Understanding death

Everyone knows we will all die. A loved one dies and we understand how transient life is. But the mystics understand death in a deeper way. Death does not mean only the pain of losing loved ones. When a Guru laughs at your problems and says you will die one day and so do not worry, you simply do not understand. It appears as a very macabre approach to dealing with life. But, when I visited Varanasi and meditated on the Manikarnika Ghat I understood that everyone will die. I did not have to look at a corpse to feel death, any more. Every living person standing in front of me will die. And later, when I did Isha Kriya, I understood I will die too. It is not something that may happen in the distant future but it is the ultimate truth. I will die leaving my mind, my body, and my karma behind. I came from nothing and I will return to nothing. This knowledge shakes your very core. For some time you think life is meaningless. But then, you begin to live, even better than you did yesterday. If you look at a rose, the rose is more beautiful, because you know it will die. You want to capture the rose when it is alive as much as you can. Once you understand death, life is like that beautiful rose. You do not want to miss a single moment of it. You live more fully. Two things in my opinion makes you a guru - understanding death and the common consciousness. Only after understanding this can you understand what it means to be alive.