Deaths

It is an event in life that occurs not too frequently for most. It come most often very suddenly, very unexpected, but sometimes expected, particularly with old age and disease. A death invariably affects almost anybody, around whether in close circle, or remote. Whether a commoner or a public figure, an artist or a leader of any kind. We all know that it is very natural, but are seldom ready to accept it when it arrives, many times it is indeed shocking. Some accept it as a natural consequence of life and some fear to face it squarely. Indeed death is a very interesting phenomenon, that has been of interest to many celebrities, consider the fallowing quotes: Some people are so afraid do die that they never begin to live. Henry Van Dyke Know one knows whether death, which people fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good. Plato The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time. Mark Twain Fear of death makes us devoid both of valour and religion. For want of valour is want of religious faith. Mahatma Gandhi The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead. Albert Einstein Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives. Andrew Sachs Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh; Life levels all men. Death reveals the eminent. Bernard Shaw As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death. Leonardo da Vinci Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death. Socrates Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come. Rabindranath Tagore If we don't know life, how can we know death? Confucius

Death is the end of one story and the beginning of another. Philip Moeller Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem to be more afraid of life than death. James Byrnes It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we're alive - to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross When we finally know we are dying, and all other sentient beings are dying with us, we start to have a burning, almost heartbreaking sense of the fragility and preciousness of each moment and each being, and from this can grow a deep, clear, limitless compassion for all beings. Sogyal Rinpoche After your death you will be what you were before your birth. Arthur Schopenhauer If you would behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life. For life and death are one, even as the river and sea are one. Kahlil Gibran Death is not the worst that can happen to men. Plato It is impossible that anything so natural, so necessary, and so universal as death should ever have been designed by Providence as an evil to mankind. Jonathan Swift Life is a great surprise. I do not see why death should not be an even grater one. Vladimir Nabokov In the depth of the anxiety of having to die is the anxiety of being eternally forgotten. Paul Tillich As death, when we come to consider it closely, is the true goal of our existence. I have formed during the last few years such close relations with this best and truest friend of mankind, that his image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is very soothing and consoling! I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart I am not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens. Woody Allen And now some proverbs about death!! When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice. Indian Proverb When the game is over, the king and the pawn go into the same box. Italian Proverb Live your own life, for you will die your own death. Latin Proverb But is there only one kind of death, that is when a body cannot sustain life biologically? What about death of an ideology, an idea, that has been dear just like any body? What about a piece of art, no less marvelous, say a music. I conclude with a very wise quote of Gautam Buddh. To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent. And then a poem from a memorable Hindi movie, in which the hero a terminal cancer patient (screen actor Late Rajesh Khanna) and his Doctor friend Amitabh Bachchan) enact a scene about death, reciting this

poem:

, , ,
Which may be translated as: Death! You're like a poem I've a pact with poem, will meet me As the pulse recedes, the pain and pain suffering feels sleepy And Moon with a pale face starts to rise and reach its zenith The day when still sunk in water, as the night near shore neither dark, nor bright; when still neither night nor day body when ends, the soul starts breathing I've a pact with a poem, will meet me One may watch the movie clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRFoOCJhqN8 Rakesh Mohan Hallen