One day, I started thinking about my contemporaries—those who were born in my time, whose paths crossed mine on my life’s journey and with whom I used to walk side-by-side. I thought of Mr. A while he was still alive, but today he is no longer in this world. Mr. B, Mr. C, Mr. D, Mr. E, —all of them have departed this life. In this way, I kept remembering one by one all those who had known me. Now all those people are dead. Even in the last few days, I got the news that Mr. Y had also died. I fell into deep thought. These words came to my lips: “The countdown has reached the last but one number.”

Then I thought that this did not apply to me alone. The fact is that this applies to every man and woman. Everyday people are observing how those around them are dying. Moreover, everyone receives the news of death through the media, even about those who are far away. But the strange thing is that people do not think of it in connection with themselves. Neither men nor women seriously consider that in the same way they too will very soon die. They think about the issues of life before death all the time, but they do not feel the need to think about the issues after death.

The reason for this is that all men and women are controlled by their DNA. Every act whether great or small, is carried out under the guidance of DNA. The fact of the matter is that regarding life, everything is encoded in detail in everyone’s DNA. The only thing which is not thus encoded in the human DNA is the cause and time of death.

We come to know that all things are present in the DNA code, which is constantly being decoded, but death is unrelated to DNA.

The death of every human being comes about directly by the command of the Creator. This is the reason that the time of death is different for everyone.

What man must do is develop the self-awareness about death. He needs to disassociate himself from his DNA. Only if he did this would he be able to grasp the reality of death. By doing this it would be possible for him to understand the seriousness of death. He would be able to prepare himself for the post-death period while still in the pre-death period.

Man is an eternal being. DNA affirms his eternity. But according to the creation plan of God, man’s entire life has been divided into two periods—the pre-death period and the post death period. According to this creation plan, the brief pre-death period is for the purpose of testing man and the longer post-death period is for him to receive his eternal reward based on his actions.

At this time all men and women are living with the concept of ‘right here, right now.’

They are living a present-oriented life. Had they been aware of the true situation, their life’s map would have been changed. Then they would make the coming day their greatest concern. Everyone would start leading a future-oriented life. The present-oriented life is based on the compulsions of the material world, while the future-oriented life is based on the principles of preparations for the eternal world. Those who are aware about this reality will be successful while those who are unaware of it will be failures.

Source: The Purpose of Creation