PREPARING FOR DEATH
The Ultimate Destination
MAN comes to this world equipped with an excellent mind and an excellent body. Therefore, the first thing one must think of is how he came into being. The world in which he finds himself is an exceptionally favourable one for survival. Here he finds an earth where he can live in comfort. There is the sun which continuously gives light and energy to him. Here is fertile soil in which all kinds of crops can grow. There is abundant water, which is essential for sustaining life. Here there is air which unceasingly provides him with oxygen to breathe.
This planet Earth inhabited by man supports him in numerous ways. Here is a life-support system of a very high order. Without this it could have been impossible for man to survive or make progress. Man has been granted so many blessings that it is impossible to count them all. Only some of these blessings have been discovered by science. These too are so immense in number that even if someone studied them all his life, he would not be able to learn about all of them.
This situation poses a great question which no person can overlook. Man’s own astonishing existence and the beautiful world around him compel him to ponder upon how all this came about.
We have to ask these questions: Who made me? Who created this world? Who created this most meaningful life-support system and pressed it into my service?
We have to ask these questions: Who made me? Who created this world? Who created this most meaningful life-support system and pressed it into my service? Everything in this world is a great blessing and everything is silently giving a call and inviting us to ponder over this matter and discover who the provider of all these blessings is!
There is another very grave matter linked to this question and that is the ephemerality of human existence. Man is born with the most precious faculties. He possesses a miraculous mind. He wishes to achieve limitless progress by making use of his extraordinary talents. Human life appears to have an eternal character but, within less than a hundred years, while man is still on his life’s journey, some unknown power intervenes and takes him away and sends him to another world.
Why this happens is an extremely serious question. And it certainly needs to be answered. Any person who is serious about his life can never rest contented without knowing the answer to this question. It is only the right answer to this question that can give a proper explanation of the present life. Moreover, the answer to these questions will tell us what should be done to make life meaningful and successful in the real sense.
Such questions have been objects of reflection throughout human history. Many great minds have devoted themselves to finding answers to them. The answer which has satisfied the minds at a universal level is that there is a God of this world. He is its Creator, its Lord, sustaining the entire world with His almighty powers; and then that this world has been created under a special creation plan.
According to this plan, man is an eternal creature. But the Creator has divided human life into two parts, a small part of which is placed in the phase of life before death, while the major part is placed in the life after death. Death does not mark the end of life. It is rather the entry into another world so that man may spend the rest of his life in an eternal abode.
The Greatest Unawareness
The dead have left the world—this reality is
known to everyone. But there is something
of which many people are unaware: they too
have to die one day. They too are going to
face the same fate as that faced by others.
It is strange that people see others die every
day, yet they exempt themselves from these
happenings. It is as if everyone is silently
agreeing that others had to die and they have
passed away, but that death is not going to
come to them.
Man is an eternal creature. But the Creator has divided human life into two parts, a small part of which is placed in the phase of life before death, while the major part is placed in the life after death.
This lack of awareness is most fatal. Such kind of unawareness is known as ‘Ostrich thinking’. Whether or not anyone thinks about death, death without doubt is running towards them.
Death is like an earthquake at an individual level. The earthquake comes without any warning. Death too comes without prior announcement. Everyone is helpless in the face of an earthquake. Similarly, everyone is helpless in the face of death. Death comes all of a sudden. Like the earthquake it shatters the castle of man’s illusions. Man may want to prevent the approach of death, but he will never succeed in doing so. Death is governed by its own laws and proceeds without man’s consent. This situation demands that man should be extremely sensitive about death. He should feel every night that the next morning he may not see the light of day. Every night when he goes to bed, he should feel that his eyes may not open again the next day. If man is thoroughly conscious of this fact, he will be shaken to the core. Life for him will not mean living in the simple sense. It will rather be the herald of death. Fortunate are those who become aware of this sudden approach of death and make full preparation before death actually strikes them.
Death for Everyone
‘Life has become for me a waiting period for
death’, said an old man. In reality, life is a
waiting period for death for everyone although
most people do not realize this fact. The only
difference between an old and a young man
is that the reality which is accepted by the
old man compulsively will be accepted by the
young man only if he ponders over it. For an
old man, death is a compulsive discovery. For
a young man, it is a conscious discovery. A
highly successful American businessman, on
reaching 90, felt that he was no longer able
to function either physically or mentally. Now the next stage that he
was going to face was death. One day he expressed his feelings to an
aquaintance in these words:
“I am going to take a fateful leap into the unknown.”
Death is governed by its own laws and proceeds without man’s consent. This situation demands that man should be extremely sensitive about death.
This fate awaits everyone who is born into this world, whether he is weak or strong, rich or poor, literate or illiterate, powerless or powerful. The day is to come for everyone when he will take the fateful leap towards death—even for the one who had been denying that there is life after death.
The wise man is one who realizes this reality in advance. It is this reality which has been expressed in a teaching of the Prophet in these words: ‘The wise man is one who controls his desires and works for the life after death; and the unwise man is one who follows his desires and pins all his hopes on God.’
Ephemeral Accomplishments
In the first quarter of the twentieth century, the British Empire was
at its zenith. In those times they built a new city (New Delhi) within
the bounds of Delhi. It contained the Vice Regal Lodge, Parliament
House, India Gate, grand official buildings, a network of broad avenues
and beautiful parks, etc. This world of New Delhi in those days was so
distinguished that it was regarded a ‘political Taj Mahal’.
When this ‘political Taj Mahal’ was ready, it was visited by a French leader. He was very well read. He knew that the world had seen a democratic revolution and that, like other empires, the British Empire too was certainly going to come to an end one day. Therefore, he expressed himself in these words: “What a magnificent world they have built to leave.” This is the story of everyone in this world, with the sole difference that some built small castles and others built big castles. The end of this magnificent ‘political Taj Mahal’ was that British rulers finally left it on August 15, 1947.
The same end awaits all humans. Certainly the time is going to come for everyone when, all alone, they will have to leave this world leaving their castles behind them. This happening takes place before us each and every day. But no one learns anything from this. Everyone is living as if whatever has happened with others, will not happen with them.
One who sees his own death in the death of others is truly alive. A living person does not wait to undergo a fatal experience and only then learn a lesson from it.
Whether or not one expresses this in words, it is a fact that in this matter every one has exempted themselves although the reality is that no exemption will be made for any human being.
Old Age, Death
Man is born into this world as an infant. Passing through various
stages, he reaches adolescence. Then he grows old and finally within
a period of a hundred years he dies. It happens to all human beings—
compulsory aging after adolescence and afterwards inevitable death.
This is the story of every individual whether he is rich or poor, ruler
or ruled. Man appears to be invested with powers. But in the matter
of death he is totally powerless, just as an earthquake comes all of a
sudden governed by the unilateral laws of nature; similarly, death too
comes from the Creator on a unilateral basis. Man has no say in this
matter.
This state of affairs demands that man should remember death at every moment. He should be engaged all the time in introspection as to what preparation he has done for the life after death, and what he has in store for his journey after death. People write life’s diary but what is more important is to write the diary of death. Everyone should record in his diary as to what he thought today about death.
For instance, hearing of someone’s death should remind us of our own death. When we witness that person’s last rites and see his body being lowered into the grave, it should remind us that one day we too would be buried in the same way.
One who sees his own death in the death of others is truly alive. A living person does not wait to undergo a fatal experience and only then learn a lesson from it. The truly alive person is one who learns lessons from others’ experiences.