Death is only the beginning

" The soul never takes birth and never dies at any time and nor does it come into being again when the body is created.The soul is birthless, eternal, imperishable and timeless and is never destroyed when the body is destroyed." Bhagavad Gita 2:20

Recently we lost my husband's father to cancer. A man who has always lived life on his terms, I would choose to believe that he chose his time of crossing over, rather than death choosing to dawn on him. For a person of his demeanor, cancer was just an excuse. He did have a trying few months, screaming with agony and spending sleepless nights twisting and turning, but never once complaining about the pain that he was in. The only thing that he would tell me in those nights that I spent with him at the hospital is to pray that God gives him the strength to battle it. He would tell me that no one should experience the 'discomfort & uneasiness'(That is how he would describe his pain) that he was in. Yet, the word suffering never meant right for him. While offering condolences, people would console the family saying that he is in peace now and relieved of the suffering that he was in. It never resonated well in my ear, for though he went through living hell in those few months, I didn't see him suffering. While talking to my sister in law few days back, she explained it so simply. She said he didn't suffer because he chose not to. 

If a woman decides to mother a child, she is aware of the process involved with being a mother. From conceiving, to morning sickness, to labor and child birth and post birth, the care of the child, feeding, cleaning and spending sleepless nights for the child. It comes as a package deal of being a mother. Yet the woman chooses it, so can she be complaining or can an outsider be seeing it as suffering. She intended motherhood so she is a mother. 

Ironically, Dad always said, I don't intend to fall sick so why should I have a policy and that he never did. He intended to cross over and so chose to do so. 

He will be missed by all for the person he was and remembered fondly for all the things that he lived for. But for me he has just changed his old clothes to wear new ones. 

Stay Happy, Stay Healthy. 

Love

Tithee