Death is permanent, maybe sooner or later. It does not occur when you are prepared for it, rather it attacks when you are not expecting it.
I haven't really experienced any death except until I was small. Back then I didn't had an idea of what life or death is. Recently I had an encounter with a body of a person that took care of me like its own child, my aunt. I, then felt what it feels inside to see a body with no trace of life in it.
The incident took place in the emergency ward of the hospital. There was a machine which had its wires attached to the patient's body. The machine measured the pulse rate and blood pressure. Basically the machine was a medium to show the people that the patient's heart is still working. This machine made a constant loud beep sound within a time interval of 2 seconds. The patient was lying unconscious. The beep was so loud that I felt like it pierced my eardrums. With each beep I felt more alarmed about the next moment of what the machine was gonna show. It was like waiting in anticipation for something to happen, knowing that eventually it will happen. As time passed, the 2 seconds interval beeps died to a permanent sound, showing that the person is no more.
I touched the body. It was ice cold as the blood circulation has ceased. The body was lying down, eyes closed, like it was in a deep sleep. The little children's cried for the gone. People were giving chocolates and money to them to cheer them up, making up stories that the body is sleeping and will get up in a while and start playing with them. All this stuff was clouding my head, making it turn in a headache.
Lots of rituals took place, around the body, covering it up with white cloth, shifting it on a bamboo bed with the four ends extended to carry it all the way to the final destination. I saw it rise, lifted and carried. I carried the weight too, it felt like the person was blessing me to carry her.
The shore of the Ganges waited. The fog had covered up the sky completely making it difficult to see through the other shore. The water was ice cold. Some bodies were being lighted along the shore. It was a creepy moment for me.
The wooden bed was ready. The rituals performed and the body being lifted on to the bed. It was covered further with the woods. 'Mukh-agni' or lighting up the bed from the side of the head was done by the younger son. Soon the bed was on fire. Slowly it engulfed the whole body inside it. The muscle's were slowly being burned layer by layer until it's core. The bones too burnt down like they were not bones but logs of woods. People said that the body has been returned back to the earth, from where it was risen. At the end I saw the skull, completely burnt, half black and half white. Goosebumps startled me and I closed my eyes just to see the same picture that was in front of me.
That day I realised the power of fire, its beauty and its tragedy. Fire is amazing, the most beautiful thing made by god. It has the power to build and destroy, give and take!!
"Death is not a painful process;
It is a path to freedom."
