Spiritual challenge of understanding and handling the mystery and challenge of grave illness/injury coming to a person

Last updated on 27 Mar. 2024

IMHO, a great spiritual challenge is understanding and handling the mystery and challenge of grave illness/injury coming to a person, and sometimes leading to his/her passing away. After the event, doctors may analyze an illness and say why it happened at physical-body level but it is very difficult for them to accurately predict when somebody is going to fall ill and how severe the illness will be.

Hindu scripture talks of Rishis having knowledge about such matters from a spiritual perspective (e.g. karmic result) not only about their life but also about other people's lives, and many Rishis had the power to rise above body consciousness at will. 

In our times though, such spiritual masters seem to be very rare. 

Most of us devotees/spiritual aspirants (NOT masters), me certainly included, have no such (clear and precise) spiritual perspective knowledge about why grave illness/injury comes to a person (which could be us). We may loosely speculate about karmic result but without knowing that for sure.

I think most of us have to sincerely pray to God for protection and help and then surrender to His Will, when it comes to this great mystery and challenge of life of grave illness/injury coming to a person/us.  

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Given below are my comment(s) (slightly edited) on my associated Facebook post:  https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/pfbid0QhqyxHXeJSS5Kbpyva1b2GShcu9wuBue6PrdB7KB7RW2NxmnCRjRA8CSkwuaSWw7l :

Responding to both --name-snipped-- and --name-snipped--:

Thanks --name-snipped-- for your valuable response. I think Ramana Maharshi's approach was the stoic approach as a response to the grave illness/injury case but, as far as I know, he did not have any knowledge about when future grave illness/injury may happen to others or him.

Thanks --name-snipped-- for your valuable response. Yes, Swami has given us very good advice on handling grave illness/injury as you have shared.

For both --names-snipped--,

The trigger for this post is a recent health scare that a noted Indian spiritual master had, where he had a major emergency surgery. I do not want to mention the name as it then may become controversial. While the master seems to be handling it very confidently and even joking about it, the impression I got is that the master was not aware of the seriousness of the health issue he was going through over the past few weeks. The doctors did their investigations and shared the seriousness of his health issue which, fortunately, has been surgically attended to, and the master is recovering well.

Now I think that the curtain or mystery about when grave illness/injury will strike a person/us, applies to this master too, who I believe has a lot of spiritual tapas (penance) ability and practice! I mean, when even such a master does not know when a grave illness/injury will strike him, what about us devotees (not masters)! How powerful this curtain/mystery is about when grave illness/injury will strike a person, which may lead to the person's death! I think this mystery is taken for granted as a fact of life. But I do think that in the ancient past in India, some Rishis could go beyond this curtain and mystery and know precisely when and what grave illness/injury will strike a person and why. I think that has been an awesome achievement of the ancient Rishis of India. But in today's times, I think masters like these ancient Rishis seem to be either very rare or not in public view.

That is the background for me putting up the small post.

Another angle in this context is the health-care and support costs that come into play for grave illness/injury, in our times. Ramana Maharshi does not seem to have got admitted to any hospital for the cancer that he suffered during his last days. His stoicism and endurance power shines through in how he continued to give Darshan almost till the end, if not till the end. But is that something that most of us can or should follow today? Or should that be followed or attempted to be followed by only reclusive (sannyasi or sannyasi-like) persons?

A free health-care system like what Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba has provided us in Puttaparthi is a great blessing, for such cases.

But if one looks at the scenario in general, I think for most of us devotees today, we have to plan for health-care and support-care costs to handle grave illness/injury to at least some extent. We simply don't know what the future holds for us in this regard, and we have to think about having some level of money (and perhaps some level of health insurance) to meet such costs. I personally feel that it is NOT FAIR to become financially dependent on close relatives and friends to meet such costs if one can earn money. I mean, either one should try to earn money to meet some level of such potential costs, or one should move away from close relatives and friends (trying to reduce any hurt they may have due to such action) and go to a remote place and follow the stoic example of Ramana Maharshi without going to doctors and hospitals and let whatever happens to the body, happen.

In my social media writing about spirituality, I try hard to share practical reality issues as I think that's what may turn out to help some spiritual aspirants who read my posts. That's why I shared the health-care costs related matter which is quite a sensitive one to talk about but is an important practical reality in India today for most spiritual aspirants especially from middle-class and above kind of background.

As this response is already long, I will respond separately to my views now on 'I am not the body' approach.

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About the 'I am not body. I am the Atma (pure consciousness)' approach:

I will frankly share my views on the above, in the context of my post, based on my practice and experience. Note that I have followed the 'Who am I'? approach for many years. I have also documented some benefits I got from this practice in my blog post(s): Sharing my limited self-realization experiences and associated sadhana (spiritual practices) with interested genuine seekers, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2023/05/sharing-my-limited-self-realization_29.html (links to related post).

I am convinced I am not the body. I am also convinced that I am the unchanging and eternal Atma (consciousness/awareness). But despite trying hard, I have failed to rise above body consciousness or detach my Atma/self (myself) from my body and at least temporarily, be totally independent of my body. In other words, I am trapped in my body. A strong spiritual desire I have (since early 2022, after my major health challenges), is to have the ability to go beyond my body consciousness, and be able to return to it (if I want). I pray to Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba that if he feels this desire of mine is good, then he may please fulfill this desire of mine.

I find that my inability to rise above body consciousness is a great limiting factor for me currently, for the 'I am not body. I am the Atma (pure consciousness)' approach. I think I should share some details. Perhaps it may benefit some spiritual aspirant reader. I hope these details do not disturb you. If so, please accept my apologies.

When I had my heart-attack on 7th Jan. 2022, it was late night (around 11 PM, if I recall correctly). While I had had some chest area discomfort in the past too, this time it was quite severe (let me skip the details). I felt that now is the time for me to leave the body. There was intense weakness. I lay down and thought now the body will die. But it did not die! Instead I had a little amount of sleep and woke up early morning (3 AM or so, if I recall correctly), gasping for breath! I was able to slowly make my way to a chair and sat down. The gasping continued and was making quite some noise which woke up a neighbourhood dog which started barking and continued barking, making quite a racket in the silence of the very early morning hours! Now this period was COVID time. Gasping for breath was a sign of COVID which could be a risk for neighbours if I did not get it checked out. Eventually, on phone I called a good friend who was of great help to me, arranged for me to be taken to Swami General Hospital from where, after initial treatment in emergency room, I was sent to Super hospital (I reached there around 8 AM, if I recall correctly). Fortunately I was COVID negative - the gasping was due to the heart-attack I had had. Super hospital people treated me, giving great care and brought me out of the gasping situation, made my health somewhat stable and discharged me after two weeks, with lifelong medication prescription and many diet and other lifestyle restrictions to be followed.

The doctors told me that if I had come earlier to the hospital, they could have helped me recover better. I was later told by a medical person (from outside Swami hospital system) that due to many hours gap, some of my heart tissue would have died and so could not be recovered now. Medically I now have a weak heart (confirmed through tests) and have to live with the issues that a weak heart creates.

Back to 'I am not the body' approach :-). Well, the problem was that death did not come to me even though I was ready for it. Instead I got into a situation where I have a weak heart and associated weak body now!

And now due to medicines, visits to doctors for specialities not covered by Swami's hospitals, and diet and other restrictions and need for cook and other help, my expenses have risen significantly, putting pressure on my single spiritual aspirant retirement plan (I retired from commercial work in Aug. 2002).

I thought seriously about how I should handle this challenge. One option was to continue to live in Puttaparthi but follow Ramana Maharshi path and not go to doctors & hospitals. But then I went to Swami hospitals and they helped me recover! So now I feel obliged to follow all their instructions (medicines, follow up, diet and other restrictions) to the best of my ability, and I sincerely do that. So I cannot take the Ramana Maharshi path when I am living in Puttaparthi even if I am able to muster the stoicism and endurance that such a path needs.

Another option is to go away to a remote place somewhere and follow the Ramana Maharshi path there - focus only on my sadhana, and not bother about medicines, doctors and hospitals, and let the body fall when it will ('I am not the body'). Well, I prayed to Swami and I have not got a green signal for such an option, as of now at least.

Now my big concern is becoming dependent physically and/or financially on others. The 'I am not the body' approach is not helping me here because I do not have the ability to rise above body consiousness at will nor am I able to take the Ramana Maharshi path of stoicism and endurance and not going to doctors and hospitals.

[Before I get into this part, let me say that I am quite OK financial status wise, as of now. But with inflation and possible further medical costs in future, it is clear that there will be more stress on my finances in future life unless I augment it by earning some money.]

For the financial part concern, it was clear that the right thing for me to do was to try to get back to earning money. So I am now on a path of trying to get back to software development and see whether I can get some part-time work-from-home paid work which is within my health limits.

About the concern about becoming dependent physically, it is a big concern for me as, in the initial months after heart-attack my body had become quite weak. [BTW I got severe COVID after the heart-attack in end Jan. 2022. Once again I thought this body will die but the state government hospital got me out of that.] It was horrible for me to go through that period of very low energy (lots of weakness) and dependence on others for so many things. I repeat, I was ready for death of my body anytime. And I am ready for death of my body, even now as I write this comment response. Death of body - no problem whatsoever! It is living with a weak body and dependence on others that is a big concern for me. Anyway, now while I still have a weak body, it is better than the initial months after heart-attack and COVID. But I feel as if I have been given a taste of what can happen when the body goes down in a big way. And that is very unpleasant. It is something I would like to avoid as much as possible.

So how am I thinking of handling the concern about becoming dependent physically? I still have not got a clear answer but am working on it. It is too sensitive to write publicly. I can only say that ancient Hindu monks and Jain monks have had their ways of dealing with such situations, and I think they are appropriate for single spiritual aspirants who get into some unfortunate physical dependence issue and do not have money or people for such support.

To conclude, 'I am not the body' approach has some limitations for me primarily due to my inability to rise above body consciousness at will (and so I feel I am not the body but I am trapped in this body).

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Thanks. Though the reason I put up the post and comments are related to the general issue of these challenges. I gave some info. about my particular case to simply convey my view better. I think the truth should be told about these matters. That will help younger spiritual aspirants better understand the challenges in following the path and learn/know how they can try to handle these challenges. That has been the intention of me putting up the post and comments.