GUIDING ONE TO A PURPOSEFUL LIFE
PEOPLE’S attitude towards death, in general, is one of utter indifference. Some show feigned ignorance on the subject of death. There are very few who are concerned with what comes in the wake of death; they focus their attention on gaining an honourable position in the life after death. Majority, on the other hand, are caught up in worldly affairs. Their ultimate ambition is worldly honour and prestige. Under present circumstances, those who have consolidated their position on earth seem to be successful, but death will shatter this facade. It will become clear that those who seemed to have no base in the world were in fact standing on the most solid of foundations, while the position of those who had reached a high status in the world will be exposed as false.
Death will obliterate everything; afterwards only that which has worth in the afterlife will remain. We are obsessed with the world which meets our eyes. We fail to pay attention to the call of truth. If we were to see the next life with our worldly vision, we would immediately submit to God. We would realize that if we do not submit to Him today, we will have to do so in the future world, when submission will profit no one.
True submission to God does not mean just acknowledging His existence. It involves total attachment to Him. It is an inward state with an outward form.
A city clock tower informs people of the correct time. People set their watches according to it. Nobody bothers about who the engineers and mechanics who constructed the clock tower were, or where the parts that they used were produced. The fact that it keeps good time is enough to attract everybody. God’s religion is much the same sort of clock tower, constructed for man’s guidance; yet people fail to look at it and find their way by it.
There can only be one reason for this. People are serious in wanting to know the time, but not the Word of God. God’s religion is concerned with the next life, while a clock tower is a thing of this world. The clock has an important part to play in the realization of people’s worldly ambitions. They recognize its importance. But they have no ambitions for the future life, and no regard for the importance of something which guides them to eternal success.
True submission to God does not mean just acknowledging His existence. It involves total attachment to Him. It is an inward state with an outward form. Discovery of God is an event of incomparable impact which can never remain hidden. If God’s truth has been revealed to someone, it will always be apparent. One so favoured will desire those around him to bear witness to the fact that he has answered the call of God, set aside worldly gain and expediency, and that he has devoted himself entirely to God.
If one claims to possess inner faith, but does not express it, one can only be looking at faith as a convenience. Anyone who puts worldly interests before God cannot ever discover Him. Preoccupation with worldly priorities and prejudices are the very opposite of true submission to God, and two such conflicting states can never merge in one soul.