Disaster movies generally show people caught in a natural disaster trying heroically to save themselves and others from impending doom. However, not many of the people who like to watch disaster movies would like to be caught in an actual disaster themselves; there’s no guarantee of a fairy tale ending. Even fewer are the people who realize that all of us are already living in a real-life disaster; hundred percent of the people reading this article will be wiped out hundred years from today.
This carnage is caused by the disastrous feature of the world known as death that, the Bhagavad-gita (10.34) reminds us, devours everyone without exception.
Despite the cent-percent casualty rate, most of us don’t feel that life is like a disaster movie. One reason is that the movie of life unfolds in slow motion. So it’s possible to forget the direction of its motion if we want to. And we fervently want to.
The reality of death is inconvenient and unpleasant for us. It ruins our hopes for success and glory in this world. So we want to forget it. And forget we do.
But even if we forget it, the disaster movie is for real. And we are not spectators. We are actors who dream of being victors, but end up being victims.
We don’t have to be victims, though. We can’t stop the disaster, but we can come out of its arena. Analogically speaking, we can stop living in the movie.
Gita wisdom informs us that the jurisdiction of death extends only to the body, not to the soul. So when we realize our spiritual identity by practicing devotional service, death changes from a horrible disaster to a welcome transfer: transfer to the eternal blissful kingdom of Krishna where there are no disasters.
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 10 Text 34
“I am all-devouring death, and I am the generating principle of all that is yet to be. Among women I am fame, fortune, fine speech, memory, intelligence, steadfastness and patience.”
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