Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on February 5, 2012.
In this extended lecture, Swami Bhaskarananda examines humanity’s deepest fear—the fear of death—and asks whether death can truly be conquered. He explains that this fear arises from three main sources: attachment to the body as the instrument of enjoyment, attachment to possessions and loved ones, and uncertainty about what happens after death. Drawing on examples from everyday life, he shows how fear diminishes when the body can no longer serve as a source of pleasure, revealing that fear is closely tied to identification with the body rather than to death itself.
Turning to Vedantic scripture, particularly the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita, he presents the teaching that the body alone is subject to birth and death, while the soul is eternal, changeless, and untouched by physical destruction. Through stories such as Nachiketa’s dialogue with Yama and reflections on how different cultures have tried to explain or escape death, he shows that philosophical inquiry into death has existed since the earliest times. Acceptance of death, he notes, is common, but true conquest comes only through understanding one’s real nature beyond the body and mind.
Swami Bhaskarananda emphasizes that this understanding is not merely intellectual but arises through purification and concentration of the mind, cultivated by spiritual discipline and meditation. When the mind becomes refined and focused, it can apprehend the deeper reality underlying all change. He concludes that conquering death means gaining the conviction that one’s true identity is the eternal spirit, in which fear dissolves and death is seen as a transition rather than an end.
