10. Heaven or Hell

God is very kind and merciful. He has given total freedom to the human beings in this world to find the absolute truth and a state of absolute bliss by following a self-chosen course of action. Neither does God become annoyed with those who commit mistakes (sins) nor does he punish anyone disapprovingly. The individual reaps the fruits of one's own doing. The system created by God permits the beings to learn from their own experience and progressively qualify for an improved status in the astral world. Heaven and Hell have also been created for this very purpose. While pronouncing a sentence, a judge has no ill will towards the accused. On the contrary he (or she) sincerely hopes that the person being punished appreciates the consequences of the committed criminal act and learning a lesson there from would spend the future life in an upright manner. God is the supreme judge of cosmos. All faiths of the world are unanimous in the view that after death the soul of the dead comes across either heaven or hell. Hence there should not be any doubt about this concept. The Hindu spirituality also maintains that in between death and rebirth in the next life, one has to go through the experience of heaven and hell. By the will of God, this system enables in being to make amends for the past misdeeds- so that in the future course the being is able to avoid pitfalls.

The span of time spent by the soul in the astral world is about three years or more depending upon the discretion of the invisible Supreme Being. About one-third of this time is spent in sleeping and taking rest. (Hence the prayer for the soul to rest in peace). This period of rest is needed because the strains of living in this world make the soul of the being much tired. When it comes to take leave of the body at the time of death, the soul is so exhausted, that it is more or less unconscious (inactive). Hence immediately after death, being inactive and devoid of sensitivity, it is not in a position to feel the full impact of the corrective punishment it is due to receive. A patient undergoing surgery under sedation does not feel any pain. On completion of this initial period of rest, during the next one-third period of its stay in the astral world, the soul 'awakens' with renewed freshness. During this later period the soul reviews the bad and good deeds it has been associated with while inhabiting the body of the deceased person, as heaven or hell. The natural system of divine justice does not punish or reward a person immediately after committal of an act of virtue or sin. There is a time lag between the actions (mental-verbal-physical) and reactions (rewards and punishments as heaven and hell). As future acquisition of fruits is ascertained while sowing the seeds, the ultimate reactions (karma-phal) of good and bad activities (in thoughts, words and deeds) become integrally attached to the soul in concentric layers which unfold one after the other at the appropriate time. Like sowing of seeds of different plants, which take their own time to mature and bear fruit, acts of virtue and sin produce the resultant at appropriate time. After the soul awakens, the imprints of various good and bad deeds do not merely remain dormant in the storage of memory. Each of these manifests into a consequential product. In course of our life we commit so many good and bad deeds, which we forget in due course of time, but the soul, as a witness to everything within self, keeps a meticulous record. For instance, a thief does not listen to the voice of conscience while committing theft. Let us also presume that the stealing goes unnoticed and thereby unpunished in this world. But in the 'field of soul' it is sown as a seed. After some time, whereas the theft is erased from the working memory in life, in the file of soul it is kept as a permanent record. When a seed is sown, it grows into a tree quite different in shape and size. So does an act of sin transform into misery of hell.

Hell has been described in a variety of ways in the scriptural literature of various faiths. Whereas for Hindus the descriptions of hell are associated with terms like Kumbhipak, Vaiterni, Raurav, the Mohammedans know it as Dozakh. The writer of this book holds the view, that it is possible for each being to have a specific hell of one's own. In this way all souls could have had as many numbers of hells after each cycle of life and death and in future will continue to have new hell. It is quite logical, since hell has a connotation related to the personal circumstantial view of the individual in life, which obviously differ from person to person. A doctor would feel suffocated in a room filled with filth, whereas a sweeper may hardly take notice to the foul smell. A death sentence, which a martyr hears with a smile, terrifies others. A sensitive person would find it difficult to forget a minor insult, whereas the most disgraceful treatment given to a thick-skinned person may not create any reaction in latter. Therefore, for individuals having different levels of sensitivity, different types of hell would be required. (A standard model of hell would not serve the purpose).

Scriptures also mention about the emissaries of death (Yamdut) who forcibly drag the soul towards hell. These so-called messengers of death are not independent beings, but are in fact mental images (manas putra) created by the soul of the dead itself. In course of the sequential growth of the 'seeds' of activities (karma), the inner-self also produces an-forcers of divine justice. The life-span of these divine prosecutors depends upon the period for which the being is required to live in hell. Having accomplished their job, they become extinct. The wardens created for enforcement of punishment to a particular soul do not stay longer to punish someone else. As a matter of fact in the astral world, all material life ceases to exist and the spiritual one unfolds. According to spiritual scientists, the conscious mind which dwells on material things dies, but the supraliminal survives. In the latter it brings to the surface, awareness of facts and consequences of activities of life in their true perspective. In this state of mind, the soul becomes totally deprived of the argumentative power of the lawyer and logician, which in normal course of life justifies each and every action taken by man. The tendency to suppress truth thus leaves the mind altogether. The field within the inner-self where seeds of sin were sown by way of committal of evil deeds becomes as active and productive, as the conscious mind is while operating for material achievements during life.

In material life on this earth, the mental body (Sukshma Sharir) of man co-existing with the physical body has four components of mind, namely "Man" (the source of desires, longings and aspiration); Buddhi (the discriminative faculty which deliberated takes decisions and seeks course of action); Chitta (which stores inherent traits, habits, inclinations and temperament) and Ahankar (appraisal of a person for one's own self in the material world; e.g. that he is so and so, rich and poor wretched or fortunate, foolish or intelligent etc.)

When man is physically alive, the mental body remains only partly active with the first two exterior shells of mind, namely Man and buddhi governing the activities of physical body. The remaining two secret compartments (Gupta Mastishka) remain subconscious when man is in the living state. The mesmerist, in fact puts the external mind (Man and buddhi) to sleep and gives hypnotic suggestions to the inner component (Chitta and ahankar ), Which create a life-like physical experience for the subject. For instance, if the subject is told that he or she is swimming, the former actually believes and feels involved in the act of swimming. The same holds true in experiences of heaven and hell in the life after death. The internal mind is made to experience the entity) feels miserable. Thus hell and enforcers of divine justice perceived beyond death do no thave an independent existence. Nor do their exist independent courts of law for divine justice and related office personnel. Innumerable living beings die at each moment. Rendering justice to them would require a huge complex establishment. There is absolutely no feasibility of such a complex set up for dealing with innumerable living beings of this cosmos. (The scriptures mention that Yam is the deity who takes a decision on allotting heaven or hell to the soul of the dead on the basis of the record of its good and bad deeds, maintained by Chitragupta in his court. In Sanskrit dictionary, Yam stands for 'disciplining one's own self and Chitragupta or Chitagupta stands for the chitta which is secret or hidden. That is to say the Chitta keeps the record and self-control (Atma-Niyantran) delivers the judgment. Thus each being has a hell of his own which becomes extinct, the moment the soul returns to be reborn in another body.

When the resultant of sins deeply ingrained in the psyche becomes illumined, the soul is forced to take cognizance of them. Let us try to understand the concept of Yamduts - the emissaries of death. Attracted by fire, a moth appears forcibly drawn towards it by some independent entity, though this act of the insect is simply self-immolation. Similarly when the astral body is brought to divine justice and undergoes punishment on its own, it has the impression of being forced to do so by aliens. The deliverers of divine justice would naturally appear in form, shape, complexion and description conforming to the faith and religious beliefs to which the person subscribed while living. They world also converse with the soul of the dead in its own language. The enforcers of divine justice may also be conceptualized as the "effulgence of Samskars" (Samskaron Ka Tej) uncovered on death, which necessarily confront the soul, whether it likes it or not. (Who would like to accept and face results of one's own misdeeds?) In order to punish and reform itself the inner self produces an exclusive hell within, wherein traits accumulated from activities of pervious life become personified as living images, and the soul is subjected  to torment, anguish and humiliation. The inferno creates a lifelike perception of physical suffering such as being roasted or an intense experience of remorse, mortification and embarrassment. The kind and degree of punishment would depend on the emotional susceptibility of the individual. The purpose of this treatment in hell is to make the being suffer so that it is able to learn a lesson by correlating sinful deeds with their ultimate consequence. \the duration and degree of punishment also depends on the requirement of the being for reformation. As is the course of justice in this world, the limits of hellish treatment are decided by the gravity of crime. In order to punish a habitual criminal, who repeats mistakes in successive life cycles, heavy punishment is designed. In this way, the soul gets cleaned of all serious sins one by one, which appear successively and fade out after producing the desired effect. The Sukshma Sharir, too has astral sense organs and a mind analogous to the living person. For the physically committed sins, the physical counterpart and for the evil thoughts of mind of the astral spiritual body are made to suffer. On ever-eating or consuming bad food, the person himself suffers for his folly. So does the inner-self have an inbuilt arrangement of self punishment for evil deeds, Sinful acts which are not kept secret are generally punished for in this very world, whereas for the remaining, the being has to undergo suffering in the astral world. (The provision of confession in Christianity is to enable the person to unburden the soul of sins kept as secret)). Divinity has established this system to enable the being to make penance for most of the grievous sins and proceed for the next birth as a pious being without the burden of consequences of sins committed in previous life. The commander-in-chief does not permit and wounded soldier to go back to the front till he recuperates. Since, otherwise, he would not serve his purpose and instead of fighting would be preoccupied with the injury. For the similar reason, barring a few exceptions (discussed later in the chapter on Rebirth) most of the sins of the individual are wiped out after the reformatory treatment and the being proceeds for the next birth with a clean slate. The advantage of hell does not lie merely in weakening the impact of sins on the soul but is also reformatory. It relieves the living being from past evil habits in future life and make it remember the consequences. The voice of conscience is in fact a memory of this lesson. Thieves, evil doers and murderess become restive while committing the crime. It indicates the faint recollection of the punishment suffered in hell for similar deeds in earlier life. But alas! People do not pay heed to their voice of conscience and fall again and again in the trap of sin.