Death is the most profound and mysterious aspect of life for most of us because no matter what stories we have heard, we cannot figure out what it is. Neither science nor philosophy is able to figure out what death is.
The spiritual process is not about death as you are seeking something which is deeper than death. Death is a mundane thing, and it happens to people over and over again. It is simply because of "short-term memory loss" that death seems to be very mysterious and profound. If your memory was such that, every day when you wake up in the morning, you do not remember that there was a previous day, you do not remember that you actually went to sleep, all you know is you came awake, then every day, it would feel like you are in a wonderland and it would be most mysterious. The few hours of sleep would have been the most mysterious and profound aspect of your life simply because you do not remember that you actually went to sleep and woke up. The mystery and profoundness of death is just the same.
When we say, “Shiva, the Aadhi Yogi – the first yogi, and the Aadhi Guru – the first Guru, is a destroyer,” we are not saying he causes death. He is not interested in death. For him, death, being born and dying is a very mundane thing, a surface aspect of life. He wears the ash from the cremation ground upon his body just to show that he is disdainful of death; he doesn’t treat it as a profound or mysterious aspect. So spiritual sadhana is not about death; it is about becoming free from that which is the root of death, which is actually birth. To become free from birth is naturally to become free from death.
So the spiritual process is not about life or death. Body is life and death; spiritual process is about yourself, which is neither life nor death.
When we say, “Shiva, the Aadhi Yogi – the first yogi, and the Aadhi Guru – the first Guru, is a destroyer,” we are not saying he causes death. He is not interested in death. For him, death, being born and dying is a very mundane thing, a surface aspect of life. He wears the ash from the cremation ground upon his body just to show that he is disdainful of death; he doesn’t treat it as a profound or mysterious aspect. So spiritual sadhana is not about death; it is about becoming free from that which is the root of death, which is actually birth. To become free from birth is naturally to become free from death.
So the spiritual process is not about life or death. Body is life and death; spiritual process is about yourself, which is neither life nor death.
-www.ishafoundation.org