Sri Ramakrishna, in order to remove uxoriousness from spiritual aspirants, for whom it would be a block in their path, tells the parable of a man who died. His grieving wife was offered the choice of reviving him with the proviso that she has to sacrifice her own life. She refused, citing specious reasons.
In this connection, it may be relevant to quote Sam Weller's father's famous advice to his son to "beware of widders!", one of whom was so eager to replace her dead husband that she had enticed (Sr.Weller) to his great discomfiture, in Charles Dickens' "The Pickwick Papers."
In a curious twist to the above instances, Euripides' "Alcestis" tells of the eponymous heroine saving her husband Admetus' life at the cost of her own, but with many provisos, one of which is "no feasting" soon after her death. But Admetus's bosom friend Heracles arrives soon after, ignorant of the tragedy. Admetus, not wishing to impose his grief on his friend, orders silence on his staff & welcomes Heracles as usual. But the servants are grieving for their mistress & on pressed, confess the truth to Heracles. He, deeply distressed at his untimely arrival, proceeds to the underworld, confronts Death, brings back Alcestis alive & presents her to her husband.
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