BETWEEN DEATH AND LOVE

BETWEEN DEATH AND LOVE

While I was in church yesterday, I looked around, saw all the beautiful and handsome faces and how happy everyone looked, a thought struck me which I would like to share.

What if in the end, we die and there is neither heaven nor hell? What if it’s just a blank nothingness?

Oh boy! That really got me thinking critically…. Analyzing issues like what am I actually doing in church? Why do I believe that because a man died over two thousand years ago then I am saved from all sin and I am a candidate for heaven? My mind drifted to our brothers, the Muslims. How are they sure that they are submitting to God and that the teachings of the Prophet (SAW) is not mere teachings of man? And the Eckists, Hindus, Buddhists, jingoists and all other religions on the planet are on the right track?

Well, because I am still mortal and cannot with incontrovertible evidence prove  otherwise, I would love to stick to my terrain. Well whether there is an afterlife or not and irrespective of the religion we practice, some things are pertinent that we should realize.

The most important thing we can leave on earth is our legacy. What we will be remembered for and the mark we leave on earth when our life has passed. The Christians call this the GOLDEN RULE. Other religions call it whatever name or title they may choose. But the most important thing is that how we relate to our fellow humans matter most. Man is at the center stage of everything we do.

Materialism has eroded the world in our age and the ambition to “ACHIEVE” and “ARRIVE” makes many people to go against this golden rule. We should consider that whether there is heaven or hell is not the most important thing. If we read across all other religions than ours, we would realize that all the great teachers who have lived on the surface of this earth did focus their teachings on how each follower treats their fellow humans, how we relate with our fellow humans and the mark we leave on earth when we die.

I believe that irrespective of whether there is heaven or hell, we should strive to follow all men with peace and goodwill.

LOVE, this happens to be the central theme of all the teachings of all religions on earth. What does this mean? Love entails that we treat each human with dignity, which we regard the other man like we would regard ourselves, that we strive to give each person what he or she deserves, that we treat each other with respect and that we do all that we have promised to do. That we don’t promise to do a thing and renege on it.

Love is what all the religious teachers taught, love is the central theme of all religions. We cannot claim to be spiritual if we don’t have love in our hearts. Love answers all things, solves all problems. Love entails that we respect each other and remain at peace with each other… yet love is so difficult to show. But that is because we tend to stick more to our ego and pride than shelve who we think we “are” are what we think we “are.”

We are humans and irrespective of the heights we reach while alive, when we all die we would all be reduced to the skull and bones. Then, there would be no differentiation between a “big man” and other men. That is why we must endeavor to do all we can for mankind while we are yet alive and ensure that we would not be scared of facing the afterlife, we would look at death in the face and scorn her, we would have defeated death and translated into what we are made to be. We would have become what we really should strive to become.

 WE WOULD HAVE ACHIEVED LOVE.