The Other Place

Where do you go when you are dead?

Most of us are not sure where we are going in life. After all who can predict the future? But most of us are quite clear where we are going when we are dead. And I do not mean the cremation ground or the cemetery, but where what remains after that process, is going.

I find that amazing. You do not know what will happen to you five minutes from now. You may have a heart attack, be struck down by a motor vehicle and so on, but you are quite certain where you are going after death.

Actually I believe it’s not that either. We are not worried about where we are going after we die. We know where we are going. We are worried about our neighbours. Where are they going when they die? Will it be to the same place? Or different? Will they have the same rights there?

Actually we do worry about the other place. What’s the other place? The other place is where people who are not like us will be sent. Actually you think you are going to some place when we die. But our neighbour knows better. He is certain we are going to the other place.

What’s this other place? That place where our neighbours are going? Well, there are plenty of descriptions, none pleasant. The more unpleasant the better. After all that’s what awaits our neighbours.

But how do we know? Well, the books tell us. Our leaders tell us. And we believe them. And rejoice.

But how do we know that this is true? I mean about that other place. Has anyone come back to tell us? No, not really. But we know it’s true. After all that’s what the book tells us.

Isn’t it silly? You think so?

Well it isn’t.

After all the question of where we, or rather where our neighbours are going after they die is a very powerful force.

Really powerful. You don’t believe me?

Well, it once created a new nation. Split a country. Killed millions of people. Displaced ten times that number. And the wounds remain.

So worry about where you are going. Actually you need to worry more about where your neighbours think you are going. They are really worried about you.

And we don’t need a new country, growing out of the old. One is bad enough.