Keeping Faith

It was only later that I discovered she was proposing what she had already practised in her own life. She had organised a full-fledged celebration on her father8217;s death and that day she talkedproudly of how she had done it. As she described and reasoned the concept, I was hypnotised by her and her Guru, Osho, who never took death as a cause for distress. In Osho8217;s regime, death is a fiesta, just as birth is. And the reason behind the practice is logical: quot;The one who dies is also under the pain of departing from you. If you mourn his death, he will not depart in peace. If you see him off with as much felicity as you welcomed him with, his soul will rest calmly and he will live even in death.quot;

Urvashi had taken long to accept this. She told me of how the sanyasins had danced around the dead body of an accomplice at the Pune ashram, and of how the deceased8217;s face was radiating with joy. quot;I could not believe it but I had seen it with my own eyes. Osho had said that the one who dies feels happy when you bid a warm farewell to him and he radiates with joy. I saw that happen. I could not help believing this.quot;

But she was still not sure if she could revel in her own dear one8217;s death, until herfather8217;s death happened. quot;His body was lying in a room in the hospital when I decided to make his departure joyous. I asked my mother to smile; I asked my brother to arrange flowers so that we could adorn Papa8217;s pyre. He loved roses. I informed the sanyasins at Pune and they arrived here in no time. We all danced around the pyre and had a full-fledged ceremony.

Papa seemed to be brimming with energy and contentment. I knew he was happy.quot;Urvashi8217;s words made sense and, as I heard more, I went back to tragedies which had struck me and I wished I could have made some partings easier. I thought of how selfish we often tend to get. When we shed tears for our loved ones, we often forget how they must be coping with the gravity of our suffering. We also fail to remember that the soul is supreme and it always remains so. In our pain we discount the suffering of the soul and, in the process of unburdening ourselves, we cause immense distress to the one who has gone.

quot;It8217;s just a question of keeping faith,quot; Ithought and I was instantly drawn to one of Osho8217;s sayings: Creation is under an obligation to take care of us. It sounded so very rational and with every passing day it made more and more sense to me. Why else would life go on even in the absence of those who, we thought, were indispensable. But we still continue to live and smile, be it rain or shine. We discover our own ways and means to weave solutions to our seemingly formidable problems. In the end, as creation would have it, everything comes around.