Warning: The content below may venture into minutely detailed graphic discussions and is recommended only for a mature audience. (And for the guys who are encouraged by the 'mature audience' part, sorry, no naked girls involved here!!) On an afterthought, it might also hurt some religious feelings.
I have been to a few social events. We have all been. There's the crowd of the 100 people. Groups of people standing together, phone numbers being exchanged, introductions being made, the budget being discussed. But there was a difference here, all of this was being done albeit in remarkably hushed tones. After all someone had just 'passed away'. Yup, that's right! All of these people had collected at one of the most remarkable social functions of all time. To celebrate death, to perform the last samskara of a human being's life (or the end of it). It seemed sorta hypocritical to me! Hey guys! Someone's just died. So stand aloof in philosophical agony!! Why the hell are you still immersed in the mundanity of life?
But then, I revised my opinions. After all if 100 people come together what do you expect them to do? Discuss the current topic? Discuss the horrors of death and love of life. I could almost imagine a conversation:
"You know my uncle, he had an accident, guts all spilled out on the road!! It was so gross!!"
"Woh to kuchh bhi nahi hai, my uncle toh....."
Before my imagination could complete this sentence, I decided the budget was infinitely better. Perhaps, we make an effort to collect a hundred people to ascertain mundanity. To walk away the gruesome reality that confronts us. Truly, this once you are alive, and then, you are dead! Dead! Kaput! Like the impromptu disappearing act of a magician's show! Only difference being you can never reappear like the magician on the show! And the 'you' suddenly turns into 'the body'. Ever noticed that? How everyone calls it a body, and does not name it by name. That certainly tells you something has changed quite dramatically. And we are so afraid of it, we don't even call it death. So, what's permanent becomes temporary! Like say passed away: It has that nice soothing effect of saying that the person has gone to a nearby paan shop and would return anytime now. Also evidence the 'kick the bucket' and closer home the 'tapak gaya', the colloquial rebellion finds its own escape from the grim reality.
(On a lighter note, if one exists, I find it very difficult to cry at such times. Especially when someone is mentions 'swargawasi' (heaven bound). I mean, Hey! hell is facing such a shortage of souls. I cannot remember anyone actually going there. And then there's the always the 'Ye kyun chale gaye?' (Why did s/he have to go?) which brings me to the question 'Why? Would it rather be you?')
But what about those who cannot run away. Like the guy in the crematorium, whose job is to adjust the 'bodies' on the funeral pyre. Or the fellow who sees to it that the whole pyre burns without much smoke. I read somewhere that human beings need humour for survival. Be it the workplace, the home, the marriage, the classroom, humour marks our very existence. I for once, would certainly be interested in the crematorium worker's humour. I mean what do joke about? 'Hey! You know that fat guy! He wanted to burn fat the whole of his life!', 'Arre! rain spoiled the day for that old lady!'. What do those people talk to their wives about? 'Honey! I burnt 6 bodies today! I feel so satisfied!'. And I shudder to think of it when they talk about job challenges. What a life!!
But perhaps living in the vicinity of death makes it mundane for them. Like doctors are immune to the sight of blood. Perhaps this is a sort of blessing in disguise which takes away the fear and awe that the 'end' inspires. You see, we are all afraid actually. In any community, the old are always more pious than the young. While this may have many reasons, one is certainly the imminent end of life. While the young age looks forward to life and freedom, gray haired wisdom is confronted by a death staring in the face. And when you think about it, you also think why take chances? I mean ok, you don't believe in heaven and hell. But, with whatever teeny-weeny chance it has, what if it turns out to be right? It would be a pretty clumsy afterlife, and the worst thing to hear would be, 'I told you so!'. So better try to wash off all the 'sins' while there's still time, just in case........
Again, it also proves that God does not exist. While everyone may argue that 'death' proves the existence of omnipotence, I stand firmly against it. Otherwise, why do people cry? Why isn't it considered as the ordinary business of life. Infact, why isn't it looked forward too. Think heaven, think advaita, think of 'panchatatva vileena' , think 'being one with the gods'...... We all know its false. That's why. It's all a load of balderdash we have created to comfort ourselves..... that's all I can think of. I see no one quite willing and happy to die. Hey! If it were all true, if heaven really has the kind of hoors or apsaras, a lot of men would die (pun intended) to go there. If I were really pious, I would spend my life preparing and raring to die. Life would be nothing but one big celebration in the welcome of death. So, yes death in a way proves our inherent disbelief in God.
But would I want anyone to cry when I die? Nopes! Simply because, all said and done, I do not realize where life ends and death begins. Though the brain dead can live on life-support systems, no one really thinks of them as living. No one calls them 'a body' too. So, they don't have life but are not dead too. Come to think of it, I am drawn to the fact that there is some inherent 'consciousness' which we call life. Its not the ability to walk or to talk but knowing when and how to talk and when and how to walk. Its the feeling that comes when you have really 'understood' something. It is something associated and enmeshed with thought. I know its vague, but I have only felt it and am remarkably poor of words at describing it. So, if life is thought, its about thinking, its about ideas. (Surely, its not about the body. The body is still there when I die, so why still call it 'the body'?) If life is about consciousness and about ideas, then no one can die. For ideas transform, change, pass on, enervate, rejuvenate but ideas never die. And all us participate in this amorphous world of thought, of consciuosness. Our existence is that tweak, that wrinke in this formless nebula! Bigger tweaks are in the form of the Buddha and smaller ones are like you and me. So, it all fits in. It's my concept of the Advaita, of being one with the Bramha. Because form does not matter, its just a device to bring about that tweak. Collective consciousness is something that lives on, forever. So, I am immortal and I celebrate my immortality.......
(Yes! So I am escapist!! Kill me for it! I never claimed sainthood anyways!)
I have been to a few social events. We have all been. There's the crowd of the 100 people. Groups of people standing together, phone numbers being exchanged, introductions being made, the budget being discussed. But there was a difference here, all of this was being done albeit in remarkably hushed tones. After all someone had just 'passed away'. Yup, that's right! All of these people had collected at one of the most remarkable social functions of all time. To celebrate death, to perform the last samskara of a human being's life (or the end of it). It seemed sorta hypocritical to me! Hey guys! Someone's just died. So stand aloof in philosophical agony!! Why the hell are you still immersed in the mundanity of life?
But then, I revised my opinions. After all if 100 people come together what do you expect them to do? Discuss the current topic? Discuss the horrors of death and love of life. I could almost imagine a conversation:
"You know my uncle, he had an accident, guts all spilled out on the road!! It was so gross!!"
"Woh to kuchh bhi nahi hai, my uncle toh....."
Before my imagination could complete this sentence, I decided the budget was infinitely better. Perhaps, we make an effort to collect a hundred people to ascertain mundanity. To walk away the gruesome reality that confronts us. Truly, this once you are alive, and then, you are dead! Dead! Kaput! Like the impromptu disappearing act of a magician's show! Only difference being you can never reappear like the magician on the show! And the 'you' suddenly turns into 'the body'. Ever noticed that? How everyone calls it a body, and does not name it by name. That certainly tells you something has changed quite dramatically. And we are so afraid of it, we don't even call it death. So, what's permanent becomes temporary! Like say passed away: It has that nice soothing effect of saying that the person has gone to a nearby paan shop and would return anytime now. Also evidence the 'kick the bucket' and closer home the 'tapak gaya', the colloquial rebellion finds its own escape from the grim reality.
(On a lighter note, if one exists, I find it very difficult to cry at such times. Especially when someone is mentions 'swargawasi' (heaven bound). I mean, Hey! hell is facing such a shortage of souls. I cannot remember anyone actually going there. And then there's the always the 'Ye kyun chale gaye?' (Why did s/he have to go?) which brings me to the question 'Why? Would it rather be you?')
But what about those who cannot run away. Like the guy in the crematorium, whose job is to adjust the 'bodies' on the funeral pyre. Or the fellow who sees to it that the whole pyre burns without much smoke. I read somewhere that human beings need humour for survival. Be it the workplace, the home, the marriage, the classroom, humour marks our very existence. I for once, would certainly be interested in the crematorium worker's humour. I mean what do joke about? 'Hey! You know that fat guy! He wanted to burn fat the whole of his life!', 'Arre! rain spoiled the day for that old lady!'. What do those people talk to their wives about? 'Honey! I burnt 6 bodies today! I feel so satisfied!'. And I shudder to think of it when they talk about job challenges. What a life!!
But perhaps living in the vicinity of death makes it mundane for them. Like doctors are immune to the sight of blood. Perhaps this is a sort of blessing in disguise which takes away the fear and awe that the 'end' inspires. You see, we are all afraid actually. In any community, the old are always more pious than the young. While this may have many reasons, one is certainly the imminent end of life. While the young age looks forward to life and freedom, gray haired wisdom is confronted by a death staring in the face. And when you think about it, you also think why take chances? I mean ok, you don't believe in heaven and hell. But, with whatever teeny-weeny chance it has, what if it turns out to be right? It would be a pretty clumsy afterlife, and the worst thing to hear would be, 'I told you so!'. So better try to wash off all the 'sins' while there's still time, just in case........
Again, it also proves that God does not exist. While everyone may argue that 'death' proves the existence of omnipotence, I stand firmly against it. Otherwise, why do people cry? Why isn't it considered as the ordinary business of life. Infact, why isn't it looked forward too. Think heaven, think advaita, think of 'panchatatva vileena' , think 'being one with the gods'...... We all know its false. That's why. It's all a load of balderdash we have created to comfort ourselves..... that's all I can think of. I see no one quite willing and happy to die. Hey! If it were all true, if heaven really has the kind of hoors or apsaras, a lot of men would die (pun intended) to go there. If I were really pious, I would spend my life preparing and raring to die. Life would be nothing but one big celebration in the welcome of death. So, yes death in a way proves our inherent disbelief in God.
But would I want anyone to cry when I die? Nopes! Simply because, all said and done, I do not realize where life ends and death begins. Though the brain dead can live on life-support systems, no one really thinks of them as living. No one calls them 'a body' too. So, they don't have life but are not dead too. Come to think of it, I am drawn to the fact that there is some inherent 'consciousness' which we call life. Its not the ability to walk or to talk but knowing when and how to talk and when and how to walk. Its the feeling that comes when you have really 'understood' something. It is something associated and enmeshed with thought. I know its vague, but I have only felt it and am remarkably poor of words at describing it. So, if life is thought, its about thinking, its about ideas. (Surely, its not about the body. The body is still there when I die, so why still call it 'the body'?) If life is about consciousness and about ideas, then no one can die. For ideas transform, change, pass on, enervate, rejuvenate but ideas never die. And all us participate in this amorphous world of thought, of consciuosness. Our existence is that tweak, that wrinke in this formless nebula! Bigger tweaks are in the form of the Buddha and smaller ones are like you and me. So, it all fits in. It's my concept of the Advaita, of being one with the Bramha. Because form does not matter, its just a device to bring about that tweak. Collective consciousness is something that lives on, forever. So, I am immortal and I celebrate my immortality.......
(Yes! So I am escapist!! Kill me for it! I never claimed sainthood anyways!)
2 comments:
Great thoughts Ankur.
i just linked here from another site.
deep stuff.
do you visit www.intentblog.com ? lots of discusssions going on there started by deepak chopra, shekhar kapur and others.
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