Who Will Attend Your Funeral: Thoughts of Death that Will Open Up New Facets of Life for You

WHO WILL ATTEND YOUR FUNERAL

Thoughts of Death that Will Open Up New Facets of Life for You

SUNDAY ADELAJA

Sunday Adelaja

Who Will Attend Your Funeral

©2018 Sunday Adelaja

ISBN

Copyright © Golden Truth Publishing

Kiev, Ukraine. All rights reserved

www.goldentruth.pro

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise - without prior written permission of the author.

Cover design by Alexander Bondaruk

Interior design by Olena Kotelnykova

© Sunday Adelaja, 2018,

Who Will Attend Your Funeral -

Kiev, Ukraine:

Golden Truth Publishing, 2018

All rights reserved.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 5

CHAPTER 1: THE MOST IMPORTANT

QUESTION IN LIFE 7

The Morning Alfred Nobel’s Life Changed

Forever 7

From an Artificer’s Offspring to a Dynamite

King 9

Effects of A Decision 11

CHAPTER 2: WHAT IS LIFE? 19

Everything is Illusory in this Raging World... 19

What Reveals the Beauty of Life 22

Are You Aware of How Fast Life is Passing? 23

What is the Meaning of Life? 26

CHAPTER 3: HOW WE WASTE OUR LIVES 33

How We Lose Our Dreams 33

In the Pursuit of a Mirage of this World 36

The Illusion of Busyness (Employment) 40

World System 43

CHAPTER 4: PRINCIPLES OF LIFE 55

In What is the Greatness of Pushkin 58

And Common Folk Shall Keep the Path

Well-Trodden 64

Every One of Us is Responsible for the

Erection of His Own Monument 67

CHAPTER 5: WHY LIFE IS GIVEN TO US? 79

Life Makes Sense in All Its Forms 79

Every Life Should Have a Goal! 82

Who are You: an Original or a Copy? 84

The Uniqueness of Each Person is Determined

by His Specific Mission 87

CHAPTER 6: HOW TO FIND YOUR

CALLING 97

What is a Calling 97

Tips to Know Your Calling and Find Your

Place in Life 101

Become the Best in Your Occupation! 112

CHAPTER 7: DON’T LEAVE WITHOUT

PLACING YOURSELF A RECORD 123

A Talented Young Man from Naples 124

Strive to Fulfill Your Dreams! 127

Obstacles to Your Dreams 130

CHAPTER 8: THINKING ABOUT THE END

OF LIFE 139

But That Dread of Something After Death… 139

When You are Still Afraid of Death 144

Three Alarms Reminding Us of Death 148

How to Live Your Life so that You Regret

Nothing at the End of Life 151

CHAPTER 9: WHO USUALLY ATTENDS

FUNERALS? 159

Two Categories of People 159

The People’s Princess 160

A Singing Bard 165

Madiba and The Long Walk to Freedom 168

The Surgeon-Priest 173

What Makes Life Worth Living 176

Re-Evaluation of Your Life From a Viewpoint

of Eternity 179

How to Practically Reassess Your Life 185

Case Studies 187

EPILOGUE 207

Introduction

Life is like a telegram -short and with mistakes

Joke

Have you encountered a situation where someone died, and the people around try to comfort the family of the departed by saying, as it is customary, God giveth and He taketh?

Whether this person was good or evil, accompanying him on his last journey, they say: REST IN PEACE?

Agreeably, it is common in our society nowadays for us to make mere expressions and jokes about the cemetery and funeral, to talk about and relate lightly to this topic.

We want to simplify things, tragedy or the situations that are difficult for us to understand and try to reduce everything to a joke.

To some people, funeral or any mention of the cemetery cause unpleasant reactions, it makes them uncomfortable. Some people after reading the title of this book will think to themselves or might even ask ,Is it worth it thinking about sad things? When it's our turn to die, then we will think about WHO WILL COME TO OUR FUNERAL. We will be there in our own time, - We say quickly, just to get rid of the unpleasant topic and move on to something more joyful. Why rush things and begin to think about the eternal when you're still young, why not think about your fullness of energy and desire to live in this world?

Some young people will say, Is it worth saddening the already not so joyful life with sad thoughts about its inevitable end? Let those who are already at the end of their lives think about the funeral and the cemetery. But even the gray-haired old men and women are worried about the end of their lives but mostly only in the sense that they care about buying a coffin and saving the money for their own funeral.

Dear reader,

Yes, thinking about life rather than death is a sign of mental and spiritual health, therefore, in this book, I'm not suggesting that you plunge into the afterlife and tune in to the mystical wave of the world beyond. I do not imply that all attempts to do anything in this world - to achieve success, to build houses, plant trees, create a family, to have children - are in vain just because we are still going to die. On the contrary, realizing the fact that sooner or later we have to face death - both we and our loved ones - should touch upon certain thoughts, which eventually should produce in us the positive changes that will make us live life in a more full and fruitful manner. You may be asking, How is this possible? I encourage you to read this book to the end, and I think by the end of this book you will understand why I am suggesting that you think about, WHO WILL COME TO YOUR FUNERAL?

CHAPTER 1

The Most Important Question in Life

Do not tell me how he lived, tell me what he lived for.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

THE MORNING ALFRED NOBEL’S LIFE CHANGED FOREVER

Throughout his life, Alfred Nobel adhered to pacifist views. Nevertheless, among his contemporaries, his name was associated with the death, blood, and annihilation of large numbers of people. In fact, he was once nicknamed The Merchant of Death.

The merchant of death title was given to him due to Nobel inventing and making most of his vast fortune off, dynamite and other types of explosives, such as ballistite, which was the precursor to quite a lot of military grade explosive devices.

Today, the name of Alfred Nobel is inextricably linked to the international prize, which is annually awarded by the committee established to this end to celebrate the achievements that have brought humanity the greatest benefits in such areas as physics, chemistry, physiology and medicine, literature, and the strengthening of peace. But then, the name of the scientist would have been added to the list of the world's greatest villains alongside Stalin, Hitler and other terrible geniuses of the human race.

However, contrary to expectations, it did not happen. What changed the order of things in the life of this remarkable man?

One day in April 1888, sitting at home, Alfred Nobel started his day with a cup of coffee and read the morning newspaper. With the aroma of coffee and freshly baked pastries in the air, the day promised to be sunny and serene. Perhaps it had rained that morning, and the bed was so warm so much that he did not want to get up. Whatever it was, but that day, opening the newspaper, Alfred Nobel discovered something that deeply upset and shocked him. On the first page, printed was a catchy headline in huge letters across the entire width: The merchant of death is dead!.

Alfred Nobel could not believe his eyes: an obituary published in the morning newspaper reported that he had in fact passed on. The message was decorated with epithets, one more beautiful than the other, The blood millionaire, explosive death merchant dynamite king. It turns out that all these words were addressed to him.

For Alfred Nobel it was a rude awakening to reality; even if it was a mistake, no doubt because of this ridiculous article, his eyes opened. He realized what the whole world thought about him. The previously veiled reality suddenly became obvious to Nobel, and it was impossible to ignore it!

Indeed, it turned out that the newspapers had mixed the inventor with his older brother Ludwig, who died recently in Cannes. But due to their error, Alfred Nobel had an opportunity to read his own obituary during his lifetime. Quite by accident Nobel learned what would be written about him if he were dead. The newspaper obituary described him as a ruthless man who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before.

What Nobel read, shocked him very much, he realized that if he died that day, the world would remember him as a cruel, greedy and selfish man who had invented a destructive weapon called the dynamite. And I must say that it was an unpleasant experience for him especially because the scientist did not see himself the way others saw him.

FROM AN ARTIFICER’S OFFSPRING TO A DYNAMITE KING

A man becomes what he is, because of the cause he serves.

Karl Jaspers

To immortalize their surname was a dream for all members of the Nobel clan. Alfred, and indeed, his brothers, his father and all his ancestors on the paternal side, certainly wanted to immortalize their name. Once, this desire pushed a peasant called Peter Olofsson to walk from a small Swedish village called Nobels to Stockholm to enroll in the university. This was the 17th century, and you can imagine how many educated people existed at that time, Peter Olofsson changed his surname to Nobelius. However, Peter Nobelius did not gain scientific fame, and his surname was shortened by his descendants to Nobel. Alfred's father, Emmanuel Nobel, just as his glorious ancestor (Peter), to achieve glory and a better life, also made his way to Stockholm. He was admitted to the study Engineering because of his outstanding abilities.

Swedish experimental chemist and businessman, dynamite inventor and founder of the charitable foundation, Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm on October 21, 1833, to the family of Emmanuel (Immanuel) (1801 - 1872) and Andriette Nobel. He was the third son, there were eight children in the family, but only Albert, Robert, Ludwig and Emil survived. In the early autumn of 1842, the Nobel family moved to St. Petersburg, where Emmanuel began work on the development of torpedoes. In 1849, after seven years of the Noble family's stay in St. Petersburg, their father, on the recommendation of the Russian chemist Nikolai Nikolaevich Zinin, sent his son to study in Europe and America. In the spring of the following year, sixteen-year-old Alfred Nobel left St. Petersburg. He visited Denmark, Germany, Italy, France and then America. The trip abroad took about two years.

Returning to Russia, Nobel took up the business of family factories that carried out military orders for the Russian army. Furthering the prosperity of the company, Nobel contributed to the Crimean War that began in 1853.

In 1859, together with the second son of Emmanuel Nobel - Ludwig Emmanuel Nobel (1831 - 1888), Alfred, forced to return to Sweden with his father after the bankruptcy of the family business, devoted himself to the study of explosives, especially the safe production and use of nitroglycerin, discovered in 1846 by Ascanio Sobrero.

Because of experiments with explosives, people died many times. The tragedy affected the Nobel family: at the plant that belonged to it. Several explosions occurred, one of which killed Emil, the younger brother of Nobel in 1864 and several other workers. Alfred Nobel had amassed his considerable fortune thanks to the production of dynamite and other explosives, as well as from the development of oilfields in Baku.

EFFECTS OF A DECISION

It is best to use life to create something that will outlive you.

William James

Now that Alfred Nobel read his own obituary, his whole life flashed before his eyes, the result of which was that he overestimated his entire life. The erroneous publication of Nobel's obituary in one of the French newspapers is considered the event that prompted him to decide to leave some more valuable legacy after his death. It is said that this fact prompted him to leave a positive trace in history and therefore he decided to establish a prize to encourage the best representatives of humanity who, during the previous year, had been of greatest benefit to the entire world.

Today, when we mention the name, Nobel, the first thing that comes to our mind is the Nobel Prize. After confusion with obituaries, Alfred Nobel changed his attitude to himself, to people and to money. He created the foundation and bequeathed his whole fortune to people who, with their discoveries, benefit the entire world and contribute to the development of mankind. The Nobel Prize is awarded regardless of nationality, and today this international prize is one of the most prestigious. Payment of premiums for outstanding scientific research, revolutionary inventions or major contribution to the culture or development of society is carried out under the will of Alfred Nobel. For the creation of the fund, he left most of his vast fortune.

In addition to the award, the name of Alfred Nobel was immortalized in the name of the synthesized chemical element - Nobelium. The Physico-Chemical Institute in Stockholm and the university in Dnepropetrovsk were named in honor of Nobel. Also, Nobel's name is asteroid 6032, discovered by astronomer Lyudmila Karachkina at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory on August 4. On October 21, 1991, at the initiative of the Swedish Nobel Foundation, a bronze monument to Alfred Nobel was commissioned at the expense of the International Fund for the History of Science at the Petrogradskaya Embankment, near the Nakhimov School.

Alfred Nobel managed to immortalize his name, thus realizing the cherished dream of several generations of his ancestors. Now grateful descendants and all progressive humanity construct monuments in honor of Alfred Nobel and assign his name to new stars. But this would never have happened, if not for the annoying mistake in one of the many French newspapers, which caught the eye of the scientist. Despite the pain caused by this publication in the media, this case turned out to be a blessing. As the saying goes: No great loss without some small gain. Thoughts about the impending end made Nobel then think about what kind of memory he would leave about himself to his descendants. Agreeing that sooner or later such an obituary would