There is this story of a man who
had a dream one night. He
dreamed that he died and found
himself immediately in a large
room. In the room there was a
huge banquet table filled with all sorts of delicious foods. Around the table people were
seated who were hungry but the
chairs were five feet from the
edge of the table and people
apparently could not get out of
the chairs and their arms were not long enough to reach the
food. In the dream there was a
single large spoon, five feet long.
Everyone was fighting,
quarreling, pushing each other,
trying to grab hold of that spoon. Finally in that awful scene, one
strong bully got hold of the spoon.
He reached out, picked up some
food, and turned it to feed
himself. Only to find out that the
spoon was so long that as he held it out he could not touch his
mouth. The food fell off.
Immediately someone else
grabbed the spoon. Again, the
person reached far enough to
pick up the food, but could not feed himself. In the dream, the
man was observing it all said to
his guide, “this is hell, to have
food and not be able to eat it”. The guide replied, “Where do u
think u are? This is hell. But this
is not ur place. Come with me.” And they went into another room.
In this room things were the
same as the previous room.
People were not able to reach
food because of the same
reasons. Yet they had a satisfied, pleasant look on their faces. Only
then the visitors see the reason
why. Exactly as before, there was only
one spoon. It, too, had a handle
five feet long. Yet no one was
fighting for it. In fact, one man,
who held the handle, reached out,
picked up the food, and put it into the mouth of someone else,
which ate it and was satisfied.
That person then took the spoon
by the handle, reached for the
food from the table, and put it
back to the mouth of the man who had just given him
something to eat. And the guide
said, “This is heaven”. People who try to achieve
happiness with selfishness end
up it in a hell on earth. If you live
by the laws of God and choose to
look for people who have
burdens, you might be able to help them. But if u look for your
own happiness, ignoring the
needs of those around you, you
will lose out altogether.
