The challenge of old age

 (adapted from Swami Paramarthananda’s New Year talk)

            Sastras talk about four stages of human life - balyam, childhood; kaumaram, adulthood; yauvanam, youth and vardhakyam, old age. Of these vardhakyam is a very much dreaded phase as it is associated with the three Ds i.e Degeneration, Disease and Death. How to handle it is a challenge and this challenge one can face better, if one looks at it from a larger perspective with objectivity, taking the guidance of scriptures. Lord Krishna tells Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita (2-12)

na tvevaham jatu nasam na tvam neme janadhipah |

na chaiva na bhavishyamah sarve vayamatah param|| 2-12 ||

There was never a time when I was not or when you or these kings were not.  Nor shall we ever cease to be hereafter.

            This means that every individual living being, Jiva, is eternal without birth or death. It is difficult to accept, seeing the harsh realities of life. So when one turns to scriptures for clarification, one learns every individual has got four layers. The outermost layer is the visible physical body called the sthula-sariram or gross body; then there is a second-inner-layer called the sukshma-sariram or subtle body which is not visible to others but experienceable to oneself in the form of one’s mind, intellect, emotions and knowledge etc.; and the 3rd layer is called the karana-sariram, causal body, subtler and invisible in which alone, core individuality, is hidden. All the karmas accumulated in so many janmas, which form our personality is hidden in the karana-sariram.  And all these are material layers or material costumes. And then the 4th and final-layer is called Athma. Athma the innermost-layer is the consciousness-principle, non-material, eternal and all-pervading. Of these four layers of the Jiva, Athma alone is spiritual-layer that is sentient and lends sentiency to the other three. 

            What happens at death can be seen from Lord Krishna’s words in the Bhagavad Gita (2-22):

vasamsi jirnani yatha vihaya navani grhnati naro'parani |

tatha sarirani vihaya jirnanyanyani samyati navani dehi || 2-22 ||

Just as a person casts off worn-out clothes and puts on new ones, so also the embodied Self casts off worn-out bodies and enters others that are new.

This means at regular intervals Jiva removes the outer-most layer, the visible sthula sareera and takes on a new one like one changing clothes.  So birth and death are only the transition of outer-most layer, the visible sthula sareera and Jiva is never born nor dies and is eternal.  Jiva survives the pralayam also, but this time with two layers, karana-sariram and Athma. And in the new srshti, not only sthula-sariram gets replaced, the sukshma-sariram also gets replaced.  In the smaller cycle only the outermost first layer gets replaced while in the bigger cycle the inner second layer also gets replaced and only the karana-sariram and Athma continues. Thus, the smaller and bigger cycles of appearance and disappearance goes on eternally and Jiva survives both with the core, karana sariram and Athma.

            Now we shall see why this happens. One purpose is for the Jiva to fulfil his desires and accomplish his goal. Mundaka Upanishad (3-2-2) says: “Kaman yah kamayathe manyamanah sa kamabhir jayate tatra tatra (whoever longs for objects, brooding over them, they are born here and there, for the satisfaction of those desires)”.  Jiva with his iccha-sakthi and free will in play, desires many things and to fulfil them keeps the cycle going. The cycle will end only when one gains Athma-Jnanam and gets established in it feeling totally fulfilled. Then at death the Jiva will drop the first three layers and as Athma become one with Brahman.  Second purpose is while fulfilling one’s desires, one does lot of actions, dharmic and adharmic, producing punyam and papam.  Some of them get exhausted in that birth itself, the balance adding to the stockpile of karmas, a part of which fructifies as prarabhdha karma at the time of next birth.   Because of this process, Jiva will have to take a body as only through the physical body karma can be exhausted.   So fulfilling the desires and exhausting the karmas is the purpose of the repeated cycles.  And since the desires are inexhaustible and karmas are inexhaustible, the Jiva’s life also goes on and on in repeated cycles. This is the larger picture one should keep in mind.

            Between birth and death the body has to go through the six transformations: asti, stay in the womb;jayate, birth;vardhate, growth; viparinamathe, change without growth; apakshiyate, degeneration; and vinasyathi, death (perishes). Regarding these changes, Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita (2-13) “dhira tatra na muhyathi (The wise man does not get deluded about this)”.  So just as birth and death are natural and unstoppable even other changes in the body are natural and unstoppable and irreversible. So a wise, mature person accepts vardhakyam also as the law of Bhagavan or as the law of nature, without resistance.  When one starts resisting a natural phenomenon, it leads to emotional problems. The healthy attitude towards such choiceless situations is better summed up as “agate svagatam kuryat gacchantam na nivarayet.  (Welcome when it comes, have no regrets when it leaves)”. So we can say the healthy attitude is; “I am willing to go through the old age without converting that into an emotional-problem, making myself and others miserable.”

            If one has got a larger picture and a healthy attitude, supported by the prayer to Lord “Oh my Lord! I am willing to go through what you want me to go through according to nature and according to the law of karma”, one can meet the challenge of old age without an emotional turmoil, accepting the physical changes and can avoid worry and anxiety. 

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