Āstikatā (Theism / Faith in God)

 

## 🌷 ** (Theism / Faith in God)** 🌷

Prāṇāyāma, brahmacarya, austerity, study of the Vedas, righteous conduct, and similar disciplines are indeed invaluable means for attaining **“amṛta”**—victory over death. However, to gain **complete and final conquest over death**, one must take refuge in another unfailing means. That means is **āstikatā**—supreme faith, firm trust, and deep devotion to the Divine Reality.

The cry of the soul, afflicted by the suffering of death, has always been a cry for victory over death. The devotee prays:

**“Mṛtyor mā amṛtaṃ gamaya”**

—Lead me from death to immortality.

“O Lord! Remove the bondage of death and grant me immortality.

O Lord! This death troubles me greatly; I am frightened by it—it causes me immense suffering. Before I can even properly plan the duties of my life, death appears as an obstacle in my path. Ultimately, I have reached the conclusion that **You alone** can free me from it forever. I know that You alone are my object of worship—there is none other.”

One who does not attain exclusive devotion to You—

**“Mṛtyoḥ sa mṛtyum āpnoti yo nāneva paśyati”**

—such a person remains afflicted by death; one who does not perceive the One Supreme Reality is truly bound by mortality.

The Veda declares:

**“Vedāham etaṃ puruṣaṃ mahāntam ādityavarṇaṃ tamasaḥ parastāt

Tameva viditvā’ti mṛtyum eti nānyaḥ panthā vidyate’yanāya”**

—(*Yajurveda* 31.18)

**Meaning:**

“I have realized that great Divine Being, radiant like the sun, beyond all darkness. By knowing Him, I have crossed beyond death. O Immortal One! Through You I have attained immortality. There is no other path to liberation from death apart from this.”

When, through **samādhi-yoga**, the impurities of ignorance are destroyed and the soul becomes firmly established in its own nature, the bliss experienced through union with God is indescribable in words—it can only be realized inwardly by the heart.

The *Yajurveda* states:

**“Yasya chāyā’mṛtaṃ yasya mṛtyuḥ kasmai devāya haviṣā vidhema”**

Explaining this, **Maharṣi Dayanand Saraswati** clarifies:

> “He whose shelter itself is *amṛta*—that is, liberation and supreme bliss—and whose rejection, meaning absence of devotion, becomes the cause of death and suffering—let us, with our soul and inner being, devote ourselves to obeying that all-knowing, blissful Supreme God.”

An Atharvavedic hymn beautifully expresses this truth:

**“Sarvau va tatra jīvati gaur aśvaḥ puruṣaḥ paśuḥ

Yatraidaṃ brahma kriyate paridhir jīvanāya kam”**

—(*Atharvaveda* 8.2.25)

**Meaning:**

Where Brahman becomes the very circumference of life—where one perceives:

**“Brahma above, Brahma below, Brahma before, Brahma behind, Brahma in the middle, Brahma everywhere”**—

in such homes, neither humans nor cattle nor animals fall under the dominion of death.

What a powerful assurance this is! How confidently this is proclaimed—for those who, with unwavering faith in the Vedic word, can immerse themselves in that Brahman-lake and dissolve the sorrow of death.

The *Yoga Vāsiṣṭha* states:

**“Ekasmin nirmale yena pade paramapāyane

Saṃśritā cit-viśrāntis taṃ mṛtyur na jighāṃsati”**

—(*Yoga Vāsiṣṭha* 6.1.23.11)

**Meaning:**

One whose mind has become calm and firmly established in the pure, supremely sacred Brahman—death can never destroy such a person.

The lap of that Supreme Father is such that, once seated there, not only death but all other fears are pacified.

**“Teṣāṃ sukhaṃ śāśvataṃ netareṣām

Teṣāṃ śāntiḥ śāśvatī netareṣām”**

Eternal bliss and everlasting peace belong only to those who rest in Him—none else.

The *Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad* declares:

**“Ya etad vidur amṛtās te bhavanti, atha itare duḥkham evābhiyanti”**

—(3.10)

Those who realize Brahman become immortal; those who do not repeatedly suffer the pain of birth and death.

The *Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad* (3.1) narrates a famous episode. King Janaka of Videha once organized a grand sacrificial assembly and invited learned scholars and sages from far and wide. Desiring to know who among them was the greatest knower of Brahman, he brought forth a thousand beautifully adorned cows with golden horns and announced:

“Whosoever among you is the most accomplished Brahma-knower may take these cows.”

None dared to step forward. Considering this silence an insult to true knowledge, the Brahman-realized sage **Yājñavalkya** instructed his disciple Sāmaśravas to lead the cows to his hermitage.

Angered by what they perceived as arrogance, the assembled sages began questioning Yājñavalkya. The first to question him was King Janaka’s priest Aśvala:

**“If the entire world is pervaded and seized by death, by what means can the sacrificer be freed from death?”**

—(*Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad* 3.1.3)

Again they asked:

**“All that exists appears to be food for death—does there exist any deity for whom death itself becomes food?”**

—(3.2.10)

Yājñavalkya replied:

**“Agni indeed is death; but water is the food of fire. One who knows this conquers death.”**

Death is fire-like—consuming, burning, destructive. Yet the remedy for fire is universally known: **cool water**.

Likewise, if we wish to extinguish the fire of death—if we seek the death of death itself—we must immerse ourselves in the cool, peaceful, blissful waters of **Brahmānanda**. Then the fire of death and death-born suffering is quenched, just as fire is extinguished by water.

Therefore, true devotees of God have never been conquered by death; rather, **they have conquered death itself**.

The *Yajurveda* declares once again:

**“Yasya chāyā’mṛtaṃ yasya mṛtyuḥ kasmai devāya haviṣā vidhema”**

—(*Yajurveda* 25.13)

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Reproduced by Dr. Vivek Arya