Padam padam ya vipadam na tesam...
Yesterday, while I was in local bus, traveling to my daily job, together with some colleagues, temporality of material existence stroke us right in face. Full bus of travelers, businessmen and his wife, old lady with her granddaughter, young boy and his girlfriend, unlimited plans for future, so many thoughts, worries and hopes how to make this life worth of living.
Suddenly, we were on the top of the bridge, trapped in some kind of traffic puzzle. We heard emergency siren and saw ambulance vehicle, down on the river bank.
What is going on?
We saw a body down there, floating on water.
After few moments paramedics were there, in great hurry, giving first aid to a man who lied on wet muddy shore.
In the bus everybody become curious - did man jumped from bridge, did he faint while he was fishing and fall into river or...
Poor man - said old lady. Just see, life is nothing!
Life is so short.
And that was moment when just for a second, the curtain of illusion were removed, question mark in the air, truth about this material existence. So much struggle just to make this temporary place permanent.
After several seconds, heavy curtain of illusion was there again, everybody continued with their plans, hops, and worries. Old lady quarreled with her granddaughter about school homework, businessman and his wife were talking about credit debts and soon bridge was far away behind us.
Padam padam ya vipadam na tesam...There is great danger on every step in this material world. Every moment. Nothing is for sure. Civilizations blossomed, yugas passed, so many persons are coming to this world and dying in this moment. Time that we have is our wealth. Only eternal benefit is devotion.
So today, early in the morning, I took my japa chanting more seriously. Every moment is precious.
After several seconds, heavy curtain of illusion was there again, everybody continued with their plans, hops, and worries.
This is the wonderful power of Visnu maya: death is all around us, yet we think it won't happen to us. We see it, maybe even contemplate it for a few seconds, then--back to business as usual!
Probably not quite business as usual. There might be dreams or nightmares or nagging thought in the back of people's head. When you travel to India it is an everyday common sight of seeing road accidents with dead bodies lying in the middle of the roads surrounded by a crowd of curious onlookers. They do not value life as much as in the West. They have notions about reincarnation.
What is important in this type of scene is how we are impacted ourselves. Are we going to go on with business as usual or are we going to finally take on to Krishna Consciousness very seriously?
> Life is so short.
THAT is an illusion. Life is eternal. No need to be afraid of death, or to become nervous about the "limited time" left. Relax.
> After several seconds, heavy curtain of illusion was there again, everybody continued with their plans, hops, and worries.
Both are illusions: fear and shock of death, as are plans, hopes and worries. But plans and hopes are not necessarily bad. Without money you starve and homeless you freeze to death. Without hopes and dreams you just end up depressed or drug addicted.
Ivar
Point was that we are temporarly in this body - short time. Off course that life is eternal.
<No need to be afraid of death, or to become nervous about the "limited time" left. Relax. >
My point was that we should use our time to do something for our benefit. I dont want just to relax - and do nothing about that.
About plans - off course - we need all that - plans, hopes, money - we are here in material world. But, point was that so many persons do such activities withouth any spiritual goal or connection.
What I find very interesting is how people on a massive scale try to hide the effects of aging, not only through the use of make-up, but all kinds of surgical and chemical manipulation (Botox for example), colouring the hair etc. This is very sad indeed. And what about the panic men get when their 'equipment' stops functioning, and they take Viagra or other drugs. Like you say, many people give up their connection to spiritual views and values.
I saw a program yesterday about mad elephants, mostly young bulls going beserk and killing people (in one case an entire village) and also bullying and killing other animals like rhinos etc. This phenomenon has increased strongly in the last few decades. It turned out that the cause was the increasing absence of elder male elephants, which were shot by hunters and for other purposes ("population control"). Without the presence of these elders, the young bulls reached sexual maturity too early, and didn't learn how to behave the way elephants are supposed to behave. That, combined with posttraumatic stress disorder (Vietnam syndrom) due to witnessing their family members being killed, ultimately caused this problem.
It made me think of the lack of guidance children and teenagers get in present day society.
Amazing story! Thank you for sharing it.