Life can be fulfilling and also great fun but fear of death is a game spoiler, writes ANANDMURTI GURUMAA

The whole game of life is about knowing and not knowing. The jnani knows, and thus lives this life beautifully, fearlessly. Ajnanis, on the other hand, live with all sorts of fears, anxieties and worries. And fear of death is the root of all fear. Not knowing what death is, one is fearful of the unknown.
Birth and death are two faces of the same coin; they are distinct phases in the circle of life. That which is born, will inevitably die. The crucial question is: who or what is born and who or what dies? And is there something which is eternal, untouched by birth and death? Yes, there is. It is the indestructible, indivisible real Self which is distinct from body, mind and intellect. The biggest delusion is to regard this unit of body-mind-intellect as the real ‘I’. This false ‘i’ is a mere reflection of the real Self, the timeless pure existence which is beyond the concept of birth and death; which is, which simply is.

Laws Of Nature
The physical body takes birth and then dies. But if we look deeper, even this is not true. The gross body is nothing but a coming together of the five elements: earth, water, fire, air and ether. Birth is manifestation of this elemental form and death is dissolution of the elements into their cosmic counterparts. From the unmanifest to the manifest and again to the unmanifest, the play continues. Nothing is destroyed; it is merely transformed. Sometimes forms are visible, at other times, they are not. But the constituent elements continue to exist as does the cycle of life which is governed by laws of Prakriti.
Laws of nature are neither dependent on belief nor on scientific authentication for their existence. Gravitational force would have continued to act even if the apple hadn’t fallen on Newton’s head. There is a lot more even in this tangible world that science has yet to understand or discover. Then what to say about the intangible! A scientist cannot do much in the absence of appropriate tools. You need a microscope to see a microbe. But if you don’t have a microscope, or don’t know how to use it, that doesn’t mean micro-organisms don’t exist. So also in the transcendental realm. Our sages recognised the tool to discover the esoteric. And the day scientists investigate this with an open mind, their unfounded scepticism will finally come to rest!
One such, albeit, metaphysical yet fundamental law governing our lives is the ubiquitous Law of Karma. Karma means action. To be precise, it is the physical execution of a thought. The driving force behind the action can either be any desire, emotion or sensory impulse. Samskaras, deep impressions in the unconscious mind, lead to surge of vasanas, innate tendencies and these emerge as desires in the conscious mind. These desires then lead to the inception of sankalpa, the thought planning preceding any action and this finally translates into physical action. And every action effects an appropriate reaction, the fruit of the action.
There are different categories of karma — sum total karma accrued from all previous lifetimes, karma fruits that one has to deal with in the current life and so on. But the most familiar terms are: punya, meritorious act, paap, sinful act, sakama and nishkama karma.

Paap And Punya
That which expands the consciousness, reduces darkness of ignorance, enhances one’s positive attributes and imparts peace to the mind is punya karma and the converse is paap karma. To put it simply, punya is joy and paap is pain. From a deeper perspective though, since ignorance is the root of all evil, ignorance is, in effect, paap.
Sakama karma is result-oriented action, prompted by the desire to gain or achieve something or the other, including the desire for enlightenment. Nishkama karma, on the other hand, is selfless action performed without attachment to the action or fruit of action. Now many self-proclaimed social workers misguidedly believe that they are doing nishkama karma, whereas in reality their actions are driven by egocentric desire for self-gratification, in some form or other.
You cannot enter the realm of nishkama karma without killing your ego first. It is the path of devotion where all actions are intended for and offered unto the Lord. The devotee acts selflessly and choicelessly accepts all fruits — be it happiness or suffering, acclaim or condemnation, profit or loss, accepting it gratefully as a divine blessing.
You may think it is best not to perform any action to escape the law of karma. But as long as you live, you will have to do some action or the other — even if you are sitting in a remote cave. You will have to do something to sustain your body. Then, what is the way out of this bondage of karma? Akarma or karma sannyasa is the answer and this does not mean inaction.
In essence, karma sannyasa and nishkama karma are not dissimilar. The devotee says everything belongs to the Lord, nothing is mine. And the jnani says I am everything, there is no one other than me. But essentially, both are pointing to the same truth.

This Nor That
The jnani says I am neither the body, nor the senses; neither the mind nor the intellect. I am the detached witness, the all-pervasive, ever-conscious, ever-blissful, pure existence. So, from the jnani’s point of view, the very foundation of body-mind-intellect, of everything in this universe is this existence which is neither the doer nor experiencer because it is way beyond the body, mind and intellect.
When you are the doer of an action, you will have to be the bearer of its fruits. So what is this state of being wherein you are neither the doer nor the bearer but rather, an unattached witness of the actions occurring through body and mind?
It is the state of enlightenment. An enlightened being, a jnani, has no vasanas and thus no desire for fruits of actions. Akarma can happen only through a person who is ego-less and who experientially ‘knows’ the real Self in all its radiant incandescence. The one who has attained Self-realisation, who verily knows his Self distinct from the body-mind-intellect and whose mind is completely empty of desires — akarma can happen only through such an enlightened being, because there is no more any doer of actions.
Enlightenment is complete eradication of all ignorance. Not knowing one’s true Self, deludedly linking one’s identity to the body-mind-intellect, not knowing the nature of this world — this is ignorance. By experientially knowing one’s real Self, the enlightened being comes to know all there is to know.
All delusions, attachments, and desires get incinerated in the fire of tattwa-jnana, luminous wisdom.

Choiceless State
When there is no desire at all, none whatsoever, not even of moksha, now that is being totally choiceless. When bondage and liberation too are viewed as no more than a part of Divine Play; when everything is seen as divine —truth or untruth, darkness or light, ignorance or enlightenment — what is left to hold on to or discard then? And the one who realises this, transcends all dualities is known as a jnani. Everything is a game to a jnani. Kabir says, ‘The creator is the creation and the creation is the creator.’ Thus the jnani plays the game mirthfully, accepting everything and rejecting nothing.