|
Let’s visit the chiefs and officers of these groups, check out their
equipment, and ask whether it was given so they could survive for a while here or to use it as a means to obtain a life of bliss in another realm. As we cannot do this with everyone, let’s look at this officer’s identity card and register.
We see that his rank, salary, duty, supplies, and instructions are recorded.
His rank is not for just a few days. In fact, it might have been given to him
for a prolonged period. It says on his card: “You will receive so much salary on
such‑and‑such a day from the treasury.” But the date in question is far in the
future, after this realm has been vacated. Similarly, the duty mentioned on his
card is not meant for this temporary realm alone, but rather for the sake of
earning permanent happiness via some degree of nearness to the king. His
supplies are not meant to ensure his survival here for a few days; they can be
only for the sake of a long and happy life. The instructions explain that he is
destined for a different place and that he is working for another realm.
Look at these registers. They explain how to use and dispose of these weapons
and equipment. If there were no exalted and eternal realm, such a register of
categorical instructions and an identity card with clear information would be
meaningless. That respected officer, noble commander, and honored chief would be
lower than anybody else, for he would be the most wretched, unfortunate, abased,
afflicted, indigent, and weak person. Apply the same principle to everything.
Whatever you see testifies to another and eternal world.
This temporary world is like a field, a training ground, a market that will
be replaced by a supreme tribunal and ultimate happiness. If you deny this, you
must deny all officers’ identity cards, equipment, and orders, as well as the
country’s order, its government, and whatever the government does. If you do so,
how can you be considered a true human being or even a conscious being?
The proof for this transfer of creation from one realm to another is not
restricted to these Twelve Pictures. Countless other indications and proofs show
that this impermanent, changing kingdom will be transferred to a permanent,
immutable realm. Innumerable signs and evidences show that we will leave this
temporary hospice and be sent to the eternal seat of rule of all creation. I
will discuss one proof that is stronger than all Twelve Pictures taken together.
In the midst of the great assembly, the same noble commander we saw earlier
is making an announcement. Let’s go and listen. He is conveying an imperial
edict, hung high over there. He says: “Prepare yourselves. You will go to
another and permanent realm, a realm that will make this one seem like a
dungeon. You will go to the seat of our king’s rule, and receive his compassion
and bounty, if you heed and obey this edict. If you rebel and disobey it, you
will be cast into awesome dungeons.”
Such is the message he conveys. This decree bears a miraculous seal that
cannot be imitated. Only obstinate, rebellious people like you do not understand
that this is from the king. Moreover, the noble commander bears such bright
decorations that everyone, except blind people, understands that he is the
truthful conveyor of the king’s orders. How can the noble commander be doubted,
for doing so would entail denying all that we have seen. So, my friend, what
have you got to say for yourself?
My friend replied: “What can I say? What can contradict all of this? Who can
speak against the sun at midday? I only can say: ‘Praise be to God,’ thank Him
for saving me from my vain fancy and imagination, and for delivering me from an
eternal prison. I believe that there is an abode of happiness in some degree of
nearness to the king, one that is separate from this confused and impermanent
hospice.”
Our parable indicating the truth of the Resurrection and the Hereafter is
concluded. Now, with God’s grace, we will pass on to the most exalted truth. We
shall set forth twelve interrelated truths corresponding to the Twelve Pictures
discussed above. By means of various indications, we also refer here to several
matters also explained elsewhere.[1]
[1] In the Nineteenth,
Twenty-second, and Twenty-sixth Words.
|