Are stoicism and surrender to God, the only ways for most contemporary spiritual masters (and spiritual aspirants) to handle deterioration of body due to disease and old age?

Last updated on 28 Sep. 2023

On Facebook, I shared a recent post by Facebook user, "Ramana Maharshi", along with some comments of mine. Here's my shared post link: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/pfbid0p5oi85UKtYDAePKFfLRi34DeB9GCrM15rtkm3TXWEgApmHDatfQ2U56vraMCtMr8l .

The Ramana Maharshi post is about the vision of death Ramana Maharshi had (as a young lad), and how at that time/in that experience, even though his senses were numb, the "Aham sphurana (self-awareness) was clearly evident". That (led to) realization that this self-awareness never decays and that even when the body is burned, the self-awareness would not be affected, and that this self-awareness is the (real) "I".

Given below are the contents of my post and one comment of mine on it:

I think I may be getting into tricky territory with this comment but I felt I should make it.

It is one thing to know one's reality is the undecaying self-awareness and that one's ultimate reality/inner core of being is not the body.

But if one cannot leave (and re-enter) the body at will, one is trapped inside the body or tied to the body. And after a particular age usually (sometimes earlier),  the body starts to deteriorate which is quite a terrible thing, IMHO. 

Some near contemporary (20th century) and current spiritual masters handled/handle this with awesome stoicism and surrender to God's will for which they are rightfully admired and revered. [I should add that for spiritual aspirants at least (including me for sure), surrender to God being accompanied by Namasmarana (chanting of God's name) seems to be a powerful spiritual practice in such cases.] But are stoicism and surrender the only ways for spiritual masters (and spiritual aspirants) to handle this?  I don't know a clear or definite answer to this. Perhaps stoicism and surrender are very strong ways to handle it. But I think that as per scripture, the ancient Hindu rishis seem to have had more mastery in handling this condition or state of the body deteriorating.

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In response to a comment on above Facebook post, (comment) about contemplating the body in the self, I wrote (slightly edited): Thanks for your comment. That is why I used the words, "one is trapped inside the body or tied to the body". The "tied to the body" case is to cover the view of the body being in the Self. I mean, even if the body is in the self, at my limited level of spiritual evolution, I (my self/atma/core of my being) am still tied to the body and am not in a position to free myself from that body at will and re-tie myself to the body at will. 

I think this inability to get untied from the body (or go beyond body consciousness) at will, is a fundamental limitation I have in my current spiritual evolution state. Further, to stick my neck out, I think most contemporary and near-contemporary spiritual masters seem to have or have had that limitation. 

In contrast, Hindu scripture talks of some Rishis having the power to rise above or untie themselves from the body at will and get back or re-tie themselves to the body at will. That I think is an awesome spiritual level these Rishis had achieved. 

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In response to a comment on above Facebook post, I wrote (slightly edited): Death is not a problem for a committed spiritual aspirant I think. Living with a deteriorating body is the challenge. Stoicism and surrender to God along with Namasmarna are powerful ways to handle that challenge. But I do wonder whether more can be done by spiritual aspirants (or even spiritual masters) to meet that challenge, in our times.

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In response to a comment on above Facebook post, I wrote (slightly edited): I am not clear. Hindu scripture talks of Rishis (of the past) having had the awesome ability to, at will, go out of the body (disassociate with the body) and at will, get back into the body (reassociate with the body). I wonder whether there are spiritual masters today who have that ability and whether they have publicly shared how they acquired that ability.

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In response to a comment on above Facebook post, I wrote (slightly edited): Yes, I think that's how most of us have to handle it - pray to Bhagavan and rely on Him, do Namasmarana and fight (to the finish). I think only a very few persons in our times, would have that awesome ability to leave the body at will and to re-enter the body at will.

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