Remember Tomorrow

In 1898, Lord Curzon was appointed as Viceroy of India and arrived in the country from England. He had two daughters. Lady Curzon was expecting her third child, and she and Lord Curzon both wanted it to be a boy. But, it so happened that their third child, too, turned out to be a girl. She was born in 1904. At that time, the Curzons were staying in a place called Naldera, and so they named their daughter Alexandra Naldera Curzon.

When Lady Curzon went back to London and Lord Curzon was in Shimla, he sent her a letter, trying to comfort her, because both of them had badly wanted a son. He wrote:

After all, what does sex matter after we are both of us gone?

In penning these words, Lord Curzon tried to conceal his sorrow. But if people permit the broader implications of these words to become deeply embedded in their awareness, then half the world’s problems will be solved. Wealth, children, power—these are the things that people desire most, to get which they are ready to do just about anything. But if you start thinking what the use is of acquiring these things if in a few days’ time you have to abandon them and move on, following your departure from this world, you will experience a deep sense of contentment. If this happens on a large scale, all oppression and strife would cease. The fact is that in this world, there is not much difference between acquiring something and not acquiring it—for if the thing you acquire is such that you have to lose it with your death, acquiring it has no meaning at all!

Man puts in all his effort to acquire something, only to lose it the very next moment! Ultimately, everyone meets with death. Every single thing that man is besotted by and accumulates is left behind when he has to leave this world for good.

Man lives in his ‘today’, completely forgetting his ‘tomorrow’. He destroys someone else’s house in order to make his own, although the next day he is going to shift to his grave. Instituting false cases against someone, you drag him to the human court, but you do not want to know that angels are waiting to drag you to God’s court. Turning a blind eye to others, you delight in the tower of glory that you have built for yourself, although very soon this tower is going to come crashing down. Not a single brick will remain standing!