Let my quest for eternity be grounded in your promise

Bhagavad Gita 2.12

na tv evāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ

na tvaṁ neme janādhipāḥ

na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ

sarve vayam ataḥ param

 

“Never was there a time I did not exist,

Nor you, nor these kings in your midst.

And never shall we cease to be,

For all of us live eternally.”

 

My dear Lord, the aspiration for life to endure forever is my innate pointer toward eternity. While it is difficult to even conceive of something that lasts forever in a world where nothing lasts forever, still, my very shock at the experience of death whenever it occurs in my vicinity is an indicator that what is natural in the world is, in some mysterious way, unnatural for me. What is natural and inevitable at the physical level is unnatural and unacceptable at the spiritual level.

Your bold proclamation about the eternality of all life is the basis for my taking the idea of an eternal life seriously. May it become the stimulus for me to elevate this idea from the domain of a sentimental fantasy to the domain of a tangible possibility that deserves to be explored. You, O Lord, have provided many time-honored wisdom traditions and spiritual paths for such exploration of a life that extends beyond my present lifespan. Many are holy saints  and wise seers across history and geography who have had personal realization of your declaration about eternal life.

Please, O Lord, grant me the courage and conviction by which I can live my life in the steady light of eternity, found at life’s spiritual level, not in the flickering light of temporality, by which I am confounded at life’s material level.

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02.12 Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.

Let my quest for eternity be grounded in your promise