The Meaning of Death

What do you mean by death Mom?," asked a six-year old to his mom. All his mother could say was that everyone in this world lives and dies. And that death is really the end of a mortal soul.

But is Death really an end to life itself. How then do you make children understand its significance. Most of us consider death to be this deep dark dungeon, where beyond the fact that your deeds make your arrangements of your further stay aboard! Most of us believe that death is associated with some sort of fear, the fear of the unknown. But when you don’t really know what you’re heading for, then why fear??

A generation of answers
Many of us in this world are so busy trying to live life beyond its existence that truly living life to its fullest is a rather difficult affair. When you try making children understand a profound concept like Death, its difficult to penetrate through their innocent minds that there is going to be a vacuum created henceforth and that life moves on…For kids its probably a notion that God sent me here for a certain period in life and now that he’s so lonely after having created so many things around him, so he needs me back there!

For the oldies "who have seen it all" its only a matter of time when they shall understand death in all its proximities. But truly, do any of us really understand what death is all about? Amidst the pain and the truthful experiences in life that make us wiser by the day its still leaves many questions unanswered, what do we mean by Death?

For youngsters, it’s easy to die for each other, as emotions take the better of us and dying for the other is but a "natural" feeling, though momentarily so! We assume life to be unending only to find that all this time spent was really to better equip yourself with the reality called "Death". Which perhaps explains the reason why as we get older, we tend to become closer and closer to God! Perhaps it’s the final reckoning with the Almighty that makes us do so!

Understanding Death
But this understanding of Death still remains a vital question. As many philosophies and religions propagate, death is but an extension of life itself. Though this life is more spiritual and less physical. Moreover, life being depicted as fulfilling all your dreams all along its passage makes this notion a wee bit difficult to digest. From a child’s perspective, it only hinders around giving and receiving Love. For children to understand the concept of dying purely means that the Almighty father who created us allowed us to live our lives. And since he created so many of us so that we aren’t loners on this planet, he gave us various examples of human existence, like friends, parents and people whom we related to on a day-to-day existence! When the mother made her six-year old understand the truth behind the created vacuum called Death, although confused, the child still had the sparkle of curiosity, for Death, as it were…..A curiosity, that we share too as adults!
By Prerna Salla