How Long a Life is Long Enough

Three scores and ten is the ideal lifespan as the Bible puts it. Indians bless others by wishing that they live a hundred years, “Shataayu bhav.” In Japan many are already living past hundred. So it would seem that as one moves Eastward the ideal lifespan increases. Well, except the interrupting geography of maybe Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, where a thirty year life expectancy would count as a blessing.

So, how long should one desire to live? Should it be five generations of automobile technology, fifty of mobile phones or five hundred security updates of Windows? On the conventional calendar should it be seventy years, or eighty, or a century? No matter what we do to prolong our lives - new generation medicines, detoxing regimen, health food, exercise and yoga - the human body slowly degenerates inside. Bones become weak, blood vessels clog up, heart muscles start to waste and neurons begin to die at an alarmingly increasing rate. Evolution has given us enough time to grow up in a society, learn speech and culture, science and philosophy, give birth to children to leave our genes behind and then prepare to die.

In the interregnum between birth and death we make friends, build relations, learn a vocation, acquire worldly things and pleasures all of which make our sojourn on the planet a fulfilling one. From the beginning of the recorded history, about three thousand years before Christ till today, we have had less than two hundred generations of humans. These two hundred have seen all the peace and wars, all the love and hate, all the diseases and misery, all the learning and all rise and fall of civilisations. Those yet to come will see more of the same, though at a much faster pace of social and technological transformations. 

Will we be happy to extend our lives while the frame continuously weakens and dependence on others gradually increases? Will a life with dentures, artificial knees, bypass arteries in our chests, transplanted kidneys and pacemakers be worth the enjoyment in the additional time that one’s wealth could buy? What if one extends one’s life using all the science and technology at hand, but the near and dear ones decide not to, or can’t afford to? Will such a lonely life be worth living?

I think that the appropriate, or the most desirable, time to depart is just when one’s children begin to grow old. Bringing them into this world, frolicking with them and raising them to be good humans and strong and independent individuals is the very fulfilment of life. But, seeing them go over the hill, grey at the temples and become even a little frail would be too painful. In the movie INTERSTELLAR the eagerly awaited, but tragic reunion of Murph, the daughter and Cooper, the father keeps haunting me. Cooper has returned after a long space-time travel and while he remains the same age, his daughter Murph, who was left behind, has aged to 99 and is on her deathbed. She breaks down on seeing her father, but tells him go away as “no parent should have to watch their own child die”. Seeing a child grow old and weak would be only a little less sad.

Of course dying is not in one’s hand and it must happen when the heavens call. But I see merit in the Sanyas Ashram prescribed in the Hindu way of life, which requires that in the last quartile of life one must move away from the world and its attachments to live a life of gratefulness, prayers and solitude. I guess Sanyas Ashram also lays down what to do when the end comes - how to welcome and embrace death. Let me read the scriptures and find out.

Watch the Interstellar scene here.

https://youtu.be/ECjYsWLgy3I