[Posted July 4, 2007]

Dying Every Day Disrupts Life — Duh?

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

New York Times July 25, 2007 - WILLIAM YARDLEY

On Army Base, a Plea to Give Each Death Its Due

FORT LEWIS, Wash. — Twenty soldiers deployed to Iraq from this Army base were killed in May, a monthly high. That same month, the base announced a change in how it would honor its dead: instead of units holding services after each death, they would be held collectively once a month.

The anger and hurt were immediate. Soldiers' families and veterans protested the change as cold and logistics-driven. Critics online said the military was trying to repress bad news about deaths. By mid-June, the base had delayed the plan.

[Its commander, Lt. Gen. Charles H. Jacoby, was expected to decide Wednesday whether to go through with it.]

Fort Lewis, the third-largest Army base in the nation, has about 10,000 of its 28,000 soldiers deployed overseas, a majority of them in Stryker brigades trained specially for urban combat. Several other major bases, including Fort Hood in Texas, the largest, already hold services monthly. Some hold them even less frequently.

"There is no Army-wide policy to have any memorial services," a spokeswoman for the Army, Maj. Cheryl Phillips, said in an e-mail message. "Commanders make the call. Several installations have conducted services for each individual soldier and now have begun to roll them into a quarterly service because, alas, the casualty numbers are rising." go to story

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When "Wait Your Turn" Doesn't Apply

Checking In to Check Out A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

We haven't got seven seconds time. We do not know. Nobody has served me notice. We find by practical experience that we are walking on the street — all of a sudden there is some accident, and we die. There is possibility. So the important point is that Maharaja Parikshit was fortunate enough to get seven days time before his death. But we do not know how much time is there for our death. So how much serious we shall be. Chanakya Pandit says, "If you want to make spiritual advancement, then you should always think that death is next moment." Death is next moment. Because there is no guarantee when death is coming. If I think that death is next moment, that is not any utopian. The next moment may be my death. And Chanakya Pandit says, "But if you want to be materially happy, you should always think that 'I shall never die,'" although it is false idea. Everyone will die. more

Surrounded by death at every moment

excerpt from lecture on Bhagavad-gita 9.2-5, New York, November 23, 1966

Yudhishthira Maharaja, he was asked, "What is the most wonderful thing in the world?" He replied... He was very learned king. "Yes. The most learned thing, most wonderful thing in the world..." You, you have heard seven wonderful things in the world. So Yudhishthira Maharaja said: ahany ahani lokani gacchanti yama-mandiram. Yama-mandira means "the temple of death." Every minute, every second, we are experiencing that living entities are going to the temple of death, either man, animal, ant, so many. This world is called therefore mrityu-loka, "the planet for death." So Yudhishthira Maharaja said, ahany ahani lokani gacchanti yama-mandiram. Ahani means daily, every day, every moment. At least every day we see so many deaths listed. If you go to the crematorium ground, you can see. So ahany ahani lokani gacchanti yama-mandiram, sheshah sthitam icchanti. But those who are still alive, they think, "Oh, death will not take place. I'll live. I'll live." He does not think that he... You are also subjected to this principle of dying. But he does not take it seriously. This is called illusion, maya. He thinks, oh, that "I shall live forever. Therefore let me do whatever I like. There is no question of responsibility." Oh, this is very risky life, very risky life. And this is the most covering part of illusion. One should be very serious that death is waiting. "As sure as death." If there is any surety in this world, that is death. Nobody can avoid it. And when there is death, oh, there is no more intelligence, no more your puffed-up philosophy. You are under the grip of nature. Prakriti, prakriteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani sar... [Bg. 3.27]. At that time you are not this stout and strong body, that you don't care for anything. Then you are that smallest, fragmental portion. So you are just under the material atmosphere, so under the mercy of the material nature. And that material nature will give you some kind of body for which you are fit. Then again begin your work. This is the position. So if we want to take that risk, then go on. Krishna says. But if you don't, want to avoid this risk, then take Krishna consciousness. There is no alternative.

Sri Guru and Gauranga