A question of life and death

The visit to Haridwar and Rishikesh has opened up a Pandora’s Box of questions and confusions in my mind. Who are we, where have we come from, where will we go? Matter can neither be created nor destroyed; it can only be transformed from one form to another. That’s the basic in physics. Then where did this entire universe with countless galaxies come from.

That’s what so many people thought about, and they made some very logical conclusions about karma, janma and so on, but none of them is very convincing until we are too religious to question anything. The Bhagwat Gita answers many things, but then the concept of atma or soul is a very convenient and soothing assumption according to me. It gives us so much relief that if we do good our soul may find bliss and merge with god, or we may take another human janma or we may go to heaven etc. there are so many good options available after death if we do good, so we try to be good, but then what happens after death is still a mystery.

I personally think chir nidra or eternal sleep is the best description of death, without dreams, when time flows infinitely fast. Souls form out of chemicals on the earth, and they vanish when the physical forms cease to exist, not a very comfortable thought for us, but better than being born and facing some horrible conditions many of the living creatures face on earth. Where is god when innocent living beings die long painful untimely deaths? The learned have tried to explain it by karmas of previous births that are the only logical conclusion that comes to mind if god is to be considered just and all powerful. But what if god is a vast unknown.


The various rituals of all the religions give us a lot of continuity and comfort; it ends the confusion on how to behave in certain situations, like manners and etiquettes. Sometimes we follow them too far, like flocking to places considered auspicious, kundalis, mahurats etc. If we go too deep there will be further contradictions that I myself went to a place considered auspicious, and I don’t believe in it, but I found it comforting. We ignore science and facts at our own peril. Ganga is not a goddess, it is not flowing out of lord Shiva’s hairs, it is melting out of a glacier that is shrinking fast. There are estimates based on satellite photos that it may dry up completely in the next hundred years. We may keep chanting bhajans at the top of our voice, but the Ganga will dry up, sooner than we think. That’s what happens when vast masses refuse to see anything else than what is written in ancient books.

It is ridiculous that even the highly educated amongst us believe in some things which have no scientific background, no logic whatsoever. Even today most families match kundalies for marriages, advertise under headings like “manglik”(gross), wear different stones on different fingers, “mujhe monga suite nahi karta” “to ashtadhaatu me neelam pahan lo”. People have become millionaires by writing books on star signs. I have seen close family members changing names, and saying things like “9 number mere liye shubh hai”. The latest to hit us is vastu. To hell with all the fools who toil so hard studying math, science, medicine, engineering, history, architecture. We will follow frauds, semi or uneducated thugs. We will never ask questions.

I was once waiting for a train at pathankot station. The train had to come from somewhere and take us to Delhi. I had been in situation like that before, but it dawned on me on that day. That’s what life is. Staying at a station for an infinitely small time. The difference is we don’t know from where the train came, or where it will go. Don’t think too much about any damn thing, don’t feel too much attachment for worldly things, relax and enjoy your stay. Our forward journey reservation is confirmed and it is not in our hand to miss the train. I had typed your forward journey when I realized that I was also included. That’s how we are, always thinking unconsciously that we are immortal. I remember the lines of David Attenborough in one of his shows on nature about life in a jungle. “Those who are lucky will die of natural causes”. I don’t believe in astrology (star signs etc.) and kundalis but there is one thing I can forecast with conviction that will happen to all of us, you know what.