After Death
A study of human DNA informs us that there is one thing missing in it, that is, information of the death of the person. This is a declaration by nature that man is an eternal creature. Man’s life continues after death. With the concept of the Hereafter everything falls into place.
Death is an undesirable event for everyone. Everyone wants to live for a very long period, but all of a sudden, he dies. It seems that man was on a journey, wanting to travel a very long distance, but before reaching his destination, death, unilaterally, put an end to his life.
How does this happen? This is the question asked by every man and woman. Everyone wants to know how it happens. What is life? And what is death? Why is it that man wants to live longer, but long before his sojourn is over, without his permission having been taken, he has to accept the decision of death?
When we ponder upon this matter, the first clue we find is in the modern discovery of DNA. As we know, DNA is stored within everyone. Everyone’s DNA is like a complete encyclopaedia of his personality. But when this DNA is decoded we learn that it is a hundred times greater than the largest encyclopaedia. Every great or small aspect of one’s personality is there in everyone’s DNA.
But it is very strange how one aspect of the human personality is absent from one’s DNA. If we study the DNA of any human being, we can find out everything about him, yet there is one thing which is not possible to know, and that is when this person is going to die. This is a declaration by nature that man is an eternal creature. He is not going to die. Man’s life continues, in the real sense, for death is not going to put an end to one’s personality.
Now let us consider another aspect of the human personality, and that is that of all the living creatures it is man alone who possesses the concept of tomorrow. All other creatures live only in the present. No creature has the concept of tomorrow. Thanks to their limited consciousness, all creatures are as if born today and in today itself they will come to an end. But man—exceptionally—is one creature who clearly has the concept of tomorrow.
To come to a correct opinion in this matter, to keep one aspect in view is necessary. As we know, man has been born into this world with unlimited ambitions. But along with this, there is the other reality that everyone dies in such a manner that his desires are not fulfilled. This being so, everyone’s case is that of unfulfilled desires. If we look at the general system of the universe, this is not in sync with the other things in existence. In this vast universe, no other creature besides man is faced with this problem.
This state of affairs tells us what the answer to this problem should be. Human desire should be fulfilled just as the desires of other creatures are fulfilled. For this to happen, the present world will be followed by another world where man will be able to have total fulfilment of his desires.
One extremely important aspect of the human being is that by nature, man possesses a mind which can conceive of justice. In this world man naturally wants all verdicts to be based on justice. The virtuous should be rewarded for their good deeds and the evil should be punished for their evil deeds. This is the demand of human nature.
Human nature also wants there to be an afterlife where this demand for justice may be answered, because in this world it is not possible.
When we think of in terms of these questions, we find that the Hereafter is an entirely real concept, that is, when we believe in the concept of the Hereafter, we find the final answers to all these questions. Then everything falls into place.
