Imagine being given a phenomenally valuable gift, but only having it for an extremely limited time. You’re told the gift is so precious that you’ll be asked to give an account of every single moment you had it. How would you cherish and make the most of that gift? That metaphor is our existence. The life we have now, which seems so permanent and unquestionable, is in fact more temporary than we realize. From the moment of your birth, the countdown has begun towards the day when we need to depart from this world. Me and you should ask within whether we are slowly developing into heedless souls who wasted this amazing gift by sleepwalking through it, consumed by chasing temporary whims? Or did we use our divine-given intellect to deeply ponder our purpose?
In my personal reflections, what I have noticed is that most people go through life in a semi-conscious trance. We’re vaguely aware of our ultimate fate, but we carry on mindlessly as if this will never end. We are overly consumed with acquiring possessions, social status, or indulging our egos and desires, none of which will accompany us to our grave. But occasionally we’re shaken awake by the stark realization of how everything can be ripped away from us at any moment. Through illness, natural disasters, freak accidents – glimpses of how feeble our grip on this worldly life really is. These are wake-up calls from the divine, alerting us to stop living like hostages to distracting delusions and turn towards our real purpose through deep reflection. The truth is, we have no way of knowing when our final moments will be. While we have this breath of life, we must make efforts to make the most of our intellect to contemplate the eternal realities. This world is but the blink of an eye. It’s time to awaken ourselves.