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The frail Welsh poet Dylan
Thomas had a particular attitude towards the idea of death. It was dark, it
was meant mainly for the aged and it had to be resisted fiercely. His
advice ? Do not go gentle into that good night, / Old age should burn and rave
at close of day; / Rage, rage against the dying of the light. For someone
coming from a culture carrying the new-found baggage of an emerging
evolutionary science, this makes complete sense. Animals too don't like
forever, they thrash and fight back violently and viciously to preserve
life. It's the programming in them to stay alive to produce more of
themselves that makes them so. That makes us so too. We have animal
ancestry.
But an ancient Indian
tradition which didn't necessarily think along such locally defined lines
arrived at a completely different attitude towards death which is
diametrically opposite to Dylan Thomas. It saw dying as just another event
during the physical manifestation of a human being's essence as it
progressed from lower to higher levels of being. Thus the concept of death
as nothing but leaving the body behind arose. They called it Mahasamadhi,
the final conscious exit from the physical form which could come to pass
after attaining Samadhi --a state of consciousness induced by deep and
complete meditation for attaining total control over the functions and
distractions of the mind. In Mahasamadhi, instead of rage there is bliss and
joy in anticipation of an inclusive and unbroken union with to transcendent.
Instead of the extinction of one temporary and detached piece of light there
is the expectation of everlasting all engulfing radiance. Instead of
conserving the body it is a voluntary liberation from its confines.
But it comes at a cost and after an effort.
That's because in the normal human the animal still rages from the past all
the time under the skin and continues to instill fear of dying while fighting
continuously to control the forces leading up to it. Evolution unfortunately
has only managed to come so far by giving us life. It is up to humanity now
to take it further in order to deliver us from death. This can only happen
individually from a practice of betterment as advocated in the tradition of
yoga for instance which can make one rise above merely living to a well
lived life. This can then teach us how to stop raving at the close of day
and go gentle into that good light. |
