Left Speechless

On February 20, 1980, the Hindustan Times reported an incident that occurred in New Delhi. A three-wheeler scooter rickshaw driver had left his vehicle in a no-parking spot. A traffic inspector warned him on the loudspeaker to remove his vehicle immediately. He heard the warning but, seeing no traffic police in the vicinity, paid no heed; he had no knowledge of the closed-circuit television system, which had only recently been installed. The warning was coming through to him loud and clear, but he ignored it. All this time, the traffic inspector could see what the driver was doing. When he saw that his warning was being ignored, he sent a policeman to apprehend the errant driver. But the driver refused to admit his offence. He denied having parked in a prohibited spot. I only stopped for a minute to drop a passenger,” he protested. “I am just moving on.”

There is a new system of traffic control in many cities of the world, a closed-circuit television system much the same as can be seen in most department stores of Europe and America. Television cameras are placed at vantage points on roads. The film is relayed to a control room where, far from people’s vision, a traffic inspector surveys the whole scene on a video screen. According to his observations, he directs the movement of traffic through a loudspeaker system. The traffic inspector, sitting in the control room where he cannot be seen, thus sees what is going on on the roads, and also admonishes anyone whom he sees breaking any rule. The drivers who are being addressed over the loudspeaker can hear a voice, but cannot see anyone.

The policeman took him before the inspector in the control room. The driver told the inspector the same story that he had told the policeman. When the inspector saw that the driver was not ready to admit his offence, he played back the whole video recording showing the driver’s movements. The driver saw himself approaching in his scooter; he saw himself parking in a no-parking spot; he saw himself alighting from the scooter and walking around in a carefree fashion; he saw himself chatting with some friends; he saw the policeman approaching; then he saw himself starting the scooter, pretending that he had only parked there for a minute and was on the move. The driver saw the whole sequence of events played back to him before his very eyes.

Up to now, the driver had denied the inspector’s allegations. He had plenty of words with which to justify himself. But when his actions were replayed to him on the video, he was stunned into silence. His offence had been proved so conclusively that there was no point in him even admitting it. His silence was sufficient proof of his guilt. In the words of the Hindustan Times reporter, he was “left speechless.”

Just as the driver was left speechless on seeing a video recording of his movements, so all men will be left speechless when a recording of their actions on earth is played back to them in the life hereafter. In this world, people do not accept reality. They are called to justice, but they do not heed the call. This situation, however, will not last.

Science has shown that man’s words and deeds are imprinted in the cosmos. Such is God’s universal recording system. God has arranged for everything man does to be recorded under the order of the cosmos. In the next life, when God brings justice to the world, He will replay this recording. Everyone will see, on a cosmic screen, what he really was and what he was pretending to be; he will see how he was used to oppressing and exploiting others; he will hear the words he used to speak in pretence that he was doing right and was wronging no one.

Man denies the truth in this world. He pretends to be in the right. In the next world, however, God will play him a full record of his actions. He will find himself in the same situation as the scooter driver was when he was left speechless. □