We human beings live our life as if we are going to be here forever. At younger age we do not bother about death as it does not come into your thoughts and dreams. We become so possessed with our possessions and pleasures, we spend most of our time engaging in this activity and there is no time to think about death.
Someone has said each second we live and we die. Death is like a shadow that is always with us as inseparable. We are alive, therefore we have to die, and I think this is the simplest explanation available.
Death started haunting me from very young age and it was a never ending journey in search of the meaning of death and dying.
I still remember when my grandmother died, immediately they shifted her from bed to the floor, tied her legs together and put cotton in her nose and ears, removed all her jewellary. I could not believe this transformation from human being to corpse in seconds.
What makes a body to a corps in seconds? Is it because the heart stops beating? Or all the biological activity and breathing stops. I learned in my quest that it is more than due to all this. What we call as myself somehow is seems to be something more than our body. It is because our mind leaves our body, or the connection between our mind and body ceases.
There are different thoughts in different philosophies round the world. Hindu’s believes that once the “Prana” leaves our body we die. Since I do not experience my “Prana” it is easy for me to refer it as my energy. Prana or Mind or energy whatever it may be, I think we can feel that.
So there is something which you can feel within you but not see. Therefore the medical explanation available in books describing death is too mediocre. We die because that something which you can feel but not see ceases to exist in human beings.
There are several good books written by Dr Elizabeth Kubler Ross, like Death and dying and life after death etc. In these books she documents the transition very clearly. She has given narrative instances from near death experiences. Those who have undergone such experiences have explained their feelings of floating outside the body for few seconds.
We also indulge in extensive rituals after death in the family. I feel we ritualize death and dying as humans need ritual to deal with mortality. Often I remember the rituals I had undergone at the time of my grandmothers death and it has left an ever longing impression on my mind.
I have seen inscriptions of “Rests in peace” in cemetery, and wondered whether we have to die to rest in peace. If we cannot rest in peace in the present life which is very much in our hands whether we can rest in peace after death? Will our “prana” carry the burden of sufferings forward?
For some people death comes as a blessing, for those who suffer painful disease. Perhaps they may rest in peace at death. I have experienced that people who dye a natural death enjoy serenity towards the end.
Recently I went to an ICU to see my mother in law and found many critically ill people surviving there supported by machines and tubes r. That was a suffocating scene. The ICU smelled the smell of death. The smell and silence was haunting while the patients struggled alone in a caged atmosphere.
I feel one should have luck to have a natural death. A peaceful transition in a calm and serene atmosphere is all we can long for.
If we realize how fragile our life is and how at any moment it could be turned upside down, we will walk very kindly and modestly in this planet.
Someone has said each second we live and we die. Death is like a shadow that is always with us as inseparable. We are alive, therefore we have to die, and I think this is the simplest explanation available.
Death started haunting me from very young age and it was a never ending journey in search of the meaning of death and dying.
I still remember when my grandmother died, immediately they shifted her from bed to the floor, tied her legs together and put cotton in her nose and ears, removed all her jewellary. I could not believe this transformation from human being to corpse in seconds.
What makes a body to a corps in seconds? Is it because the heart stops beating? Or all the biological activity and breathing stops. I learned in my quest that it is more than due to all this. What we call as myself somehow is seems to be something more than our body. It is because our mind leaves our body, or the connection between our mind and body ceases.
There are different thoughts in different philosophies round the world. Hindu’s believes that once the “Prana” leaves our body we die. Since I do not experience my “Prana” it is easy for me to refer it as my energy. Prana or Mind or energy whatever it may be, I think we can feel that.
So there is something which you can feel within you but not see. Therefore the medical explanation available in books describing death is too mediocre. We die because that something which you can feel but not see ceases to exist in human beings.
There are several good books written by Dr Elizabeth Kubler Ross, like Death and dying and life after death etc. In these books she documents the transition very clearly. She has given narrative instances from near death experiences. Those who have undergone such experiences have explained their feelings of floating outside the body for few seconds.
We also indulge in extensive rituals after death in the family. I feel we ritualize death and dying as humans need ritual to deal with mortality. Often I remember the rituals I had undergone at the time of my grandmothers death and it has left an ever longing impression on my mind.
I have seen inscriptions of “Rests in peace” in cemetery, and wondered whether we have to die to rest in peace. If we cannot rest in peace in the present life which is very much in our hands whether we can rest in peace after death? Will our “prana” carry the burden of sufferings forward?
For some people death comes as a blessing, for those who suffer painful disease. Perhaps they may rest in peace at death. I have experienced that people who dye a natural death enjoy serenity towards the end.
Recently I went to an ICU to see my mother in law and found many critically ill people surviving there supported by machines and tubes r. That was a suffocating scene. The ICU smelled the smell of death. The smell and silence was haunting while the patients struggled alone in a caged atmosphere.
I feel one should have luck to have a natural death. A peaceful transition in a calm and serene atmosphere is all we can long for.
If we realize how fragile our life is and how at any moment it could be turned upside down, we will walk very kindly and modestly in this planet.
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