During my morning walks I used to see an elderly Chinese man play basketball by himself. Upon chatting with him I find out that he is in his eighties. Then there is this Indian lady who walks with us. She tells us that she is a cyclist having gone some distance in her hobby. She is 56.
These people are role models boosting our spirit dan encouraging us to care for our health. Today I managed 9056 steps covering some 6 km total in the morning and later in the evening too.
The greatest gift is mobility and good health till old age. The greatest investment is to invest in looking after this asset given by the divine. The collective ParamAtma that chose to play his Lila took on individual JeevAtmas that designed the gross physical body for its needs and purposes. Supervising the formation of the embryo and later fetus and growing into a baby and a child is sent behind the stage while the Ego grows to conquer more land and take control and possession and reign over the body and mind. His or her true purpose in coming is forgotten over time until a guru in the physical form comes knocking on his door. He is shown or as Ramalinga Adigal sings in his "Arutprakasa Maalai" given something in his hands that would draw the curtains or veil aside and make him recall his true nature and purpose in coming. Trekking the path and following the way now shown by the Guru in physical form, the Atma takes over from there and charts the course and his destiny. He attains Jeeva Mukti becoming a Jeevan Mukta. He turns into a Siddha serving in the role of a Guru to bring others to the fold too.
Those who fail to attain this post and role, they pass on to the other world and try at it again and again till they realize the purpose and the role in coming. Agathiyar to a question placed before him told my wife that for one who has accomplished what he came for and who has no further desires, wishes, and wants, there is no need to carry out funeral rites and customs. It is only imperative that we do them for those who left without fulfilling them for their souls shall linger on. It is to help make this transition to the other world easier that we need to carry out these rituals. For one who has made the transition from the gross to the subtle in this very life, the journey ends. He avoids making the transition to the other worlds as with others. These are the saints who can be summoned immediately for they have merged with the very Prapanjam. The Prapanjam is on call for all those who have learned to connect with it. It keeps them alive. It sustains the life in them.