Deathbed, Breathing the Last, and Funeral Procession: Musing under the canopy of history

Abstract

“In Nature’s book of infinite secrecy/ A little I can read”. These words of the soothsayer in Shakespeare’s ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ (Act I, Scene ii) is symbolic. It is uttered in the company of Charmian and Iras, maidens attending on Cleopatra (Hutchinson n.d.: pl. facing p. 39); perhaps designed to foretell the end of Mark Antony[i] in the near future after the battle of Actium. Everything existing on this earth must pass through nature to eternity that is denoted by the common word “death”. But, death at a young age is cruel whether natural, volunteered, accidental or due to any injunction. The brilliant Tamil woman-mystic ?????[ii] and the versatile English poet, John Keats[iii] died at a young age that was a great loss to the world of literature. The Buddha as a novice-monk was in pursuit of death but gave up the unnatural process of suicidal mortification (Le-Bon 1974: fig. p. 55, Yiengpruksawan 2007: 44-63, Ahuja 2013: fig. 6, pp. 21-24) and resorted to yoga to realize cosmic realities under the Bodhi tree at S?ran?th (Parimoo et al. 1991: I, pls. 50-45, 106-107)[iv]. Jesus of Nazareth (cf. Gallico 1999: figures on pages 111, 20 & 42, Ahuja 2013: fig. 39) and Mu?ammad of Mecca (cf. Stewart 1980: figures on pages 36-37) died at a relatively young age; otherwise the history of world’s greatest religions would have been different. If they had lived long […]; this “if” factor in history is difficult to answer. Neither Jesus nor Mu?ammad “invited” nor “pursued” death (Settar 1986, 1990); one was crucified by Jewish treachery of those times and other of some other malady. Preachers of terrorism do not die under a peaceful environment. “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he man” (Genesis 9.6).