One by one they died as they attempted to collect water without listening to the questions fielded by this Crane. Finally came Yudhisthir; he agreed to answer. Before putting the questions to Yudhisthir, the Crane revealed itself as Yaksha. He asked 18 interesting philosophical questions, each one answered satisfactorily by Yudhisthir.
One of the questions was:
Yaksha: What is the greatest wonder?
Yudhisthir: The greatest wonder is that even though every day one sees countless living entities dying, he still acts and thinks as if he will live forever.
Isn’t it true? Though we all know that we are here for finite time but we believe and behave as if we would live forever. We think ‘this can’t happen to me’. In recent times there have been few incidences in which people like you and me have lost their lives in very bizarre incidents-
Bizarre!
These are just few examples of people like us who would have thought the same thing –‘it can’t happen to me’. You can carry on reading. Neither have I taken up any agency for Insurance nor have an intention to scare you. Just thinking aloud about something which is also the surest thing in the world – the death.
What happens when one dies?
Traditionally, death was determined through the end of certain bodily functions, especially respiration and heartbeat. However, the increasing ability of the medical science to resuscitate people with no respiration, heartbeat, or other external signs of life, contributed to the confusion and concern about the "definition" of death.
In fact, most countries have adopted “brain death” as legal definition of death. A brain-dead individual has no clinical evidence of brain function upon physical examination. This includes no response to pain and no cranial nerve reflexes (e.g. fixed pupils). Most of the organ donation happens in the setting of “brain-death”.
However, it is not yet clear that in the brain death too, if the whole brain is entirely destroyed. Residual hormonal function, maintenance of blood pressure and the presence of certain reflexes, as well as the presence (in some cases) of measurable electrical activity in the brain, particularly in response to stimuli, all cast doubt of the supposedly 'total' character of brain death.
Now the Medical Science argues that death is not an event but a process. As Encyclopedia Britannica states –
“A quiet, “classical” death provides perhaps the best illustration of death as a process. Several minutes after the heart has stopped beating, a mini-electrocardiogram may be recorded, if one probes for signals from within the cardiac cavity. Three hours later, the pupils still respond to pilocarpine drops by contracting, and muscles repeatedly tapped may still mechanically shorten. A viable skin graft may be obtained from the deceased 24 hours after the heart has stopped, a viable bone graft 48 hours later, and a viable arterial graft as late as 72 hours after cardiac stoppage. Cells clearly differ widely in their ability to withstand the deprivation of oxygen supply that follows arrest of the circulation.”
This is because the body still remains intact for sometime after the “person” is gone. A clear proof that body can’t be the person. Nor can the person thus be the Heart or even the Brain.
So as the person is “gone” – it is clearly something else which goes away missing. That something is the difference between life and death. One may argue that one such thing is “awareness”. But awareness per se can’t be ‘the person’ as in one’s deep sleep or in coma, he surely is not aware but is alive, for sure.
Something else is missing. With my limited and spiritually challenged mind, I can only think of an analogy of something like electricity which when cut-off from an appliance –like a television set - which earlier seemed so full of life, full of colours and sound - now just goes dead.
Is it safe to assume that this “electricity-like” thing which goes away is some sort of energy? If so, will it be carrying with it, the impressions & vibrations of the person-it-was? Also, as in the case of electricity, it can’t manifest itself on its own but can it start working again if it gets connected to another appliance?
All are not created equal at birth – even if the hereditary and time factors are kept as same as possible (say in case of twins), still right from the birth, each one is unique individual with a different response to the same stimuli. Possibly the impressions and vibrations of past can explain the difference.
You may also like one of my earlier poems on the subjects – “Soul”. Happy reading:
Soul
Who is the real me,
my thoughts and emotions ?
how would you then account for
all my glorious actions ?
Am I an awareness then ?
But back there on my bed,
as I sleep unaware
surely I’m not dead.
The day I died, my body was lying
with no energy – an abandoned den,
I can’t be that body for sure
I must be the energy then.
Neither created nor destroyed,
I, the energy, go on and on
the gross body is over though,
I, the energy, just changed form.
Even with my body gone
alive I’m, in whatever form.
Who says spirits don’t exist
or people are not re-born ?
