These past few months have been rather sad months; each day we read about people dying and some of us have recently lost people we love. Having time on my hands, while living alone in isolation, my mind sometimes wanders back to my departed parents and to others who have died who meant a lot to me. So, when I feel I need some consolation I recall these wise words of the Bhagavad Gita, which I have now learnt by heart:

“…The wise grieve not for those who live; and they grieve not for those who die—for life and death shall pass away. Because we all have been for all time: I, and thou, and those kings of men. And we all shall be for all time, we all forever and ever.

As the Spirit of our mortal body wanders on in childhood, and youth and old age, the Spirit wanders on to a new body: of this the sage has no doubts.”

(p.49, The Bhagavad Gita by Penguin Classics, translated by Juan Mascaró)

It helps to remember that our spirit is eternal; the spirit of those we love is eternal; life is eternal. The short years we spend on this planet living in a physical body have little effect on the eternal nature of our soul or spirit.

Again, the Bhagavad Gita reminds us: “For all things born in truth must die, and out of death in truth comes life. Face to face with what must be, cease thou from sorrow.” p.50.

I remember those words also when I think of all the loving cats who have shared their lives with me and then too quickly departed.

The important thing (and the difficult thing) is to remember that we are not our bodies. We are eternal spirit having a temporary physical experience. God has given us the gift of eternal life—just not in physical form. Our spirit cannot die. It is only the body that dies.

“…the Spirit is beyond destruction. No one can bring to an end the Spirit which is everlasting…The Spirit that is in all beings is immortal in them all: for the death of what cannot die, cease thou to sorrow.” p.51.