Thinking of Death Leads to Reform
A criminal was told that the court had passed a sentence against him and that the next day he was to be hanged. When he learned about what was going to happen to him the next day, it was as if he had already been hanged. Life, for him, suddenly became totally valueless. He stopped laughing and even speaking. He was drained of all his strength. He could not even move his hands or feet.
Death informs us that this is what is going to happen to us all. Every person who appears to be alive today is going to be taken to the ‘gallows’ to be ‘hanged’ tomorrow. Yet, no one wants to think about this at all. Everyone is engrossed in his ‘today’. No one thinks of his ‘tomorrow’, when death will strike. Here, every person is a ‘criminal’, but very few know this.
We move about, see, talk, hear, and so on. We spend our lives engrossed in material pursuits and in relationships with others. Then, suddenly, something utterly strange happens. Without our being asked, death overtakes us. Our feet stop walking. Our eyes lose their sight. We are separated from everything and enter into the solitude of the grave.
Death indicates to us our reality. It tells us that we are moving from a situation where, in this world, we think we have control over things, to another situation, in another world, where we will have no control over anything at all. It tells us that we are moving from light to darkness, from everything to nothing. Before death, humans are in a world where they think they are the masters of their destiny. But after death, they are taken to a world where they are compelled to accept being completely subordinated to Someone Else—God.
If you keep this reality in mind, your life will be totally transformed. It will make you realize, for instance, how absurd it is to trouble others, because you will have to answer for this after death, when you yourself will be under Someone Else’s control. It will make you ashamed of thinking yourself to be superior to others, because you will realize that the supposed superiority that will one day be snatched away from you is actually totally unreal.
