ONE LIFE NOT ENOUGH

The True World to Set Eyes on

WHEN Benjamin Gayelord Hauser (1895-1984) came to the US from Germany in 1911, he soon developed tuberculosis of the hip. Conventional medicine and several operations failed to cure him, so he turned to natural, herbal remedies. He was told to take warm baths, herbal teas, a diet of salads, fruit juices and vegetable soup. Within a few weeks he was cured.

He then devoted his life to promotion of herbal medicine. He opened an office in Chicago in 1923, and soon moved to Hollywood where many film stars and celebrities, including Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich and the Duchess of Windsor sought his advice. His books, including “Look Younger, Live Longer” and “Harmonized Food Selection with the famous Hauser Body-building system” were widely read throughout America and Europe, and were translated into more than 40 languages.

Hauser once said that he would like to live until he was 100 years old, and then return to earth as a psychiatrist. “I have spent this life being concerned with the garbage people eat,” he said. “The next time I will concentrate on getting rid of garbage thoughts.”

Yet Hauser, who had spent his life showing people how to “look younger, live longer” died, at the age of 89, on Wednesday, December 26, 1984, of complication from pneumonia. His efforts to look younger were not able to ward off old age and infirmity. The measures that he took to live longer were no protection from death. He died before he could reach his coveted 100-year mark.

People in this world achieve every form of success. Their names become known far and wide. Still no man is satisfied. Everyone wishes to add some new feather to his cap. Sometimes his ambitions in this world are so far-reaching that they cannot even be fulfilled in a life span of 100 years; another life on earth is required for their realization.

Man directs all his attention towards his temporary life on earth. He wants all his ambition to find fulfillment here. But the world of his dreams can never come to pass. Instead he will be raised up in an eternal world of infinite opportunities where no desire will go unfulfilled. But those who have worked only for this temporary world will find themselves bereft when they arrive in the Hereafter. They will find themselves in a world which they had not anticipated or made any preparations for.

They will have left the world in which they sought fulfillment of their ambitions far behind.

How sad that man is oblivious to the place where his desires can be fulfilled, and has set his heart on a world where he is doomed to disappointment.