"Smaran," in Sanskrit language means "to remember" and "maran" means "death or to die." In Sanskrit script, word "memory" and "death" are differentiated by one letter (actually it is half letter) "S." It is interesting to notice two words that do not seem to be related to each other have such a close resemblance. On a spiritual level, there is a strong association between these two words, a very obvious one: "If the God is not remembered all the time, the life does not have any meaning or there is no life."

When a living being does not or can not move by itself, it is concluded that it is dead. Does that mean, as long as, we can remember to move, we are alive? It sounds like a weird concept. Nobody ever thinks that way. Do we remember to move? What does that mean?

Movement and speed are the characteristics of life and good health. A quickly moving human being is called "young" or "aging gracefully." Health or progress of infants is measured by observing their movements.

When infants learn to crawl, they learn cross lateral movements of the shoulder and hip joints. They also learn to move their hips in a bipedal motion. Once the infants can crawl with significant ease, they start to stand up against gravity and learn to balance itself. Now, infants put together these newly learned skills together that is called walking. When babies leans to balance themselves while performing cross lateral hip and shoulder movements, its called walking.

A athlete, dancer or any other performer has to practice movement patterns everyday. Little more thought reveals that these performers actually recall movement patterns from memory, and make fine adjustments to their routine. This practice is awareness based practice, and not just mindless repetitive movements that results in a flawless performance. If not practiced for a period of time the grace and fluidity is lost. For that matter, any skill that is not used again and again is forgotten and lost.

This phenomenon is fascinating. When a movement pattern is performed with awareness, it is remembered and hence can be recalled upon request.

For a human being, walking is a most natural movement pattern, that enable us move. As we get old, graceful walking is the first thing that we lose, and it is associated with aging. As the walking movement ceases or stops completely, we can say the remembrance of movement that makes us walk, and we start moving towards the death.

So, when was the last time you took time to pay attention to your movements and walking?