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Chapter 13
Distinction between The Self And The Not-Self
71. An End To The Power Of The Tyrants
19. When Socrates was sentenced to death by poison, he said, “I am old. This body would anyway have disintegrated soon. What is so great in putting to death that which is mortal? I fail to understand what is so great in killing a mortal being.” The night before he was to drink hemlock, he was explaining to his pupils the immortality of the soul. He was merrily describing the pain he would feel with the spread of poison in the body. When the discussion on the immortality of the soul was over, a pupil asked, “Sir, how should we bury you after your death?” Socrates exclaimed, “How clever you are! Is it that they will kill me and you will bury me? Is it that the killers are my enemies and you are a friend? They will kill me in their wisdom and you will bury me in your wisdom! Who are you, after all, to bury me? I shall be there even when all of you are dead and buried in your graves. Nobody can kill me, nobody can bury me. What, after all, have I been explaining all along? The Self is immortal. Who can kill it or bury it?” And the great Socrates has indeed outlived all of them; he is remembered even after more than two thousand years. |
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