Death — An Essential Blessing
A necessity for the survival of Life
Death — the very word strikes an inextinguishable flame of fear; its prospect wonderfully concentrates the mind on a single focusing point — the end of human existence. People barely talk about it and peer beyond the very word itself and allow themselves to contemplate its true implications. This is an understandable reaction, given the fact that seeking permanence, survival and protection of self-integrity are the universal traits of all living creatures. The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity — activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man.
Now, what is the meaning of death?
In biological terms, death is the irreversible cessation of all physical and mental functions that sustain life, the process in which the body shuts down and consciousness faces extinction, the stage where life ultimately ends, forever. The philosophical meaning upon which the majority of the masses generally agree is that death is the separation of the soul from the physical body, the body deteriorates, the soul continues to live on as it always has, now unfettered by the physical constraints of the body.
Despite countless definitions and theories about death found in science and religions, we don’t know anything about it. When we think of death, most of the times, no picture comes to our mind except a frightening emptiness. This happens because the concept of death is unique and unlike most other concepts. Usually, we have an object and the concept of that object. For example, we have a horse and the concept of a horse. However, the concept of death is absolute without any object whatsoever, it is abstract. There is no method for getting to know death better because death cannot be known at all.
It is beyond our five senses to fully grasp the concept of death, not because a man can’t experience it, a dying person does experience the separation of the soul from the body but because, that person is unable to express the occurrence as all his senses during that moment are rapidly liquidating, crashing and collapsing. That is why, death is always described from the perspective of the living, not of the dying person himself.
Having no solid content, it’s easier to understand death metaphorically. It is like a door with a mirror. A door that leads to a place where physical presence is non-existent and time is absent. Man is born facing this door, from that moment on, every step taken is towards that door, and he cannot turn away because there is simply no other direction to take. Like a funhouse mirror, the door of death shows us our living fears and distorted images of ourselves. All we see when we look at death is a reflection of our own lives.
How death allows life
An amusing anecdote from the Sasanian era playfully illustrates the concept of how death is the reason for the continuation of all life forms. The Mighty Khusro of Persia was terrified of death, moaning in utter despair he cried: “The world would be heaven if there had been no Death. Death has ruined the Joy of Life, oh how greatly I wish man could live on forever”. The king’s vizier overheard the mourning of the king and replied, “O’ Lord, Death is an essential blessing. Had your ancestors still lived, would have you attained this throne and crown?
The occurrence of death is a universal law that ensures the continuation of life. Because the natural departure of living beings from their designated spaces allows area and capacity for the existence of new ones. Envision how the Earth would look like if all the previous species of humans, plants and animals that existed on this planet still thrived. It would be catastrophic in every aspect. Hence life would cease to exist.
Mortality is what makes life valuable because it places a limit on the time available. This limit of time makes each day of life priceless. Without death, there can be no appreciation of life because then man would be stuck in this endless cycle of constant presence. There would be no urgency for leading a meaningful and productive life, there would be no sense of danger, no understanding of pain and loss, no understanding of true happiness because all meaning would be lost. Man would not strive to vitalize it as much as we strive to embellish our allotted time on Earth because what would be the point? Why get something done today when there will always be a tomorrow?
The fear that an unknown timer is continuously ticking and will go off at any instant is what drives us to live our lives at the fullest rather than merely existing. Thus the value of life is not measured by its longevity but by worthwhile living. Birth and death are like the bookends of human life. Living towards death provides a direction and framework for understanding life. The world looks very different to the young and the old. The young look forward. The old look back. What matters to us changes as we get older. The certainty that death will happen informs these changes. The young have an intellectual understanding that death comes to us all but their mortality has not yet become a reality for them. For the old, mortality starts to sink in. The fear of death is indeed universal in the human condition and the inevitable end for all.
In my humble opinion, ignoring death leaves one with a false sense of life’s permanence and perhaps encourages him to lose himself in the minutiae of daily life. Fanatic contemplation on death, on the other hand, can lead man away from life. Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in the middle.