BEFORE DEATH AND AFTER DEATH

To Contemplate Seriously

IN the whole of human history, man’s biggest forgetfulness has been just one and that is about death. It is a negligence of such proportions that hardly a few persons can be discovered who have not been so in this regard.

The present world is a testing ground. It means that in the present world, all that man has is given to him as a ‘testing material’. Death brings an end to this test period. That’s why at the moment of death, all these things which a person has had as long as he was alive are taken away immediately. Even his name is taken away and people start referring to the person as a ‘body’.

After death, man enters a new world suddenly. This world is a world where he will face the consequences of his actions. Earlier, if the man was living with his ‘test material’, after death he will have to live with the result of his deeds done in his ephemeral world. Life before death is temporary—about 100 years at the maximum—but life after death is eternal.

After death, man enters a new world suddenly. This world is a world where he will face the consequences of his actions. Earlier, if the man was living with his ‘test material’, after death he will have to live with the result of his deeds done in his ephemeral world.

People have many possessions while they are on earth. All these things are automatically acquired from the moment one is born. That’s why man takes these things for granted. He cannot think that all these bounties will suddenly be wrested from him. After death, man will suddenly find himself in a situation where he is absolutely alone and totally destitute.

Thinking about this serious reality should have been the greatest issue for a human being. But people tend to ignore and remain careless and insensitive towards this reality, until death suddenly comes upon them.

Death indicates to us our reality. It tells us that we are moving from a situation, where we think we have control over things, to another situation, in another world, where we will have no control over anything at all. It tells us that we are moving from light to darkness, from everything to nothing. Before death, humans are in a world where they think they are the masters of their destiny. But after death, they are taken to a world where they are compelled to accept being completely subordinated to someone else—God.

If you keep this reality in mind, your life will be totally transformed. It will make you realize, for instance, how absurd it is to trouble others, because you will have to answer for this after death, when you yourself will be under someone else’s control. It will make you ashamed of thinking yourself to be superior to others, because you will realize that the supposed superiority that will one day be snatched away from you is actually totally unreal.