The Fear of Death

The throat of a snake is only as thick as a needle. So when it catches a prey, it takes a tremendously long time to ingest it. The snake does not use its tongue to kill its prey. This is because the venom present in its tongue could prove detrimental to itself. So it only crushes the prey and ingests it.
When a frog is caught in the jaws of a snake, it sits there for an extremely long time (until it is consumed via the snake’s throat) alive, not knowing that it is truly in the jaws of death. In the mean time, the frog happily sticks out its tongue and tries to catch the flies and insects to satiate its hunger!
Similarly, we are all in the jaws of the snake called death. This venomous snake consumes us instant by instant. We have lost as much percentage of our life to death as our age is! Oblivious of this fact, we indulge in worldly matters and mundane pleasures akin to the foolish frog.
Should we not be afraid of death? Should we not make the best use of our time and surrender unto the Lord by chanting His Name always?
It is this fear of death that led Bhagavan Ramana to the state of Liberation.
In Vishnu Sahasranamam, the two names of the Lord are ‘Bhaya krut’ ‘Bhaya Nashana:’, One who creates the fear and One who destroys it.
It is verily the Lord who instills the fear of death in us and gives us the supreme knowledge that allays this grave fear.