Heroism in Death: Ancient Indian Mythology

Abstract

We are a country of approximately 1.4 billion people of which 66% are below the age of 35, it is expected that very soon we will be the most populous country in the world. In a country exploding with life and youth, it would be quite diverting to even contemplate death, if we believe Wordsworth we are already in heaven, but are we? Does youth give us happiness? Recently the world faced an unprecedented pandemic, and we were compelled to face our mortality and our vulnerability to nature. Our engagement with death has escalated in these post-pandemic times. This generation saw the massiveness of death for the first time despite all the scientific advancements we saw our limitations. Let us not be a killjoy, we have our little consolations as well. The largest number of centenarians live in Japan, a country that faced massive destruction and lost many hundred thousand lives in nuclear bombing during World War II. It is astounding that the Japanese have extraordinary longevity. A term now widely discussed ‘ikigai’ is a Japanese concept that roughly means searching and finding a work that makes one happy and gives their life a purpose to live. They say everyone has an ikigai, non-Japanese might get confused about whether it is a concept, a process, an abstract, or a hypothesis.