The Greatest Teacher:
Death
Death is the greatest teacher, but man lives through his life as if there were no such thing awaiting him at the end of life’s journey.
Once when Julius Caesar had to pass by a statue of Alexander the Great in Spain, he paused to gaze upon it and with tears coming into his eyes, he said, “In the whole of my life, I have not been able to achieve even one-tenth of the feats performed by Alexander in the space of a single decade.”
Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), the son of the Greek King Philip, conquered significant parts of the known world of his time in a span of mere ten years. Taking up a project entertained by his father, Alexander decided to attack the massive Persian Empire, marched in 334 BC into Asia Minor, and quickly subjugated the cities in that region. He then conquered Phoenicia and Syria with comparative ease, and although he met with serious resistance at Tyre, he overcame this with the help of a fleet and the city was destroyed. Next, he went to Egypt, which submitted to him without a struggle. Today, the city of Alexandria, which he founded, still exists as a monument to his victory in Egypt. Then, setting out on a different career of victory, he passed through Syria into Persia (now Iran) and marched up the valley of the Tigris through Mesopotamia (now Iraq). He captured Susa, Persepolis, Ecbatana, and other Persian cities with their treasures and advanced as far as the Caspian Sea. The barbarian tribes dwelling on this seacoast were promptly brought under his rule. Alexander did not tolerate opposition, always pursuing a policy of nipping it in the bud. The new empire was organized, into provinces, each keeping its traditions and institutions. About this time, he crushed a rising led by Bessus, the successor of Darius. He next entered India, crossing the Indus near Attock in 326 BC, winning a great victory. After some further conquests, he returned through Baluchistan to Persepolis and set himself to organise the great empire he had conquered.
Alexander was a great administrator and a great soldier and spread the influence of Greece throughout the empire he had won. However, what did fate have in store for him? Amid this tremendous task and while planning a new expedition into Arabia, he died in the ancient city of Babylon—as defenceless in the face of death as any poor man in his miserable hut. Although he started on a career of conquest with few parallels in world history, his life was too short for his empire to be welded together. Moreover, his only son having been killed in battle, none of his acquisitions could be handed down to his heirs. His vast empire was then divided between three military officers, none of whom was related to him, and there was no further cohesive or unifying force to hold it together; it was not long before his hard-won empire disintegrated.
When death comes, it impresses the immediate beholders of its ravages just how helpless man is before his Maker. Death strikes around him, sparing neither the high nor the low, yet people who are not directly affected fail to understand its significance. It has a lesson to teach, but man ignores it. Moreover, if he has paid no heed to the most urgent realities of life, death will undoubtedly leave him no respite to cogitate upon them at that time, and there will be no breathing space for him to learn lessons which he should have learned long before.
Death is the greatest teacher, but man lives through his life as if there were no such thing awaiting him at the end of life’s journey.
