How to conquer death?

The Rig Veda hails human beings as ‘am tasya putrâ’ i.e., ‘Sons of Immortality’ and propounds that although mortality is given to human beings, there is a way to transcend it by a mean path between the two extreme ends of mortality and immortality. In other words, mortality belongs to the body, but immortality is the nature of soul and anyone can attain it, provided one has realised it as the ultimate goal of life.

Human beings have searched for the elixir of immortality since time immemorial. I tried to find the reason why I thirsted for Immortality. I also tried to evolve a balanced, optimistic and spirited method to attain immortality. Is it as simple as transformation of energy from one form into another? Can it give solace to everyone? May be. May be not. So where is this quest headed? To a new theory of science or a new theory of after life? What happens when a person dies? Do the mind, thoughts and ideas also die with the body? Imagine if thoughts could be preserved, ideas could be transferred, mind transplanted into a new body !

Well, the Bhagwad Gita comes to our rescue once again. Second Chapter:

nainam chindanti sastrani,nainam dahati pavakah na cainam kledayanty apo,na sosayati marutah

Weapons cannot cut, fire cannot burn, water cannot wet, wind cannot dry this Atma.

Is the Atma our via-media of immortality? It is a tempting idea. Well the Atma is a repository of memory of thoughts and ideas, so if the goal of one’s life is eternal life, this is the only way. I have come to realize that we become immortal, not by trying to prolong youth or avoiding morbidity but by understanding that the body will undergo change, but our understanding of this world and consequent wisdom will be carried forward to the next life inside the black-box of our soul, the Atma. Once the Atma has accumulated enough wisdom to merge into the cosmos, our journeys into this world will cease. Sages who have undergone samadhi follow the same process by leaving the body behind and carrying their contemplations forward into the next life. For them, it is was matter of will. The rest of us have our tasks chalked out —ceaseless vigil on the quality of our thoughts and unrelenting refinement of the quality of our actions. I believe this is amrit, the elixir of immortality.