FROM ANCIENT TIMES, man has been striving to acquire immortality. There are various concepts of immortality. Religions speak of immortality as the highest reward of the spiritual existence of man, and scriptural teachings lead to the realization of that immortality of the Soul. Most people, however, would like to acquire immortality even in their physical bodies. They wish to continue to experience the world of senses indefinitely, living on, ever united with their loved ones-their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Medical science has afforded release from many of the baneful diseases that devitalize the human organism; but death is yet considered inevitable. Some doctors have found that most deaths are caused by the impairing of one or two of the vital centers of the body. Most people die not because their physical bodies in their entireties have become worn out, but because either their lungs have become incurably affected by tuberculosis, or their liver has been consumed by cancer, or the heart has given way, or a brain tumor has developed, or a particular nervous center has degenerated.

Many die with most of their physical organs in a completely healthy condition. In this circumstance, if something could be done to replace the damaged organ or if remedies could be discovered for regenerating and curing the affected parts, one could live on for a long time. Some scientists even foresee the possibility of using computer-like machines to replace the functions of the brain and heart, which go to form the center and seat of life as it were - and thus they think physical immortality can be achieved by mankind.

Those who think deeply must reflect upon the true nature of immortality. Is immortality an indefinite prolongation of life - functions and perpetuation of this physical body? Or is immortality something different, extra-worldly and spiritual? Should men give up the longing to live a long life, and strive to attain immortality of the soul?

With reflection you will understand that a long-sustained life in itself offers no happy prospects. Man's aim is not to grow like a tree -to have a vegetative continuity of life. Real life is not the prolongation and perpetuation of the vital life. Vital life is not the end, but only a means to the real life; and as such this vital life has to be preserved, has to be prolonged within physical limits and rational possibilities. But without the understanding of the deeper aim of life, mere continuity of life is more dreadful than death.

If you continue to live in a healthy body-repeating everyday the same experience of the sense- world, endeavoring to amass wealth, striving to maintain the currents of love and hatred by being pleasant to your friends and relatives and bitter towards your enemies--you will soon become bored. One day you will view your life as an empty expansion of vanity. In this circumstance, a prospect of immortality in the physical body would be only a curse-a perpetual life of imprisonment.

ON THE OTHER HAND, if you live your life endeavoring to enhance your mental horizons, trying to better yourself in your ethical and mental planes, seeking what is more durable and valuable within your being, trying to give up pride, vanity, and greed and to develop humility, sincerity and selflessness - then you are living your life purposefully, and the removal of an untimely death would prove to be a great boon.

To live a life of significance, you must not desire to continue being the same personality as you were when you were a little child - with the same errors, illusions, attachments, and vanities. Rather, you must strive to grow in wisdom, to be transformed in the light of the higher functions of reason, to be integrated more and more. If you are striving in this direction, the continuance of your physical life is a help and not a hindrance in achieving the goal of life.

No matter how significant your life is, knowing that it cannot continue endlessly-you should not fear death. Physical continuance is not immortality. It is necessary for evolution and spiritual growth. It is a means to an end; not an end in itself.

Therefore, strive to be healthy, to be free from diseases, and have a prolonged life. Not because you will experience repeated pleasures of the world, but because you can continue to concentrate your mental energies for integrating your personality, widening the horizons of your wisdom and intensifying your devotion to the innermost reality-the Self or God. Live to realize the Self. Live to unite yourself with God. Live to transform yourself into God. With this vision even a short life is a blessing; but without it, even a long, long life is only a burden, a curse.

That which is unlimited and infinite alone can enjoy immortality. But all that is limited, composed of parts and aggregates must change-and change is death. To a wise man physical death does not mean a stoppage of the possibilities of life's achievements and expansions; it only means a change in the external personality, in the garment of the body.

One continues to reincarnate until the mental desires for physical experiences have been sublimated into the blazing vision of the Immortality of the Spirit, wherein mind is transcended, and life is united to the universal life. A fully illumined sage acquires immortality even though living in the mortal frame of the body. He has no need to be reborn in this mortal world and repeat the boredom of the senses-but he exists as the immortal and all- pervasive Spirit. He himself becomes death unto all processes of death. Nothing can affect him-he is the everlasting truth, the limitless beatitude, the unending bliss-the ocean of Immortality!