Dealing with Terminal Illness-1

Dealing with Terminal Illness-1

All rivers merge in the sea, all small things become a part of a bigger phenomenon, it goes back to its source in Nature.

What to do when one of your loved one is diagnosed with a terminal condition? Do I have any insights? I was asked recently.

It is one of the most agonizing, most painful experiences — to see a loved one wither away in front of your eyes while you put a brave face and watch helplessly. We are more fragile and more caring than we would ever know. The greater we care about someone the more their pain we feel in our own hearts. Is there any way to be at peace during this difficult time? Allow me to share with you a little story.

In the quiet countryside lived an old physician. He had been seeing patients for more than forty years and was known for his kindness, for making free house calls for the terminally ill. He always took his dog along whenever he visited his patients. The dog would wait outside the patient's house while the doctor went in to see to the ill person.

On one occasion, a certain man had less than three months to live. He was scared of death and confessed his fears to the physician.

"What will it be like after I die, doc?" he said. "Will I be alright? What awaits me?"

The doctor stopped scribbling on his pad and put down the pen. He got up, opened the door and looked at his dog. The dog wagged his tail, and as much excitedly as triumphantly leaped towards him.

The physician turned to the patient and said, "Do you see this dog? He didn't have a clue about what all was in this room, on this side of the door. The only thing he knew that I, his master, was here. And, that's all he was looking forward to."

"That's how I see death," he continued. "I don't know what it's going to be like in the other world or this world once I am gone. I don't really know the whats, whys and hows about dying. Like my dog, I'm unsure what all is on the other side of the door. But, I do know that I'll end up by the feet of my master. And, that's all I need to know because that's all that matters to me."

I find this anecdote particularly beautiful. Ultimately, it boils down to living with grace and peace for as long as we have the chance to breathe.

Even if there's no afterlife, even if there's no heaven or hell (personally, I don't believe in heaven or hell except the one on earth), it doesn't really matter because an infinite existence awaits us. All rivers eventually end up in the sea regardless of their course, all the drops of rain either merge into ponds, rivers, lakes, oceans or they are absorbed by the earth. If nothing, they simply evaporate and go back to the source. Either way, from infinitesimal they become infinite.

Om Namah Shivay