On Monday the 10th of August, 2020 the creative head of my company and her family met an immense loss when her father passed away. The loss got incredibly magnified as some 6 years back her mother had also gone into the realm of another world. I received the news through a WhatsApp message seeing which I called her to express my condolence. She was totally shaken and in a pool of tears. I had absolutely no idea what to say. Words faltered me. I so wished to somehow make her feel a little OK but failed to do so. I prayed for the departed soul and for the bereaved family and the whole day dwelt on DEATH.
Almost all of us must have thought about it, more or less. But as soon as the thought comes to us normally we try to put it aside. We don’t wish to think deep over it. Maybe yes, maybe no! But we fail to see when is it that death is not happening? Isn’t it happening right from the moment we are born? Every second we are nearing it. Just getting closer to it. It is a truth we cannot ignore even if we don’t wish to think about it. Our fear of death and losing everything dear to us is so strong that we simply don’t wish to ponder over it. Yet no matter how hard we try death will get us one day. It always gets everyone. Not sooner, not later, just at the time of it. So is death truly to be feared? Well, let us give our perspective a shift. What if I say death is always close to us and not a distant thing? With every new breath life is happening and with every breathe out death. One of the reasons why almost all Realized Masters have highlighted the importance of conscious and mindful breathing.
Let us look at death closely through these timeless quotes –
1. “If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character, would you slow down? Or speed up?”
– Chuck Palahniuk
2. “Fear of death is ridiculous, because as long as you are not dead you are alive, and when you are dead there is nothing more to worry about!”
– Paramahansa Yogananda
3. “If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them.”
—James O’Barr
4. “Tell your friend that in his death, a part of you dies and goes with him. Wherever he goes, you also go. He will not be alone.”
– Jiddu Krishnamurti
5. “Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides”.
– Lao Tzu
6. “If you don’t know how to die, don’t worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you; don’t bother your head about it.”
– Montaigne
7. “Death is a challenge. It tells us not to waste time… It tells us to tell each other right now that we love each other”.
– Leo Buscaglia
8. “People fear death even more than pain. It’s strange that they fear death. Life hurts a lot more than death. At the point of death, the pain is over.
– Jim Morrison
9. “One clings to life although there is nothing to be called life; another clings to death although there is nothing to be called death. In reality, there is nothing to be born; consequently, there is nothing to perish.”
– Buddha
10. “Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.”
– Henry Scott Holland
11. “Death is the dropping of the flower that the fruit may swell.”
– Henry Ward Beecher
12. “What is lovely never dies, but passes into other loveliness.”
– Thomas Bailey
13. “Man cannot possess anything as long as he fears death. But to him who does not fear it, everything belongs.”
– Leo Tolstoy
14. “The only reason why people have such a fear of death is they know nothing beyond the body.”
– Sadhguru
15. “Nothing is dying, nothing is taking rebirth. Don’t let the illusion fool you. Matter is merely being transformed. Water evaporates, and it rains back down again. Everything in the play of nature remains part of the game — eternally.”
– Om Swami
Life exists. So does death. And it is good that is the way it is. Think of a life which has no end. How would it look like to see every dear thing pass on in front of one’s eyes and one is just living on and on. Death is the truth. Life is a mystery. Take life gracefully. Take death gracefully. We will die to the fullest. So why not live life to the fullest? Do not fear death. Everything passes. The fear shall pass. We too shall pass!
To understand death more deeply here is an amazing blog by The Master Himself. Read on – How to overcome the fear of Death