“Is life meant to be a race from birth to death?”
If people were asked this question, they would probably reply: “Obviously not. Who will race to death? The race in life is to progress and success, power and position, treasure and pleasure.”
Yet this very race for worldly things blinds them to the inexorable ticking of the clock and the inevitable approach of death, bringing with it destruction or deprivation of everything they have sought. The more they chase after worldly things, the less time they have for reflecting on this sobering truth of life. While they live obsessed with their worldly pursuits, life rushes on, despite their unmindfulness, and they end up unwittingly racing towards death.
Gita wisdom declares that this is not humanity’s inescapable fate. Life is not doomed to pathetic termination in death. Human life is potentially destined to raise us to immortality, provided we claim that destiny by living in accordance with our actual identity.
Our identity, the Bhagavad-gita (02.18) indicates, is that we are indestructible souls, distinct from our perishable bodies. And the life that honors this identity is the life devoted to Krishna, for we are his eternal parts, meant to delight in everlasting love with him.
Devoting our life to Krishna doesn’t necessitate renouncing the world entirely; all it necessitates is that we do our prescribed duties with material detachment and spiritual devotion. Detachment protects us from getting further entangled in bodily misidentification. And devotion enables us to progressively relish glimpses of higher spiritual happiness and realize our identity as parts of Krishna, thereby disentangling us from our material misidentification and helping us reclaim our spiritual glory.
By living thus, we can transform our temporary life into an exciting and fulfilling pathway to the eternal.
Inspired by Lord Vishnu the devas and demons churned the ocean of milk to obtain the ambrosia of immortality. Although the demons were engaged in the same endeavor they were cheated out of their share of the nectar. Likewise externally karmis and bhaktas appear to be engaged in the same activities, there is a vast difference in their results. The karmis work for themselves and are bound to transmigrate through the cycle of birth and death, whereas the bhaktas work for the lotus feet of Lord Sri Krishna and go back Home, back to Godhead.
Excellent point about the true nature of the soul. JKH