The Queue to Heaven

One evening, I shared this story with a few young friends who had gathered around me.

“There was once a young man,” I began, “who lived in a faraway city.
Every morning, he walked several kilometers just to catch a bus to work.
One day, on his usual walk, he noticed a long queue by the roadside — stretching endlessly.
Curious, he thought, ‘If so many people are standing here, it must be something important.’
Without asking anyone, he quietly joined the line.”

After a while, his curiosity grew. He tapped the man ahead and asked,
“Sir, what is this queue for?”

The man smiled faintly and said, “This is the queue to Heaven.”

The young man’s eyes lit up. Heaven! he thought. Who wouldn’t want to go there?
But then another thought came — I’m newly married… how can I go alone? I’ll take my wife along.

He stepped out of the line and ran home.
“Come!” he said to his wife joyfully. “There’s a queue to Heaven. Let’s go together.”

She smiled and said softly, “That’s wonderful… but I’m pregnant now. Let’s go after the baby is born.”

He agreed.

Then life began to unfold — the way it always does.
The baby came, then another.
Responsibilities arrived one after another —
parents grew older, work got heavier, bills piled up, the roof leaked.
And slowly, the memory of that queue faded into the background of life.

Years passed. Decades flowed like a river.

One quiet evening, at the age of seventy-five, he suddenly remembered —
the queue to Heaven.
He smiled faintly. “This time, I’ll go.”

He searched for days, and after much wandering, he found it again —
the same queue, still long, still silent.
He joined it once more.

When his turn finally came, the gatekeepers asked,
“Name?”
He gave his name eagerly.

One of them checked a great register and said,
“You’re in the other line now. Please stand there.”

He moved to the second line, puzzled.

At the next desk, another guardian looked up and said to his assistant,
“Put him in the Rebirth Queue.”

The old man was shocked. “Rebirth? Why? I’ve done good all my life!”

The guardian smiled with compassion and said,
“Yes, you did. But the first time you stood here, you were chosen.
You would have entered Heaven.
But you turned back.
You chose karma. You chose attachment.
Now you must go back… and finish what you started.”

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Reflection

Heaven is not somewhere far away. It reveals itself when we are ready to walk beyond our attachments.
When life gives us that moment of awakening — we must step forward, not backward.