THE TRIAL OF MAN
Life is one long trial for man in this world. Everyone is being examined; it is only the conditions under which this examination is being conducted that vary.
Life is one long trial. The great paradox is that while some enjoy life, others suffer continuously. In reality, however, all are the same, for their actions or responses to the situations they have been placed in are being scrutinized. Everyone is being examined; it is only the conditions under which this examination is being conducted that vary.
Another factor in man’s trial is that God has made some weak and others strong. There is always the temptation to succumb to the mighty and to exploit the weak. But to do this is to take the surest road to Hell. Only those who realize what is right, irrespective of circumstances, will prove themselves worthy of Paradise, for it is often the underdog who is in the right and the mighty who are in the wrong. Even when others behave in a troublesome way, the best way to respond is with mildness and circumspection, and no matter what the provocation, one should endeavour to be just and impartial.
According to this Creation Plan of God, human beings are placed in situations where they have to face hardships from time to time at every moment throughout their lives as part of their test. How people respond to the various situations confronting them in life will determine their eternal abode. Those who yield to the mighty and oppress the weak will surely be punished in Hell, and they would do well to remember that there are two paths which open out before them every day, one of which leads to Hell and the other to Paradise.
Difficulty and sadness are integral parts of the creation plan of the Creator. No man has the power to extricate himself from this life of trial and tribulation. This arrangement is to remind man that the present world has not been made as a place of luxury and comfort but rather as a period of trial, and as such, it will help determine whether he is eligible for eternal life in Paradise.
Despite tremendous development in the present world, adverse conditions are still very much in evidence. However, people, owing to their lack of awareness of God’s creation plan, do not understand why this is prevalent. So, they continue to react negatively to situations and, by giving such a response, prove themselves—in the eyes of God —to be failures in the examination he has set for them.
Stress is also a major problem faced by people everywhere. Many institutions have been established that claim to be able to eliminate stress. What these institutions do, in their endeavour to de-stress people, is to ask them to stop their thinking process, thus bringing on them a kind of temporary anaesthesia. This is, however, not a real solution to the problem of stress. There is only one true solution to this problem, and that is to adopt the correct attitude to stress—that of managing stress instead of trying to eliminate it or react negatively to it. In this way, we will pass our test.
It has been generally observed that those who suffer in their lives engross themselves in social service thinking: “Let no other suffer what I have suffered.” Social service, although a praiseworthy task, is against the creation plan of God as it is impossible to free the world of suffering. Unpleasantness has been put into this world so that man can learn the right lessons from it. The true lesson taught by unpleasant experiences is that man remembers the next world of Paradise. His approach thus becomes: “Let me not suffer in the Hereafter what I have suffered in this world.”
Seen in the light of this creation plan, the root of all human problems is that the unenlightened want to make their Paradise in this world prior to death, whereas under the natural laws, the situation here on Earth makes this impossible. According to God’s creation plan, man has to be content in this limited world before death so that he may be sure that in the eternal world after death, he has Paradise in store for him. The proper thing for a man to do is, therefore, to acknowledge and accept this law of creation and plan his life accordingly. His sole aim in this present world should be to make himself acceptable in the eyes of God so that he may be held eligible for admission into Paradise in the eternal world after death.
Successful is one who has realized the eternal world in this temporary world, who has discovered in the failures of the present world the secret to eternal success in the next eternal world.
