Relating to Death

This morning while I was meditating I was thinking about Death because a lot of different things related to death have been coming up during the past week. First off….today (Sept 22) in 1539 Guru Nanak Dev Ji (Founder of Sikhism) left his physical body and joined the creator. Wow…. Guru Nanak is someone definitely to remember! He changed the world and is still ever present through Gurbani and in the hearts of many.

Last night my 5 year old daughter Charanjeet Kaur over-heard a conversation that my wife was having with the mother of one of her friends.  She was lit up about about the thought of death, exclaiming that her friend’s great grand mother is very sick and might DIE. And then saying… "I don’t want to die!". It was interesting to see how she was relating to death, so we talked to her about death being a natural part of life and that we all are born and die eventually. I think some of her concepts of death are from what she has seen in movies which are mostly pretty sad and have no spiritual connection. She just kind of listened….said again that she doesn’t want to die…and then I did my normal nightly Kirtan Sohila for her and she went to sleep.

I often think about death and ask myself ,"If I were to die today would I feel like I did what I came here to do?". Most often the answer is no, and that even though God could take me home at any time I feel some assurance that I still have a lot of work to do, and surely "God" won’t take me yet. In reality though who knows. We often tell ourselves we will do certain things later on…and time passes…life passes going through the motions of every day life. It is in situations like this that you realize how important taking the time to connect with your soul and live as a spiritual person. The time really is NOW…today to make change and connect with our true spiritual self which is everywhere and in everything. I don’t think anyone wants to come to the end of their life and look back thinking how they wasted their life, and didn’t spend the time on the important things.

Every day when I see my daughters bright face I take the time to hug her and cherish this gift that God has given to us, and try to treat it as if I might not see her tomorrow. I always pray for the protection and safe keeping of my family and hope my kids live a long life, but there are no guarantees of this. All I can do is just appreciate the time that I have NOW and not worry about "what could happen".

For years me and my wife had talked about the idea of Life Insurance for me. We kept flip flopping on the idea but a few weeks ago decided to get a policy for me so that If I ever were to depart from the earth within the next 20 years that my wife and kids would be covered. Hopefully we never actually need to use the policy! I want to stick around for a long time and be one of those great grand parents sharing this beautiful path with the younger generations. All is in Guru’s hands….

In any case one has to just keep on going and living life to the fullest and not take this precious time for granted.

One Response to “Relating to Death”

1. preet says:

   October 13, 2011 at 8:33 pm

   she is a very beautiful girl :).. may waheguru bless you and your family