Spiritual Sadhana – Becoming Free from the Root of Death

“The spiritual process is about yourself, which is neither life nor death. ” —Sadhguru

Sadhguru: Death is the most profound and mysterious aspect of life for most of humanity because no matter what stories people have heard, they still cannot figure out what it is. Neither science nor philosophy is able to figure out what death is.

The spiritual process is not about death – you are seeking something that is deeper than death. Death is a mundane thing, there is nothing profound or mysterious about it. It is something that happens to people over and over again. Death seems to be very mysterious and profound simply because of "short-term memory loss." If your memory was such that, every day when you wake up in the morning, you do not remember that there was a previous day, you do not remember that you actually went to sleep, all you know is you came awake, then every day, it would feel like you are in a wonderland and it would be most mysterious. The few hours of sleep would have been the most mysterious and profound aspect of your life simply because you do not remember that you actually went to sleep and woke up. The mystery and profoundness of death is just the same.

When we say, “Shiva is the destroyer,” we are not saying he causes death. He is not interested in death. For him, being born and dying is a very mundane thing, a superficial aspect of life. One reason he wears ash from the cremation ground upon his body is to show that he is disdainful of death. He doesn’t treat it as a profound or mysterious aspect. Spiritual sadhana is not about death. It is about becoming free from that which is the root of death, which is actually birth. To become free from birth is naturally to become free from death.

This birth and death are just pottery business – picking a piece of earth, shaping it into a human form and of course, making it walk and talk. This pottery business which turns into puppetry after sometime is a simple trick. To know the play from the point of view of the audience is one thing. To know the play from behind the stage is completely different. Once you start looking at the play from the backstage, after some time you are kind of done with it. You may enjoy the mechanics of it, but you are no longer excited by the story of it, the play of it, because you know how it is all put together. Only those who have short-term memory – every day they come and sit in the same play but they have forgotten the previous day's memory – for them it’s very exciting and challenging.

So the spiritual process is not about life or death. Body is life and death – the spiritual process is about yourself, which is neither life nor death.

Editor’s Note : Sadhguru looks at the essential nature of life and death and explains how they are one and the same, in The Essence of Life and Death