In the last two days I’ve been trying to get a lot of work done but in order to stay sane I’ve had to take some breaks. During those breaks I discovered a show called Dead Like Me. It was on the air a few years ago but was cancelled. However, since then a lot of people started petitions to get it back on the air, and I can see why. Apparently it did have really good ratings but there were some conflicts within the cast and crew from the start.

In any case, it’s a story of a girl, Georgia (George for short), who dies at the young age of 18 due to falling debree from a Russian space station (or in her case, a falling toilet seat). Not being good enough for heaven, or bad enough for hell, George is given the job of a grim reaper. Her job is to pull out the souls from people seconds before they die. According to the story described in the show, grim reapers have to free a certain number of souls before being able to move on themselves in their spiritual journey. In order to accomplish their work, they come back to Earth as the “undead,” having human bodies and human responsibilities, but limits on their participation in the world in terms of relationships, etc.

Watching the show got me thinking about the many ways that people die, ranging from peaceful to gruesome, stupid to heroic, and the similarities and differences between the death scenarios shown in Dead Like Me and the teachings of various religions. Despite the dark and grim appearance of the show, it actually gives a lot of hope and puts a lot of things in perspective for individuals to examine their lifestyle, relationships and priorities. I ended up watching a few episodes over the last two days and found it to be time well spent not just because of the laughs or the break from work but because the stories inspired introspection about my life and death.

Thinking about death does not always have to be about planning the scenario of your death. In fact, as outlined in many religious scriptures and in many plays, novels, movies and shows about death, you can hardly ever plan the time or circumstances of your death. However, what you can do is think about what decisions you’ll make and what steps you’ll take so that your life is so fruitful, rewarding, righteous and exemplary that death doesn’t worry you. What you can do is make the best of each day so that just like at the end of a memorable day with the family, or a deeply refreshing spiritual retreat, or a humbling experience of selfless service, you feel content and thankful, at the end of a good life you will feel quite the same.

According to a famous hymn in the the Sikh scriptures, the type of thoughts you have at the time of your death lead to the journey of your soul after your death. The hidden truth behind this statement is that your thoughts at the time of death are only the product of the thoughts throughout life. If your entire life was spent in obsession with your money, you will not suddenly think of spiritual union with the ultimate universal truth in your last minutes. You will probably think of your money. It’s no surprise then that the chorus of that hymn is “Dear sister, do not forget the nectar of truth, the Name of God.” Some people respond to this hymn with the complaint that meditation can’t be a full-time thing when we all have careers, families, etc. However the beauty of spirituality is that meditation is not a single time-frame practice, but a way of life, which can be attained while fulfilling daily responsibilities. Real spiritual people don’t practice righteousness on a holiday, or go to church on a Sunday, or remember God in the evening. They live and breath the truth throughout life in all situations and in doing so, they are also past the stage of struggle with life, or fear of death.

Here’s the first episode – this YouTube channel has about 11 episodes.

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Another related video is Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture: “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” The story behind this video (explained in the first two minutes) is also very inspiring.