Social Short Story – Death : Is it the end or the beginning?
Photo credit: southernfried from morguefile.com
Death……the darkness, the end, going to hell……..oooh!!! How scary that sounds. It is what we usually feel whenever we hear the mention of the word ‘Death’, yet it remains the most basic truth of the universe. No matter how much we try to run from it, sooner or later we have to face it. Not long ago, I too came face to face with this when I heard of the sad demise of my grandmother. It was not much of a shock as she had been seriously ill for over a month and was in lot of pain, but yet her demise hurt me. As my cousins and I rushed to our hometown to attend the funeral, I was in a state of unrest. On the outside I was silent, but on the inside I was a flurry of nerves like a calm stream that has just hit a rapid.
It was this journey, which for the first time in life, made me explore the true meaning ‘death’. But I knew, in order to understand death, I have to first understand its opposite – ‘Birth’. How does a blob of protein and water suddenly begin to take the form of eyes, lungs, organs and gradually, in few months, a human baby? Suddenly, a miracle occurs that we call ‘birth’, somehow all of the baby’s organs, which were dependent on the mother for 9 months, start functioning on their own. On the contrary, if we see death’s story is just the opposite, all organs seem to shut-down on their own. The lungs, which pumped air millions of times during a lifetime, fail to pump once more; millions of neurons which functioned for an entire lifetime just resign to work. What’s the force that was driving us this whole time? What is the truth of life? the Answer is not that hard…..In fact we already know it!!!
‘Soul’, ‘Aatma’, ‘Spirit’ whatever we may choose to call it, is the answer to the riddle of life. Death is just a halt in the journey – A journey of the transformation of our soul, just like how a caterpillar surrounds itself in a ‘cocoon’ only to emerge as a magnificent ‘butterfly’. The Soul is immortal it just undertakes the journey we call life to undergo more refinement and yes, our actions in life have an effect on our soul as well. I will take on the discussion of heaven & hell some other day as it will make some of us happy and some of us sad. But, the truth stands out – it’s the soul that gives us identity, and not the body. Imagine a body without soul, it doesn’t have an identity or name it’s just a ‘dead-body’.
This thought gave me strength as I reached home. I still have memories of the first funeral I attended from my early childhood – my best’s friend’s father had died. I rushed to the place and saw my friend sitting on the side of his father’s body – a small boy crouching, speechless, eyes all red from crying, something happened inside me. Maybe it was in the atmosphere, tears came streaming down my face and I ran and hugged my friend. I remember, that was the longest I had cried till date. I still don’t know the reason for my reaction, maybe then it was the fear of losing someone dear, fear of death – something so unknown to me back then.
Today however though the atmosphere was the same, something had changed, I was not afraid. I saw my mother and aunts weeping quietly, their eyes red – ‘blood-shot’. In the centre there was my ‘grandmother’ quietly lying like a princess draped in white. I saw my cousin wiping a tear as he touched grand-mother’s feet. It was my turn, but I already knew she was not there; it was just her cocoon lying in front of me, by now she will be soaring to higher realms. I quietly went the other way and sat on my knees beside her. I closed my eyes, leaned over and gently kissed her fore-head. Opening my eyes I smiled and whispered,” All the best for your new journey my dear princess”.
In the end I would like to summarize by quoting few lines from writing of great Poet Rabindranath Tagore:
The night kissed the fading day with a whisper….
….”I am death, your mother,
From me you will get new birth.”
–END–
