A man dies several deaths in a lifetime. He does not die just one fine day. Each time he dies, something in him is born – each time he dies he evolves and each time he dies he is moving towards that perfection which is necessary in each and every individual before the final departure.

 

You might have heard instances when a cruel man met with a fateful accident. Or you might have heard of instances when someone has had a near death experience. After that incident or accident – there becomes a marked change in that man. His tastes have become different, his likes have become different, his dislikes have changed and indeed his temperament has changed.

 

Haven’t you heard them shake their head in absolute wonderment – You know, they say, he has totally changed after his sojourn in hospital.

 

I call it a metamorphosis. I call it a new birth. I call this phenomenon dying several deaths within a lifetime. In order to evolve and become that final product that we are destined to be.

 

What are these “deaths” that we undergo in a lifetime? Each time we have passed from one stage to another – we are progressing. However painful, however joyful the experience of the passing, we are progressing. One day you were a pauper, wondering at the way the rich spend their money on trivial pursuits when you have no money even to buy yourself a cup of coffee or smoke a decent cigarette or buy yourself a fair meal. Lo! In a flash, almost miraculously, you have found a calling, you have found a new avenue, you have found another human being who gives you a helping hand and before you know it, the pauper has become a prince. You are considered by those that are privileged to hear your story to be a “walking miracle”.

 

And slowly as you live the life of a prince, you are given enough opportunities by Life to understand that you needed to go through the “Pauper Compartment of the Train called Life” so that you understand that circumstance, that you appreciate and that you use your learning to be a fair prince. You realize suddenly that Life has put you through that ‘phase’ so that you understand that Life gives you in abundance not to hoard, not to save for the next generation but that those that are blessed are few because they are meant to give away continuously what has been given to them, to those that are less privileged, to those that are hungry, to those that are in need. You went through that phase so that you understand the pain, you understand the longing, you understand clearly that God is not someone who comes down one fine morning in the garb of Jesus, or Krishna or Rama or any one else and stops traffic, makes you climb out of your car, or makes you crawl out of the tattered blanket that is your bed, blanket and pillow all rolled into one on the platform – and gives you in abundance of food, clothing and shelter or whatever else is your prayer – these basic prayers that are the common pleadings of those that have not – but that it is in the power of those that have in abundance to give those that have not – so much that the poor and the under privileged and those that wonder if God does exist at all look up at this “Angel” and say that he is indeed an incarnation of God.

 

In moments of sheer incredulity and in the moments of sheer awe and in the moments of absolute and stunning kindness, the truth is revealed. That in us is God, not without, not elsewhere, not up above – but within.

 

In such moments when you have realized the Eternal Plan – you realize that when you have progressed you do not go back. For example, let us say that you were happily married and due to some reason you had to go through a divorce. You move ahead, see how best you can get over it decently and fairly and then you begin re-building your life. You may decide to marry someone else, you may decide to move to another town – but you move on. You do not mull over what is ‘ finished’ and you do not wonder if the status quo had not changed, what would be the situation today.

 

When you move on, you leave the past behind. Its over, its done with. When you have graduated from being a pauper to a prince, you leave behind the ways of the pauper, you become the prince. You do not eat on the streets anymore, not because you have forgotten but because it is not necessary for you to do that anymore. When you become the prince, you do not have to grudge yourself the pleasure of indulgence. You are meant to. That is your birthright.

 

Haven’t you heard stories of very rich people who came up life the very hard way, being miserly and becoming hoarders and people who are close to them saying that “God gives this fellow so much, yet he cannot enjoy it, he does not want to enjoy the benefits of his calling and see how miserable he is”.

 

Haven’t you heard of stories of someone who is very rich, decides to take a bus that he had taken eons ago to work and on that fateful day the bus met with a fateful accident and he dies? That was his past life that was over and done with. He could have taken his Mercedes Benz and driven that same route. You are not meant to relive your lives. That is over. That is done with. That is why when you die although many people talk about re-births and stuff like reincarnation – there is no memory recollection of the past birth. You do not hear too often of someone dying and being reborn and the new person going to the place of his death and visiting his relatives and his loved ones and talking to them as if nothing happened.

 

Let us always seek to learn, seek to understand - Life is all about transformation, and the more we do so consciously the more we improve, the better we evolve. And at every “death” we learn that there is now a better / bigger plan for the journey ahead. It takes a a quiet mind to realize and be aware that we are being prepared for the next journey, and the more we are aware of it, the less we will complain about the things that happen to us, be they good or bad.

 

Always seek the underlying message. Life communicates with us through a lot of messages. The question however is – Are we Listening? Are we seeing the Changes unfold?

 

 

Oh Wise One That has Died several Deaths in this Lifetime.