Gita 2.27

Sadhak: "Krishna, intellectually I understand that death is inevitable. But understanding doesn't remove the pain when someone I love dies."

Guru: "Does understanding that winter comes every year remove the cold? Yet understanding changes your relationship to winter. You prepare, you dress warmly, you find beauty in snowfall rather than only hardship."

Sadhak: "So understanding death should change how I experience it, even if I still feel pain?"

Guru: "Exactly. Pain may arise - it is the body-mind's natural response. But suffering - the prolonged anguish, the sense of injustice, the paralysis - that comes from believing reality should be otherwise."

Sadhak: "But isn't it natural to wish that those we love would live forever?"

Guru: "Natural, yes. But is it wise? If your beloved could never die, could you ever fully appreciate their presence? If there were no parting, could there be such sweet meeting?"

Sadhak: "I never thought of it that way. Death makes each moment precious."

Guru: "Now you see with clearer eyes. The certainty of death is not the enemy of love - it is what gives love its urgency, its tenderness, its depth. Grieve if you must, but grieve with understanding, and let the grief pass like a cloud across the sky."

Sadhak: "What about the fear of my own death?"

Guru: "Inquire into who dies. The body certainly will. But are you merely the body? In deep sleep, where is your fear? Where is your identity? Something remains that does not fear because it has never been born."