Life Is An Examination

By Roshel

One way to think of life is that it is like an examination. The Earth can be considered as a vast examination hall. Every person presently on Earth is like a student sitting in an examination hall, busy writing their exam. The examination of our life begins the moment we take our first breath when we come into this world, and it gets over with the moment we breathe our last.

In the examination hall of this world, each student is given a unique question paper to answer, as it were. The resources and opportunities that we are provided are like a pen and paper and other material that we might use while writing an examination. The various situations that we face during our life might be likened to the list of questions that a student appearing for an examination has to answer. The way we use our life’s resources and opportunities in responding or relating to the myriad situations that we face during the entire course of our life determines the outcome of our life’s examination.

A school examination is not intended as an end in itself. Rather, it is a means to an end. It is necessary for a student to go through the examination in order to be promoted to the next class. In the same way, this present life of ours is not intended to be an end in itself. Rather, it is a means in order to graduate to the next stage of our life, the stage that comes after death.

A student appearing for an examination has to encounter several challenges while writing his examination. Even if he knows the answers to all the questions, even just answering them requires effort on his part. In the same way, the examination of our life will certainly entail challenges that call upon us to make efforts, which can sometimes appear quite difficult. Even the most well prepared of us cannot be an exception to this rule. But just as a perspicacious student knows that facing the challenges he must encounter while writing an examination may not always be a pleasant task but is a necessary one in order for him to be able to go on to the next class, a wise person knows that he has no alternative to going through life’s challenges in order to arrive at the next stage of life, which follows the present one.

Just as an intelligent student knows that his performance in the examination will determine his future academic chances, a wise man knows that his performance in the examination of life will determine his chances in the Hereafter.