JAI SAI RAM!!!
Death is bound to come one day, and the best way is not to die in the bed. Almost ninety-nine percent of people do that. And people like me have been known to find better ways of dying.
A Zen Master was dying. In the last moment he opened his eyes and asked his disciples who had gathered -- thousands of disciples; he was a great Master -- he asked, "Can somebody suggest how to die? Because people just go on dying on the bed.
I would like to try something new!"
They were shocked! What kind of question was he asking? Who had ever heard of people enquiring about how to die? People don't even ask how to live! People go on living without asking how to live, and here is a man who cannot even die without asking how to die. He wants to make it a little celebration, something special.
Seeing that the disciples were silent, he himself suggested, "Have you ever heard about anybody dying in a sitting posture, Buddha -- like, in PADMASAN?"
One man said, "Yes, I know of a Zen Master who died sitting in the lotus posture."
Then the old man said, "That won't do! If somebody has already done it, it is not worth repeating. Have you heard of anybody dying standing, like Mahavira?" Mahavira used to stand while meditating. That is unique, very unique; people don't ordinarily meditate standing. That's why you will find thousands of Mahavira's statues in India standing. Of Buddha, you will never find a single statue standing; he is always sitting. The sitting posture has always been used as a meditation posture, but Mahavira was of his own type.
Somebody said, "Yes, we have heard -- we have not seen but we have heard: in ancient days one Zen Master had died standing."
The old man said, "Then that won't do. Find out something soon, because death is coming close by! Have you ever heard," he asked, "of somebody dying standing on his head?"
Now nobody had ever heard, nobody had ever even dreamt of anybody dying standing on his head, in SHIRSHASAN, the headstand.
They said, "No, we have not heard, we have not even thought of it!"
The old man said, "Then that's perfectly right!" He stood on his head.
Now it was a problem to decide whether he had died or not. And the disciples were afraid also to disturb him now that he was standing on his head. They tried..."breathing seems to have almost disappeared. But how can a man go on standing on his head if he is dead? He will fall! What to do now? And there is no precedent!"
Otherwise you know what to do when a man dies, what has to be done. But nobody had ever heard of anybody dying standing on his head, so there was no precedent: "Now what has to be done?"
Somebody remembered that he had an old sister who was a nun; she lived in a monastery closeby; she was older than him. So they ran and they asked the old nun. She said. "I am coming. That old fool! Is this the way to die? I will teach him a lesson! And he has always been a nuisance, I tell you." The old woman said, "Even in his life he was doing eccentric things. Now is this a way to die?"
She was not worried about death! She came and shouted at the old man, "This is not right! And doing such a stupid thing, and creating trouble for your disciples! Is it right for you? Get up and be normal!"
So the old man laughed, got up, lay down on the bed and he said, "Okay, then I will die in a normal way" -- and died!
Don't take death too seriously! Nothing is serious, neither life nor death, because nothing matters in the ultimate sense.
Life and death are just episodes in the eternity of time, just soap bubbles -- life and death both.
OM SAI RAM!!!
Topic: OM SRI RAM JAYA RAM JAYA JAYA RAM (Read 9397 times)