11. The Heaven

As committal of sins results in hell so are virtues rewarded as heaven. What should be regarded as a sin and what as virtue? The issue is complex. (It has been dealt with in another book by the author). For the time being it is sufficient to understand that deeds performed with a feeling of love towards other beings and purity of heart are virtues and those with selfish motives and hypocrisy, sins. Human mind may endeavor to define and justify sins and virtues according to one's convenience, but the inner self identifies them without any ambiguity. A dumb person may not be able to describe the taste of sweet and sour but he does know what it is. Acts of virtue instantaneously provide peace and contentment to the soul. On the contrary, sinful acts create troublous in mind. Though religious rituals are somewhat helpful in providing purity to mind, they themselves do not constitute religion. Blowing a conch, ringing a bell, lighting incense sticks and candles are not part of religion. Such rituals only purify the mind to some extent. If the mind of a person is so corrupt that he or she compulsively dwells on evil, no ritual can take him to heaven. Only the ignorant ones believe that the rituals are a means to go to heaven. \virtues like kindness, love, benevolence and truthfulness are components of all religions. Only those traits which provide contentment to the soul could be regarded as virtues and are the exclusive means for entering the gates of heaven. Believing in superstitions tantamounts to groping in the dark. As we misutilize our time in so many futile activities during life so we do in observing the many so-called traditions. It is a total waste of time for the other world. Acts of virtue provide us happiness within. This happiness unfolds in the heaven in the same way as the sins do in hell. The way our concepts of hell beyond life are perceived in the astral world so are those relating to heaven? A Hindu finds his heaven conforming to the Vaikuntha and Indralok of his scriptures, the Muslim as Jennet of Gilmas and so on and so forth. It is because heaven and hell are only conceptual projections of our points of view in this life, in the life beyond death. The pleasure of heaven also lasts a particular duration. The objective of heavenly bliss is to upgrade the virtues imbibed in the soul, so that in the next life, becoming more activated and invigorated, next life, becoming more activated and invigorated, the being is able to interact with a much more subtle sphere of existence (Adhik Sukshhma.) Unaware of this truth, the ignorant think, that heaven is full of means and materials of sensual enjoyment. This is not true. Only those Individuals deserve experiences of heaven, who has already achieved total contentment of sensual gratification in material life. For the slaves of sensuality and leeches of lust, heaven remains a far cry. Had heaven stood for abundance of wine, beautiful women and sex (which belong to material world only) there would not have been any necessity for the aspirants to perform so much penance and austerity. (Tapascharya). All of it would have been achievable anywhere in this world in lieu of money. As a matter of fact, heavenly bliss does not mean material happiness or sensual pleasures. On the other hand it is the extra-sensory happiness felt by the inner-self. The pleasure experienced in this way is of a much higher order than that felt by the human body in this world.

Scholars (pundits) of science of spirituality are aware of the infinite power of the soul. Being a component of the omnipotent, God, it is competent and self-sufficient in every respect. There is no reason for disbelieving or considering it incredible that soul can create a heaven or hell as it wills. The scriptures mention that in beginning, God, who the only being existing at the moment was willed to create the cosmos by transforming His existence as the only one existence into a multitude (Eko Hum Bahusyam) and thus He became omnipresent as the innumerable animate and inanimate beings of cosmos. In this world itself the soul creates for its own self three states of wakefulness; sleep (dreaminess) and sub-consciousness (jagriti, swapna and sushupti). Similarly, it creates hell and heaven, falls in bondage and delivers itself from the same by its own Endeavour. So great is the power of soul.