Preparing: For Death

by Arun Shourie

The one certainty in life, the one appointment which each of us will just have to face, is the one for which we do the least to prepare-death. From the lives and last days of the Buddha, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Ramana Maharshi, Gandhiji, Vinoba; from our religious texts; from the teachings of great meditation masters; from santhara to sannyas to practices by which we may tame our mind-leavening all these by his personal experiences-Arun Shourie presents clues to ensure that we face our end with equanimity.

In the process, he lays down what we must do if rituals, pilgrimages and mantras are to help us. He leads us to ask whether texts such as The Tibetan Book of the Dead are for the dead, or do they set out lessons for us, the living? He leads us to see through the sedatives that we are fed. Even as we are being frightened by accounts of 'hell', are we not actually being lulled to sleep? Does the fact that we will face extreme tortures in hell not mean that in some form we will survive death? To experience them, after all, we must be present.

Religions entice us into the great questions. Is there a soul that is never born and never dies? Is there life after death? Is there rebirth? Is there God? What is real and what is just maya? The greatest teachers and mystics have come up with different answers. Each of them has had direct experience of what she or he has proclaimed to be the truth. How, then, are we to proceed?

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

528 pages, Hardcover

First published October 19, 2020

About the author

Indian economist, journalist, author and politician.

He has worked as an economist with the World Bank, a consultant to the Planning Commission of India, editor of the Indian Express and The Times of India and a Minister of Communications and Information Technology in the Vajpayee Ministry (1998–2004). He was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1982 and the Padma Bhushan in 1990.

Popularly perceived as one of the main Hindu nationalist intellectuals during the 90s and early 2000s.

Reviews

[Amit Durgapal · Rating 2 out of 5]

They published what is yet a working draft. Very repetitive and doesn't do much justice to the subject it sets out to treat. Only the last chapter has some significant comments. Of religious sermons, I have had enough. The book is mostly anecdotes from the lives of spiritual men, quotes from scriptures, mostly Buddhist, and couplets. Arun Shourie merely restates scriptural statements and adds some personal account to back it up. He anchors the book with episodes from lives of a few great men in the fag end of their lives and in their final moments. The author seeks lessons for us ordinary mortals in their acceptance of death and in their indifference to prolonging their earthly life.

I wonder what can I learn from the lives of these men who were convinced of an everlasting life into which they will be delivered upon physical death. Besides controlling appetite(s) and coveting solitude, I don't think there is any other lesson or preparation possible for me. The former may never happen in my case. Solitude I love. I don't think I have any issues with stepping into the unknown; that unknown better be a quiet place. I could carry some anxiety about not providing my folks with enough for the future. Other than that nothing. By the time I am invalid, I won't even have mental capacity to process what I am reading. So, there won't be any hankering for the unread books. How pompous of me to bring in books to the death narrative!

Death inspires fear. So does life. Life can be boring and enervating too. I am fed up of sorting out my old tax returns in IT office, renewing my expired driving license in RTO, renewing my passport, having my Aadhar updated every time I move, fixing the chronically leaking kitchen sink, fixing the flaking paint; watching stock market tank, planning a family vacation to a destination where people are ready to fleece me, enduring travel anxiety, haggling with neighbours encroaching my parking, arguing on behalf of my daughter and her friends when neighbours shoo them away for raising their voice during play time; of convincing my wife of little utility we have for things she wants to buy; and of generally obliging people. And, if now I have to work from office. Death would be a good riddance for most of us.

I have no control over my life in a state of youth (40 is new 20, right?) and health. To talk of control when death comes knocking! I am not putting up a brave face if my final days are full of pain and suffering. I will whimper like a dog if I go in pain. Let people call me a good man if can avoid cursing them in the end. Until then I will happily philosophize and give a bad rating to badly written books!

There is an interesting anecdote about Buddha instructing his disciples about the impurity and impermanence of the physical body and how one has to constantly meditate upon it. Later, Buddha goes into seclusion for 15 days. When he emerges from his isolation, he finds the assembly of his disciples has shrunk. He is informed that about 500 of his disciples had committed suicide. There meditation on the evanescence of the body created such revulsion in their minds that they chose to be free from the body of 9 orifices that only oozes dirt and filth. I can imagine the orator in Buddha congratulating himself. All he wanted to convey was for one to be associated with and not be attached to the body, or to anything for that matter. We associate with many but weave strong emotional bonds only with our immediate relations. It's an evolutionary trait, nothing to be ashamed of. Imagine you lose that bind. What’s left to keep you tied to the place you call home? Appeal to duty, you say. Buddha himself chose calling over duty. Body is the condition of my existence. Its filth is checked every morning. Let’s keep things simple silly. Only they prepare for death who see it as a door, a career move. I see it as termination of my existence. Take me there sedated. I can prime myself for death, not for dying.

All the individuals featured in the book are religious personalities. To balance it out, the author should have also chosen some atheists like David Hume who met their end with equal grace.

[Laxmi]

The initial chapters of the book present a concised account of how the Buddha and some of the sage or saints, in the Hindu religion (who had huge following), passed away. The author sources content from the books kept by followers of these people and goes on to tell us how some of them even suffered with illnesses before dying.
The author then goes on to provide glimpses of the some of the sufferings of his own family. With plenty of quotes about teachings from some of the saints, the author tries to explain how a common man (not following sainthood) could tweak and put into daily practice some of these teachings thereby easing ourselves into death.
Since the author has an incapacitated adult son and a wife who also needs much help due to her Parkinson's, he dedicates some pages to exclusively talk about how the reader in a similar situation could go about the legal aspects of a will, assigning responsibility, etc well in advance in order to ensure their loved ones are taken care of in case of their own sudden death.
The book does not impose itself on the reader, but instead provides an understanding how one could possibly approach death starting right away. The author also includes snippets of shayari (poetry), which he seems to be fond of, along with its English translation.