Immortality: a dialogue (Hindi/हिंदी में)

Characters:Thrasymachos (T)Philalethes (P)T: Tell me, in one word, what will I be after my death? Please, be clear and simple.P: All and nothing!T: I knew you would say something confusing! I asked you a question, and you answered with something that does not make sense. That is an old trick.P: Yes, but you are asking a question that is very hard, because it is about things we cannot really know. You want me to answer with normal words that are only made for things we can see and touch. That’s why my answer is confusing.T: What do you mean by "hard to know" questions and "things we can see and touch"? I’ve heard those words before. My teacher used them when talking about God. He said if God is in the world, He is immanent. If He is outside, He is transcendent. That was easy to understand. But now, people don’t use those old ideas. We have many smart thinkers from Germany who left that behind.P: (quietly) He just means German thinkers.T: Yes, like Schleiermacher and Hegel, the famous thinkers. But we don’t use those ideas anymore. So what do these words mean now?P: “Transcendental knowledge” means trying to know about things we cannot see or touch, like the truth about everything. “Immanent knowledge” means knowing only what we can see and feel. As a person, when you die, you are gone. But your personality is not your real, deep self. It is just the outside. It is not the real thing; it is just a show in time, with a start and an end. Your real self is not in time, and does not have a start or end. It is everywhere, in everyone, and nobody can exist without it. So, when you die, you are gone as one person, but you are still part of everything. That is what I meant when I said you are all and nothing after you die. It is hard to give a better answer and keep it short. The answer is confusing, I agree, but that is because your life is in time, and your forever part is in eternity. You can say it like this: your forever part does not last in time, but never goes away. Again, that sounds confusing! You see what happens when we try to answer big questions with normal words.T: Look, your idea of living forever is not important to me if I cannot stay myself.P: Maybe I can help you. What if I promise that after you die, you stay yourself, but first, you must spend three months being totally unconscious?T: I’m okay with that.P: But remember, if you are totally unconscious, you will not know how much time has passed. When you are dead, it is the same for you if three months pass or ten thousand years. Either way, you will only know what you are told when you wake up. So, it does not really matter if it is three months or ten thousand years before you become yourself again.T: Yes, if that’s true, you are right.P: And if, after ten thousand years, no one wakes you up, it is not a big loss. You would get used to not being alive after so long, especially after just a few years of living. You would not even know about it. Also, if you knew that the strange power that gave you life never stopped making more people like you, it would make you feel better.T: So you think you can take away my self with your big words. But I am smarter than that. I cannot live without my self, and I will not give it up for some mysterious power or strange ideas.P: You must think your self is so wonderful and perfect that nothing can be better. Wouldn’t you want to change your life for something that might be even better?T: You do not get it. My self, no matter how it is, is who I am. It is the most important thing to me. God is God, and I am I. I want to exist, me, myself. That is the only thing that matters. I do not care about an existence that has to be proven to me before I can believe it.T: You are the one who is silly, just like all philosophers! I only talked to you for fun. I have more important things to do, so goodbye.