What is Death?🔗

Our understanding of death can be broadly classified into two categories: there are people who believe in life after death and those who do not believe in rebirth. Of course, there are many who don't come under either of these two categories. They neither talk about death nor analyze it. They want to be deliberately ignorant. Their attitude is, let it come when it has to come, and we will handle it at that time. Why should we even think about it or discuss about it now? They prefer to take the escapist route.

In Western philosophy, there is no concept of rebirth. Their logical minds do not allow them to believe in it. There is no proof of rebirth. Even near-death experiences are only experiences of certain people. There is still an element of doubt about what death really is. Is it just the end of the physical body? Why does it really happen at the time it happens to every person? Many scientists are still working on this mystery. They have not been able to come to any decisive conclusion.

That is why in the West, people want to live their lives fully. They feel that they don't have a second chance to fulfill their dreams. So they are in a hurry to fulfill all their desires as soon as possible. This has created anxiety in man. This concept or belief of a single life is what has given birth to science. Man started to search for the maximum comfort, joy and juice from the outer world. Man wants to extract the maximum that he can at whatever expense to him and others during the limited period that he knows instinctively is all that he has in this world.

This belief of just one life has also given rise to the sense of purpose in life and the concept of God in the more serious and introspective humans. For most people, God is just a concept. They have not experienced Him. God is just a vague concept until enlightenment. In fact, even the idea of God was created only when the question of death was raised.

Many people have tried to answer these questions. In that process, they have created theories, philosophies and religions. Even the idea of God was created during this process only. The question of death is the most mysterious question according to me. From time immemorial, so many people have tried again and again to answer this question.

Every person who tried answering this question created a new religion, a new cult. All religions are born out of this question.

What actually happens after death? What is death? It is the most mysterious thing!

Let me answer this question first: why should we analyze death? The answer is: our idea, our understanding about death, will change our whole understanding about life.

In Los Angeles, more than a hundred years ago, Vivekananda was asked by a young lady, 'What is life?' He replied, 'Come with me to Bharat and I will teach you.' She was confused and asked, 'What will you teach me?' Vivekananda said, 'I will teach you how to die!' It seems strange that the question was about life, but the answer was about death!

Actually, if we know the secret of death, our quality of life will be different! Our quality of life, our understanding and attitude to life will change.

Understand that death is not an incident that happens at the end of our lives. It is actually happening every moment of our lives! When the understanding of death permeates our consciousness, we will have a clear idea of life. We will realize that living and leaving are just two sides of the same coin.

Serious enquirers of the purpose of Existence in creating humans, eventually turned to the Eastern religions of Hinduism and Buddhism to resolve their doubts.

Eastern philosophy is based on the experiences of great enlightened masters and rishis (sages). They believed in many births. Instead of the limiting scientific tradition of the West born out of the limited space of life, the idea of unlimited space, time of life and death of the Eastern religions gave birth to spirituality. When we take birth again and again, enacting the same drama of a brother, sister, husband, friend, parent, we eventually feel tired of this drama. When we die, we leave these co-actors and move on. When we come back, we have a new setting. It goes on and on. After a while, we tire of going through the same cycle over and over. We look to be liberated. The moment we start thinking about liberation, we start thinking about moksha or enlightenment. Spirituality is all about this. Our understanding of death makes us understand life.

According to me, our concept of death is the one basis on which we live. There is a beautiful Zen saying, 'Learning the art of dying is learning the art of living.'

A Zen story:

An enlightened master once declared that he was going to die the next day at six in the morning. Of course, enlightened people know about their death. The disciples requested the master to wait for a few hours as it would be very cold early in the morning. That would also give them sufficient time for the funeral. The master, out of compassion, agreed to do so. He changed the time of his death to noon. Exactly at the stroke of twelve, he left his body.

Enlightened masters truly embody Friedrich Nietzsche's words, 'Death of one's own free choice, death at the proper time, with a clear head and with joyfulness, consummated in the midst of children and witnesses, so that an actual leave-taking is possible while he who is leaving is still there.'

When the British were trying to establish their supremacy over Bharat, they were very keen on taking control of a small village in Central Bharat for strategic reasons.

There were only about a hundred tribal people living there (This village does not exist anymore).

The villagers were highly esoteric and mystical. They practiced meditation and it is said that they never fell sick. They were such highly evolved people that even if they hurt someone in their dreams, they would go and apologize to the person the next morning. They did not even want to harbour unconscious vengeance or hatred. They were a mature and spiritual group that had nothing of the outer world but everything of the inner world.

When the British tried to force their culture on them, they would not give in. They resisted. Even when they were threatened to give up or face dire consequences, they refused to do so.

They gathered in the center of the village and right in front of the British soldiers, they chanted a mantra (chant) and dropped dead. Every single one of them dropped dead.

The soldiers could not believe their eyes. They had not anticipated that the villagers would commit suicide. This incident has been recorded by British soldiers.

They also said that for the first time, they felt guilty for being responsible for the death of such innocent, simple, yet great people. These people knew the art of dying. They could just drop their body and leave the world.

The Bhagavad Gita says, 'Death is just like changing your coat.' Learning to die is the one and only art that we are supposed to learn while we are living. There is a great fear of death, of the unknown, in most people.

A beautiful story from the Katopanishad:

There was a young seven year old boy by the name of Nachiketa.

He asked his father, who was a king, 'Why are people afraid to die?'

The king was irritated at what seemed to be an obviously understood fact. So, he scolded Nachiketa, 'Why don't you go face death if you are not afraid?'

Little Nachiketa was genuinely interested in finding out the answer and he set out to meet Yama (God of Death).

On reaching Yama's abode, he found that Yama was not there.

So he decided to wait.

After some time, Yama returned and he was shocked to see a little boy waiting for him.

All the time, Yama had to chase people, who in turn, tried their best to escape the jaws of death. And here was this small boy who had come boldly to face death himself.

Yama compassionately asked him, 'What have you come here for? You are one of the rare beings who has come to the door of death; normally people run away from me!'

Nachiketa replied, 'Master, that is what I have come to find out about. What is death?' Yama was surprised at the young boy's question. He saw the deep sincerity in the boy and gave him the Truth. Nachiketa became enlightened.

We see: Death is the greatest teacher! The teacher who can teach us enlightenment itself!