News of Death
Consider the case of a man in his mid-70s or so. When he was young, he was healthy. But now he suffers from various ailments. These ailments are actually news or a portent of his impending death. However, he does not consider them that way. Instead, he thinks of them simply as a condition that needs to be cured. And so, he goes from doctor to doctor, from one hospital to the next, in search of good treatment, till at last he exhausts all his money. He does not stop there, though. He takes a loan and goes in for an expensive course of treatment. Yet, that, too, fails to cure him. And then, in a short while he dies!
This is the story of not just one man, but, rather, of almost every single human being in the world.
Old age is for us actually an announcement that death is just round the corner. When you get old, you fall prey to all sorts of ailments. This happens in order to shake you up and make you realize that death is now not far off. If you are sleeping, illness comes in order to force you to wake up. If you are awake, it comes in order to force you to get up. And if you have got up, it comes in order to force you to walk. Illness comes to make you realize that you are soon about to meet your death.
Old age and the difficulties that come with it always come to you to shock you into this realization so that you start preparing yourself for your death before it actually happens. In this way, you can ponder deeply on what might await you in the life after death and so you can accordingly plan how you want to spend your remaining time on earth.
But the fact is that most people simply do not learn at all from such things. Old age and illnesses are portents or heralds of death, but instead of thinking of death when these things happen, people only think about curing their ailments! They make the rounds of doctors and hospitals, but finally they die, in a state of total hopelessness. They do not manage to get the health that they seek. All that they get is death.
All of us see old and sick people—almost every day. Yet, how many of us take this sight as a portent of our own impending death? How many of us draw appropriate lessons from this and start preparing for our death by leading our life in an appropriate way?
Few, if any, of us do so. In this regard, almost all people are completely blind. It is only when death overtakes them that they might open their eyes. But to open your eyes when you die is absolutely useless. It is simply too late!
