When the Journey Will End

The express train had covered a long distance and was nearing its destination. The railway station was only a short distance away. The passengers received a new boost of life, as it were. They were up and about—some were packing their bags, others were changing their clothes, and yet others were looking out of the window expectantly. Everyone’s heart was beating fast, excited about the joyous moment of arrival, when they would step off the train and head to where they had to.

But just then, there was an enormous blast. The train had crashed into another train, and what happened next is not difficult to imagine. Joys turned, all of a sudden, into sorrows; life turned into death; excitement turned into tragedy.

This is what life is. After an enormous amount of effort, someone seeks to acquire a stable economic status. He puts all his determination into making a house for himself. He spends his life chasing what he thinks is success. But at precisely that moment, he dies. He abandons his house and is laid to sleep in his grave. His body dissolves into mud or becomes food for insects. He is so completely separated from all the things that he spent his life working for that it seems that there was never any relationship between them at all to begin with.

He who chases the dream of a mansion is compelled to enter the grave, and then, from the grave he will appear on the Day of Judgment. The world in the grave is completely different from the world of his desires.  There, he is so poor that he does not have even a shred of cloth for his body. He is separated from all the wealth that he spent his entire life earning. He leaves behind all his companions. He loses all his strength. Not one of the things that he used to boast about when he was in the world remains with him.

O! What an absurd journey it is, if, at its very outset itself it turns out to be a tragedy!