How to Overcome the Fear of Death: What Ekantik Vartalap Teaches

Perhaps it comes at night, just as you switch off the light. Or when you hear that someone your age has fallen ill. A cold feeling settles in your chest: one day I won't be here. You try to push the thought away, but it keeps returning, and the more you avoid it, the bigger it gets.

You are not strange for feeling this. In one satsang, when someone confessed that they were terribly afraid of dying, Maharaj Ji smiled and said, in effect, who is eager to die? Everyone feels this fear 2:362:36 · 3 minEkantik Vartalapमुझे मरने से बहुत डर लगता है। मैं क्या करूँ?. The Ekantik Vartalap satsangs don't shame it. They look straight at it and explain where it comes from, which is the first step to it loosening its grip.

Why am I so afraid of dying?

The answer across these satsangs is one word: agyan, ignorance. Not ignorance as an insult, but a case of mistaken identity. We have taken the body to be "me," and have grown so attached to it, and to everything it enjoys, that the thought of it ending feels like I will end 0:000:00 · 6 minEkantik Vartalapमुझे मरने से डर लगता है, यह डर कैसे खत्म होगा ?7:007:00 · 4 minEkantik Vartalapमृत्यु अटल सत्य है क्या करें कि मृत्यु के समय भी भय न लगे?.

Maharaj Ji puts it very practically. Death feels terrifying because it will separate us from everything we love: a dear spouse, dear children, a dear home, even a dear bank balance 2:362:36 · 3 minEkantik Vartalapमुझे मरने से बहुत डर लगता है। मैं क्या करूँ?. The fear is not really of death; it is of losing all of that.

When someone asked whether their fear on hearing of others' illnesses was the fruit of their bad karma, he answered: no, this fear is the fruit of ignorance 2:362:36 · 3 minEkantik Vartalapमुझे मरने से बहुत डर लगता है। मैं क्या करूँ?. That is a kind answer. It means your fear is not a punishment; it is something that understanding can heal.

What actually dies, and what doesn't?

Here the teaching becomes very clear. Maharaj Ji asks someone who feared death to understand two things: first, the body will not survive, it is certain to go; second, you are not going to die. The body is perishable; you are imperishable, conscious, a part of God. When both of these sink in, fearlessness comes 0:000:00 · 6 minEkantik Vartalapमुझे मरने से डर लगता है, यह डर कैसे खत्म होगा ?.

In another satsang he explains death in the simplest terms. The body is made of five elements. At death, fire merges back into fire, water into water, air into air, earth into earth and space into space. So in truth, nobody has died; the elements have only separated, and the soul is untouched 7:007:00 · 4 minEkantik Vartalapमृत्यु अटल सत्य है क्या करें कि मृत्यु के समय भी भय न लगे?.

The Bhagavad Gita says the same: the soul is never born and never dies, and is not destroyed when the body is destroyed (Gita 2.20). Just as we set aside worn-out clothes and put on new ones, the soul leaves a worn-out body and takes on another (Gita 2.22).

How does a devotee face death without fear?

Maharaj Ji often shares his own situation with startling honesty. Both his kidneys have failed and he is on dialysis; death could come at any time. Yet he laughs, and has no fear, because his mind is joined to God. For him, he explains, death is not dreadful; it is a festival, because it means going to the Beloved he has longed for all his life 2:362:36 · 3 minEkantik Vartalapमुझे मरने से बहुत डर लगता है। मैं क्या करूँ?.

He quotes a saint's line that the whole world fears death but the devotee's heart rejoices, "When will I die, and meet the One who is complete bliss?" 0:000:00 · 6 minEkantik Vartalapमुझे मरने से डर लगता है, यह डर कैसे खत्म होगा ?2:362:36 · 3 minEkantik Vartalapमुझे मरने से बहुत डर लगता है। मैं क्या करूँ?. And he describes how a devotee's body falls away the way a small garland slips from the neck of a great elephant, so lightly that it doesn't even notice 0:000:00 · 6 minEkantik Vartalapमुझे मरने से डर लगता है, यह डर कैसे खत्म होगा ?7:007:00 · 4 minEkantik Vartalapमृत्यु अटल सत्य है क्या करें कि मृत्यु के समय भी भय न लगे?.

This is not a reason to wish for death; it describes a life so full of God that death loses its terror. You may not feel this way yet, and that's alright. The point is that the fear is not fixed. It shrinks as the mind's connection with God grows.

What does Ekantik Vartalap teach to remove the fear?

The remedies are simple and consistent:

• Chant God's name, more and more. Whichever name you love, chant it plenty, and try to bring it into every breath. As love for God grows, fear has less room 0:000:00 · 6 minEkantik Vartalapमुझे मरने से डर लगता है, यह डर कैसे खत्म होगा ?7:007:00 · 4 minEkantik Vartalapमृत्यु अटल सत्य है क्या करें कि मृत्यु के समय भी भय न लगे?.
• See God in your family. Love your spouse and children with the feeling that God lives in them, and serve them that way. Then love doesn't bind you, and death no longer looks like a thief 2:362:36 · 3 minEkantik Vartalapमुझे मरने से बहुत डर लगता है। मैं क्या करूँ?.
• Use the fear as a doorway. For someone afraid of death at night, Maharaj Ji said this fear can actually be good, because it turns us away from leaning on the world and towards leaning on God. He recalls the Ramcharitmanas promise that one who comes to the Lord's shelter out of fear is protected like His own life 42:5842:58 · 15 minEkantik Vartalapरात को सोते समय मृत्यु के जैसा भय लगता है, यह डर कैसे खत्म होगा ?.
• Listen to satsang and keep good company. These purify the understanding, and a pure understanding stops being afraid 7:007:00 · 4 minEkantik Vartalapमृत्यु अटल सत्य है क्या करें कि मृत्यु के समय भी भय न लगे?42:5842:58 · 15 minEkantik Vartalapरात को सोते समय मृत्यु के जैसा भय लगता है, यह डर कैसे खत्म होगा ?.

A calm practice for when the fear comes

1. Every morning, 10 minutes: Chant your chosen name, for example "Radha", slowly, with attention 0:000:00 · 6 minEkantik Vartalapमुझे मरने से डर लगता है, यह डर कैसे खत्म होगा ?.
2. Say the two truths aloud once a day: "This body will go one day. I am not this body; I am God's." 0:000:00 · 6 minEkantik Vartalapमुझे मरने से डर लगता है, यह डर कैसे खत्म होगा ?7:007:00 · 4 minEkantik Vartalapमृत्यु अटल सत्य है क्या करें कि मृत्यु के समय भी भय न लगे?.
3. At night, in bed: If fear rises, don't fight it. Lie still and softly repeat the name until you fall asleep, remembering that God is the one who makes us fearless 42:5842:58 · 15 minEkantik Vartalapरात को सोते समय मृत्यु के जैसा भय लगता है, यह डर कैसे खत्म होगा ?.
4. Each day, serve one family member with the feeling that God is in them 2:362:36 · 3 minEkantik Vartalapमुझे मरने से बहुत डर लगता है। मैं क्या करूँ?.
5. Keep a 40-day streak. Fear rarely vanishes in a week; it fades as the practice deepens.

You are not the body that will one day be left behind. You are God's, and nothing can destroy what is His.

If the fear of death is with you most of the day, comes with panic, a racing heart or breathlessness, or has started affecting your sleep and work, please also talk to a doctor or counsellor. In India, Tele-MANAS on 14416 is free and available 24×7. If you ever have thoughts of ending your life, call 112 or reach out to someone you trust right away. Getting help is not a lack of faith.

If this fear began after losing someone close, you may find how to cope with the death of a parent gentle reading, and if fear about the future in general troubles you, see how to stop worrying about the future.

Tonight, you don't need to conquer death. Just say the name once more, and rest in the One who never leaves.