PREPARING FOR DEATH

earthquake it shatters the castle of man’s illusions. Man may want to prevent the approach of death, but he will never succeed in doing so. Death is governed by its own laws and proceeds without man’s consent. This situation demands that man should be extremely sensitive about death. He should feel every night that the next morning he may not see the light of day. Every night when he goes to bed, he should feel that his eyes may not open again the next day. If man is thoroughly conscious of this fact, he will be shaken to the core. Life for him will not mean living in the simple sense. It will rather be the herald of death. Fortunate are those who become aware of this sudden approach of death and make full preparation before death actually strikes them. Death for Everyone ‘Life has become for me a waiting period for death’, said an old man. In reality, life is a waiting period for death for everyone although most people do not realize this fact. The only difference between an old and a young man is that the reality which is accepted by the old man compulsively will be accepted by the young man only if he ponders over it. For an old man, death is a compulsive discovery. For a young man, it is a conscious discovery. A highly successful American businessman, on reaching 90, felt that he was no longer able to function either physically or mentally. Now the next stage that he was going to face was death. One day he expressed his feelings to an aquaintance in these words: “I am going to take a fateful leap into the unknown.” This fate awaits everyone who is born into this world, whether he is weak or strong, rich or poor, literate or illiterate, powerless or powerful. The day is to come for everyone when he will take the fateful leap towards death—even for the one who had been denying that there is life after death. The wise man is one who realizes this reality in advance. It is this reality which has been expressed in a teaching of the Prophet in these words: ‘The wise man is one who controls his desires and works for the life after death; and the unwise man is one who follows his desires and pins all his hopes on God.’ Death is governed by its own laws and proceeds without man’s consent. This situation demands that man should be extremely sensitive about death.