death is a double-edged sword

This essay is an excerpt from The Way of The Karma Yogi , my new book.

Death is a double-edged sword — a sword that hangs over our heads all the time. On one hand, we never know when our life will be taken away from us, but on the other hand, it also inspires us to live a meaningful life and to be good and to do good. As Marcus Aurelius writes in one of his personal reflections, “Don’t behave as if you are destined to live forever. What’s fated hangs over you. As long as you live and while you can, become good now.”

The bottom line is that we should live in such a way that we are always prepared to expect and accept death. We can let the notion of our mortality fuel us to become the best version of ourselves, do things that we really love and work towards living our ideal life rather than dreaming and fantasizing about it. When we align our thoughts and actions to our Inner Being and the Infinite Intelligence within us, we’ll be guided how to make the best use of our given time. We have no control over the amount of time we have been given to spend in this lifetime, but it’s in our control to use it well doing things that bring goodness and happiness to ourselves and others.