A 60-year-old son was at the bedside of his elderly father and saw him breathing his last. The son was thoroughly anguished and shouted at the top of his voice, “Dad, be happy and cheerful wherever you are.”
An elderly person was in the hospital suffering from a terminal illness, and the doctor told his son that his days would be numbered. Then, the son went to his father with the intention of giving him confidence and courage to face the event ahead and told him, “Dad, do not worry. You would go to the same place where you came from.”
An elderly lady, known for wisdom and thoughtfulness, said at her ripe age that she would not mind dying but feel sad that she would be leaving her loved ones. She further said that if only she would know where she would go after breathing her last, then she may not have felt such a helpless thought process.
Obviously, all the above three real-life situations only highlight the anxiety in the minds of everyone about the destination after death. This also reflects on the desire to know clearly what would really happen after the event of death.
This is the question that has been haunting the minds of millions of human beings who have lived in the world over the last thousands of years and passed away to an unknown destination.
Religions Show a Path:
All religions have tried to “guess” to find an answer to this vexed question. Most religions say that humans would reach hell or heaven after the life process depending on the deeds and quality of life they have led.
The Hindu religion says that rebirths would happen multiple times until the person leads a pious life, with detachment for worldly happenings, when the inner soul would find itself one with the ultimate soul (God). Possibly, this stage is described as Consciousness, which is the Infinite Reality, as stated in the Aitareya Upanishad (Hindu scripture). Swami Vivekananda, one of the great Hindu philosophers, interprets this statement as “where it begins, there it ends.”
All religions and saints say that people should follow the tenets of such religious scriptures and cannot question them, as they have been time-tested and followed by various sages and saints from the days of yore and handed to people for generations.
However, it may appear to discerning people that none of these conclusions seem to be really conclusive. Human beings have no alternative other than believing one conclusion or the other.
Medical science and technology have succeeded to a considerable extent in assessing the cells and structure in the human body, and medical science reasonably explains the fact that there are natural biological processes in the human body that steadily cause the cells to break down and eventually lead to the end of life. Science explains the phenomenon of the growth of cells in the human body steadily and then diminishing over the years. But science is unable to go further and explain the destination of human life when the physical body would ultimately be buried or cremated.
Desire to Prolong Life:
It is only due to the lack of clarity about the destination after the life process that everyone wants to prolong their life as much as possible. In other words, everyone wants to postpone the event of death as much as possible, even as they realize that death is a natural and unavoidable process.
It is now reported that there are about 700 companies/research organizations around the world that are involved in longevity research to find ways for human beings to live much longer than they do now. It is further reported that millions of dollars of investment have been deployed in conducting such research. Of course, everyone would wish success for such research efforts on longevity of life.
Hope Against Hope:
Even those suffering from terminal illnesses, with doctors predicting the final day of life, would still hope that doctors would somehow save them from impending death. This is a hope-against-hope situation, even though the patients clearly know that the doctors cannot prolong life indefinitely and are aware that the doctors would also die one day.
Is Death a Better Option for the Sick Patients/Depressed People?:
Of course, there are instances when patients suffering from severe physical pain and suffering due to sickness would think for a while that it would be better to die than suffer, concluding that this could be a desperate alternative and escape route from physical suffering.
There are people who commit suicide due to mental depression due to one reason or another, and they too may think on some occasions that death could be an alternative option to escape from mental agony, even as they have no idea of the destination.
In certain religions, particularly Jainism, it is said that the religion permits elderly persons to starve themselves to death (what is called Samadhi in Sanskrit language) to reach the abode of God. Even these persons who choose such an option do so only on the basis of faith in the teachings of the religion, even as their relatives and friends may think that this could be a calculated risk of deliberately losing the precious human life to opt for an unknown destination. In any case, in most cases, it is seen that those who choose the option of starving to death are elderly persons who have nearly lived their “full life.”
There was a great saint, Vinoba Bhave, a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, who was said to have starved himself to death. Is it a case of faith overriding human thought processes?
Vinoba Bhave was a highly learned Hindu philosopher, and he could not have been unaware of the lack of clarity about the destination after the life process. He must have totally lost interest in worldly affairs, and must have become totally detached in his mindset and perhaps, became tired of living and opted to starve himself to death. Is there any other better way of justifying the decision of Vinoba Bhave to starve himself to death?
The Unanswered Question:
The question raised at the beginning of the article and the question raised at the end of this article are the same. This article does not and cannot point to the destination, just as the fact that it has not been conclusively revealed over the last thousands of years by several deep thinkers and saints.
The purported words of Brihaspati in Rig Veda, a great Hindu religious script, say it all in the following statement:
“But, after all, who knows, and who can say Whence it all came, and how creation happened? The gods themselves are later than creation, so who knows truly whence it has arisen? Whence all creation had its origin, the creator, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not, the creator, who surveys it all from the highest heaven, he knows — or maybe even he does not know.
