Are we ready?
Will we ever be ready for death? I have been thinking about it for a week now and I still have not been able to figure out if we can ever be ready for death.Actually what does it mean to be ready for death?Bhagyam(the director of our next play) passed away last week when she was reading on stage. There have been a number of people who said that she went away doing what she did best and what she liked doing best. But was she ready when she went?Will we ever be ready to die?By ready, could it mean that she had achieved all that she had set out for. Or could it mean that she had conveyed exactly how she felt to all the people who mattered to her. Or could it just mean that she was content with life.I don't know...
Bhagyam for me was an unending quest, an eternal question, probing, searching...Our readings with her were a revelation. We would be discussing a contentious issue and I would shake my head listening to somebody and she would smile, seeing me dissenting and say,"Yes, Saraansh, go on." and yet was she ready when she went??? She wanted to make evam Indrajit as relevant today as she could and she went about doing this with a fervor I have not seen till date and that's why I ask, Was she ready??Will we ever be ready??
Bhagyam for me was an unending quest, an eternal question, probing, searching...Our readings with her were a revelation. We would be discussing a contentious issue and I would shake my head listening to somebody and she would smile, seeing me dissenting and say,"Yes, Saraansh, go on." and yet was she ready when she went??? She wanted to make evam Indrajit as relevant today as she could and she went about doing this with a fervor I have not seen till date and that's why I ask, Was she ready??Will we ever be ready??
posted by Saraansh at 10:35 PM
3 Comments:
I'm so sorry, Saaransh. Nothing about death is easy. I only feel that the person lives on in our thoughts and memories. May you remember Bhagyam like that.
Dilip
I guess you are right because today when I see the rehearsals the thought that strikes me is what would have Bhagyam done?Would she have been happy with this scene?I guess Bhagyam will continue to live like that with us.
By
Manoj Kumar
DEATH. One aspect of life that humans have no control over.
PAST AND RELIGION
In the past, people use to be very active preparing oneslf for death. When i say past, i mean the vedic times..way way back. They were taught 3 aspects to life; BODY, MIND AND SOUL. The Hindu religion believed death to be of the phases to go thru on their final destination to salvation. So they really werent scared about it. The egyptians used mummification to prepare an individual to enter the next phase after death. Before death they were known to use symbols and drawings to ward off death. Some religions assisgn a human form to death. The Christians consider Death as the termination of existence on earth. There is a saying that you are judged finally based on how you die and not how you live.
Nirvana is a Buddhist idea, often translated as heaven, but actually meaning "blowing out," as in the blowing out of a candle. It refers to non-existence, nothingness, the void, which is the goal of all life in Buddhist philosophy.
Based on what i have reading, i think every human is given a change(maybe in micro seconds) to prepare for death. When i say prepare, i dont mean, to stop..but the entry. In those seconds..what do u think about? Home, family, property.? Most of the religions belive that while dying the thought of God is important. You will attain the next body based on that final though...whether it be an activity or a specific object......
A lot of practice required. The mind needs to be prepared seperatley from the body. Try this..when u eat, walk around, working, talking to others etc etc...keep a single image in ur mind at the d same time..anything...a flame..an object..whatever...and u will see how difficult it is...check out DEATH based on Yudhishtra in Mahabharata....
SCIENCE
Death is a part of living—and an essential one. From conception onward, cells divide over and over again. Their endless proliferation would quickly lead to elephantine bodies were it not for a compensating death of cells. But cells' deaths can achieve far more than just crowd control. During fetal development, a symphony of cell deaths sculpts the body. During sickness, cascades of biochemical events euthanize diseased cells. Even healthy cells, as they age and lose vigor, commit suicide for the good of the organism. The typical adult may create 10 billion new cells every day—and kill off an equal number. I was interested to read Sigmund Freuds theory on death. He says that DEATH IS THE AIM IN LIFE. Birth-Survival-Propogation-survival-Death. Thats life according to him.He began to believe that every person has an unconscious wish to die. To be still. To be at peace. A very primitive instict perhaps.
Death according to Yudhishtra)
The son(Yudhishtra) said, 'Death is that by which the world is assailed. Decrepitude encompasses it. Those irresistible things that come and go away are the nights (that are continually lessening the period of human life). When I know that Death tarries for none (but approaches steadily towards every creature), how can I pass my time without covering myself with the garb of knowledge? 1 When each succeeding night, passing away lessens the allotted period of one's existence, the man of wisdom should regard the day to be fruitless. (When death is approaching steadily) who is there that would, like a fish in a shallow water, feel happy? Death comes to a man before his desires have been gratified. Death snatches away a person when he is engaged in plucking flowers and when his heart is otherwise set, like a tigress bearing away a ram. Do thou, this very day, accomplish that which is for thy good. Let not this Death come to thee. Death drags its victims before their acts are accomplished. The acts of tomorrow should be done today, those of the afternoon in the forenoon. Death does not wait to see whether the acts of its victim have all been accomplished or not. Who knows that Death will not come to him even today? In prime of age one should betake oneself to the practice of virtue. Life is transitory. If virtue be practised, fame here and felicity hereafter will be the consequences. Overwhelmed by ignorance, one is ready to exert oneself for sons and wives. Achieving virtuous or vicious acts, one brings them up and aggrandises them. Like a tiger bearing away a sleeping deer, Death snatches away the man addicted to the gratification of desire and engaged in the enjoyment of sons and animals. Before he has been able to pluck the flowers upon which he has set his heart, before he has been gratified by the acquisition of the objects of his desire, Death bears him away like a tiger bearing away its prey. Death overpowers a man while the latter is stilt in the midst of the happiness that accrues from the gratification of desire, and while, still thinking, 'This has been done; this is to be done; this has been half-done.' Death bears away the man, however designated according to his profession, attached to his field, his shop, or his home, before he has obtained the fruit of his acts. Death bears away the weak, the strong, the brave, the timid, the idiotic, and the learned, before any of these obtains the fruits of his acts. When death, decrepitude, disease, and sorrow arising from diverse causes, are all residing in thy body, how is it that thou livest as if thou art perfectly hale? As soon as a creature is born, Decrepitude and Death pursue him for (effecting) his destruction. All existent things, mobile and immobile, are affected by these two. The attachment which one feels for dwelling in villages and towns (in the midst of fellowmen) is said to be the very mouth of Death.
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