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There is no question of its dying either. Only the relationship breaks. In death the relationship between the dead and the immortal breaks. But death itself, even after coming so close, remains ignorant of the one that is immortal.
How many times have we died, and yet we have not come to know so far that within us is the one which is immortal. The very situation of this non-acquaintance is that even in coming close we are unable to look inwards; our seeing continues to focus itself outwards. See a man lying on his deathbed: he still goes on looking outwards. Even now he does not feel like looking within. Death is pulling and dragging him from the body, but he still clings to the body -- clings more forcefully, more than ever before.
This is why old people become ugly and the young look beautiful. If we look at it deeply, the reason for this is not the body alone. The young person does not cling to the body, he is still confident of it. The old person begins to cling to the body; and because of that clinging, all sorts of ugliness is born. The old person begins to be afraid: here comes death... now comes death... death is close by. The more the old person is afraid of death, the more strongly he clings to life. And the more strongly the person clings to life, the more ugly he becomes.
How lovely children look! They simply do not cling at all. They have no idea that death exists. Look at the birds and the animals: however old they become, they look the same. I am talking of those animals and those birds who are not yet spoiled through the company of man. A man just spoils everything.
So, it appears very strange that in the jungle the birds and the animals do not appear to become old. The kind of old age that catches man does not seem to catch birds and animals. They remain like children. In some deep sense they are not aware at all that death will be coming, therefore there is no clinging to the body.
The freshness that is in children is because life is natural, there is no fear of death. It becomes difficult in old age, death becomes clearer. Life is an effort now, the old man lives by effort. Every inch of the journey he is conscious
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