The very thought of death gives jitters as a person grows by age. After all, death fascinates, intrigues even the wisest of the wise.

I also, as thinker, contemplated and continue to contemplate on the subject.

As youth was swayed by the mythological stories about Rishis living for thousands of years after penance and having the blessings of the almighty.
Thought that if I do penance I might also be blessed with immortality/longer life.

May be about 50 years agi I used to practise regular meditation and once in a way go into deep trance. During those days a thought used to come to my mind. If God gives dharshan and offers me a boon then what should I seek. Being into ascetic life I didn’t need any worldly things. As such only one thing I may seek and that was a longer life span; say1000 years of life. If I live so long I would then be a walking encyclopedia and would be able to give lectures on history of the world since I would by then be an eye witness to many past historical events of the world. After some time, however, felt a thousand years to be too much and I may get bored with my two banana a day, black coffee and smoking. Then thought of asking God for 500 years. As time passed the figure came down from 500 years reduced it to 300 then to 200 and finally left to destiny/Celestine plan. In the process I learnt that it’s not the number of years we live but the quality of life we maintain during our life; how our potentials are used to the brim. How we lived a life without any regret of any sort. Adi shankar lived for a very short span of just 33 years yet even after 1300 years he still lives in the the hearts of followers of his advaita philosophy/theosophy. After all it is quality and not how long one lives