Don't be proud, Dear Death

DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
.......................
........................
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.


These are the verses from a poem i read during my school, beautifully composed by John Donne. Of all the poems that i have admired this one kept on lingering in my head while others nested in the archives of my memory.

This poem mocks at death asking it not to be proud because of the stature it is given by the people.

What is death? What happens when you die? Many have given different interpretations of it. Science says death is the absence of life and happens when you either stop breathing or your heart stops beating. What is life, what part of the body does life reside when your body is still alive and kicking. How does life enter your body? Well everybody knows its the sperm that fertilizes the egg and the egg evolves into a human body. Can sperm be called as life? There is another part of science which says the cells of your body keep dying from the day you were born (the day the egg was fertilized). But there is another process which reproduces the cells. Only, in the beginning the production of the cells is much faster than the deterioration and as time goes by it is reversed and finally the deterioration of the cells gains momentum while production of cells diminishes. When the production of cells stops, your body will slowly stop functioning and gives in to death. The deterioration of body cells happen even after we consider somebody dead, only it happens very rapidly. Doctors consider somebody dead when their heart stops beating, why does the heart stop beating, because the blood pressure decreases why does the blood pressure decrease? Oh well enough of science about death and this is not even the reason i started this post.

Every religion discusses the duality of life, body and soul. When these are together someone is said to be alive. The body is destructible where the soul is eternal. We came into this world naked, but we start wearing clothes when we gain the knowledge that we are naked. Generally our parents have the knowledge by the time we are born, so they cover us up and tell us the importance of putting some clothes on, to cover your naked body. From the time we started wearing clothes we change numerous pairs for various reasons, the clothes faded away, they are too soiled, they are torn, they don't fit us anymore, they are out of fashion etc. We are happy about shopping for new clothes, discarding the ones we cant wear anymore for the reasons mentioned and put on the new ones. Clothes have become so important than the body itself that, the clothes you wear represents what you are. Similarly a soul wears a body to represent or identify itself physically and uses the senses that come along with the body to See, Hear, Touch, Smell, Taste, Think and Communicate. In due course of time the body gets soiled, it is subjected to wear and tear, or the soul grows, rather attains higher states and doesn't fit into the body anymore, and even the body goes out of fashion. I would like to attribute it to evolution. Did you notice that the homo sapiens were fully covered with lots of body hair and as the body kept evolving it lost all its hair and the bodies these days come with far lesser hair. Today hair all over the body is considered gross and person with lots of hair is treated prehistoric. Bodies with less hair is the in thing for the souls these days and that should be reason almost no souls come with lots of hair on their bodies.

So death essentially means the destruction of the body that the soul has been wearing. What happens when your clothes are destroyed, You wear new clothes and the soul wears a new body. When you are happy about discarding old clothes and wearing new ones, you should be happy about discarding an old body and wearing a new body. In that case maybe death should not be treated with such disrespect and fear. So why are people scared of it, why do people shudder at the mere mention of the word Death (like all the witches and wizards shudder at the mention of name "lord Voldemort" ). Why are they worried, why is death considered bad when it is as natural a process as birth which is considered good and celebrated. I think i have answers.. As we have evolved ourselves through ages we started attributing so much importance to the clothes we wear than our body itself that, clothes formed our identity, you have become what you wear, your clothes reflect your character. Almost everybody feel bad when discarding their favourite clothes. Similarly we have attributed so much importance to the body that the souls wear, rather than the soul itself that we started identifying the soul by the body. Hence we are afraid of leaving the body, we have grown affectionate of the body and are so attached that we feel sad about leaving it one day. If only we realize that we are the soul and not the body we are living in, we might not treat death the way we treat.

There are other reasons too. What happens when you realize that your clothes are getting old? Those who are rich and can afford costlier and better clothes are happy because they have shopped enough already. Those who are financially stable would go and shop for clothes, they might not be the clothes that the rich wear but are good enough. Those that have saved just enough would go and shop only when necessary and the budget is restricted to what they have saved. Then there is a class of people who neither earned nor saved enough, they hang on to the clothes they are wearing because, they cannot think of newer or better clothes. The only clothes they currently have are the ones they think they will ever have.

Similarly rich or evolved souls never worry about death and are happy because they have realized that the body deteriorates and they have to leave it one day only to enter into a new body, hence they are prepared, they have already shopped.(when i say they have shopped, it doesn't mean that they already have another body to get in. It essentially means that they have nurtured their spirit towards self actualization ) There are souls that learn about the truth in due course of time and work their way towards spirituality. These souls are said to be in the process of evolving and they are ready before the time comes to discard their old worn out body. Even these are not worried about death. Then there is a category of souls who worked so much on nurturing bodily pleasures that they know the truth all the time but don't accept it until the time comes. They nurture their spirit when it becomes essential just enough to make it to a new body, not necessarily a better one. The last category of souls are very much attached to the body and live in constant fear of death because they never attempt to realize that the soul is eternal. These souls identify themselves so much with their body that destruction of the body essentially means the end.


In ancient Greece when someone dies they do not mourn, they carry out celebrations for 12 days, because it is believed that the soul goes around for 11 days and enters another body on the 12th day. Even in India after a person's death a ceremony is done on the 11th day and a feast is organized. Very few know the underlying concept of the 11th day ceremony.

So death do not be proud because i have realized i am the soul and not the body and know you are just a stage between discarding my old worn out body and and wearing a newer and better one. You are just a short sleep before i wake up eternally.