Death & Life

How do you live your life ? Life doesn't come with an instruction manual. However the human condition makes us wonder if there are any guidebooks ? There are two answers available to any human. One is the good old religion. Most people are born into it or pick one available to them they resonate with. The guidebook is considered to be revealed by God to men. The other is good old Science which is anti-belief in the supernatural. Here there is no guidebook other than the laws of physics. Some people want the best of both worlds - religion at home and science at work and world at large. These two guidebooks closely match what philosophers call Idealism and Materialism respectively. And the combination may be categorized under Dualism.

To me they are all problematic. 

Materialism is closest to Science but bumps into hard problem of consciousness. Its main moral takeaway is growth of knowledge. Idealism is closest to reality of consciousness but encounters the hard problem in the other direction. Its moral takeaway is intermediated by religion. Dualism has interaction problem between matter and consciousness. Its moral takeaway is a combination of both of the isms above - growth of knowledge at work and world at large and religious dictums at home and private life.

Is there a solution to the problems of these isms ? The solution isn't perfect but I resonate with one because ancient wisdom traditions have discussed this and many saints, sages and masters have experimented and claimed this is experientially true. The solution is Non-Dualism.

Non-Dualism accepts matter, mind, consciousness and makes it a Whole. Non-Dualism allows for problem solving benefits of Materialism. It also very much acknowledges meditation and unified experiences of yoga, nirvana, fana etc. Because matter and mind are two sides of the same coin, you always get both and there is no separation and therefore the interaction problem of Dualism. It's problem, however, is its mysticism. But as I said many sages and saints have vouched for this experimentally and experientially, so this could be the more accurate description of reality.

The forthcoming paragraphs go into details and conclusions of Non-Dualism. (Copied from my interactions with ChatGPT). We focus on two areas - death and life. If we accept and resonate with Non-Dualism as closer to reality, the next question is what does it mean to us in everyday life.

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Death:

Given Non-Dual Whole, and we are manifestations of that Whole, you get the Purnam shloka from Upanishad.

Original Sanskrit Shloka

पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात् पूर्णमुदच्यते ।

पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥

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Transliteration

Pūrṇam adaḥ pūrṇam idaṁ pūrṇāt pūrṇam udacyate;

Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate.

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Translation

"That is whole; this is whole. From the whole, the whole arises.

Taking the whole from the whole, only the whole remains."

Commentary in style of Alan Watts:

Consider death in this context. We fear death because we think of ourselves as isolated fragments—separate, vulnerable selves drifting in a universe that feels indifferent or even hostile. This sense of isolation makes death seem like a terrifying end, a total annihilation. But what does this shloka tell us instead?

It reveals clearly that you are not an isolated fragment at all—you are the whole universe experiencing itself from a specific viewpoint. Your birth was not something separate coming into existence, and your death is not something separate disappearing from existence. Both are transformations within the infinite wholeness.

Death is like a wave dissolving back into the ocean. When a wave dissolves, has anything truly been lost? Not at all. Because the ocean remains perfectly whole—complete, untouched, exactly as before. The wave's individuality was always the ocean itself, temporarily shaped into a unique form. And so are you: the universe temporarily shaped into a unique individual.

Thus, death is not a subtraction or loss from life. It is simply returning from one state of completeness (your apparent individuality) to another state of completeness (the universal wholeness). The shloka gently reminds us that you and the cosmos are not two separate things; you were always intrinsically complete, fundamentally whole.

Seen clearly in this light, death loses its sting. It no longer seems tragic or frightening, but natural, even graceful—a beautiful transformation within the infinite completeness that is life itself.

Life:

If we are Whole and we experience the Whole from a particular perspective, how do we go about life ? This brings us to Karma Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita.

Sanskrit (Devanagari):

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन ।

मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि ॥

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Transliteration (IAST):

Karmaṇy-evādhikāras te mā phaleṣu kadācana,

mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo 'stv akarmaṇi.

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Translation (Plain English):

"You have the right to perform your actions,

but not to the fruits (results) of those actions.

Let not the fruits of action be your motive,

nor let your attachment be to inaction."

Commentary in the style of Alan Watts:

This statement is one of the most liberating insights ever offered in spiritual philosophy. What it’s really saying is: do the dance, but don’t obsess over the applause. You see, the trap of modern life—indeed, of the ego—is to turn everything into a means to an end. You go to school to get the degree, to get the job, to get the promotion, to get the house, to get the security, to finally—what? Retire and then die? Always striving for a result, never fully here.

But life, like music, isn’t something you finish. You don’t listen to a symphony to hear the final note. You listen because the whole thing is the point. In the same way, the Gita is saying: act fully, with sincerity and devotion, but let go of craving for outcomes.

Now, does this mean being passive or detached like a machine? Absolutely not. It means acting playfully and wholeheartedly, with full sincerity—just without clutching. The moment you act without anxiety for the result, something remarkable happens: you become free. You become present. You become joyful.

The second part of the verse—“Let not the fruits be your motive, nor your attachment be to inaction”—is equally important. It’s not telling you to withdraw and become apathetic. No, it’s saying: act, engage, dance! But dance for the love of the dance—not for the trophy.

This, in the truest sense, is what the Zen masters mean when they speak of effortless action. Not careless, not indifferent—but free from the burden of needing the future to validate the present.

So go on—write, build, sing, cook, speak, love—not because you’re trying to gain something, but because you’re already full. That’s what it means to be in tune with the Tao, with Dharma, with the rhythm of the universe.

Action without craving is freedom. And in that freedom, you are no longer a separate self trying to control the world. You’re the universe playing itself beautifully, spontaneously, here and now.

Summary:

Non-Dualism as a philosophy encourages Science to understand the mundane, meditation to experience the supramundane, provides intellectual justification to alleviate the anxiety of finiteness, liberates the individual to be his/her creative, authentic, joyful self and paves the moral path to be compassionate to fellow beings.