To Die is to Be

Evolution of the human brain has brought it to one basic process of mind — the need for survival. It is what the genes know and the nervous system has obliged. Anticipate the next moment and remove ambiguity amidst the barrage of information that enters the brain. The certainty may be illusory and yet it gives a straw to latch on in face of the true definitive – death.
While the mind propels itself in what Freud called ‘Eros’ – the life instinct, the death instinct, ‘thanatos’, moves like a shadow, and suddenly halts life. We do not know about after-life, so death remains the cessation of the physical.

This fear is the basic emotion that the mind knows, because the part of the brain that generates it is always active in assessing the
threat. It is so personal for each body. All other expressions of human emotions and cognitions revolve around it.However, contradictory results emerge, both in violence and altruism, for one’s action for survival may be death for the other.

After all, it is a world of finite resources. Need and greed both can create similar trajectories. This leads to man-created wars and
exploitations; but, in the long run, Nature does not spare either.

While the mind propels itself in what Freud called ‘Eros’ – the life instinct, the death instinct, ‘thanatos’, moves like a shadow,
and suddenly halts life. We do not know about after-life, so death remains the cessation of the physical.

Periodically, Nature hurls natural calamities and it has an arsenal — tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, fire, and to top it
all, plenty of genetic material to fiddle with. This RNA and DNA are constantly mutating and can become a death tool for a large
number of population. To add insult to the injury, Science pokes its nose to control nature. Indeed, what is Science aiming at? Improving life for humans, to make life longer and reduce uncertainty. Paradoxically, it also heightens it. Nature just has to mutate to shake our illusory confidence.
Every century has seen it and we are feeling it now. From the Spanish Flu to the latest Corona, the treatment is primitive. Separate. Observe social distance to prevent; since we have no arms to combat.

THE REAL PANDEMIC is in the mind that may alter us forever. We give too much importance to life and to ourselves, forgetting that we are just carriers of species — specific genes. The fear of death is the loss of certainty that we are so used to.

In an attempt to avoid this fear, the systems that we have evolved in modern times reinforce this almost deluded state of mind. Organised religion, education, wealth, and power, all these are ‘attainables’ and become the meaning of life. Even for a kid from the first day in school — the more one gains, the more certain life is. However, we forgot one fact; these certain pedestals like ‘Maslowian platforms’ are within the larger, uncertain frame of reality.

Evolution of the human brain has brought it to one basic process of mind — the need for survival. It is what the genes know and
the nervous system has obliged. Anticipate the next moment and remove ambiguity amidst the barrage of information that enters
the brain. The certainty may be illusory and yet it gives a straw to latch on in face of the true definitive – death.

This is in contrast with ancient times when knowledge about life was just about beginning to form. Those wise people may have had a better feel of nature, so death was never a stranger, nor was it a threat. Seeking immortality was an obsession even then, but death came as a passing to another phase. Even if it was fiction, it became a solace.

The linear goal-oriented living is the anxiety when everyone gets out to achieve something in a day and that alone remains meaningful. The gainer and the gained — both are as false. Does it ring a bell?
Maya — haven’t we called this in the past? All it takes is a virus that has created a cloud of uncertainty, the goals have disappeared and life has boiled down to survival. It does not require a God from the sky to which we raise our heads to pray. It is in the smallest reality, the cell and its mysterious life. We should be grateful to Nature if we can peep into that infinitesimal point, where life generates and where our clinging
starts, for only then the illusory castle we have built in the name of humanity will yield way to the truth. Enlightenment, if it means anything, is not the sudden light of a thousand suns but the dark crevices in our minds filled with fear.

We, as a human race, need to address it and progress consciously. Focus on natural along with our creation — the artificial.

Dr Alok Bajpai is a Psychiatrist.