“Uncle wine or scotch?” enquires affectionately our host, an young doctor, our family friend, noticing me shivering from cold, despite it being fully protected from top to toe. The car was warm, the house I entered into was warm but the short exposure in between to the biting ( -7 degree C ) was horrible. I removed my warm jacket, monkey cap and gloves and our guest lead me to the comforts of a cosy sofa in the tastefully furnished drawing room and handed over a shining glass with scotch whisky.
That helped ! The mind -machine, started working.
‘Had I got acquainted with this young man much earlier, my sister Raji would have been alive today’ I thought. My guest is a leading gastroenterologist and liver specialist.
‘Foolish, you are’ admonishes another thought wave ‘She passed away some thirty years ago, when your host was a child. Moreover, she w
as given the best possible treatment available those days’
Raji was my second sister, dearest to me and others in the family. A very affectionate girl, simple mannered, smiling always, helpful in nature and what not. Her liver was damaged irreparably and our friend would have helped by transplanting a replacement. That was my first thought, demolished by the second one.
The passing away of our dear and nears always make us ask ourselves whether the death was preventable and would it have been possible t
o stop it, had we acted in a different way, in a better way.
A relative in my extended family, recently, returned home after a walk in the evening, dropped and died on the spot. Nothing could be done. His wife, on his request, was making dosa and before the first dosa came out of the iron tawa, her husband was dead! He was alive, visibly in good health, when she went into the kitchen, a moment ago!
We hear about many such cases. We can understand the Shock the family undergoes through at the end of the day, one wishes and pray for such ends to his own life. What a relief when compared to the agony in the inhospitable hospitable bed!
The arrival into this world is with a lot of preparations, fanfare and pre- announcements and the departure in many cases are abrupt, unannounced. The fellow who looked down upon you, a few minutes ago, as if you were nothing, in the next moment, is lying dead down below, like a log.
Is death predetermined? ‘Yes’, say many. ‘How?’ ask others.
If it is predetermined, why health care and other disciplines?
If it is not predetermined how do people die unexpectedly by accidents and other unforeseen reasons?
Now the inner engine turns towards some men of the past like SamkarachAraya, Ramanujan and Swamy Vivekananda who had short sojourn in this world but achieved great things. Were those great souls sent to this world with specific projects and called back when their job was over? That is supporting the theory that death is predetermined.
If death is predetermined, how did thousands got washed away in the Badarinath floods? Natural disasters and man – made calamities are carrying away hundreds of innocents into the oblivion and does it mean that all those unfortunate souls were assembled in a particular place like herds of animals pushed into a butchery?
“You go on asking the same questions again again. Give us the answer?” – a chorus from my inside machine.
My host comes with another glass of scotch. ‘Uncle?”
“No. Thanks, young man. I know when to stop. Now, my priority is chutta pappadams,
Roasted pappads on the dining table.
“Going away without answering us?” The chorus from inside again.
I quote from another wise man, as all wise men do, when they have no answer of their own for a difficult question.
“There is such a thing as the light of reason.
We all posses it. It illuminates everything.
So, rather than being caught up, step back into the cool, calm and dispassionate light of reason”
To be frank, I don’t know what it means!
But when I bite the chutta pappadam, it asks, “does that light tell you that I’m better than my deep -fried cousin?”
Ah, that language I follow -‘take care of your health and “leave unto the God, the rest”
I pick up one more Pappad and bite. It asks, ‘death is predetermined or accidental?’
I hate inconvenient questions. I give the chutta pappadam one more bite.
Baltimore,
Feb 04, 2015
Comments:
Something touched my heart very deeply but am unable to put in words anything mama!! Soul touching post! !
Gopalkrishanan Geetha
Mama profound and upanishadic article! I was roaming in the nooks and corners of your mind which has seen the rise and ebb of tidal thoughts and yet the very essential question on death remains unanswered to this day! Nachiketas not withstanding no one has a truly definite answer to this enigma. So as your conclusion goes I also believe that take care of health ( physical mental emotional financial etc) and don’t bother much!
Annapurna Muthuraman.
A very nice and a deeply ponderable subject, SPji.
KR Suryanarayanan
. Hi Siva subramanian Ji! I have been reading ur posts, this particular one is awesome, birth and death is explained in a different dimension….
Tks for this wonderful writing
Kakshmi Bhat
Great post. Enjoyed reading it. Then you stopped making the reader crave for more….
Lalitha Vydyanathan
. Reminds me of my dad.
Krish Chalat
Sir,
You have your own distinct style of expression. ..It makes a good read. .
Srs Mani
A very nice and a deeply ponderable subject, SPji.
KR Suryanarayanan
Hi Siva subramanian Ji! I have been reading ur posts, this particular one is awesome, birth and death is explained in a different dimension….
Tks for this wonderful writing
Kakshmi Bhat
Great post. Enjoyed reading it. Then you stopped making the reader crave for more….
Lalitha Vydyanathan
Once again, well-written~
Bindya Viswanathan
Great read,mama
RoopA Ravi
Very nice post. But answers to the Q whether death is predetermined eludes us still.
Ganapathy C iyer
Very useful reading of your post. keep posting. your flow of english writing is very nice.
Padma Subramani
Sent from my iPad