The Sadhu Vaswani Centre, Jakarta, had arranged a lecture on ‘Life after Death’ by Rev. Dada J.P. Vaswani, at the Shangri-La Hotel on March 19, 2004.

During the last few years, I have had the fortune to attend quite a few of Dada J.P. Vaswani’s inspirational discourses. With his gift of oratory and eloquence, Dada J.P. Vaswani conveys profound wisdom in simple language. He is truly a man of heart. That he radiates an abundance of love is an under-statement. ‘An embodiment of love’ – that’s how I can describe this great man of humanity.

Do you believe in life after death? For the benefit of the readers, let me try to recapitulate what Dada J.P. Vaswani spoke on the other day. He says: “Death is an illusion from which all mankind suffers. Death is just like a sunset. Sun does not really set. Likewise, man never dies”.

Life is a gift from God. God never takes away this gift. Man is an immortal being. It is just that a body is born and it one day dies. What appears to be death is only death of a body. “The cage falls down, and the bird flies away”, as he eloquently puts it. When the body dies, man is unchanged. His desires, dreams, thoughts, and emotions – all remain in the astral state, minus the physical body.

“The body is like a garment we put on while we are alive, and we discard it when we die, just like we discard our clothes”. Bhagavad Gita also says the same thing: “You’re the wearer of this garment”.

Why should we fear death? Death is the sweetest of all experiences. Death is very much like sleep. Sleep and death are twins, according to Tennyson. When the death occurs, we would feel light, as we don’t have to carry the weight of the body any longer. The problem arises because we identify ourselves with our physical bodies.

Death is simply a change of form. All pains belong only to the physical body. One need not grieve over the death of near and dear. Our dear ones do not die. The soul is released from the human bondage, and souls are beyond the condition of time and space. ‘You’ are that dwells in the body. In the beautiful words of Dada J.P. Vaswani: “We are not this; we are THAT, so bless us God!”

Human life is given for a special purpose. Ultimately, when we depart from this world, God poses this question: “My child, what did you do with your life?”

Ours is a voyage of self-discovery. But, alas, we run after shallow shapes of power, position and possession. Dada J.P. Vaswani concludes that so long as there is life in this body, all of us should make use of every moment, and try to gather the imperishable treasure of LOVE.

His simple and straight forward message is: “We are here in this world to help each other”.