HUMAN DESTINY
ONCE during one of his missionary journeys Billy Graham, the well-known evangelist received a message from an American billionaire who asked to meet him as soon as possible. Accordingly, Billy Graham cancelled his other appointments and set out to meet the billionaire.
As soon as he reached the billionaire’s home, he was ushered into a separate room where the billionaire on his deathbed was waiting for him. On meeting him, the billionaire said: “You see, I am an old man. Life has lost all meaning. I am going to take a fateful leap into the unknown. Young man, can you give me a ray of hope?”
Everyone, be he rich or poor, great or small; is ultimately faced with this same desire – to build a world of his choice.
This is not just the story of one billionaire; rather it is the story of all human beings. Everyone, be he rich or poor, great or small; is ultimately faced with this same feeling. Each person wants to build a world of his choice. He devotes all his time towards this end, till the final hours of his life come and he leaves this world with the feeling of helplessness knowing that he could not achieve what he wanted to.
What is the reason for this? Man is the only creature in this vast universe, who cherishes countless desires in his heart. Are these desires ever going to be fulfilled? Will everyone finally be buried in the graveyard of his or her own desires? Every man and woman fosters a world of dream in his or her mind. Is this world of beautiful dreams only there to remain a dream, and never to be realized? Everyone grows an orchard of beautiful desires, but no-one has the good fortune to enter this beautiful orchard. Why this contradiction?
Such contradiction do not exist anywhere else in this vast universe. The inanimate world, the plant world and the animal world are completely free from such contradiction. Then why is this contradiction found only in the human world? The reason is that there is a basic difference between man and the rest of the universe. That is, man’s life is divided into two stages — the stage of life before death and the stage of life after death. Unlike man, all other things in the universe have no stage beyond this present world. They are meant only to come into existence, and then be obliterated one day forever.
The truth is that whatever has been destined for man in the second stage of his life, he desires it in the first stage itself. However, this is not possible because of a unique law in nature applicable only to man, a law, which is not meant for anything else in the universe. Man’s life is governed by the principle of action and reward. That is, the performance of actions in the first stage before death; and the receiving of reward commensurate to those actions, in the second stage after death.
The world before death is the stage of sowing the seed; and the world after death is the stage of finding its result.
This law is the key to understanding human life. Only after fully understanding this law will man’s life become meaningful. This law provides a complete answer to all the questions regarding human life. It gives us a satisfactory explanation of man’s life in this world.
According to this law, the world before death is the stage of sowing the seed; and the world after death is the stage of finding its result — lush green trees, laden with flowers and fruits.
What man therefore ought to do, in this first stage of his life is concentrate all his attention on the proper cultivation of the seed, instead of making futile efforts to find the fruits and flowers. Those who do so will find everything they desire in the world to come — all those things that they had failed to find in the world they leave behind.
Life is a challenge for both men and women.
Those who know this will see this challenge as a ladder
to progress, and by climbing this ladder will reach
the higher stage destined for them.