We plan our daily lives, and maintain diaries with things to do and events to attend. The activities we do lead to short term and long term objectives that we have set for ourselves. The student’s objective is to gain knowledge, and time is spent in study in a planned manner. Another person wants to create and possess wealth, and activity is performed to do so. The one who plans better, and then works to that plan, usually ends up successful.
My teacher would say that the final destination of life is an event called death, and every wise person should have a plan to for it. Some people write wills, and specify what is to be done with their mortal frame. Guru Granth Sahib would have us understand that even as we live our day to lives, our main objective is to learn how to live that very last moment of this mortal life:
The Teacher will teach you a path –
Even as you laugh, eat, and play, you will find realization.
In this framework, the ego is therefore a great liability, because ego by its very nature engenders possessive attachment.
A life time is spent in conducting attachment, but the final moment demands the complete opposite – letting go of everything.
Attar was a wealthy person, and owned a big pharmacy. One day, a faqir stood before his shop, and started to laugh. Attar asks him the reason, and the faqir says, “With such wealth and attachments, I wonder how you will die?” Offended, Attar retorts, “Just like you will.”
The faqir says, “Then die like this.” He lay down, put his head on his begging bowl, and left his body. It was a perfect way to teach non-attachment, and the resultant ease of the final moment of life. Attar had been taught a lesson, and he became a revered sufi master.