Making Sense of Life

By Mesha Oh

A calls up B on the phone

A: Hello B. Is this a good time for us to chat?

B: Hi A! Haven’t heard from you for ages! Where are you, and how are things?

A: I’m back in town, B. And as for things, they don’t seem very good.

B: Why, what’s the matter?

A: Well, you do know that I was going through a crisis after Daddy died last year, which led me to consult a psychiatrist. Things don’t seem to have got any better, B. In fact, they seem a lot worse now.

B: Oh! I’m so sorry to hear that [Keeps silent for a while]. Hey, listen! You said you are back in town, right? So, why don’t we meet? Come over home right away if you can and we can have a chat. Maybe you’ll feel better with that.

A: Oh, that sounds great! Thanks a lot! I hope to get to your place within an hour.

B: Wow, that’s nice! Come, come!

A arrives at B’s place, and after a light meal, they settle down to a chat.

B: So, tell me, what’s troubling you?

A: Well, it’s this: Ever since Daddy died, I’ve been thinking a lot about death, a subject that I hadn’t given much thought to before.

I saw Daddy work so hard for so many years. He was constantly travelling, and even when he was in town, most of the day he was in the office. He earned a lot, managed to build a big house and acquire a large plantation, and left behind a big balance in the bank. Money, shares, properties—these were things that he was obsessed with. But when he died, he didn’t take any of this stuff with him. It was quite a miserable sight to see his corpse, wrapped up in a bedsheet.

B: Well, that’s a universal law, isn’t it, that we came empty-handed into this world and will depart in the same way?

A: That is a fact, and of course we all know it, but when I saw Daddy’s corpse that day, the reality of it really hit me. And then I began to wonder, “Why did Daddy spend so much of his life on things that he knew wouldn’t accompany him to the grave? Was it really worth it? Wasn’t his chasing money and wealth a waste of his one precious life?”

B: Well, I think you should be glad that you asked yourself these questions. I don’t know how many people care to do so.

A: Yes, I am glad I did. But then, I also began thinking, “What’s the use of living at all if one day, I too will end up like Daddy, a lifeless corpse, parted forever from all the things I have acquired and from all the relationships with people that I have cultivated? If it all, including myself, ends in nothingness, then perhaps it’s better I die right now. Why wait till later, when I get old and decrepit and sick, when I can get to my destination right away? Why should I compel myself to go through the torture-chamber of this world of trials any further if finally all that awaits me is non-existence? It would be absurd to compel myself to go through another 20-30 years or whatever it is, grow old and sick and tired, only to come to a final end, like Daddy did. It’s better my life ends right now, if what is in store for me at the end is being snuffed out of existence as Daddy was.”

These thoughts constantly swim about in my mind, and I just cannot get myself to expel them. I can hardly get any sleep these days. I toss about in my bed agonizing over these questions, which haunt me during my waking hours too.

B keeps silent for a while as he prepares a cup of tea and hands it to A.

A: Hmmm! Lovely tea!

B: A, I can understand what you must be feeling. But will you please permit me to point out one major error that you make, which is at the root of your anguish?

A: Do please tell me what you want to say, and of course you don’t need my permission!

B: Well, your mistake is the assumption that you make that our existence ends with our physical death, the death or expiry of the body. That’s how materialists or atheists, who think we are just this physical body, think, but it is simply not true.

If the death of our body put an end to our existence, I might have agreed with the view that life is absurd and that rather than wait for old age and all the suffering that it might bring to overtake us and drag us to our deaths it might be better to die right now. But the fact is that, contrary to what materialists would say, the death of the body does not mean the end of our existence.

A: What do you mean?

B: It’s really simple. The fact is that we are not the body, but the soul that temporarily inhabits the body while we are on Earth. Hence, the death of the body that we inhabit does not mean that we—the soul—die. Rather, we continue to live, in some other realm or plane, even after the death of the body, and our life continues till eternity.

A: Well, that’s something that several religions teach, although each of them might have somewhat of a different way of understanding the phenomenon.

B: You’re right there. And, moreover, it is said this world is a testing-ground: our condition in the eternal life after the death of the body is determined by how we had led our life while we were on Earth. If we had led a God-oriented ethical life here, we can hope for eternal comfort and peace in the neighbourhood of God in the life after the death of the body. But if we did not lead such a life, we might have to face an exceedingly painful predicament.

A: Oh! So, then, the way we lead our life here, on Earth, shapes or even determines our eternal future, is it?

B: You’re right!

A: And that, in turn, I suppose means that every moment of this life is very precious, because the way we spend it can shape our eternal future, isn’t it?

B: Hmmm…So, you can now understand that this life isn’t at all absurd, as you perhaps thought it was. Instead, it is exceedingly significant, the fact of the eternal life after death—or the Hereafter—making it so.

A gets up from his chair, wipes his tears and gives B a hug)

A: B! You’ve shown me the light! You’ve given me reason to carry on wanting to live. I had never thought about life this way before. No one has ever talked such things with me before. No wonder I used to suspect that this life was absurd, thinking it all ended with the death of the body. But you’ve explained the reality of life and death and life continuing in the Hereafter, and in such a way that’s made life, which I thought was totally absurd, seem very meaningful. Thanks a lot, dear!

B: I’m glad I could be of some use! You seem so relieved—and that makes me relieved too!

Do remember, A, that our temporary life here is not for whiling away or whining away, but for a certain purpose, and an exceedingly serious one at that. It is for us to be tested for the eternal Hereafter that comes after this one, where we will live for eternity. Viewing this life of ours in this light should make us realise how important it is and should motivate us to strive to spend every moment of it in the wisest manner.

A: I agree with you entirely, B. Once again, thanks a lot!