Death is a Fiction
Reading I
Do you agree with the following statements? Discuss
a. Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.
b. From the day you are born, you are slowly dying.
Did you ever see somebody who actually died and came back? No. There may be a near-death experience. Near is not good enough. Near water is not as good enough as water, isn’t it? So, some people have nearly died, that is not good enough.
So you have not experienced it, you have not seen it, nor have you had a piece of first-hand information from anybody. So from where did you get this idea that there is something called death? Death is a fiction created by ignorant people. Death is the creation of people who live their lives in total unawareness. There is only life, life, and life alone, moving from one dimension to another, another dimension to another.
See, what you call life right now, the process of life; you can also refer to it as death. You can say “I am living right now” or you can say “I am dying right now.” Actually, from the day you are born you are slowly dying. One day the process will be complete. Right now it is on concerned, without a moment’s distraction, it is going straight to the grave, nowhere else. Isn’t it so?
So is death okay or not okay? Even these kinds of questions which are coming up are silly, because whether you say it is okay or not okay, any way you will die. Every moment you are playing between life and death and life and death – actually it is so. This inhalation, exhalation... You inhaled, life happened. You exhaled and did not inhale again, death happened, isn’t it?
See, every moment in Yoga we say inhalation is life, exhalation is death. You exhale, and if you do not take in the next inhalation it dislodges you from the body. So fragile, isn’t it so? Something so fragile is the basis of your existence here. Death is walking with you every step. It is so close all the time. There is nothing wrong with death; it has to happen. Only because there is death, there is life. You need to understand that the moment you are born, you have a death sentence upon you. When, where, and how is the only question, but you are on death row. Your death is confirmed, isn’t it?
We do not know whether you will get educated or not; we do not know whether you will get married or not; we do not know whether you will know joy or not; we do not know whether you will know misery or not; but we know one day you will die. That one thing is guaranteed. This whole fear of death has come simply because you have no idea what it is. You have formed ideas about everything, just about everything. But it does not matter what ideas you have formed about life, when you are confronted with the moment of death, you really do not know anything. That is one space of life that has remained uncorrupted by the human mind. Everything else we have corrupted, isn’t it? Whatever was supposed to be sacred, all these things are hugely corrupted by the human mind. Human minds have corrupted love, relationships, God, Divinity – everything they have corrupted and twisted out whichever way they want.
Death is one thing that they are still clueless about–though a lot of people would like to talk authoritatively about it. They know they are going to go to heaven; they are dead sure about it. If they are so sure, I don’t see what they are waiting for. They are doing everything not to go to heaven. Why? If you are so sure you are going to a wonderful place, a better place than this, and then you must hurry up. But because you are not sure, you talk. You are not 100% sure where you will go, what will happen to you. Just to solace yourself, just to be able to psychologically handle life, you create all these things.
But essentially, the very idea of death has come to you because people have been talking about it without knowing about it. Otherwise, if your societies did not speak about it, you would just know the way you are right now, your present existence, is not permanent. That you would know, but you would not have any other ideas about it. Even now you do not have any idea about it; you imagine that you have.
-Sadhguru (excerpt from Life and Death in one breath)
A. Find the words from the text that have the following meanings.
a. a thing that is imagined imaginary/fiction
b. a way of looking at something dimension
c. to force somebody to leave …………….........
d. faced somebody so that you could not avoid …...…………….
e. to make somebody feel better ………………….
B. Fill in the blanks with appropriate words.
a. Death is a fiction created by human beings.
b. Ultimately, we are moving straight to the grave
c. According to the speaker, death is ultimate truth It is sure to happen.
d. The human beings have ……… everything and they have twisted in whichever way they want.
C. Answer the following questions.
a. According to the speaker, there is only life. How?
➡ According to the speaker there is only life because death is a fiction created by humans and when a person dies the dimension of life will be changed not the body or soul.
b. What is life according to Yoga?
c. Why is there nothing wrong with death?
➡ Because the death is only truth to have in human life and it is obvious that one day everyone has to die so there is nothing wrong with death.
d. Why do we fear death?
➡ We do fear death because we are unknown about it.
e. Why do people have an idea of death?