The Fear of Death

February 23, 2015

The Fear of Death

Death frightens all of us. But it frightens some more than the others. At least, a true atheist dies mentally at ease, without worrying about the punishments that await him/her after the death or gloating over some imaginary delights in Hades.
~Nasir Khan

A further remark: How people look at death is very much conditioned by their social customs and traditions. The part played by religions in depicting death and after-life have impacted humanity deeply. For some people the process of life and death is an eternal wheel that keeps on turning and is unstoppable until some big intervention or karma happens that puts an end to it thus releasing the eternal soul from the cycles of birth and rebirth, incarnations and reincarnations. However, our consciousness of death or lack of our understanding of what death is does not change the reality of death. By the reality of death I mean the inevitability of the event.

In common parlance we assume the death to be an outside factor that takes place at some time and thus puts an end to life. But is it like this? It is not a question of our different opinions about it but our realisation of the process of life, as a living organism, that ceases at some point in time and that is called death. In other words, this event is part of the process of life. How individuals reflect upon life and death in general and how they see their own lives and their inevitalbe demise is part of that multi-faceted landscape they see and experience. Finally, many readers and commentators may come up with their views and perspectives on the issues raised here, which is quite natural.