DEATH

Death means end of life. Life is presence of a soul in a body. Soul is intangible but eternal. Body is visible but transitory. Soul has no feelings. Body has feelings, emotions, passions, dreams, fantasies and uncountable attachments with many occurrences and phenomena in this material world. Though millions of creatures have been dying over the centuries, I focus on the death of man only in this piece of writing because it seems to be the most challenging phenomenon in this world for me. When I see it before me or think about it, I suffer silently because I cannot do anything more than that. This is what, in fact, millions of humans have been doing ever since the origin of man on this planet. They are suffering for a short while, for a few months, years and even till the end of their lives, remembering the deaths of highly important persons in their lives. Thus, death remained as a permanent challenge to humanity for ages. Death implies separation, loss, pain, suffering, haunting memories and tragedy for all of us.

Death occurs in different ways around us regularly. Natural death, which occurs after one crosses 80 or 90 years, causes us less pain than others because we take it as natural and inevitable for all. Death during old age also causes a lot of pain to all those directly related to one but they slowly can digest that truth and continue their lives normally. Even others can console them easily in this context.

Premature death is the most painful event and experience for millions of people in this world.

Still birth means the entry of a dead baby into this material world with no purpose at all. The parents, siblings, grandparents, relatives and well-wishers of that baby would have weaved a lot of dreams around his or her future course of life after birth. It means we develop a lot of psychological attachment with creature in the womb of its mother also. If that star of our hopes and dreams appears us dead, soon after birth, that pain is also immeasurable. For outsiders, it may look absurd and illogical but we understand the intensity and rationality of much pain and loss only when we experience it personally. Some can empathize but many fail to understand the tragedy of realities from such sensitive and ideal perspective and state of mind. Mother carries baby for all those days. She can never forget that truth of loss and pain in her life. It means many mothers are suffering in this world recollecting still births.

The death of a girl or boy from age 1 to 20 is more intense and lasting than the one described above. If a boy or girl is growing under our direct care and guidance, as a son or daughter, or otherwise, which can be compared to the status of our children, we develop a lot of physical and psychological attachment with them. The more the number of days they spend with us, the more our pain if we lose them somewhere in this journey of intense relationships. The death of an unmarried girl or boy is less painful than that of a married one because marriage connects one to an external creature. What about the life of a married guy if he loses his wife shortly after their marital union? What is the image we have for a boy looking to marry a girl for the second time, after the death of his first wife for some reasons? Second marriage assumed a sort of low value in our society compared to first marriage. What about a girl losing her husband within a few months after marriage? What if she was pregnant by the time her husband passed away? How many of us like to marry a girl with a child or children born out of her marital relationship with her first husband? Though we believe that we are great human beings, our thoughts and plans are actually very narrow. We have somehow passion for fresh objects and persons only. We like unused items of consumption only. Death before marriage causes pain to his or her parents and close relatives only but death after marriage creates many problems in the life of the other creature. Particularly girls suffer more in this context than boys. Many boys and men consider innocent and helpless widows as potential sources of bodily pleasure for them. They try to somehow attract them thinking that they are going to do a lot of favor to them with offer of bodily pleasures secretly. I strongly believe that every widow or widower must marry somebody of similar tragedy to keep her or his life happy and balanced. Basic instincts keep influencing and chasing every human being as long as they are physically and psychologically healthy. It is the nature of human body. We should not blame it. To avoid that sense of loss and pain, physically and mentally, marriage is the best option. There are many around us but few have time and interest to spend with us if we are not related to them at all. It means all human beings do not behave with kindness and love towards lonely and sorrowful ones also. If we want love and companionship in our life, we should search and find such ones, who are suffering with similar set of problems, instead of those who are more comfortable and happier than us. Happiness and sorrow, richness and poverty do not go together as sorrow and sorrow and poverty and poverty. There are very few idealists around us. We are very lucky if we get such people in our lives, early or late.

The death of a person between the age of 21 and 60 is also tragic and painful. If he or she fulfilled most of the responsibilities as a husband or wife, father or mother, or otherwise, during this age range, such death may, partly, be considered less tragic. Since the time a baby starts drawing milk from the breast of its mother, it subjects itself to a variety of responsibilities to be fulfilled towards others. Husband’s role is to look after his wife and other dependents. The role of a traditional homemaker is to take care of her husband, children and other dependents, providing them with various services, time to time. What if such great woman or man dies without fulfilling those vital responsibilities? Many exploit and bother such family members, taking advantage of their helplessness and vulnerability, after the disappearance of a key person in that network of family bonds. If we are crying after the death of a person, he or she contributed, directly or indirectly, to the comfort and happiness of us or some or many known to us. It means even the death of a person does not move us at all if we do not get some benefit from him or her. We cry selfishly always. We rarely suffer for others irrationally and illogically.

The death of a person from the age of 61 to 100 is less painful compared to the deaths of persons of less age range than this because we all accept the bitter truth that death is inevitable for any creature which has the qualities of life and existence. Our parents and others, when growing more and more after 60 years of age, look negligible to us because we are not going to get many physical and other kinds of benefits from them at this stage of their lives. It means most of our relationships are highly commercial and self-centered. We do not love our parents also if they do not make our lives comfortable and happy in many ways. How many Indians love their parents if they do not get anything from them in their process of growth as human beings? Parents expect very little from their children in India but children expect a lot from their parents at every stage of their growth. This is the extraordinary quality of 95% of parents in India. He or she may be a thief, beggar, criminal or corrupt employee; a father or mother is always thinking and working for the welfare of his or her children always. I wonder observing this idiosyncrasy of parents in India. Mostly they are living for their children. Even a 100-year-old man or woman suffers before death because he or she worries about the future of his or her children after his or her death. How great the parents in India are. If children do not cry and suffer even before or after the death of such old and helpless parents, they are worse than a thief, criminal and sinner. Tears are reflection of our innermost humanity. Pain and suffering are inevitable and inseparable elements of human life. We should cry and suffer regularly if we love this mysterious and attractive world. It is giving a lot to us. We fear our death because we don’t like to leave such tempting land and go away into unknown abodes of mystery. Death in old age must be accepted humbly and proudly by everybody. Children cannot bear that reality also because one, who brought them to their present level of physical and mental growth, left this world forever. The greatest supporter and guide of their lives departed forever. Nobody loves them as sincerely as the departed one. None of us can replace the role of a father or mother to other. There is difference between living and acting. Real parents live for their children. Others act some attractive roles for courtesy sake.

In all the deaths of above order, we observe a sense of loss and pain. Can anybody bring back the life of a dead person? It means God posed this highest order of challenge before all mortal beings in this world. Death is a universally applicable and inevitable command. There is no place for arguments and fights. Even the richest, the most intelligent and visionary, the mightiest, the most holy and powerful, kings, queens, emperors, undertakers, doctors, actors…nobody can fight back with death because it is the greatest commander of this world. It subdues us silently or violently. We have to yield to it completely.

Death may occur due to diseases, accidents, mysteries and old age. Death is the biggest villain and hero in human life because we cannot be as cruel and commanding as it is or as disciplined and ideal as it is. Death is approaching all creatures, slowly or early. All dead bodies are being buried, burnt or thrown away mercilessly even by those, who loved and lived with them passionately, when that soul is there in them. It means we can recognize and appreciate the power of intangible soul only when death hits the attractive and beautiful body of materialists. We talk and do a lot when there is soul in our bodies because it is the divine power hidden in us. Once that soul flies off, the body remains as a worthless symbol of decay, tragedy and pain widely present in this world.

We suffer a lot because of deaths of persons closely or remotely related to us rather than due to those of persons not related to us at all. Millions of humans are dying in this world, every second, due to various reasons. We know about them through different sources of information. We are all taking them as ordinary occurrences. We are not stopping eating food, going to films, doing jobs, celebrating our lives and doing many things just because of deaths around us or away from us. It means we are unkind and narrow-minded to a great extent. We do not bother even if somebody dies due to our negligence or cruelty. Many are dying on roads due to accidents. Most of these accidents are taking place due to careless drivers, defective vehicles or bad roads. How many of these creators of death are dying or suffering for what they did to others? Many car owners rush off after an accident caused due to them on roads and other places. It means the tragic death of a person is not a cause of pain to them. They shout a lot even if a dog comes across their path of driving. There are millions of people in this world who practice these double standards. We can observe this unkind and cruel phenomenon in highly rich and politically powerful persons across the world. Companies spend crores of rupees for the safety, health, comfort and happiness of their high cadre executives and bosses but they do not think about the deaths being caused by their products or services. Tobacco, alcohol, drug related industries are just a few examples for this phenomenon. They sell harmful items not minding about the diseases and deaths they are causing in a nation. Even farmers growing tobacco and other dangerous crops belong to this race of criminals in every nation. It means they are working towards the diseases and deaths of others always. Governments also spend unbelievable amount of money for the safety, health, comforts and happiness of politicians but what about those helpless and pitiable citizens of a nation, who are dying daily due to the immoral, unkind, selfish and illegal acts and policies being implemented by them. Various kinds and levels of governments sell cigarettes, liquor and fatal drugs to their citizens, clearly knowing that they die because of various diseases and disorders because of their detrimental effects on them. They create and continue problems to humanity in every modern state also. No ruler has genuine concern for the lives of others in any country now, including Barack Obama. He sends troops to Afghanistan in the name of war against international terrorism but he is indirectly killing hundreds of American soldiers and innocent people of that impoverished country in this process. It means all political heads are concerned about their welfare at many levels but not about the welfare of their citizens. Many countries are spending billions of dollars for their defense establishments, maintenance, personnel and ammunition. They are training death causers, whom we call soldiers. Unfortunately, soldiers are choosing that job being ready to die at any time in the attacks of their opponents. We are planning and systematizing many deaths this way in our countries. If every ruler is kind and generous in this world, there should not be defense personnel and ammunition at all. Modern politics is the most nasty and inhuman branch of human thought and action. These cruel and selfish rulers always think and work on the ideas and strategies related to frightening others and thus achieving supremacy over them instead of showering kindness, love and idealism on them. When such cruel killers are becoming our rulers, deaths would be immense in every part of the world. We, the citizens of every nation, unfortunately, are making and bearing such nasty rulers because of our foolishness and stupidity. They sit and hit on our heads. We take it as their great service to all of us. We are choosing sinners to further ruin our vulnerable lives!

Though we are mostly concerned about the deaths of humans around us, we suffer because of deaths of other creatures also like birds, animals and trees. We suffer a lot when a pet bird, animal, plant or tree dies because we admire them for their utility or beauty. It is satisfying our inner self someway. Even in this context, we are suffering and crying selfishly. Do we treat stray dogs and pet dogs alike? Do we treat public transport vehicles and private vehicles alike? Do we treat government property and private property alike? Mostly we love and care for what belongs to us deeply and directly. We are not bothered about rest of the things much. This narrow outlook and behavior of us is mostly the direct or indirect cause for deaths and pain around us regularly. We love our little birds and animals a lot. We provide them with many facilities in our homes and offices. What about the chicken, mutton and various other kinds of meat we are consuming daily. It is not our fowl or animal. Somebody grew it for his livelihood. Somebody else killed it and sold us its meat. We are just facilitating some unemployed victims live this way. What a great calculation from our perspective as regular and passionate consumers of meat at homes and hotels? Some creatures were born exclusively to be killed for us because humans are the lords of this world. Most of humans argue every case from their perspective of selfishness and benefit. This is why many crimes and sins are taking place around us. I don’t like anybody throwing a light dry stick also at me for fun also but I shoot animals and birds in forests for fun. I want everybody to be perfect but nobody should expect perfection from me. Persons with this outlook die the most dangerous and painful death in this world very slowly or suddenly. Death may be a punishment imposed on us by nature in many contexts but others don’t learn a lesson from such natural events and avoid committing such crimes and sins. The cruelty of man is such that he kills and tortures such creatures, which served or serve him a lot. This is why we should consider man as the most dangerous species on earth planet. He cannot live without exploiting or killing other resources or creatures always.

How can we lose fear of death or face it boldly when that moment hits us slowly or suddenly? I will present some observations to make you alert, intelligent and visionary in this direction.

1. Love your natural death. Natural death occurs after 60 or 90 years depending on how you maintain your body and mind in your life unless a fatal disease like cancer or heart attack hits you. Live with great habits which allow you to live with superb health in body and mind. You should not be a victim of accident or disease due to your foolishness or carelessness. Nobody likes to take care of you when you are bedridden or completely dependable upon others. Are you ready to serve somebody if he or she is bedridden for about 20 or 30 years in your life? You are interested in your life. Others are also intelligent and selfish creatures like you because they too belong to your race. Because you have more money, vehicles, comforts and luxuries, you need not misuse them to hurt somebody in your course of life. Love and care for everybody that comes across your life. They are silently and patiently permitting you to live like a rogue among them. How should you treat such great human beings? Salute those poor beings. Appreciate those sick and helpless patients in various hospitals and places around you. You are better than all of them. Thank God for it. Live like a sensible individual and admirable citizen of your nation. When you live that ideally, you don’t fear death at all because you love your death also humbly and proudly in that state of idealism. Narrow-minded and cruel persons only fear death a lot!

2. Spend considerable amount of time there, where there is a lot of pain, suffering and tragedy, as an active participant or passive observer. Go to dead bodies wherever and whenever possible, and feel that atmosphere of pain and suffering silently. Know that there is a lot of tragedy around you in the form of death. Spend time in and around graveyards. If many are crying around a dead body, observe it passively and understand why they are crying that badly. Is it for formality sake or from the depths of their hearts? You can assess human character better from this observation and experience. If they are crying really for the dead one, he or she did something good for them directly or indirectly. If all are playing some formal roles there for the sake of courtesy, unfortunately, he or she earned such idiots only in his or her lifetime due to his or her ignorance, foolishness or stupidity. Avoid thinking and living like him or her. Be there and feel that intense pain. If you always do such things, which keep you comfortable and happy, you fear tragedy and death. Realize, in time, that they may hit you at any time because nobody can escape from them. The more you understand and experience pain because of inevitable conditions in your life or voluntarily, the more you lose fear of difficulties and death. Read books of tragedy and see films of tragedy now and then. You understand life better when suffering because of something rather than enjoying your life. So, pain and challenges make you more humane, ideal and brave. Spend there as many times as possible to love death and pain around you. Don’t run away from incidents of death and experiences of pain but be a close observer of them. If you know about something a lot, personally or professionally, you lose fear of it slowly. Love death and pain also. Take death as your good friend. It knows when and how to help you. Accept when it comes to you but don’t call it proactively.

3. Read scriptures of your religion and other great books. Accord more importance to your soul and psychological growth than bodily decoration and material attractions. When you understand the futility and vulnerability of human body, you would start falling in love with God and understanding the core of your life. The more you grow spiritually, the more you lose fear of pain and death. Death is just a little phase of your long spiritual journey. Do you suffer when you are getting off at your destination after a bus or train journey? You will take many other buses and trains also in future. So, nothing to worry about the end of this short journey. There are many wonders and mysteries ahead. You will learn and enjoy a lot in that series of future journeys also. Every journey has to stop somewhere to start another exciting journey. Death is also a short halt in your long journey from ignorance and fear of life to bliss of God and divine space. There are millions of creatures as your co-passengers. You are not alone.

4. Frequently listen to classical instrumental music being alone. There is no language in instrumental music but divine power of spell. You need not decode meanings of any words in it as it happens when you are listening to songs with specifically written words depending on a context in a feature film. Classical instrumental music makes you calm, divine, ideal, healthy, visionary, spiritual, intelligent and kind. It silently teaches you to live for the sake of God, who created you but not for yourself. Your body is an instrument of God. Play it gently and ideally. Let others enjoy your presence just like instrumental music. Your life must be a living example of idealism and inspiration to others. Talk less and work more. How can you appreciate instrumental music? It has no life and senses like you to receive your criticism or appreciation. It serves you ideally, always struggling to give you something and never expecting something back from you. If you can be so ideal and inspiring, the thoughts of death further make you into a philosopher. You would understand and experience everything silently and make little noise. Great musicians of the world are agents of God appointed by Him to keep His creatures happy always.

5. Realize that virtues are the assets of our life. Virtues encompass great habits and qualities of human beings. If this world is so beautiful and comfortable today, it is because of exemplary contribution of hundreds of thinkers, writers, saints, social reformers, scientists, rulers, visionaries and philanthropists. They did a lot to keep you happy today, even though you are not directly related to them. What are you doing for your family members, friends, well-wishers, society, religion or others? Are you directly or indirectly helping them in any way? The more you think and work for others, the more you can be comfortable and happy. Empathize with others when talking and spending with them instead of always presenting your arguments and orders to them. Remember that death treats all alike. You should also treat others equally as far as possible. You can achieve it through patience and spiritually oriented life. The more you are growing physically, the more must be your levels of patience and tolerance with people and conditions around you. You must be changing continuously according to the pressing influences around you. When you were a child, everybody cared for you and treated you like God. When you grow up and become an old man of 75 years with feeble organs, very few like your presence and like to spend time with you. It means your age and appearance are also influencing others a lot. When you were able to give, there were many to take something or the other from you but when you are expecting something from them, when you are old and helpless, nobody is there to help you. It means 99% of humans are selfish and narrow-minded in this world. Don’t expect anything from them. Learn how to be comfortable and happy on your own. Don’t depend on others as far as possible. Do everything for yourself and be content with what you can and possess. Avoid expecting anything from others but keep trying to give something to others. When you don’t expect anything from others, there won’t be pain in you even if others are not caring for you. Assess your future today and be prepared accordingly. Analyze the characters of people around you when you are young and energetic and live using those insights and experiences when you grow old. Planning helps you live happily to some extent though your destiny bypasses it often. Death is a full stop to a series of problems and tensions in your life. So, take it proudly and calmly when it comes to you naturally.

6. The best way to get rid of births and deaths in various life forms is to attain salvation as humans. Very few souls take birth as humans. Of them very few get a chance to meditate God. A soul can reach this spiritual status of progress after practicing meditation in various life forms as a human being. We cannot attain salvation through our realization and spiritual efforts in one lifetime. If we take birth, we need to face death. We can avoid death reaching God through salvation. We should slowly shun material attachments to enter this radiant path. It requires a lot of commitment and hard work from each of us.

7.  Atheists do not believe in the existence of God. When a series of deaths occur in their network of relationships, they may not be able to console themselves as theists. Those that believe in God attribute success and failure or sorrow and happiness in their lives to God and thus can balance their lives better than atheists. So many wonders and mysteries are there in this universe. We are all wee creatures in this cosmos. We cannot get answers to all these riddles through science and logic. Even if we check the issue of existence of God, scientifically also nothing happens without a reason. If millions of people are believing in the existence of God and His immense power on their lives, through following various cults, it means there is certainly some divine force beyond our access. Since that conscious power created this universe, it can understand our sincere worship and prayer also. If we believe in God, death cannot frighten us. He is the donor of this life and so he is the right agent to end this life according to our Karma. So, there is no place for us to think and worry about our natural death at all.

8. If we check our literature and culture, there are many comments and customs related to death. There are a number of theories, fears, imaginations and mysteries around the occurrence of death to different creatures in different ways. Through deeply analyzing those facts and events about the concept of death, we can understand the character of death in this world. Death scares us as long as we fail to understand and experience it before it really approaches us. We should explore its nature and effects when we are alive and active. Being trained extensively is necessary to face a natural phenomenon.

Some more observations and comments about death.

1.  Many casually say that they are ready to sacrifice their lives also for others. It means they are stating that they would die just like that for a cause. Mostly commercially oriented folks like shallow politicians and film stars talk such nonsense in public meetings to fool and attract their audience. In fact, for 95% of creatures in this world, the most valuable property for them is their life. They do anything to somehow live. It means the most precious element in this world is our life. It’s God’s greatest gift to us. We should not neglect, insult or sacrifice it for anything or anybody. We should struggle to live and die naturally one day, slowly or fast. We cannot decide the nature of our death. It is a surprise always.

2. Death is the biggest challenge to humanity in this world. It defeated all with a single blow only!

3. Sometimes we escape narrowly from death. It means there is still much to be experienced by us in this lifetime. Nobody can change the order of death scheduled to our life, except God and saints through their extraordinary divine powers. To understand a saint better, we should become a saint.

4. We often blame God observing premature deaths in our circle of relatives and friends. We blame Him even if He allows us to live for a long period of time also.  We blame Him either way. What a pity!

5. If death is not creating a sense of loss and pain in somebody, he might be an innocent baby, a saint, a psychopath, a mad man or a notorious criminal. Death is a great teacher. We are all students before it.

6. Nobody is actually ready to die for us. If somebody really died for us to save us from a tragedy, out of pure love for us, he or she is the greatest human being as far as our life is concerned. They must be admired by us as ones next to God. Everybody, sacrificing life for a great cause, is a star. In recorded human history, we find many such martyrs. We all owe a lot to them. We are living today because of their substantial contributions and glorious sacrifices. Their memories always chase us.

7. The pain caused in us soon after the death of a person in our close quarters is like rainwater appearing on surface of earth soon after rain. It is fresh and intense. After a period of time, it settles in the deepest parts of our subconscious mind. It keeps moving us now and then. If somebody is appearing casually and happily to us, it may not mean that there are no tragedies in his or her life. There might be a huge storehouse of pain and suffering in his or her mind also. We must spend affectionately and caringly to understand the actual lives of others better and console them if we can. Many do not share the stories of tragedies in their lives proactively as they do in case of happy events in their past. They think that others are not interested in the tragedies of their lives. Introverts are vulnerable creatures from this perspective. They do not mingle with others much. They do not speak out about their fears and sense of loss. We must become friends to such ones also and create a sense of hope in them slowly.

8. Old people, sick persons with serious illnesses and ones with many tragedies in their lives wait for death patiently. Than those who die suddenly, this kind of sufferers consider death as the greatest doctor for them. We cannot remove some tragic memories and pains from us at all despite our best efforts. Only death can end such burden of tragedies in us. So, death is a great doctor to many victims.

9. Doctors daily see different kinds of deaths in their profession. Patients consider them as visible gods and goddesses because only they can save life somehow. Doctors should accord more importance to life and suffering of the patient in their hands than money and prestige in the profession. Who fail to live ideally in this profession, take lives with various diseases and disorders later! Thus they experience pain and suffering intensely in those lifetimes. They get cheated and tortured by others in various ways. What we do today becomes our spiritual data. What we get tomorrow depends on this data. Nobody can change it. So, all of us must be careful while dealing with creatures. We build up our future always!

10. Imposed death is suicide. Soul of that creature suffers a lot after this crime. It is like escaping from the bullet of police on road and jumping into a muddy well when we don’t know how to swim. Bullet kills within seconds but imagine our suffering in a dark and muddy well after falling in it some night.

11. We bear hard life for years together patiently but fear death, which happens within seconds and resolves all our issues with a single shot. Are we not really foolish, stupid and senseless?

12. Death cannot frighten stones, sand, air, water, fire, sky and earth. They are greater than all of us!