Death can't be eulogised

Centuries ago, a mystic in Iran was going with his disciples. Suddenly, they heard plaintive cries come out of a house. “Someone is dead,” said one of the disciples. “Yes, very sad,” replied the mystic. “Sad?” “A mystic is never sad. Death mustn’t unnerve an enlightened person like you,” said one of his over smart disciples. “Does enlightenment mean no feelings or sense of absence? A normal human being always feels sad when someone departs and he must feel sorry at the thought that the departed person will never come back. The so-called enlightenment has nothing to do with it, because death can’t be philosophised or intellectualised,” said the great mystic Jami.

Indeed, death cannot be philosophised. All the useless talks of glorifying death and attempts of romanticising it are vain and futile. All man-made bogus religions were woven around the fear of death. Death is frightening and in the words of French existentialist Albert Camus, “ We glamorise death with a view to taking away its sting. Who has seen what’s going to happen once you die?” Eulogising death is a failed endeavour to perpetuate life in absentia. John Donne may have written, ”Death, be not proud,” but how many of us know that the great metaphysical poet also wrote, “I don’t want to die”? So, our sad reactions to the death of someone are absolutely normal. Because any man’s death must diminish us. Otherwise, why are we humans? It's because of the fear of death, ancient Egyptians used to mummify the dead body. Because a relatively intact human body was deemed to be an act of defiance to death. We can only feel at peace with death when we realise that we have lost someone and that person will never come back.

When death strikes, it doesn't think or differentiate as to who's its prey. Ergo, we must be true to ourselves and exude our sentiments as is expected of us. We must feel sorry where it’s required and happy when the occasion demands. We are all mortals and it ill behoves us to act like otherwise. In a nutshell, fear of death is inherent in all thinking creatures. No embellishment can rationalise it. Accept death to be the final blow, of which you can never recover.