Satbir Singh
Death has always been a subject of taboo. People don’t want to discuss or talk about death. It is considered ill mannered, inauspicious to talk about death . But death is an essential fact of life . It comes to rich as well as to poor, to young as well as to aged, to saints as well as to sinners. You simply cannot turn a blind eye to it and fool yourself by believing that death would come to the other person but will spare you. Death makes no exception. It is said “Life is a beautiful lie, death is a painful truth”.
Everything in this world is finite, maybe human beings, animals, plants, even the universe is a finite thing. A flower in the garden would never preserve its fragrance forever nor would a fruit on the tree its freshness. Every living and non living thing is perishable. But death is often considered a hidden subject and rarely discussed. People avoid talking about their death as they believe, discussion about his or her death will somehow make it likely to happen. Death is inevitable .It is something that none of us can avoid. We all know that we are going to die and everyone we love is going to die, yet we continue to behave as though everyone is eternal.
We remember birthdays, anniversaries, parties, journeys etc but forget that the day of death which is approaching near us day by day. Death perhaps is the only certainty in this world yet the fear of death stalks most people. Most of us live in denial about death, shying away from discussing about it. It is like the elephant in the room, everyone knows it is there , but no one wants to acknowledge it .According to Benjamin Franklin “In this world nothing can be said to be certain but death and taxes”.
No one is immune to death . In Mahabharata Yaksha asks Yudhishthira What is the strangest thing in this world?. Yudhishthira replies “a man takes the corpse of his father or son or friend to the cremation ground and it is burned there. then he goes home and soon resumes his worldly activities and forgets his death”. It doesn’t feel to him that he will also leave this world one day. This is the strangest thing in the world . Similar message has been given by Shaykh Farieed in Guru Granth Sahib “Fareed , Where are your mother and father , who gave birth to you ,they have left you but even then you are not convinced that you shall also have to go“.
Discussing about death and remembering death every time helps us recognise and realise that we are in fact running on limited time. This could help us to make the most of everyday knowing that we don’t have an endless supply of time. As we plan for a new baby, his education , his marriage likewise we should plan and prepare for death.
When we remember death every time we would not entangle ourselves too much in worldly affairs as we know that we cannot take away anything with us after death, as according to Gurbani “Naked we come, and naked we go. No one , not even the kings and queens shall remain”.
When we talk about death we would lead an honest life doing good deeds and keep God in our mind. When we remember death we would not be afraid of this ‘D’ word as Bhagat Kabir Says “Kabir, death, of which the whole world is terrified, is pleasing to me, as it is in death alone , that one is blessed with supreme bliss.
When one remembers and talks about death, he would control his Kaam, Krodh, Lobh, Moh, Aahankar (The five Vikars), because he knows he is in this world for sometime and death may come to him anytime.
When we know that we also have to depart this world we would not mourn after the death of our beloved one and we would submit to the will of the lord and pray that the departed soul may rest in peace. The person who remembers death is not grieved as he knows this life is temporary and everyone has to leave this world sooner or later including himself.
Briefly, it is the simple law of nature that everyone who is born shall die at one point of time. When every second of time man remembers death and believes that he is merely a traveller on this earth for a short period of time, he would lead a balanced life. He would not be self centric rather he works for betterment of society. He would try to make this world a beautiful place to live in so that when he departs ,the world applauds his contributions and follow his footsteps.
(The author is Asstt. Executive Engineer PWD R&B Batote Ramban)
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