SOME ISSUES TO PONDER ON
The right way to plan and lead one’s life can only be that which encompasses the eternal life of man in the world after death.
Among the first lessons a chemistry student learns is: ‘Nothing dies; it only changes its form.’
There is no reason for man to be an exception to this universal law. Regarding the physical matter, we know it is not extinguished by burning, bursting, or some other accident. Instead of changing its form, it retains its existence. In the same way, we are compelled to understand man as a non-extinguishable creature. That is to say, the death of his body cannot be taken to be the end of his being.
This is no indirect speculation. Instead, it is a reality that is proven through direct experience. For example, the science of Cytology tells us that man’s body is a collection of millions of tiny cells. These cells are continuously disintegrating, i.e., dying. The body of a man of average height contains around 26 trillion cells. These cells are not like the bricks of a building that remain there as long as the building exists. Instead, vast numbers of cells die daily, and our food enables new cells to take their place. This continuous dying of the human body cells proves that, on average, a whole human body changes into an entirely new one every ten years. It is as if ten years ago, the hand with which I had signed an agreement is no longer a part of my body, yet the agreement that ‘my earlier hand’ signed remains my agreement! Despite the change in my body, the inner ‘me’ remains in its actual condition as before. My knowledge, memory, desires, habits, and thoughts remain intact. That is why someone has rightly said, “Personality is changelessness in change.” (The Urantia Book)
If the body’s death were the final extinguishing of life, the same ‘death’ happens, in a way, every day with a person who is still considered alive. Consider a 60-year-old man whom we see walking in front of us. In the sense of the cells of his body, he has already ‘died’ six times! Now, even if undergoing this bodily ‘death’ six times, a person has not died, how will he die from his seventh ‘death’ when he leaves the body for good?
The fact is that man is an eternal being. He remains alive and present even after his physical death. Man’s conscious existence continues even after his death. Death is not the end of life. It is simply an entrance into the next stage of life. When man dies, his eternal being enters into the world after death. Therefore, the right way to plan and lead one’s life in this world can only be that which encompasses the eternal life of man in the world after death.
