CONCEPT OF TOMORROW
A successful man leads the life of ‘today’ in such a way that his ‘tomorrow’—the eternal phase of life after death—is full of joy. He alone is a true man.
In the known universe, man is the only creature who possesses intelligence. As far as we know, no other creature shares this quality with man. Animals, too, are living creatures, but instincts determine all their actions. In ordinary language, we can call instincts the unconscious mind. The conscious mind is a quality only of man and no other species.
According to modern research, the human brain contains some 100 billion particles! In terms of his capacities, man is born with vast possibilities, but experience tells us that almost every person dies with the regret that he could not obtain all he had wanted to achieve in this world. Fulfilment is a deep desire of man. However, almost every person dies without attaining the stage of fulfilment. This tragedy is the fate of nearly every person in this world.
There are different sorts of animals on Earth. They are born and die like humans, but the above sense of lack of fulfilment is not a problem for animals.
There is a reason for this fundamental difference between man and animals. Among all creatures, man is unique in possessing the concept of ‘tomorrow’ or the future. It is as if an indelible part of man’s nature to want to extend his ‘today’ to ‘tomorrow’. He seeks to get in his ‘tomorrow’ what he failed to get in his ‘today’.
The case of animals is different. Animals have no concept of ‘tomorrow’. They live only in the present moment. They live only in ‘today’ and die in this same ‘today’. So even though some actions of certain animals may appear to be based on a concept of ‘tomorrow’—for example, ants collecting food for the next season—this happens due to their instinctual demands and not out of the consciousness of ‘tomorrow’ or the future.
Man’s life has two stages—the pre-death and post-death periods. The former is temporary, and the latter is eternal. This division is so that whatever man could not obtain ‘today’ in the present world, he may be able to obtain in ‘tomorrow’, in the world of the Hereafter.
As pointed out above, some 100 billion particles exist in the human brain. In other words, the human brain has enormous potential. This potential is so great that man’s natural lifespan here on Earth is insufficient to use it. Even if man’s life here was much longer than it generally is, the conditions of this world are so limited that in a finite world, man would still not be able to use all of the potential of his mind.
Man needs a very long life and a much bigger world for fulfilment. However, in the present conditions, the potentials of his mind always remain grossly and underutilized. Keeping this fact in mind, man’s life on Earth seems like the tiny tip of a giant iceberg. A small portion of this ‘iceberg’ is visible in the pre-death period of his life, and the remaining, much more extensive part of it is hidden in the eternal post-death phase of life. Without accepting this fact, man’s life cannot be adequately explained. Human life can only be adequately understood when this fact is brought in. Moreover, when something becomes the only possible explanation for a phenomenon, it is intellectual evidence that this explanation is correct.
If you keep this reality in mind and analyse life, you will realize that the present world is only a temporary place for man. It is not his permanent or eternal destination.
Every person must necessarily face death. Death is an in-between bridge. Death is to move from temporary life to eternal life. The present world is that world where man is training himself, as it were. The pre-death period is a training period. Here, a man prepares himself for the Hereafter during his temporary stay. Then, after death, he goes to the next, eternal world, where, if he is eligible for Paradise, he will get the opportunity to use all the potentials of his mind and acquire the joy of complete fulfilment. In this second period, only those who properly trained themselves in the first period of life will get a place in Paradise—i.e., in life on Earth. Those who arrive in the Hereafter in a non-trained state will be unable to use the opportunities available there. They will be wholly deprived of fulfilment. No harsher recompense could be conceived of than this.
If a man lives only in his ‘today’—wallowing in the pleasures of this world—and dies in his ‘today’ as well, he leads an animal-like life and dies an animal-like death. But, on the other hand, a truly successful man leads the life of ‘today’ in such a way that his ‘tomorrow’—the eternal phase of life after death, is full of joy. He alone is a true man.
