You Are Mortal
Unfortunately, most people, when they use the word “human”, are always referring to the limitations of being human – “Oh, I am only human.” Most people are not looking at the potential of being human. They are missing the immensity of being human. There is too much talk about god, godmen and goddamn men only because most of humanity has not realized the immensity of being human. If you realize the immensity of being human, you will know that one lifetime is not enough to explore this. It is too much!
One thing every human being should keep in mind is that you are mortal. This is not just a statement. You could fall dead right now. It is not my wish or my curse that you are mortal, it is a reality. We want to plan and live a certain period of life, but there is no guarantee about how long we will live. You may be young or old, but you can fall dead right now. Please be conscious of this – not to create fear or paranoia, but to know the reality.
If you realize that your time is so limited and you don’t know when it will end, you will have no time to be angry or quarrel with someone. It is only because you think you are immortal that you can have an endless quarrel with people. If you are conscious of your mortality, you will have no time to do anything that doesn’t really matter to you. You will only do what you truly care for in your life. If every human being only did what truly mattered to them, this would be a fantastic world.
Your life is just a certain amount of time and a certain amount of energy. Time is slipping away for all of us at the same pace. You may think, “I went to the movie”, “I went for dinner” or whatever else, but as far as your body is concerned, it is going straight to the grave. With every step and every breath, it is going closer to the grave. This is not to create paranoia. If you are conscious of this, you will want to make the best out of this life. If you forget that you are mortal, you start doing absurd things that don’t mean a thing.
Every night, before you go to bed, sit on your bed and think this is your deathbed that you have just one more minute to live. Just look back and see whether what you have done today is worthwhile? Just do this simple exercise. “Today, the way I have handled these 24 hours, is it worthwhile, because I am dying now?” If you do this, you will live a worthwhile life.