Living longer or if possible, forever, is a deep seated desire of human beings.
Longevity has always been one of the key points of search of health practitioners, medical doctors or the alchemists. Longevity has been a topic not only for the scientific community but also for writers of folklore, science fiction, and utopian novels. As if living longer has some great value in itslef. This desire probably comes from acknowledging but not accepting the brevity of human life. The human mind is such that it carries unlimited desires and dreams but the years given by nature to fulfill them are very few in comparison. Everyone thinks, if I had more years I could have achieved my target. The dreamers never checke into the reality of people living longer. Are they happy living longer? In fact nobody waits for death as desparately as they do.
All this was triggered by the latest news that scientists and researchers of the ULCA university have discovered a “Dorian Gray” gene that may extend lifespan and delay the onset of ageing. Alright, so with this wonder gene people may live longer or stay younger for a long time. So what?
Nobody asks the basic question, what will be the quality of life of those who go on living till, say, a hundred years? What will people do if they live longer ? Will their life be worth living? For that matter what are they doing with their lives right now?
A prolonged period of unconscious living , repeating the same old follies, nurturing the same ugly emotions like hatred , jealousy, anger, and living under the hanging sword of death -- is this the life they have aspired for?
This discovery reminded me of Osho's insight: " A medical science which cannot free man from the fear of death can never cure this disease which is man. Of course medical science tries hard; it tries to accomplish this by increasing our lifespan. But increasing your lifespan increases only the waiting period for death and nothing else. And it is better to wait for shorter period of time than a longer one. You make death even more pitiful by increasing the lifespan."
Just by increasing the age of a person you cannot remove the fear of death from him. He may even be healthy but he will not be fearless. Fearlessness comes only by meditation; when someone comes to know that there is something in him that never dies.
Meditation makes you aware of your body and the center that is beyond the body. And if this awareness can increase then the fear of death will fade away. Long life is valuable if it helps people get rid of the fear of death and find the deathless within.
Sadhana
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