O DEATH, YOU ARE LIKE SHYAM(KRISHNA) TO ME(মরণ রে তুঁহু মম শ্যাম সমান)-1

Though our endevour over the centuries have remained locked in the quest for singularity, the search for absolute truth, the duality of the observer and the observed has created always the blockade in forming our consciousness about this. So long the ultimate truth is not unveiled, our conception about the observable universe resides on duality.

Since there is darkness of the night , we see the light of the day, we have happiness but sadness too. We have peace of mind but unrest also creates turmoil in our life. We feel pain when hurt but enjoy the sweet moments also. There are vices but that cannot overcome the virtues. There are sinners to spoil the society but the pious people also exist as saviours. In our life we face the duality of sensations all the time. Nobody can claim that it is one sided game for them.

Our desire is governed by space, time and relative status in the surroundings, Our consciousness functions on the basis of duality and is restricted in struggle for existence. Everything has been taken as reality which always haunts us because we always try to achieve our desired state of existence , overcoming the prevailing undesired one. But when the question of death comes , we generally ignore it or do not want to think of that state much though it is also one of the dual forms, birth and death.

So, it may be quite irritating and unwanted to somebody to listen to some undesired thing, i.e. the discussion of death again and again. But remember, death is inevitable. Hence, why should it come abruptly as a shock? Let us accept it and be friendly with it considering that there may be some species in the universe for whom death is desirable. Is it not clear? Ok, let us elaborate.

Science and materialists say that everything of life is the result of matter or combination of matter controlled by the physical force and chemical actions of atoms and molecules. They also say that there is no separate existence of soul and mind. When they say that death is nothing but cessation of life force like stoppage of a working machine , the vital question arises that what causes this cessation of life force which again causes cessation of all functions of the body including mental functions and consciousness.

Drawing analogy to the above discussion of duality, we may say that when there is matter, there is anti-matter too. We say that the living organisms are combination of matter. There may be other set of organisms , in some other world or universe ,composed of anti-matter having their consciousness generated on the basis of reversed material of formation. When matter combines with anti-matter, both annihilate. As if , the individual consciousness vanishes into universal consciousness.

Scientists say that this universe was created after the big bang in the form of extremely condensed energy with enormous temperature. With lowering of temperature, the particles of matter and anti-matter were formed. But then , in that extremely high temperature and vigorous undulations of space in form of quantum foaming , there were all possibilities of matter coming into contact of anti-matter and annihilate. Consequently, there should not be separate existence of matter or anti-matter in the universe. Then how in today’s universe so much matter has come? If it is so, where are those anti-matter particles created at the time of big bang? Why there is something in stead of nothing? Apart from this , there is another riddle, the dark matter. So far now it is a conceptual and mathematical solution to the problem of finding out the tremendous binding force of the galaxies which are revolving around at high speed resulting in huge centrifugal force.

Scientists are trying to explain this asymmetry in amount of matter and antimatter in some way. They are of the opinion that the condition at time of big bang was not symmetrical and due to skewed symmetry the matter formed was more than the antimatter and after annihilation the balance matter so remained , we are finding now. But if it is not so and the antimatter so created was not completely the mirror existence of the matter, some day we may be able to find out the presence of the antimatter so created at the time of origin of universe in some form or other, it may possibly be seen to happen that the organisms created by the combination of anti-matter will have the opposite sentiments and consciousness, for them everything will be in reversal to that being experienced by human being here on earth. Death to them may appear as desirable and not shocking as it has become to us.

We are talking about death. But what it is? When we pick up a flower, does it die? When we chop off the head of a chicken , will it die? Do all the organs , all of the body die at a time?

Biologically death can be interpreted as cessation of metabolic activities or stoppage of functions at different levels of organism of the physical body. End of somatic life is nothing but death where the entire organism fails i.e. when the cardiac activities and respiration are discontinued. The failure of particular organ or organs within the organism may cause organ death which may occur before or after somatic death depending on various situations. Once somatic death occurs different organs die at different rates depending on their requirement of oxygen. The brain dies approximately 5 minutes after somatic death, heart after about 15 minutes, kidneys after about 30 minutes and liver after about 45 minutes. It has also been seen that survival of different organs after somatic death can be altered by lowering organ temperature.

Stoppage of heart beat reduces blood flow significantly in the brain and brain’s electrical activities ceases within approximately 10 secs. Brain’s oxygen level gets depleted within about 2 minutes and if blood flow is not restarted to the brain, non-reversible changes starts taking place in brain causing brain shock. Since brain controls all our body functions, brain death is the legal condition for declaration of death. In case the blood circulation is not restored within approximately 3 minutes after clinical death or somatic death, irreversible changes called ischemic injury of the brain due to lack of oxygen level leads to brain death.

We know cells are the basic building block of life. After somatic death, the cells swell having excessive influx of water in the cells due to osmosis caused by the influx of excessive ions of sodium, potassium and chloride. This causes cells to burst or break and becomes useless. Again the strength of the protective sheath of the cells in form of plasma membrane may sometime extend survival time of the cell after somatic death. The death of tissues that comprise of large number of cells in a specific location in the body can occur before or after the somatic death.

So organs and its cells are having independent life and continue to survive for a while even after the death of conscious life. Now once the vital force or the life force ceases to exist, question may be raised how the organs, tissue or cells can remain alive in absence of life force.