HEAVENLY HOME
A great teacher of ancient India
was teaching his students about the futility of life and the reality of death.
He found that most of them were afraid of death. So he told them a story:
Once upon a time, there was a shipwreck and
four members of a family escaped by holding on to a wooden log of the shattered
ship. The waves carried them to a desolate island. The four
persons who were washed ashore examined the island and started a new life using
the resources available in the isolated island.
Months passed. One day, a stranger visited
the island in a small boat and invited the father to accompany him to a safe
and happy land. Everyone wanted to board the boat, but the stranger told them
there was space for only one passenger in his boat at present. He consoled them
and said that he would return soon and carry the others too. Months later, the
stranger arrived in the same boat and carried away the mother, promising again
to return later to carry the children to the promised land. The stranger
arrived one day and carried the elder son away. The younger son was sad to be left
alone and wanted to accompany his brother, but the stranger refused to carry
the youngest child with him. He promised that he would return soon to carry
him. Finally the stranger came and carried the youngest son to the promised
land of peace and prosperity.
The
teacher asked the students about the moral of the story. As they could not
answer, he explained the allegory himself. The island is the world where every
person is entitled to live for a definite period. The stranger is ‘death’ who arrives
at unexpected moments and carries away our souls to the paradise prepared for
the righteous by God, the Creator. The world is a temporary shelter to prepare
us for an endless life of bliss in our real home in constant communion with
God, our loving Father. Death arrives at the last moment of one’s life and may
carry only one soul at a time. The others are left behind on earth with the
hope that one day they too would be led to the Promised Land. The boat is represented
by the coffin which carries the dead to the grave and the departed soul is led
to heaven. Let us be ready to receive Death, the stranger as the carrier to a
better land, a world without worries. Let us not fear his arrival which is
inevitable. For those who lead a righteous life on earth in accordance with the
Sacred Scriptures, life after death is in a heaven of happiness and so death is
not a fearsome event.
The students were enlightened and lost their
fear of death for ever. It is said that when we are born, we cry and the people
around us rejoice. When we die, people cry, and, if we are saved, we rejoice!
Calvin Miller said, “Death is but a temporary
inconvenience that separates our smaller living from our greater being.” Sir Walter Scott said, “Is death the last sleep?
No, it is the final awakening.” Leon Jaworski stated, “Death for the
Christian is a turning off the light because the dawn has come.”
King Philip of Macedonia had appointed a
servant in his palace, with the duty to meet him every morning and greet him
with the words, “Philip, remember that you must die.”
St. Paul asks emphatically, “Where, Death,
is your victory? Where, Death, is your power to hurt?” {1 Corinthians 15: 55}.
………………………………………………………………………
© By: Prof. Dr. Babu Philip,
Darsana Academy, Kottayam-686001, Kerala, India ( Former Professor, Cochin
University of Science & Technology, Fine Arts Avenue, Kochi-682016, Kerala,
India), Prof. Mrs. Rajamma Babu, Former Professor, St.
Dominic's College, Kanjirappally, Leo. S. John, St.
Antony's Public School, Anakkal, Kanjirappally and Neil John, Maniparambil, Ooriyakunnath, Kunnumbhagom, Kanjirappally,
Kottayam-686507, Kerala, India.
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