"Ramana Maharshi was a great Indian saint. When he was dying of cancer,
his devotees said, 'Let’s treat it.' And Ramana Maharshi said, 'No, it
is time to drop this body.' His devotees started to cry. They begged
him, 'Bhagwan, don’t leave us, don’t leave us!' And he looked and them
with confusion and said, 'Don’t be silly. Where could I possibly go?'
You know, it’s almost like he was saying, 'Don’t make such a fuss. I’m
just selling the old family car.'
These bodies we live in, and the ego that identifies with it, are just
like the old family car. They are functional entities in which our Soul
travels through our incarnation. But when they are used up, they die.
The most graceful thing to do is to just allow them to die peacefully
and naturally – to 'let go lightly.' Through it all, who we are is Soul .
. . and when the body and the ego are gone, the Soul will live on,
because the Soul is eternal.
Eventually, in some incarnation, when we’ve finished our work, our Soul
can merge back into the One . . . back into God . . . back into the
Infinite. In the meantime, our Soul is using bodies, egos, and
personalities to work through the karma of each incarnation."
- Ram Das -
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