An Anathema to Perception
Tribute to Sushant Singh Rajpoot
The room was bleak and solitary and it smelled of loneliness, agony and depression. Flickering lights entering through the window projected of what looked like a black figure suspended from a rope. Sorrow and pain were emanating from all corners of the room as if it were deprived of all hope and happiness. The pain was evident from the corpse’s face that appeared even more haunting as it once housed a beaming smile that enchanted millions of his followers and admirers.
The news soon broke out and within seconds the whole nation was lamenting on the sudden demise of this brilliant actor. The first emotion that sparked after hearing of his suicide was a big question mark. And the first thing we learnt is that most of us are devoid of happiness even if we pretend the opposite.
I can’t get over the deliberate suicide of Sushant. I loved his smile so much. He wasn’t a coward who lost hope and just took his own life. It takes courage of a huge magnitude to slit your own wrist or wear that loop around your neck knowing these will be the last few breaths you will ever draw. Knowing that the pain of death will torture you with an immense degree while you struggle to revoke your decision. Your entire life flashes right before your eyes while desperately trying to hold onto life but you are trapped anyway. Moments later you succumb to trauma and give up as your heart stops functioning and you’re on the verge of eternal sleep. He who was once a cheerful actor has now turned to a corpse suspended from the ceiling in some lonely bedroom.
You have left trillions of tears in your stead
Are we after all sub-conscious Zombies?
Sydney Sims on Unsplash
What fascinates me the most is the human tendency to end his life. A majority of people love to live to see adventures and excursions. Their love for life induces thrill in others who then follow their footsteps which means they will all live longer. But some people who dwell among us are secretly contemplating to give up. One moment they are welcoming in nature and in the next, despair clenches them in her icy hands. You have a million followers but not one of them can stop you from leaving this world.
What could possibly have more worth than life itself? Is life just limited to approval, success, or a certain belief?
I wonder what would animals do if they are thrown out of their clan or when they are beaten to fracturing states by more powerful contenders. They just don’t give up, do they? The only thing that separates us from them is our capable and enlarged minds, but it also comes with a drawback. Due to our favourable brains and natural selection, we learnt to commit inhumane activities, build radical beliefs, create racial discrimination, kill deliberately, dishonesty and most importantly learnt to commit suicide.
Is that how a favourable brain put to good use?
The reinforced and concrete beliefs of our social conditioning make us what we are now. But are we even aware of our actions when dealing with life and people? We are just sub-conscious zombies running with the help of neuro-lingual abilities who don’t give a second thought to why everything is happening in a certain way. Self-obsession and narcissism have kept us away from asking questions vital to living a sane and happy life. But not all of us are this dumb who don’t question their ego, self and existence on a molecular and cosmic level. People will always have a reason behind their thoughts, actions and beliefs and this is what that conditions and influences the world around them. Sadly, some of us feel neglected and left out and it influences how we behave like human beings. It gets easy for self-hatred to creep in which is soon followed by depression, all the more devastating and desolating.
Not giving a damn is one of the popular belief systems in the modern world as it leaves out other human beings, drains love from within us, creates a wall around our existence, and prevent us from building affection.
The human mind works in a profound way. Our consciousness tries to make sense of the reality by perceiving things around us and in the meantime continues to create dogmas and extremist beliefs. We attribute pleasure to specific things and create a fake reality that will forever manifest into different unhealthy thoughts and occurrences throughout our lives.
Our mind sometimes misses out the inexplicable and intricate emotions that arise from our social conditioning that comprises- our approval of others, narcissism, & ignorance to pain and suffering of others. We think that our emotions dictate our entire existence when in reality it’s us who can dictate our well being. No drugs and stimulants can do that for us. Our naive perception of our emotions has had us trapped into our own egos, sense of superiority, and contempt for others.
These factors overall define who we become after we reach a certain point in age. Try comprehending who would you be if all of your sensory perceptions are eliminated and deleted. Who will You become?
Frail beginnings to a Harsher End
The most profound mind that exists is perhaps that of a newborn weakling. It takes a few months for the baby to make sense of its surroundings, start recognizing faces and gathering a sense of self. The newborn does not know what it is, has no idea of food or parenthood, and it can’t even perceive its reality because it has just seen light after spending 9 months of a warm heaven in the confines of the mother’s womb. The baby’s consciousness is fragile and ever-developing, what it will experience in the next few months will stay with it until it draws its last breath. All that information becomes vital to its existence and develops into a life-long belief system that it cannot surpass the confines of. It cannot comprehend good &bad, and life & death. It crossed a divine process by being born and grows up only to decide its fate that ends up on a rope tied around its neck?
Every human baby is conditioned to follow a certain belief system, given a name, is predisposed to certain tenets of religions, taught to think a certain way; all of which it didn't ask for.
To the contrary, animals just learn where to find food and how to survive. It is a bit envious that animal psyche is all about health and survival, which our human counterparts are gradually forgetting.
We are the same newborn who once had no idea of existence but are now reading this article on how the mind fools us despite being in our command. The same mind has fooled everyone who has ever contemplated suicide or felt unhappy or left alone. Our entire existence depends on the approval of others in a way that is alarming and unsettling. The same goes for Sushant. Despite having a huge worth and a significant fan following, he decided his life was unfair and quit. The elements of his despair are one of the most unspoken things in our modern world and sadly it will remain so, given the selfish human nature. If we look deep within ourselves, we will learn the cause of his death and can work on that so that we can mitigate the harm caused to others by our ignorant self.
A fact by WHO paints a grim picture of how fragile we are as human beings. The fact reveals that ‘someone’ dies every 40 seconds globally. The death rate translates to a huge 2,160 headcount in a day. That’s 2,160 dead people with 2,160 unique reasons to give up on life. I mean why would anyone wanna die when they have access to ‘Tea’ and ‘Tacos’. It is fascinating to know what could be the reasons behind people choosing to die and leaving their loved ones buried in tears and grief.
A sudden suicide is too unbearable for your appetite when you are an empath or are overly concerned for the well being of others.
Reasons beget Reasons
Everybody has a reason for something. I am writing this for a reason and you are reading this for some reason. So, what are the reasons that persuade a person to end their lives?
The answer lies in your acceptance of others.
If you’d spoken to your friend about their solitary life, it would have wiped off their pain
If you’d embrace your child’s worthless report card, he would have lived to see A+ grades
If you wouldn’t have screamed at and humiliated your ex, they would still be living and smiling the next day
If you wouldn’t disrespect that Janitor, he would still be earning for his family
If you were polite and welcoming to your colleague, they won’t have to contemplate their self-worth
If you wouldn’t have favoured nepotism, the actor/candidate could have sustained themselves
The answer is Herforth, my friend, ‘What IF’
But human ignorance is just as scary!
The truth is hiding in plain sight but the question is, are we ready to embrace it?
If only you didn’t act a certain way and grew more empathetic and welcoming, you could be saving lives yourselves.
Do we feel contrition when we do something that human morals won’t approve?
The answer to this is usually no, if it had been the contrary, the world would’ve been a better place. If the world around us deemed others important and cherished them, Sushant and those 2,160 souls would still be around.
Since he shared the love for particle physics, sports and adventure with me, I am even more broken to see him go. This cruel world had scarred him to the point of no return which eventually led to his untimely demise.
RIP Sushant, You will forever be missed.
Your smile is a beacon and our hearts, its bearer.
Hope you are reading this in a parallel universe, Sushant!
WRITTEN BY