I recently saw a book review and interview on TV about "Due Preparations for the Plague", a book by one Jeanette Turner-Hospital, who had been investigating terrorism in the modern age. She drew conclusions about the inescapeability of terrorism having similarities to the black death plague of bygone days; thus the title (which is, I believe, borrowed from "The Decameron").
It was at the time of the New York City twin towers attack that Ms Turner-Hospital was near to completing her book. The events of 9/11 led her to an interesting discovery. Upon perusal of transcripts of cell phone calls made by the occupants of the top floors of the WTC building immediately after the attack, she noticed that at first the poor occupants had felt that there was hope of being rescued, but as time ticked away the dwindling possibility of rescue, the stark realization of their imminent demise dawned upon them with startling alacrity; thus the tone of their calls changed dramatically.
Instead of calling for help, they began to call loved ones to tell them how much they cared and, perhaps surprisingly, or perhaps not surprisingly, they called up people with whom they had had some altercation and made attempts to patch up their differences.
The fascinating focus here is that once the realization of the inevitability of imminent death became apparent, people trapped in the WTC dropped many of their illusions and centered their consciousness upon their main purpose in life: that of being the bringers of love and kindness to others around them. This seems to say that whilst they had their consciousness focussed on their material dreams and ambitions, there was much less room for love and kindness for others, as this mood appears to be easily eclipsed by personal desires and the concommitant distractions of our ever present problems, yet once those personal desires are deemed to be irrelevant pipe dreams, the resurfacing of our real goals in life once more assumes priority.
So, it would appear pertinent that we re-imagine ourselves as the soft bodied, vulnerable beings that we really are (in this material life), and, although we will still require to keep body and soul together, we would be better situated to push our petty ambitions for achieving the status symbols of our social situation, onto the back burner, if not forget them altogether lest we too arrive at our inevitable and inexorable demise with a thick coating of the proverbial egg upon our face.
Reaching the afterlife emptyhanded would appear to be a far more terrible fate than living this life without a large home filled with the unneccessary, even counterproductive, trappings of a society that could justifiably be called, as has already been done by the late, great Jerry Garcia, "a ship of fools".
Srila Sridar Swami once wrote that we think that we require power, but, he said, we do not require power, we require affection. Stripped of all distractions we naturally become concerned for each other's welfare. It is our goal in life to become free of these distractions and to follow our hearts to the land of love. Pure, unconditional love is the only source of satisfaction for the individual spirit. Just see: after a whole life of acquisition we still crave satisfaction. Always the mind reaches out to new enjoyable sensations to distract us from our otherwise miserable existence. The answer lies not so much in squashing our desire to enjoy, but in knowing what it is that we really need to enjoy. In the condition of pure love all activities are done in a loving mood, all activities are an expression of our deepest emotions and thus are richly satisfying. When you display such pure love in all of your everyday dealings, God Himself will be attracted to associate with you, for He is a God of love and kindness, and this, as He is all intelligent and all powerful, He is by His own choice.
Here lies a clearly defined and accessable treasure map to the jewels of happiness. Forgiveness, caring and understanding are among our greatest assets, yet all too often we neglect these treasured jewels in favour of over-endeavour to enjoy some self centered, ultimately useless activity such as pride in our vulnerable existence or greed for overindulgence.
As we are tiny creations of God, tiny particles of His love, it is quite natural for us to behave in a deeply loving manner, and as God is similarly inclined and thus appreciative of our efforts to love, and especially appreciative of our humility when we fail in our attempts to love, He will protect us from all evil, despite walking in the valley of death where such events as the terrorist attack upon the World Trade Centre, occur with frightening regularity.
The choice is yours: walk with God and embrace our natural proclivity and thus enjoy the love that is actually our birthright, should we be willing to endeavour to accept it, or, reject that in favour of some ephemeral smug feeling that we are well situated despite all the evidence to the contrary.
Wishing you love and happiness.
<*>< tarunkrsnadas.