Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.

Blaise Pascal

ROLE OF BELIEF

I wonder if certain beliefs are built to help people overcome crippling fears.

We believe in the eternity of the soul and reincarnation. Humans are mortal. So are all other living organisms.

Inanimate objects are permanent like rocks and mountains. But they do change. Maybe we see those as permanent, because their life spans are much longer than ours, and we never get to see a complete cycle of their existence.

Oceans are constantly changing because of new life being injected into them. Permanence is a state of constant renewal.

Similarly, the soul wears several bodies till it reaches its permanent state in Nirvana. Nirvana is the state of amalgamation with Universal Energy and release from the birth and death cycle.

The concept of reincarnation and rebirth reduces the fear of death, as one thinks about doing something or meeting someone in a future lifetime.

DEATH AND SORROW

Why then is death associated with sorrow?

We cry for the ones who are left behind, not for those who are gone. We cry about premature deaths because the plans made for this life remain incomplete. The person who dies young or dies suddenly is unable to complete certain projects.

As you rightly say, the pain associated with the process of dying makes us grieve. The pain may be physical or psychological. If a person is not prepared for the finale, s/he suffers. There are times I’ve found myself praying for the quick exit of a person. It relieves the person from physical pain, and the family from the physical, financial and emotional aspects of caregiving.

Near and dear ones are inconsolable when they are not prepared. They have never imagined existence without the dead person, and they take time to overcome and accept it.

The Osho commune celebrates death. Some communities celebrate the death of a person who has seen the fourth generation. It is assumed that s/he has lived a complete life and there was nothing left to look forward to. It is the end of a fulfilled cycle.

We have a quaint custom of gifting a tiny gold ladder (it can get as big as the children can afford) to a great-grandmother or great-grandfather. The golden ladder symbolizes a pathway to heaven.

ASSUMPTION OF CONTINUITY

Many a time, business and political leaders keep their illness secret so that the company or party’s stock does not fall.

The assumption of continuity makes an average person buy a company’s stock or vote for a candidate. They either overestimate an individual or fear that the successors may not be good enough.

Tying up the results of a project to an individual’s performance is irrational, but so are human foibles of thought.

I look forward to death and the soul experience beyond it.

I am audacious enough to think there are a few books inside me that I would like to write before I die. But it is fine if I can’t. I will be born a child prodigy and start writing at an early age in the next life.

And so on, till there is nothing left to desire.

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
― Mark Twain

To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

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Written for Friday Faithfuls – Human Existence hosted by Jim Adams