They say that ignorance is blissful. They assert that if we are ignorant then only we can enjoy our lives fully, especially when we are ignorant about the EXACT time of our death. Logic that they give for their argument is that if we know about the exact time of our death then our remaining time will nothing but a ‘Living Hell’. The fear of death will be so crippling that we’ll not be able to enjoy the remaining time left for us. Every passing day will be viewed as ‘one less day to live’. Rather than enjoying our time, we will be more occupied in counting the seconds left. The believers of this above said view argues that fear of death is worse than the death itself but I have a difference of opinion here.

I truly believe that if one knows the exact day and time of this death then he/she will be more ready to accept the inevitable. The reason being that what is more fearsome than Death is its uncertainty. Despite all the certainty about our mortality, we are very uncertain, completely clueless about our tryst with the ‘ultimate leveler’ i.e. death. The uncertainty about Death affect in two major ways, firstly, we feel more fear as any moment of our lives can be our last moment. This makes our lives more miserable as we live under constant fear of death. Secondly, this uncertainty makes many of us believe that we have very less time at our hands and thus we strive hard to achieve whatever goals we had set for ourselves. In both the cases we start to value Death more and value Life less. We forget to enjoy our lives fully; we overlook small moments of love, caring and happiness, finer details etc. We start to believe that only big things in life are worth caring for. We forget that smaller moments of happiness are too frequent and important to overlook.

On the other hand if one knows the EXACT time of the Death than he/she will be less afraid of it as then he/she will be certain about his/her stay in this Mortal World. This certainty will lead to better planning and prioritizing the forthcoming life. Apart from this, this certainty will alleviate him/her from the fear of death and will infuse love for life. One will be more worried about how to enjoy the given life fully than to sit back and sulk about the short duration he/she got. Now whatever he/she will do will do fully and completely. For example, now if one decides to pay a visit to one’s parents then he/she will do it complete truthfulness as not only he/she is aware of their ‘TIME’ but also he/she will be completely aware of his/her parents’ ‘TIME’. Similarly every second spent will be a well thought one and thus will be fully enjoyed. Obviously if you choose to read a book just half an hour ago your ‘departure time’ you’ll read that book with utmost sincerity and you’ll relish every word. This knowledge will also make us more giving and caring, as we all will know that no amount of wealth and materialistic possessions will change the FACT. This will enhance our societal orientation as we be listening and helping others better as we know that the other person also has limited time thus if he had come to you then it has to be important (after all he/she is also prioritizing their appointments).

Cynics may argue that this knowledge will lead to apathy and lack of desire to do anything constructive, as everyone will know that nothing can help him from the death. However, their argument is based on behaviour exhibited by those terminally ill persons who know their TIME but what they fail to take in account is that when every one will be knowing their time then it will be a different story altogether. After all today’s terminally ills are a frustrated lot and curse their bad luck for their shortened life and feel that they are the only ones who have to deal with the knowledge of time of their death. However, in my example every one will be in peace with the reality, as every one will be facing the same reality.

Thus in my opinion it is the ‘Knowledge, not Ignorance that is really Blissful’..

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