When I got the news of your father's death I was ready to come to the funeral when I was faced with a serious problem. I therefore wish to apologize and to reassure you that my absence at the funeral must not be interpreted as a lack of feeling on my part for you. I want you to know that I sympathise with you and wish to convey to you and to your family my most sincere condolences. A man like you, I am sure, knows that death is a part of life. It is inevitable and always comes at a time and place of its own choosing.
Probably for those who are not involved in the bereavement it is easy to philosophize. Yet I believe that all of us have to philosophize whether we are involved or not. I can imagine your sorrow to see your father disappear since I, like many others, have had the same experience. When I think of this kind of event I am reminded of my own experience when my mother died years ago. The news of sudden death gives you a shock and between the time of death and the time the corpse is taken away from the house you somehow get reconciled to it. But at the specific moment when you find people taking away the corpse you really feel that something is being torn away from you. Again, after a very short while you get used to that also and you walk with the procession up to the cremation ground. But I think the most trying moment is when you come back home and you really feel the emptiness that is left behind. I feel this is the most difficult moment involved in all such situations.
That is why I believe that death is part of life and, what is more, we are all made of dust and ashes and that is where one has to return.
Again, that is why I believe a life which is led selfishly and closed in by narrow walls of pride and prejudice is absolutely meaningless.
At this moment of trial I want you to know that you are not alone and that I share your grief.
Letter to a friend who wishes to be anonymous, 26th June, 1975.
Copyright Succession Keharsingh Jagatsingh
Probably for those who are not involved in the bereavement it is easy to philosophize. Yet I believe that all of us have to philosophize whether we are involved or not. I can imagine your sorrow to see your father disappear since I, like many others, have had the same experience. When I think of this kind of event I am reminded of my own experience when my mother died years ago. The news of sudden death gives you a shock and between the time of death and the time the corpse is taken away from the house you somehow get reconciled to it. But at the specific moment when you find people taking away the corpse you really feel that something is being torn away from you. Again, after a very short while you get used to that also and you walk with the procession up to the cremation ground. But I think the most trying moment is when you come back home and you really feel the emptiness that is left behind. I feel this is the most difficult moment involved in all such situations.
That is why I believe that death is part of life and, what is more, we are all made of dust and ashes and that is where one has to return.
Again, that is why I believe a life which is led selfishly and closed in by narrow walls of pride and prejudice is absolutely meaningless.
At this moment of trial I want you to know that you are not alone and that I share your grief.
Letter to a friend who wishes to be anonymous, 26th June, 1975.
Copyright Succession Keharsingh Jagatsingh
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