Introduction: Why Do We Fear Death?
The fear of mortality—scientifically classified as thanatophobia or
death anxiety—is very part of the human thinking and condition. It is a kind of
psychological nexus driven by evolutionary programming of the human brain,
cognitive self-awareness, and the perceived existential uncertainty. At its
core, this anxiety of mortality stems from a few distinct biological and
psychological catalyst mechanisms:
·
Primal Survival Instinct: Biologically, our central nervous systems are hardwired to cling
with our life at all and any cost, which is also termed as the survival instinct
of human beings. The evolutionary fight-or-flight response activates instantly
when we face any physical peril, protecting our survival at any cost.
· Fear of the Unknown: Because no living entity any certainty about what transpires to our
consciousness or the self-hood the post mortality, our cognitive bias toward the
known and certain, interprets death, leading to something unknown, as an
ultimate threat.
·
Fear of Suffering and Pain: For a vast majority of us, the existential dread isn't tied to the
state of being dead itself, but rather the chronological process of
dying—encompassing physical agony, medical fragility, and loss of somatic
dignity is itself a great cause of fear and anxiety.
·
Loss of Agency and Broken Bonds: Human self-consciousness makes us to grasp the ultimate loss of self-hood
that is reality of death. This self-consciousness, the sense of “I”, brings a deep existential grief over breaking
attachments with our worldly belongings, family, property, missing aspired milestones,
and leaving desires unfulfilled.
·
The Void of Non-Existence: The prospect of complete and irreversible non-existence —the
dissolving of the 'I' into eternal nothingness—provokes deep internal anxiety,
independent of an individual's secular or religious (spiritual) background.
Anxiety Interventions: Grounding Our Mind in the Present
When existential worries and anxieties begin to loop, our
sympathetic nervous system initiates a palpable fight-or-flight cascade. In
this regard, grounding our mind in the present is an appropriate and proven positive
intervention to address this vicious loop of anxiety of mortality.
In this regard, it is interesting to understand this (grounding our
mind in the present) from the perspective of popular philosophical
comprehensions, the Western (stoicism) as well as our Sanatan Dharma and its
prevalent philosophy.
Understanding Stoicism: A Framework for Mental Independence
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy established in Athens
by Zeno of Citium around 300 BCE. Far from just being a theoretical and intellectual
pursuit, it was engineered as an experiential operating system for life,
specifically refined by thinkers enduring immense societal instability:
Epictetus (an emancipated slave), Seneca (a vulnerable imperial statesman), and
Marcus Aurelius (an embattled Roman Emperor).
The foundation of Stoic resilience is based on the self-discipline,
rationality and righteous character. This school of philosophy emphasizes four
primary virtues—Wisdom, Courage, Justice, and Temperance—and posits that true
peace (Ataraxia) is found when an individual acts logically, accepts cosmic truths,
and builds an unbreakable inner-strength against any outer change and disruptions.
The Dichotomy Nature of Control We Can Exercise: The Symmetry of
Concepts in Stoicism & Sanatana Dharma
The foundational core of Stoic mechanics is the Dichotomy nature of
Control. As Epictetus emphasizes in his Enchiridion, our thoughts, impulses,
desires, and actions are naturally up to us (eph' hemin- the controllable
variable in our life). On other side, our physical body, wealth, reputations,
and deaths are out of our control (ouk eph' hemin - the uncontrollable variable
in our life). Building a mental strength to cope up with this dichotomy nature of
control, requires us to abandon our neurotic attachment to the latter category (the
uncontrollable variable in our life) to optimize our engagement with the former
( the controllable variable in our life) .
This psychological tool suggested in Stoic School of Philosophy
mirrors the similar concept of cosmic architecture, provided in the sacred
scriptures of our Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism) as well, including the Upanishads,
the Srimad Bhagavad Gita, and the Srimad Bhagavatam. Here is tried to explain how
these timeless traditions intersect across key themes:
1. The Science of
Nishkama Karma: [Srimad Bhagavad Gita]
The closest strategic parallel to the Dichotomy of Control, as
posited in Stoic Philosophy, exists in Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita, where
Lord Krishna anchors Arjuna's fluctuating willpower through the doctrine of
detached effort (Nishkam Karma):
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते
मा फलेषु कदाचन। मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥
'You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to
the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your
activities, and never be attached to inaction.' — BG 2.47
Where Stoics divide life into internal actions (Controllables) vs
external outcomes (Uncontrollables), the Gita establishes the boundary between
individual effort (Karma) and the cosmic yield of that action (Karma-phala).
True tranquility—termed Samatvam (equanimity)—is achieved by remaining entirely
unswayed by success or failure (BG 2.48).
2. Stepping into
Witness Consciousness (Sakshi): The Upanishads
While Stoic thought teaches us to monitor our cognitive assumptions,
Vedic philosophy shifts our very seat of identity. Human suffering originates
when we misidentify our selfhood with our biological bodies or vulnerable
egos—all entities governed entirely by cosmic scheme of things (external
material variables outside our control.)
The Mundaka Upanishad (3.1.1) and
Shvetashvatara Upanishad (4.6) formulate an elegant diagnostic using the
timeless allegory of two birds resting on a singular tree:
द्वा
सुपर्णा सयुजा सखाया समानं वृक्षं परिषस्वजाते। तयोरन्यः पिप्पलं स्वाद्वत्त्यनश्नन्नन्यो
अभिचाकशीति॥
'Two birds, inseparable companions, dwell upon the same tree. Of these, one
eats the sweet and bitter fruits of the tree, while the other looks on as a
silent witness without eating.'
The first bird represents our conditioned ego (I),actively consuming
and crying over the fluctuating fruits of physical life (aging, grief,
success). Whereas the second bird represents the Atman—the unmoving,
unconditioned Sakshi (Witness). By shifting self-awareness from the frantic
fruit-eating ego (I) to the witnessing soul (Sakshi), the root of dread of existence,
the imperative mortality, dissolves.
3. Transcending the
Illusory Trap of Maya: Srimad Bhagavatam
The Srimad Bhagavatam breaks down how trying to exert control over
external variables builds an anxious illusion called Maya inside a living. In
the Uddhava Gita (11th Canto), Lord Krishna reveals how the unbridled mind
manufactures its own chains:
परस्वभावकर्माणि न प्रशंसति न गर्हेत।
विश्वमेकात्मकं पश्यन् प्रकृत्या पुरुषेण च॥
'One should neither praise nor criticize the conditioned nature and actions of
other people. Rather, one should see this world as comprised of both material
nature and the living souls, all manifestations of the one Absolute Reality.' —
SB 11.28.1
This verse from Srimad Bhagwatam explicates that one’s stressing
over physical decay, death, or public consensus is akin to one trying to modify
his/her dream sequence while deep asleep. True command lies entirely in internal
mental control and mastery (Manonigraha).
4. The Formula of
Detached Stewardship: Isha Upanishad
The foundational verse of the Isha
Upanishad offers an apt framework for understanding and practicing the
Dichotomy of Control, in our very daily mundane life:
ईशावास्यमिदं सर्वं यत्किञ्च जगत्यां
जगत्। तेन त्यक्तेन भुञ्जीथा मा गृधः कस्यस्विद्धनम्॥
'Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and
owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for
oneself, which are set aside as his quota, and one must not accept other
things, knowing well to whom they belong.' — Isha 1.1
This concept aligns elegantly with the Stoic approach of revisiting
and understanding appropriately our worldly relationships, wealth, physical
body and its health, they not just as solid properties owned by us for permanent,
but they are just as temporary loans (a trusteeship only), entrusted to us by
the cosmos. When handled with an internal state of renunciation through
enjoyment (Tyaktena Bhunjitha), we can live with fullness of life, without any existential
panic and anxiety.
5. The Ultimate
Declaration: Adi Shankara’s Nirvana Shatkam
The crux of this shared realization is perfectly illustrated by the
master of Advaita Vedanta, our Adi Shankaracharya, in his seminal composition,
the Nirvana Shatkam (also called the Atma Shatkam). Exhorting us to strip away
every layer of conditioning that creates existential vulnerability, Shankara
systematically lists everything that belongs outside our true control and
identity—lineage, relationships, caste, bodily senses, and even the threat of
mortality itself:
|
न मे मृत्युशंका न मे जातिभेदः पिता नैव मे नैव माता न जन्मः। — Adi
Shankaracharya, Nirvana Shatkam, Verse 5 |
Here, the phrase ‘न मे मृत्युशंका’ (I have no fear of death) acts as an ultimate declaration of the true
meaning and reality of our mortality, and we must free ourselves from its dread
and fear outrightly. By recognizing that our physical birth, biological
lineages, and eventual structural mortality are merely under the external control,
under the ownership to the physical world only, nothing belonging to us,
Shankara explains that the absolute liberation and our freedom from the fear of
mortality of our physical existence, comes only when we anchor our existence
entirely to our supreme internal nature.
Philosophical
Alignment: Stoicism vs. Sanatana Dharma
To summarize the above discussions and
simpler understanding of the philosophical alignment of these both school of
thoughts, the following matrix provides an explicit side-by-side thematic
breakdown of both these philosophical concepts:
|
Core Dimension |
The Stoic Philosophy |
The Vedic / Sanatana Philosophy |
|
Sphere
of Internal Control |
Voluntary judgments,
cognitive evaluations, moral choices, and deliberate actions. |
Prescribed duty (Karma),
focused meditation (Dhyana), and internal equanimity (Samatvam). |
|
Sphere
of External Reality |
Bodily health, the
actions of others, natural disasters, reputation, and physical death. |
The fruits of action
(Karma-phala), universal timelines (Kala), and physical elements (Prakriti). |
|
The
Core Psychological Strategy |
Amor Fati: The radical
rational embrace of one's fate as necessary and dictated by the Logos. |
Nishkama Karma and
Tyaktena Bhunjitha: Active engagement with life through detached consumption
and action. |
|
The
Ultimate Experiential Goal |
Ataraxia: An
unshakeable, tranquil mind completely immunized against external disruption. |
Jivanmukti / Moksha:
Liberation while living, realizing complete identity with the eternal Soul. |
Conclusion: Mastering the Waves
The universal solution to the fear of mortality does not lie in
frantically attempting to prolong the life of our physical body or seeking something
magical to save it for eternity. In all meaning, anything in physical form is mortal
and certainty not to exist tomorrow. As Epictetus taught on the streets of
Rome, and as Lord Krishna detailed to Arjun in midst of battel ground of
Kurukshetra, our ultimate sovereignty resides none other than our within.
Sickness, aging, our reputations, name, fame, position, the perceptions of
society, and off course the physical mortality will always fall outside our
immediate boundaries of control.
By withdrawing our psychological attachment from these
uncontrollable tides, we can stop wasting our emotional energy trying to fix
the unfixable, and better, in place, we will be able to reinvest that vital
energy into making our today meaningful, perfecting our character, executing our
duties beautifully, and recognizing our foundational nature as pure, eternal
consciousness.
Thus, both these philosophical concepts - The Western School of
Stoicism and the Sanatana Dharma, converge on a singular, brilliant
realization: Stop endeavoring to force the ocean (The Uncontrollable) to obey
your expectations (The Controllable). Instead, master the integrity of your
internal vessel. By shifting our emotional investment entirely into the realm
of our actions, our ethics, and our internal responses, we shall be able to
forge an unassailable sanctuary that neither worldly volatility nor death can
breach.
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