________________
Pandit Ajit Prasad
What is a long life ? Is it not a long term of confinement of the Divine Soul in the physical prison ? Who wants, who desires, who relishes a long sentence of imprisonment ?-only a confined criminal, who has become enamoured of Jail life, and Jail companions, or one who has become so feeble, so weak, so helpless, so hopeless that in utter despair he prefers the cage to freedom, as an Urdu poet has said:
“ Ab-o-daney sey kafas ke, kuchh bamen ulfat nahin,
Bey par-o-bali sey apney, Ashique sayyad hain.” The original root from which the English word "Death" is derived has not been traced out. The other expressious connoting death are such as signify more or less the reality of things. We say: " he has breathed his last”, which means that the physical process of breathing which kept the bodily machine going has ceased, the spring which kept the watch going is broken, the circuit of the electric current which kept the filament aglow is disconnected. The spring will be replaced, the circuit will be connected again, a new body will be provided for the Soul to inhabit, aud a better, fresher, more efficient one. We say: “his time has come", which means, the period of imprisonment is over, and be must be set free. We say: "he has passed away", which means he has gone to a distant place, of which we have no knowledge, not that he has perished. There is such a word as resurrection, and the idea it conveys is clearly that of immortality of the soul. Cowper speaks of his parents as: "passed into the skies”, not as perished.
Alexander Pope says: “ Vital spark of heaveply flame !
Quit, О quit this mortal frame !" The Soul is divine, immortal; it is the body which is mortal, perishable.
He says again:
"Lend, lend your wings: I mount: I fly ! O gravel where is thy victory ? O death, where is thy sting?"
.: 38
[ Shree Atmaramji
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
