AND AWARENESS OF THE UNIVERSE ACQUIRED.

YOU CEASE TO BEAR THE BRUNT OF LIFE,

AND GAIN FREEDOM FROM THE GOD OF DEATH.

THE NAME OF THE FLAWLESS ONE IS SUCH

THAT ONLY CONTEMPLATING CAN KNOW IT.

The day you awaken you realize for the first time the infinite space, the countless worlds, this existence, this leela -- play of the gods. As long as you are steeped in your own desires, lost in the labyrinth of your own mind, you are blind and see nothing. The mind is another name for blindness; contemplation is the opening of the eyes, the restoration of sight.

Nanak says: Through contemplation alone you become aware of all the worlds. All the heavenly bodies, the whole universe becomes visible. Life manifests in its complete and perfect glory. Then you see His initials in all things great and small. You will find His name on every leaf, His resonance in every hair of your body; you will hear His melody in the winds. Then the whole of existence unfolds His glory to you.

Now you ask: What is the meaning of life? What is the idea behind it? Why are we born? Why do we live? The great French existential thinker, Gabriel Marcel, has written that life has but one problem, and that is suicide. Why do we live? Why should we not commit suicide? The ultimate state of insensibility, of unconsciousness, is in suicide, where the priceless gifts of life are thrown away for you find nothing in them.

Just the opposite happens when you awaken into awareness; then the glory is boundless. World upon world opens before your eyes. Every stage abounds with mystery and wonder. Then you come to know the meaning of life, the bliss which we call samadhi. Then you know why life is.

In your present state you cannot know; however much you may ask, however much you are told that to attain God is the goal of your life, it does not solve your problem. No matter how much it is drummed into your ears that samadhi is the goal of your life, nothing strikes home as real until your remembrance awakens. You hear and you dismiss such talk as the words of those who are not very sound of mind. You trust your own understanding, but where has it taken you but to the brink of suicide? This valuable gift given to you is less than worthless, for you find no meaning in it. But no sooner do you become awakened than the mystery begins to unravel before you. A flower opens and each petal exudes nothing but joy -- enchanting bliss!

Nanak is a simple rustic. He says: Through contemplation you cease to bear the burden of. life. He speaks plain village language, but what he says is significant and to the point. Through contemplation you need not spit out your words only to take them back again, bearing the insults and abuse, or even a slap on the face for whatever you said in your dullness. You speak through your ego -- sleep, unaware of what you say, what you do, where you are going. Then it is only natural that you get slapped in the face.

Today you say you are in love; before morning dawns your love has flown away! One minute you feel like murdering someone and in a short while you rack your brains how best to please him. One instant you say one thing, the next minute you say the opposite. You cannot be trusted. You are as changeable as the seasons. There is nothing stable within you, nothing crystallized, so you have to bear a slap in the face every moment.

Nanak says, Through contemplation alone you need not bear that slap on the face, and you no longer have to go along with the god of death. Everyone dies but all don't have to follow Yama, the god of death. Understand the symbol. Everyone dies, but once in a while a man dies consciously and then he need not follow Yama. As long as you live in non-remembrance you are a prisoner of Yama. The meaning of Yama is fear. One who lives in nonawareness, dies in nonawareness. He trembles and wails for someone to save him from death. He holds onto the very last breath of life, wanting to be saved from the jaws of death by any means. This state of fear, this dark face of fear, is symbolized by the god Yama astride a black buffalo.

But a person who dies in full remembrance and awareness is not obsessed by fear. Without fear he comes to realize that death is the culmination of life and not its end. Far from being fearsome, death is the gateway to His abode, an invitation to His dwelling, a process of merging into Him. There is no need to weep and lament; rather, he enters into the faultless beauty of death, filled with joy and celebration -- as if going to meet his beloved.

Nanak's last words are priceless. As he was about to leave the body he said, "The flowers are blooming, spring has come. The trees are vibrant with the songs of the birds!"

Which realm is he talking about? Some people thought it a nostalgic remembrance of his childhood, his village, where -- that very season being spring -- he imagined the trees in full bloom and the birds singing in them. It is a matter of coincidence that it was springtime, that the flowers were in bloom, and the birds were singing, and the air was filled with gladness. But this was not what Nanak had in mind. Nanak was seeing something else, but had to use familiar metaphors in talking to mortals. In the last moments he was entering into the supreme beauty, the incomparable loveliness where flowers bloom perpetually and never wither, where the birds sing eternally, where there is everlasting loveliness.

No sooner does a person become enlightened than he discovers death to be no annihilation but the ultimate flowering, the highest state of existence. He realizes that in death we lose nothing. One door closes; another opens. The sage enters dancing, singing; the ignorant man weeps and wails. If any man follows the emissaries of death, he himself is responsible, for there is no Yama, much less his emissaries. It is your fear that is your Yama; once you become fearless, God spreads out His arms for you.

Your actual experience of death depends on what you are. Death is the statement, the test, of how you have lived. If at that moment a man is cheerful, serene and filled with bliss and thanksgiving, know that his life was incomparable, for death is the ultimate offering to God. If he weeps and wails it is a sure sign that his life was a tale of anguish, a veritable hell.