Cowards Die Many times Before their Death
(ভীরুরা মরার আগে বহুবার মরে)

Ans: What the maxim means is that the cowards are afraid of boldly acting and facing life which in turn means his defeat, his inability to live like a man and his nonentity. Death, in conventional sense of the term, is the final end of physical functioning. By death, we cease to act, we cease to be. But death can be moral also. It has symbolic meaning too. By this maxim we actually mean that when a coward shrinks from an action and shies away from facing life's realities, it morally and symbolically means that he has ceased to act and he has ceased to live. Similarly a coward does so thousand times in his life and virtually dies thousand times thereby. Though he lives physically, he lives like a dead man of inaction, without any social role or existence. He can be called a living dead. On the other hand, a hero lives like a man. He faces life's realities. He acts. He stamps the mark of his existence in the mind of others and in the bosom of time. He may die physically. He dies too. But he dies only once in life. But his death is a hero's death. He is remembered and time cannot efface his name from earth. Thus he lives on in a different way. His one time death is also heroic. Death is vanquished by him. While in case of cowards, death vanquishes them and not once but thousand times. Their names are never remembered. Their life is really tragic.