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Main Index
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die?"
Socrates said, "I am in a great hurry because I want to see death. I want to see what death is like. And I also want to see, even when death has happened, whether I survive or not. If I don't survive, then the whole affair is finished -- and if I do survive, then death is finished. In fact, I want to see who will die with death -- will death die or will I die? I want to see whether death will survive or whether I will survive. But how can I see this unless I am alive?"
Socrates was given the poison. His friends began to mourn; they were not in their right senses. And what was Socrates doing? He was telling them, "The poison has reached up to my knees. Up to the knees my legs are totally dead -- I will not even know if you cut them off. But my friends, let me tell you, even though my legs are dead, I am still alive. This means one thing is certain -- I was not my legs. I am still here, I am totally here. Nothing within me has faded yet." Socrates continued, "Now both my legs are gone; up to my thighs everything is finished. I wouldn't feel anything if you cut me right up to the thighs. But I am still here! And here are my friends who go on crying!"
Socrates is saying, "Don't cry. Watch! Here is an opportunity for you: a man is dying and informing you that he is still alive. You may cut off my legs entirely -- even then I won't be dead, even then I will still remain. My hands are also drifting away; my hands will die too. Ah! How many times I identified myself with these hands -- the same hands that are leaving now -- but I am still here."
And, like this, Socrates continues talking while dying. He says, "Slowly, everything is becoming peaceful, everything is sinking, but I am still intact. After a while I may not be able to inform you, but don't let that make you think I am no more. Because, if I am still here, even after losing so much of my body, how then would an end come to me if a little more of the body is lost? I may not be able to inform you -- because that is only possible through the body -- but still I will remain." And at the very last moment he says, "Now, perhaps I am telling you the final thing: my tongue is failing.
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