I'm not ready for this departure...
There’s a maahaul of death and departure around. It’s as
if one is getting used to these deaths so much that it doesn’t touch us
anymore. We read about a school bus hit by a train and kids dying, or a car
plunging down a ravine and wiping out a family, or air-strikes in Gaza or Syria
which kill hundreds of civilians. Every day or the other an important person
departs and the news channels give a full coverage for a couple of days. Death
is another news item, it doesn’t move me, it doesn’t shake you, doesn’t prompt
anyone of us to ask, ‘What’s this? This
thing called death. Where does it take people?'
But it shakes us when
Death strikes nearby, takes away someone close. Or threatens to whisk away
someone we’ve been connected to for quite a while. There’s fear, a deep sense
of loss, terrible sorrow. Reminds us of our own mortality. Maybe touches a few
people at great depths and stirs in them a desire to know Death or even find
ways to transcend it.
The first time I read somewhere that only 5 % of human
population on this Earth is expected to make it to the next decade or so, I
felt nothing. Imagine 6 and a half billion people dying! Forget whether you
believe it or not, but the enormity of such a great departure? Or when I was
told that it’s possible that only 65% of
us will see 2013!
It does not shake me because I assume that I belong to that
surviving 65%. Or that precious 5%. And all my friends, relatives, colleagues,
milk maid, paperboy, water supplier and the shop-keeper across the street will
also survive these mad figures. It’s this assumption that ‘Death happens
elsewhere’ that numbs me and makes me insensitive.
Between these two extreme reactions to death—insensitive and
fearful—there must be a middle ground. It’s one of total acceptance and
understanding—not just in theory but in your heart. Maybe it comes when one is
on the threshold of death and is able to view things impassionedly. Or it might
arrive when one attains enlightenment. Or in some other state of mind I’m not
yet aware of.
There’s only one person I know who speaks of transcending
death, believes passionately in physical Immortality and has devised and shared
the spiritual practices which makes one Immortal.
For me, however, Death is still a concept which swings me
between the two extremes—indifference or one of sorrow and loss. And I’m too
much at the grosser level, unable to stand at a distance, at a height, and view things
from a broad perspective. If a stranger departs, I’ll not be moved. If someone close
departs, I’ll shake and shiver and brood. And I’ll always be blissfully unaware
of the fact that death is something that’ll happen to me too.
Transcending this humanness is difficult but I wish I could
do it. I wish I were Enlightened, now and here. But not yet...not yet.