We begin with life. What is life? What does life mean? How does life begin, and how does it end? First, we try to understand the answers to these questions through reason.Life is a continuous process—it never truly ends. Life is eternal. Life is truth. Life is the fundamental basis of all actions.Each of us possesses life, yet we often fail to recognize its significance. We tend to identify life with the body, but in truth, life and the body are two separate entities. There is a distinction between them, and so we must first understand the difference between life and the body.The body is formed by the life force, and yet they are not the same. Let us begin by understanding what the body is.It is the life force that creates the body and prepares a suitable environment for its formation. On Earth, there are three types of bodies:
The first type consists of those bodies that are formed through the union of male and female—such as humans, animals, and birds.
The second type includes bodies that have no male-female distinction and that generate their own seeds—like trees and plants.
The third type comprises those bodies that arise spontaneously, without any union—such as insects. These are generated within the Earth itself and have very short life cycles.
The human body is formed through the union of male and female. It is the life force that builds the body, operates it, and eventually brings about its end. The body is created and destroyed, but life itself never ends.Life is a ceaseless flow—it has no beginning and no end. Life is a force, all-powerful and infinite. That very force is what we call life. This force governs the entire universe and controls every individual body.Life is another name for nature itself. It is the power that has created the entire cosmos.Every body has a definite lifespan. After that time, the body perishes. But life does not have an age—it never ends, and therefore it is never destroyed. From the creation to the destruction of the body, there is a visible process. But life has no beginning; it simply is—eternal and unchanging.We often confuse the body with life, because we lack self-awareness. Based on our limited knowledge, we cannot distinguish between the body and the life within it. That is why we assume they are one and the same.
Another reason for this confusion is that the body is visible, while the life within it is not. We cannot see life—we can only experience it. We sense that there is a force inside us that governs the body, but we cannot perceive it with our eyes, because we lack inner awareness.Without self-awareness, our inner eyes do not open.All human beings know, deep down, that there is a force within us that completely controls our bodies. Yet we are unable to recognize it, understand it, or become aware of it—because without awakened inner vision, we cannot see it.The inner eyes open only when one experiences self-knowledge.After birth, our body grows continuously. It develops, but after a certain age, it begins to decline. No matter how hard we try—no matter how advanced we become—our body is destined to perish one day.Because the force within us is supreme. There is no greater power in the universe than life itself.In the world we live in today, science has made great progress. Yet, to this day, science has found no solution to death. Every great scientist who ever lived has eventually died. There has never been a scientist who conquered death.Only one who has attained self-knowledge can conquer death.The greatest truth of life is this: life creates the body, and at the right time, life also brings the body to an end. Life is immortal, but the body is mortal. The body can never be eternal.Today, we have access to thousands of years of human history. Nowhere in that history is there a single body that did not perish after a certain age.Many great souls and wise individuals have walked this Earth, yet all of them have eventually shed their physical forms. Because no rule stands against the laws of life-force.The law of life-force is this: Whatever is created will be destroyed after a certain period.And that is the ultimate truth of the life force.Next, we will explore what exactly this life force is, and how it came into existence.