Preparing for Death

I got the following mail from a friend of mine, Vinaya Natarajan, and wanted to share it on this blog:

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"So here we were in Osaka on Sunday night. We had bought something called a Kansai Thru Pass that let us roam around Osaka, Kyoto and Nara. Japan is truly a great place. We found the people very respectful, the place very clean, modern and rich in history. Most of our time was spent in visiting the temples, which were quite different to the Indian ones. For one, they were no pujaris, no pujas just the shrine, or the Buddha. The temples were often located in beautiful, scenic places. We would have walked about 10-15 kms each day, and by day 3 we were dead tired. We just made it to the train to take us to the airport and heaved a sigh of relief when we boarded the flight.

As soon as dinner was served, I dropped off to sleep. We were awoken in a few hours with a scary announcement. “The plane is going to make a emergency landing at Guam due to technical difficulties. Cabin crew please prepare for landing”.

We could smell burning rubber, but we had no clue what was happening. For the next 20 minutes we didn’t get any further instructions apart from “Please review the safety instructions in the booklet in front of you and mark your emergency exits”.

I immediately started to focus within. I wanted to be in peace. On one side, I could feel my mind getting flustered, on the other hand, I was trying to reach out to the place of calm and strength within. I thought that this could be the end but suddenly a sense of calm had over-powered me. I was connected! I held Kushals hand at one point to re-assure him, he also seemed to be doing OK.

The one feeling that I felt was that it was fine, whatever happened was fine. I was ready. There was never a feeling of regret or things that had to be done or things I could have done. Life was complete and gratitude was there. I felt love for my parents, husband and also a sudden feeling of love towards my brother!! (I enjoy having silly fights with him all the time!)

There had been a fire in the cockpit. The captain announced just after the plane landed safely. We had a great time at Guam afterwards. But something had changed. I asked Kushal whether the experience was positive or negative and he said “It was a very positive experience, for the first time, I thought about my own death.” Kushal is usually a very logical and scientific person. I told him “You know you can be extremely scientific and logical, but that is not going to help when death is coming.”

That was the biggest thing that I took with me from this incident. Of course, in this case, had there been a major catastrophe, there was time to prepare for death, but sometimes death can hit so suddenly it can catch you unawares!

I was feeling rather complacent with myself afterwards, but the only person, the only one that can take credit for helping me in this time of crisis was my teacher. His words, his effort to continually remind me that such a time will come where all else will fail came true but the strength within was there.

All I can feel really is.. what a gift!"
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priya

A Date to Keep

I went on a nature walk this morning,
And discovered that I am on a date with You.
They gave you all these exotic names
Paradise flycatcher, warbler, purple heron, dab chick…
That I cant remember much of–
But oh! You beauty!

You are all around me,
In blue, white, black, yellow, brown, violet, green…
You are calling out to me,
Through myriad bird calls-
Sweet, raucous, musical, whispery, screeching…
I am drowning, filled.

Then I look around,
To see You shimmer, evaporate from the lake’s surface,
And I am in a classic romantic duet.

Even as I rush to catch that elusive glimpse of colour,
You pull at me with your prosopis hands.
I laugh at my whimsical self,
And fight with it to brush You off my clothes;
But oh! You beauty!

They are talking of a civet –
How it helps in dispersing seeds.
I see only Your design.
I turn to my companion to ask about-
You are grinning down at me!
They are lamenting about the disappearing landscape,
I watch You jump across the wall,
To chop trees for firewood.
I look up – the length of You,
Standing tall, fluttering your leaves for the wind.
Defenseless, vulnerable, strangely euphoric -
Me, this moment.

And then its time to leave you behind,
You bursting with riotous colours,
And You devoid of colours.
You of the rich and scaling sounds,
You of the invariable electric-saw drone.
I leave You,
Whooshing in my ear, ruffling my hair, kissing my cheeks –
Calm, still and nourishing, not a ripple to be seen.
You beauty!

We head to a hotel for breakfast,
And what’s this?!
You are serving me my cup of nirva-
Oh, what’s that You said?
That I have time yet to conquer You?
You of my laughter!
No hurry at all,
As long as I am on this date with You.

- priya