Death Notices

A man made an unusual agreement with the God of Death. He told the God of Death that he would be willing to accompany him (as though he had a choice) only if God would send him a notice well in advance. The agreement was made.

Weeks became months and the months into years. One bitterly cold night, as the man sat alone thinking of his success in life, the God of Death tapped his shoulder. “You are here too soon!” the man cried out. “You sent no messenger. I thought we had an agreement!”

The God of Death whispered “Notice your hair, once it was full and black, now it has streaks of silver in it! Observe your face in the mirror and see the wrinkles. Yes! I have sent many messages through the years! I have kept my part. I am sorry that you are not ready for me but the order of Almighty Lord cannot be averted!”

Srila Prabhupada explains: “The principle is that one should take it for granted that the death warning is already there, and thus at any stage of life one should prepare himself for a better next life. The system of the sanatana-dharma institution is so made that the follower is trained for the better next life without any chance that the human life will be spoiled.

It is really foolishness to engage oneself all the days of one’s life in material enjoyment and fruitive activities, because as long as the mind remains absorbed in fruitive work for material enjoyment, there is no chance of getting out from conditioned life, or material bondage. No one should follow the suicidal policy of neglecting one’s supreme task of attaining the highest perfection of life, namely going back home, back to Godhead.”

Simply by chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra (kirtanad eva krsnasya [SB 12.3.51]), one can become so pure that one becomes free from all the contamination of this material world (mukta-sangah) and goes back home, back to Godhead (param vrajet). The Krishna consciousness movement, therefore, is teaching people not to adopt artificial means of happiness, but to take the real path of happiness as prescribed in the shastra—the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra—and become perfect in every aspect of material existence.