Hate to Love , Love to Hate

A National Geographic survey on events found that there is only one thing in this world which can be predicted with 100% predictibilty. One thing that can beet any book-keeper's odds at 1 in 1. Surer than the sun rising, the tides, the seasons. Reliabler than the best machines in the world, yet a creation as old as time. As old as the first sensation, the first emotion, the first living thing.

Death !

"Your thoughts reach higher than the air;You dream of wide fields' cultivation.The homes you plan surpass the homesThat men have known, but you do err,Guiding your life afar.But one there is who'll catch the swift,Who goes a way obscured in gloom,And sudden, unseen, overtakesAnd robs us of our distant hopes—Death, mortals' source of many woes."[The actor Neoptólemos. Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 16.92.3]

But ...But..Is there a way out ???

Immortality can be achieved in three ways says coventional research :

1) Physical Immortality : You can torture your body with the latest of gadgets , techniques and then hope that you won't kick the bucket when the grim reaper comes.

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How to beat death ...

1. challenge Grim Reaper to silly games ( worked in the movie Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey ). the sillier you think of, the more is your chance of winning

2. Pretend to be someone else ( pretending to be someone alive works best )

3. Get a really wicked painter to paint a picture of you which does all wierd stuff including coming in movies

4. Divide yourself into tiny bits and put in horcruxes or whatever they are called in Harry Potter. a very good suggestion is to contact your local psychopath and arrange a meeting. Telling him exactlty where in his home , which body part you want will help him give you unexpected service

5. My own original idea, which i will try out when time comes and let you know only if it succeds. ( nobody is dragging my dead body to court for some silly comment I made )

O.K. back to the serious stuff.

2) Spiritual Immortaility : If you follow the concept of reincarnation / karma / whatever you will accept that the soul is wthout end and beginning and is there always. Hence the immortality it will bring along its self. Heavena nd Hell are also two constructs of this

3) Legacy : Andy Warhol had once said that everyone will have their 15 minutes of fame. Stretch it a bit farther, hammer it even thinkly. Extend it in elastic zone, reach the yield point and extend it beyond plastic deformation till you just reach ultimate strain and you may have immortailty by deeds. This is not a forum for morality and hence I will not be debating on issues of those dimensions here but I will say Hitler will be more remembered than Edison. Judas than Moses.

"The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones."

Let this be an understanding of our immortailty and the way to achieve it.

But does it all make sense ? Is it worth it ? In Douglas Adams one finds Woebagger, an immortal so disillusioned with having done all that he decides on a quest to personally abuse all living beings in the universe. There is also the story of the flyimg Dutchman doomed to travel the seas for eternity and beyond. There is also the story of Bhisma in Mahabharata who decided to die when he felt that his needs and duties had been fulfilled.

If immortality is the price and not the benefit accrued why do we still pine for it ?

If we are happy to live our meagre life in full proportions and then be willing for the adventure beyond will we ever pine for immortality. Will Gilgamesh still dive deep ?

The answers to these question we do not know but it is possible to know why we fear death.

1. The overwhelming sense of dissapointment that comes when we realize that what we could have done but left unfinished in our lives.

2. The uncertainity of what lies beyond the tangible vision and understanding of the human senses. What is beyond life ?

3. The horrible feeling of the judgement of your life and actions and someone actually knowing what you did with your neighbour's cat when you were 7 years old

4. The horror of suddenly finding out that there is heaven which is not as pearly , peachy as it looks and a hell which is worse than our worse nightmares.

5. To look up on the face of death itself.

Numerous accounts have been written of how one waits the time to see the face of death. How one's life flashes before one's eyes. How detah should be taken as the next step, the greatest adventure. How death is the gretaest equalizer , propagating communism and capitalism in its throes. How the face of death is the chill one gets when one realizes the choices have been made.

Oh ! How does one not take it as the next step !

Oh ! how does one fear to stare into the face of death !

But ...but..

what if death was what we expected her to be ?

[picture courtsey : Neil Gaiman , Sandman Comics ]