Chanakya Pandit says that “If you want to make spiritual advancement, then you should always think that “Death is next moment. Death is next moment.”
Excerpt from lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam
Canto 1, Chapter 4, Text 25, Montreal, June 20, 1968
By His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Parikshit Maharaja, he was a powerful king. He was equipped with all, everything, but he did not counteract the curse [1]. He could counteract that curse. He was so powerful, but he accepted: “All right. I am cursed. I shall give up my life within seven days.” That means he took it as an opportunity that “I am going to death within seven days. That is certain. And I must prepare myself fully so that my next life I can approach Krishna.” So this is a good opportunity, that “I have got seven days’ time.” We haven’t got seven seconds’ time. We do not know. Nobody has served me notice. We find by practical experience that we are walking on the street—all of a sudden there is some accident, and we die. There is possibility. So the important point is that Maharaja Parikshit was fortunate enough to get seven days’ time before his death. But we do not know how much time is there for our death. So how much serious we shall be. Chanakya Pandit says that “If you want to make spiritual advancement, then you should always think that “Death is next moment. Death is next moment.” Because there is no guarantee when death is coming. If I think that death is next moment, that is not any utopian. The next moment may be my death. And Chanakya Pandit says, “But if you want to be materially happy, you should always think that ‘I shall never die,’ ” although it is false idea. Everyone will die.
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