Buffering Power of Spirituality against Death Anxiety

Spirituality, being a virtuous approach against dark materialistic world has an ability to transcend any phase of life. As a matter of fact during old age the fear of death generally overpowers elderly. They overcome this anxiety successfully by moving and focusing towards spirituality, which is considered a path leading to piousness and inner peace. Experience of spirituality helps them to think beyond this materialistic world, where old age is not considered as an end to life, but a preparation for the welcome of a new life. Thus with these ideas in mind, the present study was an attempt to explore the relation between spirituality and death anxiety among geriatrics. A purposive sample of 200 elderly both male and female with the age range of 60-80 years was drawn from Rohtak city, Haryana. The descriptive statistics indicated the high level of spirituality and average level of death anxiety among elderly. Further, correlational analysis showed that there existed a negative correlation between spirituality and death anxiety which indicates the healing power of spirituality among elderly.