DEATH: A DEMOLISHER OF DESIRES

Death is a sort of personal earthquake. Just as people have no control over an earthquake, they have no control over death, a unilateral attack that everyone must face, some day or the other. Death comes whenever it decides to, and man simply has to accept it, whether he likes it or not. But none of us know when our last moment in this world will arrive. This realization is enough to make every worldly pleasure unattractive for every person. Wealth, political power, fame etc, everything comes to be seen as utterly meaningless. This matter is not limited just to conventional material pleasures, but is wider than this. For instance, people’s minds are such that if they develop differences with somebody, they derive great pleasure in doing their character assassination. Disfiguring their image becomes their favourite pastime. They begin to think that talking bad about them is a good thing, even though what they say is baseless. If people were to live in awareness of death, they would have abstained from such negative talk because they would know that as soon as death arrives, all this talk would become baseless and there would be no one to listen to it. One’s unpleasant experience with others might cause one to engage in negative activities. But the thought of death keeps in check these negativities in a person, as he realizes that his life in this world is only temporary. Being ever conscious of death, will actually make us live better. We will value everything we possess today in terms of time and resources and make use of it to the best of our abilities. The constant thought that one day all this will be taken away from us, will be a great motivator for putting it to the best use today. o Defuse If someone provokes you, defuse the issue through unilateral avoidance.