enlightens us in this regard:
“While man has all the vigor of life, he forgets the naked truth of death he has to find” How can we effectively face our own death?
While man has all the vigor of his life, he forgets the naked truth of death, with which he must meet. Thus, the fool does not ask any pertinent questions about the real problems of life. Everyone thinks they will never die, although every second they see evidence of death before their eyes. Here lies the difference between the animal condition and the human condition. Animals like the goat do not have the intelligence to perceive their imminent death. Although your partner is being sacrificed, the goat will wait peacefully for her to be sacrificed, feeling attracted to the grass offered before she is killed. On the other hand, if a human being sees that the enemy is killing his neighbor, he will fight to save his brother, or, if possible, he will flee to save his own life. That is the difference between man and goat.
The intelligent man knows that death is born when he is born. He knows that he is dying every second, and that the final touch will come when his life span ends. Therefore, he prepares for the next life, or to free himself from the disease of repeated births and deaths.
However, the fool does not know that he receives this human form of life after a series of births and deaths, which the laws of nature imposed on him in the past. He does not know that the living entity is an eternal being, that he is not born or dies. Birth, death, old age and diseases are external issues that are imposed on the living entity, and occur due to its contact with material nature, and due to the forgetting of its eternal and divine nature, as well as the forgetting of the qualitative identity it has with the Absolute Totality.
Human life provides the opportunity to know this truth or eternal fact. And so, at the very beginning of Vedanta-sutra we are advised that, because we have this valuable human way of life, it is our duty – now – to ask: What is the Absolute Truth?
Modern human civilization is organized in a dangerous way, because it does not teach anyone to ask pertinent questions about the essential principles of life. People, like animals, ignore that they will be sacrificed by the laws of nature. He is content with a handful of grass, that is, a life of supposed enjoyment, just like the patient goat from the slaughterhouse… ”
Originally Published: iskconnews.org
