We fear many things in life: pain, old age, poverty, loneliness, the unknown, disasters, women fear birth, students fear examinations, but for most people the greatest is probably the fear of dying.

Death seems to be the most terrifying and is undoubtedly the most unavoidable thing in the world. Why do we fear it so much? Why is it such a painful event? Because we don't want to leave this world. We cling on to our near ones: our husbands, wives, parents, children, friends, lovers etc.

Those who continue in this life behave similarly: they are afraid of being left alone and don't want to release the dying, departing soul. They both do so in the name of love but it has nothing to do with love. It's not love that makes for this kind of thinking but a crippling fear of what will become of us and how we will be able to cope.

Others can be held back by their attachment to material things, or careers, or power. Others again by their dependence on alcohol, drugs, food, sex, gambling.

We are also very afraid of death because we don't know what will happen to us, where we will go after leaving this world. We are not prepared for it. From our births on we are taught many things, women are even taught how to give birth, but no-one teaches us how to die, what death is and what happens to us after death. If we had learned about it during our lives we would recognize that dying is a very joyful, happy moment which we shouldn't be afraid of, which indeed we should look forward to cheerfully. Death and birth are one and the same. To be born on the Earth we have to die there on the other side. And the reverse is true: to be born there we have to die here but all that means is that we change one form of existence for another.

We all belong to God and we came to the Earth not as a punishment, as some people and religions claim, but to learn in the earthly school. When we come to the world full of trust our lives run their course in harmony and love. If we come with rancor, fear and distrust then everything is filled with that whatever we do. We reproach God with having abandoned us and left us on our own, but this is not true at all. It is our erroneous thinking that causes us to live with bitterness, frustration, fear and dissatisfaction. This happens right till the moment we understand the basis of our erroneous reasoning. This can last one life or several.