Life would lose its meaning and importance without its two endpoints, birth and death. Although they are the two sides of the coin called life, I tend to give more weight to birth, as it not only starts a life but simultaneously gives birth to many relationships – mother, father, grandparents, brothers, sisters etc. – which even death can't end.
Still, death is a stage that most of us fear and face with trepidation. Whether human or animal, everyone fears death. But when death asks its questions, one has a little choice but to respond positively. So why do most fear death?
In my opinion the fear of anything arises from an inability to control it and the uncertainty that brings. Our inability to overpower death, and the uncertainty as to what happens after death, are what make us fearful of it. As an advancing and scientifically enhanced global tribe, we have achieved nearly complete control over birth, and can regulate it as per one's personal wish. But with death no such breakthrough has been achieved. Also we are in uncharted territory as regards to what happens after death.
No one knows what happens after death. We hear stories of reincarnations, ghost sightings, and the like, while religions have beliefs regarding heaven and hell, dwelling places for souls after death. But there is no concrete evidence to prove any of those beliefs.
Fear will will haunt us as long as we live, if we allow it to grow. We all voluntarily or involuntarily face our fears every day. Whether we face them with trepidation or with all the strength that we can muster is solely up to us.
A poet has rightly described life as one long dream from which a man never wakes up. Let’s see life as an energy form that is continuously flowing, with birth and death mere catalysts changing the course of the flow. Both death and birth are followed by cries, so why should we fear and mourn one and celebrate the other? We should learn not to see death as an end, but as a convergence point from where one’s flow of life takes a new shape and direction.
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