According to this Creation Plan of God, human beings are placed in situations where they have to face hardships from time to time at every moment throughout their lives as part of their test. Difficulty and sadness are integral part of the creation plan of the Creator. No man has the power to extricate himself from this life of trial and tribulation. This arrangement is to remind man of the fact that the present world has not been made as a place of luxury and comfort, but rather as a period of trial and as such as will help determine whether he is eligible or not for the eternal life in Paradise.
In spite of tremendous development in the present world, adverse conditions are still very much in evidence. But people, owing to their lack of awareness of God’s creation plan, do not understand why this is prevalent. So, they continue to react negatively to situations and by giving such a response, prove themselves — in the eyes of God — to be failures in the examination he has set for them.
It is situations such as these that are the tests for man. Giving negative responses to negative situations leads to failing the test. On the contrary, giving positive responses to such situations leads to passing the test. In short, a soul of paradise is one who has opted for the way of forgiveness in moments of anger; who has converted sentiments of jealousy into those of well-wishing, who has converted negativity into positivity, who has converted hatred into love, who has diffused the tensions, instead of causing them to mount: above all, who has converted material loss into non-material gains, by opting for the course of introspection, when beset by complaints and grievances.
Stress is also a major problem faced by people everywhere. Many institutions have been established which claim to be able to eliminate stress. What these institutions actually do, in their endeavor to de-stress people is to ask them to stop their thinking process, thus bringing on them a kind of temporary anesthesia. This is, however, not a real solution to the problem of stress. There is only one true solution to this problem and that is to adopt the correct attitude to stress — that of managing stress instead of trying to eliminate it or react negatively to it. In this way we will pass our test.
Another aspect to consider is that it has been generally observed that those who suffer in their lives engross themselves in social service thinking: “Let no other suffer what I have suffered”. Social service, although a praiseworthy task, is against the creation plan of God as it is impossible to free the world of suffering. Unpleasantness has been put into this world for man to learn the right lessons from it. The true lesson taught by unpleasant experiences is that man remembers the next world of Paradise. His approach thus becomes: “Let me not suffer in the Hereafter what I have suffered in this world.”
Seen in the light of this creation plan, the root of all human problems is that the unenlightened want to make their Paradise in this world prior to death, whereas under the natural laws, the situation here on earth makes this impossible. According to God’s creation plan, man has to be content in this limited world before death, so that he may be sure that in the eternal world after death he has Paradise in store for him. The right and proper thing for man to do is therefore to acknowledge and accept this law of creation, and plan his life accordingly. His sole aim in this present world should be to make himself acceptable in the eyes of God, so that he may be held eligible for admission into Paradise in the eternal world after death.
Successful is one who has realized the eternal world of paradise in this temporary world; who has discovered in the failures of the present world, the secret to eternal success in the next eternal world.
How should we live in this world?
In this world everyone suffers frustration and failure. The reason is that everyone wants to find his desired world in this present world itself, whereas the present limited and ephemeral world is not created for this purpose. That is why, despite all efforts, one fails to find one’s dream world in this life. The present world, in actual fact is not paradise; it just makes paradise understandable to us. By nature, the present world is an imperfect and limited model. It however gives us some glimpses of ‘perfect’ things that give us an introduction to paradise. If our eternal life is a journey, it is just a waiting room and not the final destination of the journey. But man often mistakes it for his destination, and his life thus becomes one of missed opportunities.
The present world is a passageway and not the destination. It is the place for preparation, and not for reaping the harvest. The present world is full of limitations. It does not have the means to fulfill the unlimited desires of man. It has all the means of subsistence at the animal level, but does not have the spiritual necessities of the higher level of man.
During this limited life span on this earth, what man needs to do, first and foremost, is to seek the Creator and Sustainer of this universe. Having seen a glimpse of paradise on this earth, he should become its seeker in his heart of hearts. Intellectually, spiritually and morally he should make himself deserving of an abode in the extreme refinement of paradise. He should devote this present life span to preparation for an unlimited life in the hereafter.
Every man and woman born in this world is like an ‘ore’, which has to be refined and fashioned into steel, in order that they may become a part of the consummate world of the Hereafter. Every living being has to awaken his or her consciousness to the ultimate extent. Human beings are born at the animalistic level. They have to elevate themselves through intellectual and spiritual development. Those human beings that are not able to attain to the human level will find a place in the ‘dustbin’ of the Hereafter, hell being another name for it. Those who succeed in reaching that high level of humanity will find a place in the orchard of happiness in the world to come, which is what we call paradise.