As America becomes more of a secular nation, with its leading intellectuals having become more and more dismissive of religion in general, promoting that we humans are physical beings and nothing more, so that with physical death being the inevitable end of all that are born into this world, then clearly it doesn't take any real perception to reach the rather reasonable conclusion that all is completely and utterly meaningless. It then follows from this, because physical death is the end, then, no doubt, death is the destruction of the self, is the destruction of the ego, is the destruction of what has been, and must thereby make for the rather forlorn and long faces for those that still live, while their loved ones are dead, forever.
To make matters worse, there are all sorts of deaths on earth, of which, unfortunate to say, some die without anyone to mourn for them, because of their isolation, or, even worse, because of their actions. So too, there are others that die way before their time, having not even had the opportunity to prove their worth, because they are gone at such a young age, then there are others, that have lived long and fruitful lives, but age has taken a toll upon them, so death, though perhaps not welcomed, is considered to be somewhat merciful.
Yet, the great religions of this world, recognize death for what it really is, the transition from the limits of the physical form along with the release of the blinders of limited perception and insight, replaced with the unlimited horizons of love, truth, justice, and fairness, of which time and space, are seen for what they are, constructs necessary for mankind to live in this dimension, but having no part in the dimension beyond.
The most basic and the most fundamental problem that those that do not understand that we are immortal beings encased for a limited time in a physical form, is that if you do not recognize or know what or who you really are, as well as ignoring the unalienable inner voice that each is gifted with in order to help guide and to keep one focused, than you will do far less than what you could do in order to progress and thereby help make this world a better place for all, or, even worse, you could make this world far worse by your actions.
Liberation, most definitely, is any stage in which you are able to not only perceive the way that things really are, but are also able to release yourself from whatever imprisons you from not reaching the being that you should be. It isn't so much that our physical body precludes us from being liberated, it is more that far too many people believe that the needs of the physical body in conjunction with its ego, should trump all, whereas, in actuality, we are here to master and/or to supersede our physical self, so as to appropriately see that all this is indeed vanity, that we all are in fact, in this together, all created equally, and all never satiated till we rest once again, in the bosom of our Creator that created it all.
While there is sorrow when anything good dies in this world, the end of all sorrows lies not here on earth, but in the conscious recognition that this world isn’t the end or even the beginning, but instead the staging for our re-birth into what is.