The Greatest News
A young man I know is a government employee in Delhi. I have known him for a long time. One day, I had gone out for some work, and when I came home at night, I was told that he had come several times to my house to meet me.
Just then the bell rang. It was the very same man. Seeing me, he burst into a smile and said, ‘I’ve come to give you some good news.’ And then he told me that he had been promoted at work and had received a raise in his salary.
I thought to myself, ‘If someone has some important news, he just can’t keep it to himself. He simply has to share it with others. In fact, sometimes he goes out of his way to find someone whom he can share his news with. If someone buys a new car or builds a new house, he just can’t help talking about it. If in a gathering, his car or house does not become a subject of discussion, he turns the ongoing conversation in such a direction that he can tell others about his car or house. This is human nature. There’s no human being who isn’t eager to tell others his important news!’
Today, uncountable voices compete with each other for attention. Everyone has some message or the other which he wants to convey to others. But in this enormous crowd of people desperate to say something or the other, there is no one who is eager to convey news about the Hereafter, to make others aware of Heaven and Hell. There is no dearth of speakers and writers, but none is concerned about the Hereafter. Everyone has news about something or the other to do with this world. But no one has news about the Hereafter that they want to tell others about. If they had such news, they would obviously share it with others. In fact, given the enormous importance of the Hereafter, all other news would be no news at all which people would want to share with others. They would spend all their energy and time only in sharing with others the news about the Hereafter. They would see no work as work other than the work of making people fearful of Hell and conveying the good news of Heaven.
If people come to know that in the next few moments, an earthquake will strike or a volcano will erupt, they will talk only about that and nothing else at all. They will forget everything else and will talk only about the impending devastating event. But speakers are carrying on with their speeches, and writers are carrying on with their writings, and all these speeches and writings are so utterly empty of mention of the Hereafter that it is as if people have no news at all of this impending terrifying Day.
People are generally entangled in the problems of their immediate environment—such as their personal or community issues of an economic, political and social nature. Experiencing these all around them, they begin to think that they are the matters of real importance. And so, they get involved in discussing and debating such issues. However, the biggest issue is the issue of the Hereafter. The Hereafter is hidden from our sight, but it is the biggest of all impending events, and is so much more deserving of being talked about than all other events.
