Life’s Lottery

Man can never succeed in creating the world of his dreams here. Therefore, he has two choices: either consider this world as the be-all and end-all and end in total frustration or discover the secret of a successful life by opening his mind to the next life in the Hereafter and plan his life accordingly.

A truck driver, Stuart Kelly, from Ontario, Canada, once bought a lottery ticket. Much to his astonishment, he secured the first prize of $13.9 million, the biggest lottery prize ever received by a single person in Canada.

Childless, Stuart Kelly received far more than his real or imagined requirements could be. His happiness, however, was not to last long. Within three months of receiving this enormous sum, he was doomed to bear the unbearable. He took ill; the doctors diagnosed his illness as a deadly, incurable disease—cancer. No amount of money could save him. No sooner had life seemed to offer him all possible comforts and luxuries after 35 years of hardship and toil than he discovered that death was lying in wait. The reality that all happiness would fade away, sooner or later, dawned on him.

Man’s real problem is not wealth but limitation. Neither wealth nor resources can help him overcome his limitations. It is always in hiding, ready to mar our pleasures.

Limitations vary in the forms they take. Disease, accident, old age, boredom, and death, to name but a few, come between us and our desires and prevent us from fashioning a world of our choice.

Wealth is not life, but only a means to an end. It always holds a secondary place. Primary importance cannot be attached to them. Man, who often cannot differentiate between the real issues and the means, tends to ignore this fact. He considers wealth a summum bonum, an end in itself, treating it as if it were an alternative to live. That is why he sets himself to attain it, whatever the cost.

Given such insuperable obstacles, man can never succeed in creating the world of his dreams. Therefore, there are only two choices open to him. Either treat this world as the be-all and end-all and end in total frustration or discover the secret of a successful life by opening his mind to the next life in the Hereafter and planning his present life accordingly.