Till death do us part is a very popular expression in English language that connotes the resolve of two deeply in love individuals to stay put come what may. In simple language this expression becomes — only death can separate us. So that is the power of death all acknowledge. But despite this people do not like to believe that death will visit them.
This is one of the greatest surprises of this patently mortal world in which death, perhaps, is the only certainty. That this world is a temporary abode is a reality most do not like to believe. So they live, and go on hankering after their possessions as if they are going to live forever. With death taking place all around this is rather intriguing. More so, because people are actually aware of death and are not unmindful of it. But not being unmindful of death is different from understanding it.
This is a paradoxical state brought out very succinctly in the famous ‘Yaksha-Yuddhistira Samvada’ or the dialogue between Yaksha and Yuddhistira the eldest of the pandavas in the Mahabharata. During their period of exile after losing in the game of dice with the kauravas, the pandavas were living in forest. On one occasion in quest of water all pandava brothers except one die after drinking water from a pond. Yuddhistira, the eldest of them goes to find out what has gone wrong when his brothers don’t return. On reaching the pond Yuddhistira is confronted by Yaksha who was in fact Dharmaraja, the lord of life and death, in disguise. Yaksha asks Yuddhistira to answer a set of questions before he can drink the water from the pond.
Among those questions is the most meaningful question, ‘Kim ascharayam,’ a Sanskrit expression that means what is the greatest surprise. Yuddhistira, known for his sagacity and righteousness gives a profound answer. He says that even as we human beings witness death all around each day, we somehow seem to think of us as an exception.
Though death strikes every one, the rich, the poor, the high and mighty, and the lowly, the greatest surprise is that those alive strangely cannot relate it to their impending mortality and carry on life as if death will spare them. That this answer satisfies Dharmaraja, the Yama disguised as Yakhsha and he blesses Yuddhistira is besides the point.
The issue is why people tend to look over the other side on the question of death visiting them. The implications of this tete-a-tete of Yuddhistira with Dharmaraja are rather subtle for the ordinary mind that is under the influence of the ego. The predicament of the human mind contaminated with this ego is strange. It fears death and also knows that all will die. Yet, wishes he won’t and desires for the impossible — life till eternity. In psychology, this paradox has been explained through the process of cognitive dissonance which says that human mind offers its own rationalisation for realities it does not wish to accept.
It is an ego defense mechanism that makes a human beings give a pat on their back even when they do not deserve it. The recourse is to see the reality and accept mortality as a fact of life.
Don’t fear death, but be ready to face it. As Gandhi had said “live as if you were to die tomorrow. Work as if you were to live forever.”.
The writer is a professor, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad (Jharkhand). He can be reached at ppathak.ism@gmail.com