The sage in the Śhvetāśvaropanishad sings forth the emboldening message:
pṛthvyapatejo’nilakhe samutthite pañcātmake yogaguṇe pravṛtte
na tasya rogā na jarā na mṛtyuḥ prāptasya yogāgnimayaṁ śrīraṁ
The practitioner in whom the five bodily elements are purified and attain harmony amongst themselves; in whom they collaborate together, unite and ascend to the level of the sahasrāra; such a practitioner is not affected by diseases, old-age, and death and attains a body that is permeated with the fire-of-yoga (yogāgni).
Turning the pages of ancient scriptures of the Sanatana Dharma, one cannot but wonder at the awe-inspiring lives of the Vedic sages. They are all-capable to the extent of being almost omnipotent; live for so long as to almost being termed immortal; have Divine origins so much so that the majority of us are forced to either reduce those descriptions to narrations of a poetic imagination or things that are far too beyond our ability to grasp. And yet, if one were to end one’s ears to their words, if one were to develop an eye that could appreciate their researches and sādhanā, one would also go on finding the way beyond the misty and ‘far-fetched’ existence of such Divine sages to their true reality.
There is no end to the depth to which a practitioner can dig the Upanishads and not find still more terrain to be covered; for first of all these texts are not words and verses written on paper but are the rivulets in that perennial stream which flows from the well of inner direct experience of the Infinite that these sages gain through deep research into their own Nature. It is in this spirit that these sages call us ever forwards – inspiring us to start developing a zeal for inner research, then calling us to walk the path until the Divine is experienced as one’s own inherent Nature, and further, not even stopping at that experience but extending it into the macrocosm as well. It is this journey post-samadhi and witnessing the Divine-Lila in the external world also that has been termed as the Immortal Path in our discussions here. It is this which leads to the transubstantiation of the physical matter of the body and the transformation of humans to superhumans.
The words and existence of the Vedic sages establish that highest ideal before us which when imbibed gives human life a sweetest taste and fragrance; it is a call for setting one’s foot on the path to Infinite Truth, Knowledge, Bliss (Sat-Chit-Ananda). When one walks with this ideal before oneself he shoots for the stars and is therefore sure to land up in the sky of Infinite Bliss. What is required is an open heart that can accept the truth-possibility inherent in the lives of Vedic sages. With such a childlike simplicity then the key to the Immortal path too is not far away. In fact, this key is already available to an aspirant in the inspiring lives and strengthening words of the Immortal sages which has been hinted at under the section Mahayoga in form of concrete practices for the same.