Why it is important to live a long life!

To many of you, who have clicked on this blog, the title might seem very confusing..why would even someone write about it...doesn't everyone want to live long! No, to a lot of us "over-thinkers", trauma survivors, stressed-anxious-depressed people life can seem very challenging and even though we can't bring ourselves to commit suicide we still hope that we don't have to spend too many years on this planet. This article is for the later bunch of the population - to you, I address and highlight the importance of living a long and full life.

Disclaimer : This specific read might bring up all kinds of emotions in different people so move a little outside the box of 'wrong & right' , don't judge and simply keep what resonates with you; be kind to yourself and others.

So, why is it important to live long?

before that...

What is death?

It is always something that happens to others. None of us have died and then come back after a few days to tell what death is...maybe Jesus has, but I haven't met him. So it is something that never happens to us; Death is an external experience and at its essence it is simply the absence of somebody in our lives in the physical form as we knew them. By physical, I don't mean just the Body, but also the Mind, Feelings, Emotions and Experiences..which all belong to this realm, the planet earth.

This absence can be very hard to deal with depending on your physical experiences with the person who has passed away.

I am no one to answer what death is; to those who have died, only they know it.

So we can summarise that Death is the ultimate Unknown for ourselves and for those alive, it is the absence of someone (physical, mental & emotional) that was once a part of our journey.

So, why is it important to live long?

before that...

What is Grief?

Bhagwad Gita says : the wise grieve neither for the dead nor for the living.

What we truly are grieving for is ourselves, who will make us feel the way that person used to, who will we talk to the way we used to talk, who will do the little things for us anymore. If you really think deep, nobody is lamenting that "oh, is that person in pain after dying; is he/she comfortable wherever they are; I wish they lived longer because they were just due for promotion and would have become the VP of blah blah company; I hope he/she has found a good family to take rebirth in..", nobody talks like that! because we are never grieving the dead, we are grieving our own mortal existence on this planet in the absence of those that we once knew, who are now dead.

So those grieving the perishable impermanent life are ignorant, for the Bhagwad Gita says - the soul neither kills, nor is killed. Before birth there are no human senses, after death they return to the unmanifest, they manifest only in the interim, between birth and death. What's the point then, of grieving?

So, why is it important to live long?

before that...

Why do we Exist?

Oh my God! now we are spiralling and going down the un-ending loop called 'Existential crisis'.

The Samkhya philosophy provides a model for existence, understanding which helps define our existence. The source of these 25 elements are the Purusha & Prakriti, from which all others evolve. The Purusha is the Unchanging, the Seer, the Consciousness, the Soul..and from Prakriti originates Budhhi - discriminatory brain, Ahamkara - a sense of self and self-preservance, Manas - the mind that connects the consciousness to the outer world through the senses.

One who has learnt to differentiate between his Purusha and Prakriti has been able to find the true meaning to their existence. I cannot tell you why you exist, nobody can, those who are trying to tell you, are just selling you spiritual entertainment; because only you know why you exist! But first, we must learn who you really are - this is where the Ashtang path of Yoga might help. Most of us are going about our lives identifying ourselves with our names, our careers, our bodies, our feelings..which are all a manifestation of our senses.

So finally, why is it important to live long?

This is where Karma Yoga comes in to help. We are all born with a mountainload of Karma, and, it's not a bad thing..stop hating on your Karma or thinking of it as a weight on your shoulders, it is why we exist..if we had zero karma we would just merge with the energies of the cosmos (or God, whatever you would like to call it). Now, mind you, don't confuse Karma with Actions, english language has its limitations, if we just sat without taking action and thinking we are reducing our Karmic footprint then that's not true! Not taking action when required to, is in itself adding to our Karmic load. Taking the right action, to the best of our knowledge, without attaching ourselves to the action and its results is what helps release us from our karmic load while simultaneously reducing the karmic footprint from this life. Now this karmic load cannot be expended in a year or two, or ten, it takes its own time by providing us with the right life situations and giving us time to gather Gyan - wisdom, to deal with them.

If we leave here without expending our Karmic load, it is believed that we get into a very difficult situation, where our consciousness is in denial mode., struggling to come to terms with what is and what is not. That is why in most ancient cultures and religions death by accident or suicide is considered bad. Have you heard someone say "it was time", for when someone who has lived a full life passes away? It's not that we got bored of them, or we loved the elderly we've lost any less than the young we lose; it's just that our subconscious knows that they have fulfilled their purpose on this planet and are at peace, and must move on.

End of the day, you just want to be at peace, and for that, most of us need to live long. Some enlightened souls achieve this, having walked only a few years on this planet, but you and I, most of us reading this, must live long!

Leave footprints in the sand, just don't expect them to stay forever. Life is as fleeting as these footprints.

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Inspired by the ancient Yogic texts and mostly the Bhagwad Gita.

*25 Samkhya elements image borrowed from the internet, might have copyrights that I don't own.

the second image is of my alien feet, remember - don't judge 😁