Advancing Age

Sant Tukaram says:

Advancing age is sounding a warning.
Thy rendezvous with death is nigh.¹

Back in the 1960s, someone asked Hazur Maharaj Ji when we need to get serious about this path. He told us He would send a sign: our first gray hair is our first sign. Now, most of us have been given quite a few signs.

Time to take it seriously, not in long faces, but in application. Holding fast to the path as our mainstay in life. Our gray hair and wrinkles, our failing memories – we can see these as signs, warnings, even as invitations to the next world.

To realize that death is approaching is a great blessing. It gives us a chance to prepare for our rendezvous, which literally translated means to present ourselves. And that we will all do in our final hour.

We don’t live here forever. Didn’t we see our grandparents dying? Then our parents. Now it’s our siblings and friends. Our turn is coming.

Great Master wrote that it’s not our wish to stay here on this plane of struggle and turmoil a minute longer than we can help. We are to go one day. We are to mold ourselves, that we do our allotted duties here to the best of our lights, and go straight with the Messenger when He gives the message and takes us Home.²

The saints always advise us to live a simple, happy, relaxed life. It’s for that reason that they talk to us about death.

Isn’t it true that when we’re afraid of something, we try to find someone who can set us free from that fear? And that someone is our Master! Tukaram said:

Wake up, my mind, be all attention!³

Very often this analogy of wake and sleep is used. We wonder, why do saints say that we need to wake up? Aren’t our eyes open? Aren’t we going about our lives awake? Soami Ji says no.

You are surrounded by thieves and you are fast asleep.⁴

Everyone and everything that takes our attention out is a thief, all attachments that lull us into unconsciousness. Soami Ji continues, not just telling us to wake up and face the world but,

Wake up to love
  in the company of the saints…
Wealth and property will not help you.
At one stroke you will have to leave it all behind.⁵

When we spend our whole lives adorning the body, collecting possessions, sharpening our intellect, relying on others for happiness, what happens in the end? Absolutely everything is torn away. We’re told that is not a logical conclusion to life!

It’s only in that last moment that we realize we did not pay attention to what was passing and what was lasting. In contrast, Great Master tells us:

If we are loving, obedient disciples and have made proper preparations in this lifetime, our soul departs … happier than a bridegroom on his wedding day.⁶

Now, that is a logical conclusion to a life of meditation. Death is the one thing we can count on in this life. It behooves us to face it, even embrace it.

As Hazur wrote:

A satsangi should welcome death because this is the gate, passing through which we will eventually reach our Home and meet our Beloved.⁷

And what does it take to pass through this gate, to gather our attention? Yasutani Roshi, a Zen Master, describes meditation time:

The mind must be unhurried, yet at the same time
  firmly planted…
  it must also be alert… and certainly never slack.
It is the mind of somebody facing death.⁸

This is the way we prepare, with focused attention. Tukaram said:

Strive to attain thy life’s objective.⁹

We’ve been given this human birth for a reason. Don’t all the species gather food, create homes, mate and watch over their young?

What is our specific purpose? To know God.

So many times we hear the Master ask us about our objective in life. And we have to ask ourselves if we are on task or are we going astray? In his time, Bulleh Shah asked:

On what have you spread your feet?¹⁰

In other words, what is our base in life, our foundation? Where do we turn for support? Sant Namdev gives his answer,

Meditate on the Lord, O friend,
  and leave all hope of others.
It is the Saints, tender, pure and valiant, who lean on the Lord.¹¹

They come as our example. On what have we spread our feet? If it’s just on the transitory, Bulleh Shah tells us:

It will last but a fleeting moment.
For the winking of an eye, this fair will last;
Do something, your time is short.¹²

Tukaram wrote:

Strive to attain thy life’s objective lest
Thou slip at the last moment and lose all.¹³

None of us wants to slip at the last moment. Who knows how far we may fall, being victims of our bad habits or neglect? The saints beg us to take this opportunity. They tell us we can enjoy life and face death easily, peacefully. By practicing remembrance and letting go. We’ve heard that if we live life completely, when death comes, like a thief in the night, there will be nothing left for him to steal.

We will have already let go; followed the three crucial steps in meditation: Sit, start simran and let go. Then, only our soul remains, waiting for her Beloved.

Hazur assures us:

A satsangi’s soul never leaves the body at the time of death unless the Master comes to take it.¹⁴

What a promise from the Master! And ours to him? Beautifully expressed by Sant Dadu Dayal:

Whether I die by poison or by wounds,
And wheresoever I may die,
Whether in bodily pain or by slow wasting,
  or through weeping from the pangs of separation,
Yet am I resolved to die calling upon Thee.¹⁵

Our day is coming and death marks the end of this chance.

This is the time to achieve thy aim.¹⁶

The Saints know when our final moment will come. And it may be very, very soon. So they tell us this present is very precious. Thomas à Kempis wrote:

“These are the days of salvation; now is the acceptable time. How sad that you do not spend the time in which you might purchase everlasting life in a better way. The time will come when you will want just one day, just one hour in which to make amends, and do you know whether you will obtain it?”¹⁷

At that moment of death we’ll be forced to leave. No one is going to give us a choice. But right now? We can choose to practice dying daily. From the book Grace in Dying, a hospice researcher observes:

As difficult as the path of return might be, the fortunate ones are those who begin to experience and to live in expanded states of consciousness long before they are called to the dying process.¹⁸

This is what the Master so badly wants for us! Each of us has been given all we need to be one of those fortunate ones.

Give value to each passing moment.¹⁹

Isn’t it amazing that we can actually do something to give value to our moments? Instead of letting the mind wander, simply living to die, Tukaram tells us we can give our lives real value, now. We often hear Guru Ravidas quoted:

For numerous lifetimes have I remained separated from
  you, O Lord –
  this life I dedicate to you.²⁰

We show this dedication by simran, consciously in our meditation and as much as possible during our days. Take the Master’s helping hand! Soami Ji writes:

Your breath is like a drum beat,
  constantly proclaiming the departure of the caravan of life.
Radha Soami has docked his ship –
  come on board and cross the ocean free of charge.²¹

We accept his offer by remembrance. Hazur tells us:

Any moment when we think about the Father is a blessed moment. That makes it worth living in this creation.²²

And the rest? Everything and everyone else comes and goes. Our business is to keep on task, giving value to this precious human life.

Hold fast to the path, leading unto him.²³

We are told to embrace the path with as much strength as we can muster and hold the reins of this life lightly. Let it come and let it go. We must beg the Lord to grant us the wisdom to hold fast to this inaccessible, unfathomable path. Without the Master’s grace we couldn’t conceive of the path, we couldn’t find the path, and we couldn’t travel on this path. Great Master wrote:

A traveler who has a long journey ahead sticks to the road. The spiritual journey is a long way, so keep on the move and go ahead.²⁴

Tukaram concludes:

Impervious to the world, cling to sound divine.²⁵

Yes, simran concentrates our attention and prepares us for bhajan. It’s a means. Listening to or for His voice is the vital next step. Tukaram uses the word “cling.” Cling to whatever sound we hear because it’s that Shabd that will carry us Home.

As for this world, aren’t we all becoming weak and wayworn in our search? We’ve tried to find happiness in every way in this world, and we’re realizing that there is no more that this weary world can offer. It’s just like a dead and dry tree that can no longer provide any shade. Great Master sympathizes with us:

Many a soul has complained of the difficulties of the spiritual journey, but finding little comfort from the perishable joys of this world, it has again taken up its difficult task because it can find nothing higher.²⁶

So, every day we sit and just be with him. Every day. And one day we will find that we are impervious to this world. Those drops of spiritual nectar have made a dent on us – all our time spent in meditation, satsang, seva, simran. Now we find the world no longer influences, persuades, or affects us. It no longer exerts its charm. Only He does.

We started with the message that our rendezvous with death is nigh. And we conclude with Hakim Sanai telling us how to prepare for this presenting of ourselves.

Arrange things so that when death calls,
  he finds your soul waiting in the street.
Leave this house of vagabonds:
  if you are at God’s door, stay there;
  if not, make your way there now.²⁷