Question to Radhanath Swami: It is said in the Bhagvatam that with every rising and setting of the sun the life span of a person reduces, except when a devotee is performing Bhakti Yoga and hearing about the activities of Krishna. Could you kindly explain this?
Radhanath Swami Answers: For one who is endeavoring to make this body a better place for selfish enjoyment, with every moment the duration of life is reducing; therefore, factually, death is one moment closer. An old person would give anything to be young again, but there is nothing one can do; one cannot reverse time.
But for one who utilizes his or her precious time in hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord, with every rising and setting of the sun that person is one day closer to eternal life. Why? Because in anything we do in Bhakti Yoga we are simply approaching that realm of consciousness beyond the limitations of time, beyond the limitations of the body. Every moment you are attentively chanting in kirtan you are one moment closer to eternity, to eternal life.
For a transcendentalist death is not the end, for a transcendentalist death is the beginning—death is the entrance into the realm of eternity, knowledge and bliss. But for one who is not, death is simply the end of everything that we identify with, the end of our entire existence. Therefore a devotee doesn’t even mind getting old, because he or she knows—if I am utilizing this body, this mind and this intelligence in Bhakti Yoga, as the body gets older, the soul is getting closer and closer to that eternal youthful spiritual form. Therefore it is said—die before you die. When the false desire for selfish enjoyment dies, if we can do that before we die, we attain eternal life. Devotees do not fear death; a devotee only fears forgetting Krishna; forgetting Krishna means spiritual death.