Neutralise the pangs of death

Ageing or the process of growing old remains a perennial problem for human beings. However, it must be stated at the outset that ageing is not a disease.

Although the tissues of the body gradually deteriorate with advancing age, many of the disorders that affect elderly people are due to other reasons such as lack of exercise, the wrong kind of food, smoking, or excessive drinking.

If you look at it objectively, old age is the climax of life. When you are young, you live in the future. You have many ambitions to achieve.

However, when you are old, you live in the present. Elderly people do not have to think of the future and waste their precious time. Young people want to make the best use of their time. They are always in a hurry to have their desires fulfilled.

When young people become old, they understand the utter futility of their desires. In their old age they are free from ambitions. It is like a calm day that follows a storm. If you are not immature, you begin to see the beauty of the world from a new perspective.

Those who think that life is not a punishment but a reward do not grow old. Instead they grow up! The question arises: How can I grow up? The answer is simple. You grow up when you learn some new skill. Age is no barrier for learning. When you learn a new subject, you become a child. Your boredom will vanish and your brain will be at peak performance.

Some of the elderly people are better learners than the young. Young people have to cope with many distractions, so they neglect their studies. When elderly people are engaged in learning, they begin to radiate. When you radiate, others will begin to respect you. Then nobody will call you a “dirty old man or a woman”. Instead they will treat you as a sage. Isn’t that wonderful?

Apart from the accumulation of knowledge, learning helps you to move from moment to moment meaningfully. Krishnamurti once said, “A disciplined mind sees everything very clearly, objectively, not emotionally, not sentimentally.”

As far as learning is concerned, we can take a cue from the Chinese. They sometimes fight, but are not a combative race like the Americans. They also do not greatly admire success in war or in business. Therefore, I hold the Chinese in high esteem because they admire learning more than any other pursuits in life. The Chinese are also credited with admiring urbanity and courtesy.

Some people fear that memory declines with advancing age. This does not happen always. If elderly people make it a habit to use their brains, their memory will remain preserved and in good order. Some elderly people are more conscious of normal lapses of memory than the young. If you are worried always thinking that you might develop dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, you have to blame yourself.

It is true that most elderly people become victims of diabetes, coronary heart disease or paralysis. Even if they are incurable, you must not give up hopes. While taking treatment, you must try to stay cheerful without brooding over your sickness. Wallowing in self pity is worse than death.

Elderly people and those who are approaching the old age have a lot to learn from their Chinese counterparts. While the Westerners work hard to accumulate wealth, the Chinese have developed an infinite capacity for leisurely amusements. For instance, the Chinese go to the theatre very often, talk while having tea and admire the beauty of nature.

Apart from diseases, some elderly people sometimes develop a morbid fear of death. What do we mean by death? It is simply giving up everything you have, your body, your wife or husband, your children, your house, your pets and of course your books.

I remember reading a brilliant essay on ‘Death’ written by William Hazlitt. He says, “perhaps the best cure for the fear of death is to reflect that life has a beginning as well as an end.” When you are young, you never pay attention to such philosophical ideas. But when you approach your old age, things take a different turn.

The trouble with human beings is that no young man or woman ever thinks that he or she will die. They believe that only old people die! For them, “All men are mortal is only an abstract syllogism. Thus youth, with their hectic activities and animal spirits will laugh at old age and death.

Although people speak of “irreparable loss” on the death of someone, if you think deeply, we do not leave a great void in society when we depart. Even in a closely knit family, the gap is not so great because the wound will close up sooner than anybody would have expected. People will, no doubt, walk along the streets and engage in their day to day activities quite unmindful of your death. While living, we might think that the world needs us. But when we depart, the world will go on as usual without a murmur.

However, there are strong exceptions to this situation. When great philosophers such as Gauthama Buddha, J. Krishnamurti, Bertrand Russel, Plato, Socrates and Aristotle left this world, they created a big void extremely impossible to fill.In conclusion let me quote William Hazlitt once again because his ideas are valid for all times.

He said “The most rational cure after all for the inordinate fear of death is to set a just value on life. If we merely wish to continue on the scene to indulge our headstrong humours and tormenting passions we had better be gone at once, and if we cherish a fondness for existence according to the good we derive from it, the pangs we feel at parting with it will not be very severe!

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