The Life of Paradise
Boredom arises because of the limit of our ability to enjoy things, rather than pleasure itself being limited. Paradise is the place where pleasure will be received by all to a higher degree of perfection, and all limitations to the capability to enjoy such pleasure will be removed.
Once, in conversation with a Japanese person whom I happened to meet on a visit to Japan, in December, 1990, I remarked that, the present world is temporary abode whereas the Hereafter is an eternal abode, and that man should build his “Paradise” in the eternal world. But this person’s response surprised me. He said: “People get bored after sometime with comforts and pleasure. In the modern world the problem of boredom has become widespread. That being so, what is the use of eternal Paradise?”
People who do not believe in the Hereafter say such things repeatedly. But this is just a fallacy. The fact is that, we are beset by boredom when we exhaust our ability to enjoy things, rather than the desire to enjoy pleasure comes to an end.
People make the assumption that when we want to savour some pleasure, after some time, we feel we have had enough. And then there is no pleasure left to us. But, in itself, this assumption is wrong. The fact is that, man is by nature insatiable. What man loves he wants to enjoy forever.
But in the present world, human beings suffer from all kinds of limitations. Therefore, whenever a man wants to enjoy something he loves, after a while, his limitations become a barrier to enjoyment. Despite having desires, he loses the capacity to enjoy things. For example, when we eat delicious food, its taste does not end for us, but our stomach gets filled so we have to stop eating. Similarly, often wealthy people shun foods they love to eat in spite of having the desire for them, because they fear that they will become obese and victims of diseases.
This is the case with all other pleasures. The truth is that boredom arises because of the limit of our ability to enjoy things and not because of pleasure itself being limited.
Paradise is such a place where, not only will every pleasure be given to its denizens but such pleasure will be of a higher degree of perfection and all limitations to the capability to enjoy such pleasure will be removed.
In Paradise this contradiction will end, that is, of man wanting to enjoy things but being unable to do so because his limitations stand in the way of enjoying the things of his choice. As such Paradise will become a place of eternal happiness for human beings.
In this world, the boredom that people experience, is actually the result of this contradiction, that man is born as an idealist, wanting to have things in their ideal form, whereas in this world things are very far from being ideal. This is the real reason for boredom.
A man will run after something he loves. Before he gets it, he lives with the false feeling that, this is exactly the ideal thing which he had been seeking all along. But after acquiring it, he comes to realize that it falls far short of the required ideal. That is why, in this world man has pleasure of seeking, but he does not have the pleasure of finding.
In the present world, there is pleasure for man but it is deceptive, whereas in the Hereafter the pleasure will be ideal. Everything in the Hereafter will be ideal. For this reason, it will become the source of real and unlimited pleasure for man. What one wants, one will get in Paradise and because it will reach the highest degree of perfection, there will be no question of boredom.
