Nothing is living or dead Yesterday, a sadhu came and sat in the Hall. He seemed anxious to speak to Bhagavan, but hesitant. After some time, he approached him and said, “Swami, it is said that the Self (atma), is all-pervading. Does that mean that it is in a dead body also?”
“Oho! So that is what you want to know?” rejoined Bhagavan. “And did the question occur to the dead body or to you?” “To me,” said the sadhu. Bhagavan: “When you are asleep do you question whether you exist or not? It is only after you wake up that you say you exist. In the dream state also, the Self exists. There is really no such thing as a dead or a living body. That which does not move we call dead, and that which has movement we call alive. In dreams you see any number of bodies, living and dead, and they have no existence when you wake up. In the same way this whole world, animate and inanimate, is non-existent. Death means the dissolution of the ego, and birth means the rebirth of the ego. There are births and deaths, but they are of the ego; not of you. You exist whether the sense of ego is there or not. You are its source, but not the ego-sense. Deliverance (mukti) means finding the origin of these births and deaths and demolishing the ego-sense to its very roots. That is deliverance. It means death with full awareness. If one dies thus, one is born again simultaneously and in the same place with Aham sphurana known as ‘Aham, Aham (I, I)’. One who is born thus, has no doubts whatsoever.”
