This World is an Examination Hall

A student enters an examination hall. He sees around him a very big room. He notices a comfortable chair and table, which have been placed there for him. On all four sides there are lovely flowering plants in big pots. There are attendants on duty, who at his command, immediately fulfil his demands. From the windows of the hall he can see a beautiful park outside.

But the student doesn’t derive any joy from any of this. Even in what appears to be a beautiful, pleasure-filled environment he remains serious. This is because at that moment his sole concern is that he is in an examination hall, there to write an examination, not to have fun. “I am not the owner of anything in this hall. Every single thing that is here belongs to someone else,” he reminds himself. “I have come here only to write my exam paper, to answer the questions right. Moreover, I have been given very limited time in which to do this. The only proper use of this time is to devote it to writing the exam well. Every other occupation is for me a total waste of time, not an appropriate use of it.”

This is just the same in the case of an individual in relation to the present world. This world is a vast examination hall. In this world, whoever enters comes here to write the examination of life. This is an examination to test who truly acknowledges God and who does not. It is an examination to find out who has fulfilled his responsibilities vis-a-vis others and who has not.

If the status of the world as an examination hall becomes clear to a person, his condition will become like that of a student who is writing a test. For such a person it will become impossible to spend his time in heedlessness, to waste his time in frivolities, to lose himself in sensual pleasures. For such a person, the world will be a place to fulfil his responsibilities, not somewhere to wallow in material comforts.