Death of Socrates
I encountered some brickbats for my first “Atheist letters to God”, but hey I should be free to express my opinions. Anyway I was checking it this morning and I came across the line where I wrote I am not scared of death, I was reminded of Socrates and how he encountered death.
Socrates, the greatest philosopher of the Greek civilisation, is condemned to death for showing “impiety” and “neglect of Gods whom the city worships and practice of religious novelties” and “corruption of the young”. The sentence, Socrates is supposed to embrace death by drinking a cup of hemlock. The circumstances leading to the death of Socrates is very well recounted by Plato in his books.
To cut to the chase, Crito and all his disciples are concerned that Socrates is going to leave them at dusk.
Socrates, who is least concerned that he is going to die, reprimands his disciples for thinking that death is evil and gives the following reasons for not fearing death.
Death is either a state of utter unconsciousness or transfer of soul from this world to another.
Now suppose it is the first, a state of utter unconsciousness, which can be considered a sleep undisturbed by dreams, then it must be great as eternity is then only a single night.
If it is the second, a journey to another far better place, then it is wonderful, for he can converse with great people, who are already dead, and can continue our search of the true knowledge.
In similiar tradition, the great Indian Sufi saint, Kabir once said
jaa marne se jag daren mere mann aanand
kab marhu kab paau puran Paramanand.
(Kabir says, the whole world fears death but I await it as I know I will meet God when I die)
Remember these people were not pessimists nor were they afraid or tired of life but they considered Death as a new begining rather than an end.
