Capital punishment ?

In almost all the news channels, there is only one question being discussed in the past few days – Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, the sole death row convict in 1993 Mumbai blasts case after two judges gave a split order whether to hang him or not. Channels make sure that they cover all the angles of the case, by inviting legal experts, law makers, leaders of political parties over to the studio and then discuss, day and night. In the cafeteria, where I had lunch today, people were closely watching the television without taking their eyes off. One of the channels even showed a count down timer, showing how many hours before he gets hung !

Now let’s think about this, what if Yama ( Lord of death ), comes and tells Yakub, that he is gonna get hit by a bus and die, tomorrow. I mean, whether you hang a person or whether he gets hit by a bus, the effect is same, your soul will leave your body. So why the fuss about hanging ?

It gets more interesting when you really think about this. The highest punishment for ANY crime, in most legal systems, around the world is death sentence, also known as the capital punishment. Think about it, all of us are gonna die, either because of old age, or because of diseases or due to an accident. But when you tell them and you take their life, it becomes a punishment. I believe, the punishment is reminding them over and over again, that their death is approaching and that might be acting as a deterrent for committing crime.

For a normal mortal person this might be true, that is, the fear and pain associated with thinking about death would be too much to bear. ( Please note that, I know a lot of people who know for sure that their death is far away, and would prefer to brag about not being afraid of death. Also people with chronic depression or suicidal tendencies might actually fantasize about loosing their life. We are NOT talking about them here) But someone with a little bit background knowledge in Zen might know about this –>  Mindfulness of Death Meditation ( http://www.wikihow.com/Practice-Mindfulness-of-Death-Meditation) might have a totally different picture about death.

In one place, the concept of death is used as a crime deterrent for would be criminals and in another place, the same concept is used in path of meditation. For a spiritual seeker, it’s very important to NOT get swayed by following the crowd, but instead have a steadfast aim to reach his/ her goal by following the 8 fold path to liberation.