Causes of Early and Late Death

We have a reader question from Ravi,

I have seen many people fight over trivial things and kill one another. Many people lead themselves to suicide over small disturbance in their house. People lose their relatives in stampede at religious ghat, earthquake, and so on. Is this really about potential of people to get killed, or this is random?

Nothing in this universe is random.

The Sun Shines for a reason, the wind blows for a reason. There is a reason associated with any event, however big or small. Death is not an exception and it cannot be random. Death manifests on an individual when the time has come to leave the body and embark on a new journey.

You are travelling since billions of years.

You were a stone, a goat, a bird, a tree, a bull, a building, a table in some previous birth of yours. Look around you, you will see lots of things. A bed, a chair, clothes, books, food, a computer and what not. All these things are merely not things, it is a representation of an “Energy form”, just like you are.

Let’s take some examples

• The bed where you sleep looks as if it is a static object. But no, that bed also has a life associated with it. That bed will be dead when the time comes.Then all the parts will be broken down and the carpenter will use the same wood to make a new bed or furniture.
• The Book that you read, it will be passed to someone else when the right time comes. It is possible that the book will be re-cycled in some factory and with the re-cycled material, a new book will be manufactured. It is possible that insects will chew the book and destroy it, decompose it and then nature will use those decomposed parts to make something completely oblivious.
• The computer you are using, it will be sold in the market after some time. Then all the parts will be broken down and shipped to someplace else, and with the same parts, a newer device will be formed.
• Similarly, the body you are using, it will be decomposed when the time comes. Then the parts of this body will be absorbed by nature who will use those parts to manufacture a new body in its own factory.

As we can see, whatever is created is also destroyed. This is stated in the law of conservation of energy

Energy can neither be created not it can be destroyed, it can only be transformed from one form to another.

So it is imperative that Death will come when the time comes and your body will be transformed to something else which you don’t even know.

When does Death Come?

Now you may ask this – When does Death come? There are three components present in whatever you see around you – Sattva, Tamas and Rajas.

• Sattva – principle of pleasure.
• Rajas –  principle of activity.
• Tamas – principle of passivity.

All objects of this world, from the intellect (man) down to the ordinary objects (e.g a chair) are found to possess the above three characters capable of producing pleasure, pain and indifference.

The bird’s cry is a pleasure to the artist, a pain to his sick friend and neither to the plain rustic. A rose delights the youth, dejects the dying man and leaves the gardener indifferent. Victory in war elates the victor, depresses the vanquished and leaves the third party apathetic.

Broadly speaking, death comes when one component outgrows the other two.

1. When the soul grows so big that the container is not able to hold the soul anymore. The “Sattva” component outgrows “Tamas” and “Rajas”. The soul bursts and leaves the container. The soul gets bigger and bigger and bigger and a time comes when it breaks the cage, evaporates and finds another suitable cage to enter it. People who practice Brahmacharya, lead a holy life, commit no sin and are always engulfed in meditation are able to reach this ultimate stage of “Brahman”.
2. When the soul crosses the maximum threshold of “Pramada”. The “Tamas” component outgrows “Sattva” and “Rajas”.

   Pramada means negligence, inertia, inadvertence, indolence, idleness, sluggishness, inattentiveness.

   Every soul must perform some sort of duty, that is the purpose of the soul in any given life form. So let’s say there is a soul (let’s call him soul A) who had been a King in his previous birth and had committed lot of crime, looted the wealth of his citizens, wrongly punished his fellow courtmen and encouraged anarchy in his kingdom. At the same time, there was another soul (let’s call him Soul B), who had been a soldier, had committed no crime, always cared for his duties and protected his country men.

   The universe will now decide the future of these two souls by balancing their Karmic portfolio acording to their Sattva, Rajas and Tamas components.

   In the next birth, the soldier will become a minister and the King will become a criminal who would be arrested for his crime. Then the minister (soul B) will be ordered to whip the criminal (soul A) every day. This is the only way left for soul A to balance the negative karma he had accrued in his previous birth.

   Onlookers will sympathise with the criminal (Soul A) but onlookers don’t know the back story. Onlookers will curse the minister (soul B). If the criminal (soul A) is whipped and his previous negative karma is negated, balance will be restored. However, if the criminal is pardoned, his negative karma will not be negated. A portion of that Karma will be passed to Soul B (this soul was supposed to free the negative karma of soul A but he did not do it, so he has to bear some negative karma as well). Soul A’s “Pramada” component will increase further and a point will come when it will cross the maximum threshold of “Pramada”, he will be eventually destroyed by the universe in some way (maybe he will try to escape and will be killed by a soldier). The universe will destroy his current life form and put him in another form where he has to re-pay the negative karma through another means ( e.g he will be made a tortoise in an almost dry lake with little water and forced to survive and suffer for 150 – 300 years). Since the minister (soul B) did not do his duty and did not negate the negative karma of Soul A, he might be made a predator in the same lake who would want to eat that tortoise but will not be successful and would burn in his own desires to eat the meat of Tortoise.

3. When the soul becomes hyperactive and poses a threat to the universe. The “Rajas” component outgrows Tamas and Sattva components. When activity is too high, the universe decides to stop this phenomena since it will ultimately destroy balance. For example, Adolf Hitler. He conquered many kingdoms but his “Rajas” component was too high, way beyond the threshold. His activity is so high that universe was forced to tame him down and destroy his ambitions. Smaller rulers survived but he had to be stopped.

   When you get so busy in activity and there is no time left for pleasure or indifference, the universe will stop that phenomena. If you are a professional who works 18 hours a day and has no time for enough sleep, no time left for friends or family or recreation, there is a high chance that what you are doing will not bear fruit. It is because the “Rajas” component is outgrowing the “Sattva” and “Tamas” component and the universe will have no other option than to destroy your endeavour.

This cycle of change is also applicable on a smaller scale.

• If you are a professional, you may note that there comes a time in your career when there is no other option left but to move on to another job or profession. Why does this happen? This happens because your soul has grown big, so big that the current profession is not able to hold you anymore and the universe decides to let you go, and sets you free. The other aspect is also true. It is possible that you have not upgraded yourself according to the needs of your employer and you have been asked to resign, your Tamas component has outgrown the Sattva and Rajas component and hence this has to be stopped. You will however, get another chance, in another company or employer and will have to start all over again, repaying the karma you did in your previous job (birth).
• If you love someone, you may note that there comes a point when the love for your partner ceases to exist. Time comes to move on. The universe decides this phenomena depending on the karma of you and your partner. If someone outgrows the other in some way, the universe will create a condition that either you or your partner will move on.

In short, whenever one of the three components outgrows the other two, Death manifests in an individual or entity. This can be death of a life, death of a relationship, death of a job, death of a material cause, death of an object and so on.

But please note, Death is not the end but a beginning towards liberation. The subject is liberated from his current cause and will be given another cause in some time wherein he has to nullify the effect he produced in his previous cause.

So if a child dies of cancer at 8 years of age, it is possible that his soul had some bad karma in his previous birth, which he cannot nullify in his present birth. Hence, the universe will liberate the soul from that sick body so it can figure out other ways to nullify that karma. Once that Karma is nullified, balance shall prevail.