Do we really need to fear death?

All my life I have observed and wondered about society’s obsession with young age and the fear associated with death. I have often heard people talk excitedly about technologies or substances that might one day help man become immortal or at least live for hundreds of years. If the desire was to elongate man’s lifetime, I might have still understood but the ultimate desire seems to be to defeat death. I am all for use of technology and whatever man can come up with to help people live long and healthy lives but I simply do not get this perpetual desire to escape death; it seems naive, illogical and confounding to me.

My question is why has society demonized death, something that is simply a natural culmination of life and that has served this planet so well for so long? What is this undying need to defeat death? How do you know if living forever is something that would make you happy and not miserable? What would life feel like if you lived for a long time after everybody you ever loved passed away? What would life feel like if you could stay young forever while everybody around you aged and experienced the different colours of life and you stagnated in the so-called ‘golden age of youth’? What would life feel like if you lived for 500 years and still could not figure it out, would 500 seem better than a 100 years then? Aren’t both 100 and 500 simply numbers? Is it bigger numbers that we are after or is there something else I’m missing? Do you seek solace in life from ‘the so called demon of death’? How is that even possible when death is an inextricable part of the cycle of life? The cycle only comes to an end with the death of that which was born; this is an unwritten rule of nature, has always been!

I understand that humans fear uncertainty and that is what death perhaps symbolizes to many people but isn’t tomorrow uncertain too? Could you ever be sure if you would be healthy at 70 years or would always have a roof over your head or if you would get that promised promotion or if your loved ones would lead a happy life or whether you would be able to deal with everything that life hands you when you were least expecting it? I am just trying to say that uncertainty or impermanence is but another word for life. If you fear uncertainty or impermanence, you essentially FEAR LIFE. What good is anything if fear is the driving force behind everything you do?

A life of fear is as good as a life spent living in a cage wishing to be able to fly one day but never really finding the courage to test one’s wings even though the cage isn’t locked.

I happen to believe this fear of death stems from religion to some extent because the idea of facing hell or heaven after death goes a long way in instilling this fear in the minds of people. First of all who knows whether these places even exist but for the sake of argument if we did say that we head to one of them after we die, it’s funny that people who want to go to heaven still wish to get there without dying! That is like wanting to quench one’s thirst without drinking water. I don’t know where you or I or anybody is headed after death but since we have no clue or do not know for sure, let’s just focus on what we do know — this life and how to live it to the best of our ability. If you do end up in hell, just deal with it mate because really you are not going to get any options once there! And if it is heaven where you land up, voila! You were just worrying and wasting your life for nothing! :P

On a more serious note, I think this world would cease to be beautiful if trees lived forever, if the seasons never changed, if the same people lived for an eternity and clamored for space with the younger generations, if it was always daytime, if it was always the same.

Which one is more beautiful — a stagnant pond or a flowing river?

If you picked the one I guess you did, then why cling on to dear life with fear? Instead why not focus on living the time we get as beautifully as we possibly can and when it is time, to let go without regrets and with love to spare? Why not live a life so full that when it is time to go, we welcome death just as we welcomed every day of our life? Why judge death when you really don’t know the other side? Heck you haven’t even figured out life yet and you’re spending precious moments worrying about something as vague as death and the after story?

Why don’t we focus on living a happy life instead of living an incredibly long life? Which one would you pick if you had the option to choose between a short but happy life and a long but not so memorable life? Does the answer seem logical only to me? I am not at all saying that the two are mutually exclusive. I wish everybody would live a long and happy life but my point is that we focus on the wrong details. We focus on the number of years more than the quality of the years spent.

If you have a life worth living, cherish it and focus on your life alone. There are people who are so unfortunate that they go racing towards death because they cannot seem to find a way out of the darkness in their life. There are people who deeply desire death because life just doesn’t seem worth it from the hospital bed they have spent many years on. There are people who badly want what you are trying to escape but are not lucky enough to get it.

I am neither supporting nor arguing against anybody’s choices and desires. I am simply questioning the fear of death and humankind’s quest to escape that which not only I see as inescapable but also beautiful. I am also asking for a change in our perception of death and as a result of life because the two belong to the same cycle. The more we fear death, the more intimidating it seems to us when it doesn’t have to be. By living a beautiful life and focusing on the present, we can let go of this unfounded fear passed on to us by the society we live in.

Don’t be greedy, you never know what a life as long as 200 or 500 years might feel like. It might be the opposite of happy, healthy, and peaceful. Don’t be clingy because whatever you cling to will certainly leave you behind one day. Don’t be fearful because fear can never be stronger than love. Live today and let go when it is time to make way for the new. Live with love and grace and let go with just as much love.

Embrace death like a friend when it is your turn and my guess is death would be just as kind to you in return because death too is ‘a creation’ of the planet you live on, one that unconditionally showers you with love and kindness every single day.

Why wouldn’t this planet take care of you just the same way when you are ready to say goodbye? Don’t you think? Why believe the worse when you could choose to believe the better, the more beautiful and just as believable picture? Tell me why?

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