RIGHT APPROACH TO LIFE
Acceptance of the Creation Plan of God
ACCORDING to the Creation Plan of God, human beings are placed in situations where they have to face hardships from time to time at every moment throughout their lives as part of their test. Difficulty and sadness are integral parts of the creation plan of the Creator. No man has the power to extricate himself from this life of trial and tribulation. This arrangement is to remind man of the fact that the present world has not been made as a place of luxury and comfort, but rather as a period of trial and as such will help determine whether he is eligible for eternal life in Paradise.
In spite of tremendous development in the present world, adverse conditions are still in evidence. But people, owing to their lack of awareness of God’s creation plan, do not understand why this is prevalent. So, they continue to react negatively to situations and by giving such a response, prove themselves—in the eyes of God—to be failures in the examination He has set for them.
It is situations such as these that are the tests for man. Giving negative responses to negative situations leads to failing the test. On the contrary, giving positive responses to such situations leads to passing the test. In short, a soul of Paradise is one who has opted for the way of forgiveness in moments of anger; who has converted sentiments of jealousy into those of well-wishing, who has converted negativity into positivity, who has converted hatred into love, who has diffused tensions, instead of causing them to mount: above all, who has converted material loss into non-material gain, by opting for the course of introspection, when beset by complaints and grievances.
Stress is another major problem faced by people everywhere. Many institutions have been established which claim to be able to eliminate stress. Anyone who, in their endeavor to de-stress people asks them to stop their thinking process, are only bringing on them a kind of temporary anaesthesia. This is, however, not a real solution to the problem of stress. There is only one practical solution to this problem and that is to adopt the correct attitude to stress—that of managing stress instead of trying to eliminate or react negatively to it. In this way we will pass our test.
It has been generally observed that those who suffer in their lives engross themselves in social service thinking: “Let no other suffer what I have suffered”. Social service, although a praiseworthy task, is against the creation plan of God as it is impossible to free the world of suffering. Unpleasantness has been put into this world for man to learn the right lessons from it. The true lesson taught by unpleasant experiences is that man remembers the next world of Paradise. His approach thus becomes: “Let me not suffer in the Hereafter what I have suffered in this world.”
Seen in the light of the creation plan, the root of all human problems is that the unenlightened want to make their Paradise in this world prior to death, whereas under the natural laws, the situation here on earth makes this impossible. According to God’s creation plan, man has to be content in this limited world before death, so that he may be sure that in the eternal world after death he has Paradise in store for him. The right and proper thing for man to do is therefore to acknowledge and accept this law of creation, and plan his life accordingly. His sole aim in this world should be to make himself acceptable in the eyes of God, so that he may be held eligible for admission into Paradise in the eternal world after death.
Successful is the one who has realized the eternal world of Paradise in this temporary world; who has discovered in the failures of the present world, the secret to eternal success in the next eternal world.
How should we live in this world?
In this world everyone suffers frustration and failure. The reason is that everyone wants to find his desired world in this world itself, whereas this present limited and ephemeral world is not created for this purpose. That is why, despite all efforts, one fails to find one’s dream world in this life. This world, in actual fact is not Paradise; it just makes paradise understandable to us. By nature, the world is an imperfect and limited model. It however gives us some glimpses of ‘perfect’ things that give us an introduction to Paradise. If our eternal life is a journey, it is just a waiting room and not the final destination of the journey. But man often mistakes it for his destination, and his life thus becomes one of missed opportunities.
The present world is a passageway and not the destination. It is the place for preparation, and not for reaping the harvest. The present world is full of limitations. It does not have the means to fulfill the unlimited desires of man. It has all the means of subsistence at the animal level, but does not have the spiritual necessities of the higher level for man.
During this limited life-span on earth, what man needs to do, first and foremost, is to seek the Creator and Sustainer of this universe. Having seen a glimpse of Paradise on earth, he should become its seeker in his heart of hearts. Intellectually, spiritually and morally he should make himself deserving of an abode in the extreme refinement of Paradise. He should devote this present life–span to preparation for an unlimited life in the Hereafter.
Every person born in this world is like an ‘ore’, which has to be refined and fashioned into steel, in order that they may become a part of the consummate world of the Hereafter. Every living being has to awaken their consciousness to the ultimate extent. Human beings are born at the animalistic level. They have to elevate themselves through intellectual and spiritual development. Those human beings who are not able to attain to the human level will be failures in the Hereafter. Those who succeed in reaching that high level of humanity will find a place in the orchard of happiness in the world to come, which is called Paradise.
Life’s Building
Building one’s life is not just like building a child’s play house. It is a matter of putting down roots, and toiling patiently ever upwards.
