Life and Death are Interconnected
(Vinod Anand)
When you begin to realize the relationship of life and death, the old model of who you are starts to expand. As your old model dies something new happens.
You begin to experience directly the living truth of dying and being reborn again in each moment. When you live in the moment, then death is just another moment.
Death as an event is a ritual, a rite of passage like puberty or marriage or any of the big things that are dramatic new moments in life. People quite often ask, “What was the critical event that turned around your perspective?”
When I think about it though, there was no critical event. People ask, “Wasn’t it when you met your guru?” Well, a lot of people met Maharaj.ji (NeemKaroli Baba). Some people met him and nothing happened at all. Maybe they just thought he was a nice man. When I look back, it’s along chain. There was really a series of moments that prepared me to meet Maharaj-ji.
Acid prepared me to meet Maharaj-ji, psychology prepared me for the acid, and all my early neuroses prepared me for psychology, and on and on. How do you say, “That’s the one?” It was many moments. What else can prepare you to die but the way in which you live your life?
Living in this moment is what it’s all about is this the death moment or the birth moment? Is this moment a death of who you thought you were, or the birth of who you’re about to become? Is it both? None of the above?
It’s all just here. Being with dying people keeps me very close to the edge of my own awakening . . . The relationship with a dying person is one that exists in truth and truth is the One. It is truth because dropping the body is a moment of truth, and you have to be living in truth, in your spiritual heart, to fully be with someone at their bedside when they’re dying.
When you have truth in your relationships you’ll find that these moments will force you into the truth of the One. And when you identify with your soul you see the reality of the infinite at such moments, because the soul is infinite.
That view of the infinite gives you a look at time and space from a completely different perspective. And because we are time and space addicts, these moments that are time less are our opportunity to break away from fear and attachment. When we were with Maharaj-ji, in his vibrational space we also got an inkling of the infinite, because that’s where his consciousness was every moment.
So when you are with a dying person you get a taste of the infinite. You also get to rest, at least for sometime, in a place of unconditional love. And from that loving perspective you can love your negative thoughts and emotions, you can “love yourself to death”, which is a dramatic way of saying that you begin to see that the negative karma gets released by love.
Another way of saying it is that if we accept our negative stuff with love and without judgment, that darkness gets released. It’s the same acceptance we got from Maharaj-ji — he knew our inner hearts so he knew all of the karmas, positive and negative, and he just accepted us without judgment. He saw our souls - we may have presented our egos, but he was only interested in our souls.
VINOD K.ANAND: A BRIEF PROFILE
Born in 1939, and holding Master’s Degree both in Mathematics (1959) and Economics (1961), and Doctorate Degree in Economics (1970), Dr. Vinod K.Anand has about forty five years of teaching, research, and project work experience in Economic Theory (both micro and macro), Quantitative Economics, Public Economics, New Political Economy, and Development Economics with a special focus on economic and social provisions revolving around poverty, inequality, and unemployment issues, and also on informal sector studies. His last assignment was at the National University of Lesotho (Southern Africa) from 2006 to 2008. Prior to that he was placed as Professor and Head of the Department of Economics at the University of North-West in the Republic of South Africa, and University of Allahabad in India, Professor at the National University of Lesotho, Associate Professor at the University of Botswana, Gaborone in Botswana, and at Gezira University in Wad Medani, Sudan, Head, Department of Arts and Social Sciences, Yola in Nigeria, Principal Lecturer in Economics at Maiduguri University in Nigeria, and as Lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in Nigeria. Professor Anand has by now published more than 80 research papers in standard academic journals, authored 11 books, supervised a number of doctoral theses, was examiner for more than twenty Ph.D. theses, and has wide consultancy experience both in India and abroad, essentially in the African continent. This includes holding the position of Primary Researcher, Principal Consultant etc. in a number of Research Projects sponsored and funded by Universities, Governments, and International Bodies like, USAID, IDRC, and AERC. His publications include a variety of themes revolving around Economic Theory, New Political Economy, Quantitative Economics, Development Economics, and Informal Sector Studies. His consultancy assignments in India, Nigeria, Sudan, Botswana, and the Republic of South Africa include Non-Directory Enterprises in Allahabad, India, Small Scale Enterprises in the Northern States of Nigeria, The Absolute Poverty Line in Sudan, The Small Scale Enterprises in Wad Medani, Sudan, Micro and Small Scale Enterprises in Botswana, The Place of Non-Formal Micro-Enterprises in Botswana, Resettlement of a Squatter Community in the Vryburg District of North West Province in the Republic of South Africa, Trade and Investment Development Programme for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises: Support for NTSIKA in the Republic of South Africa, and Development of the Manufacturing Sector in the Republic of South Africa’s North West Province: An Approach Based on Firm Level Surveys. Professor Anand has also extensively participated in a number of conferences, offered many seminars, participated in a number of workshops, and delivered a variety of Refresher Lectures at different venues both in India and abroad. Dr. Anand was placed at the prestigious Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla in the State Himachal Pradesh, India as a Fellow from 2001 to 2003, and had completed a theoretical and qualitative research project/monograph on the Employment Profile of Micro Enterprises in the State of Himachal Pradseh, India.
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