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Chapter I: Life and Death. Text of the 1926 Macmillan edition, translated from Sundar Singh’s original Urdu by the Rev. T. E. Riddle. Sub-headings such as those below are printed in the original book.
There is only one source of Life -- an Infinite and Almighty Life, Whose creative power gave life to all living things. All creatures live in Him, and in Him will they remain for ever. Again, this Life created innumerable other lives, different in kind, and in the stages of their progress man is one of these, created in God's own image that he might ever remain happy in His holy presence.
This life may change but it can never be destroyed, and though the change from one form of existence into another is called Death, this never means that death finally ends life, or even that it adds to the life, or takes away anything from it. It merely transfers the life from one form of existence to another. A thing that disappears from our sight has not thereby ceased to exist. It reappears, but in another form and state.
Nothing in this whole universe was ever destroyed, nor can it ever be, because the Creator has never created anything for destruction. If He had wished to destroy it, He would never have created it. And if nothing in creation can be destroyed, then how can man be destroyed, who is the crown of creation, and the image of his Creator? Can God Himself destroy His own image, or can any other creature do it? Never!
If man is not destroyed at death, then at once the question rises, where will man exist after death, and in what state?
I shall attempt to give a brief explanation from my own visional experiences, though it is not possible for me to describe all the things which I have seen in visions of the spiritual world, because the language and illustrations of this world are inadequate to express these spiritual realities; and the very attempt to reduce to ordinary language the glory of the things seen is likely to result in misunderstanding. I have, therefore, had to eliminate the account of all those subtle spiritual occurrences, for which only a spiritual language is adequate, and to take up only a few simple and instructive incidents that will prove profitable to all. And since at some time or other every one will have to enter into this unseen spiritual world it will not be without profit if we, to some extent, become familiar with it.