Everything Falls into Place
Most people think of death as something undesirable. Generally speaking, people want to live a long life. But despite this, suddenly, one day or the other, they die. They were, it seemed, on a journey. They planned to travel very far. But well before they could arrive at their hoped-for destination, death, in line with a unilateral decision, put an end to their life here!
Why does this happen? This is a question that all of us ask. Everyone wants to know why death takes place. What is life? What is death? Why is it that people want to live a long life, but then, without their consent, they have to accept death’s decision?
One clue with regard to these existential concerns lies in our DNA. Every person has a DNA code inside him. Our DNA is, as it were, a vast encyclopaedia about a huge number of aspects of our personality. But it does not contain any information about one key aspect of our life—and that is how, where and when we are going to die. This fact is an announcement from Nature that a human being is a creature who shall never die. For a human being, there is continuous life. In the true sense, death will never happen to his being.
Now, include another aspect of an individual’s personality here—that among all living beings it is only a human being who has a concept of ‘tomorrow’. All animals live only in ‘today’. No animal has a notion of the future. On account of their limited consciousness, all animals share this common predicament. But exceptionally, a human being is a creature who has a clear concept of ‘tomorrow’—of the future.
A human being has many desires. He has many dreams for his today and tomorrow. But almost all people die while many of their desires remain unfulfilled. If you survey the general system of the universe, this seems to be really odd. In this vast universe it is only a human being who is beset with this predicament. Other than humans no creature is afflicted with this problem. There must certainly be an answer to this question. An individual’s desires must meet with fulfilment in just the same way as in the case of other creatures. This suggests that after the present world, another world will come, a world where a person can obtain the fulfilment of all of his desires.
There is an additional aspect of this issue, and that is that a human being has an innate sense of justice. By nature, a person wants that in the world decisions be made according to justice—that good people should receive full reward for their goodness and evil people should receive adequate punishment for their wickedness. This is demanded by human nature itself. This demand also necessitates that there be another world where this requirement of justice is fulfilled, because for this to happen in the present world is just not possible.
Keeping all these things in mind, the concept of the Hereafter comes to be seen as convincing and true. By accepting the reality of the Hereafter, one receives a completely satisfactory reply to all questions about life. Everything falls into place!
