Life with Dorian Gray

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Amrit Sadhana [1]

Living longer or, if possible, forever is a deep-seated desire of human beings. Longevity has always been one of the key points of research of health practitioners, doctors and 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 itself.
This desire to live forever 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. Everyone thinks that if they had more years they could achieve their targets. But dreamers never check into the reality of people living longer. Are they happy living longer? In fact, nobody waits for death as desperately as they do.
All this was triggered by the latest news that scientists and researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, have discovered a “Dorian Gray” gene that may extend lifespan and delay the onset of ageing. Alright! So we’ve found a wonder gene that may enable people to live longer or stay younger for a long time. But so what?
Nobody asks the basic question — what will be the quality of life of those who go on living till, say, a 100 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 aspire 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... 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. The person may even be healthy but s/he will not be fearless. Fearlessness comes only with meditation, when someone comes to know that there is something in them that never dies.
Meditation makes you aware of your body and that which 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.

Amrit Sadhana is in the management team of Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune. She facilitates meditation workshops around the country and abroad.