| Continued
Peaceful end
Men are disturbed not by things, but by the notions they form concerning things. Death for example, is not in itself, terrible; the terror resides only in our mind. Insistence upon the truth of suffering may seem morbid to the mind unable to face facts, but it serves to prick the balloon of happiness.
Love of life on earth stimulates the unnatural morbid fear of death. It creates the hypochondriac, the man who will never take risks even for the right. He lives in terror that some illness or accident will snuff out his insignificant little life here. Realisation that death is inevitable, an irrational terror of the inevitable will shock the earth lover into a passionate hope for the survival of his soul in a heaven. No man can be happy in such a tempest of fear and hope. It is hard to despise and ignore these manifestations of the instinct for self-preservation. There is, however, a sure method of overcoming it. This is to forget the self in service for other people; it is to turn one's love from inwards to outwards. Become engrossed in helping others and you will forget you own morbid, selfish attachments and hopes, pride and self-righteousness.
Everybody likes to have a peaceful death after fulfilling his lifetime of duties and obligations. But how many people have prepared the round for such an event? How many people take the trouble to fulfil their duties towards their family, relatives, friends, country, Religion and nation? If a man dies without fulfilling any of these duties surely it is very difficult ultimately for such a person to have a peaceful death.
Many people are afraid of dead bodies. But living bodies are more dangerous than dead bodies. More people were defeated and frightened by living bodies than lifeless dead bodies.
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