What is Heaven and Hell concept in Hinduism?
Concept: Puri Peethadhishwar Jagadguru Shankaracharya Swami Nishchalananda Saraswati Ji Maharaj
Credits: Sandeep Sehgal Ji
If everything is felt by the body only, then what is the meaning of Swarga (Heaven) and Naraka (Hell)?
Taking this point, if we assume that everything is felt by the body only, then why doesn’t a dead body feel anything? The dead body doesn’t feel any heat, cold, hunger, thirst, respect, disrespect, etc. So, we should say that everything is felt with the body having a life, but it is incorrect to say everything is felt by the body only. We have got this body due to the fruits of our good and bad, both ‘Karma’. We get a body during the dream state as well. This gross body keeps lying at its place. We get a subtle body in the dream state also, that is due to our behavioral tendency or karmic imprint and cultural upbringing. We feel with a different body of dream state, we conduct ourselves in the dream state using that subtle body. This gross body got no role in that dream experience in that dream world.
In the same way, those who don’t know the real nature of ‘Atma’ should understand it properly. Due to the effect of past ‘Karmas’, we have all this body. Once we have exhausted the fruit of those Karmas; new Karmas are ready to observe new experiences, then the similar ‘Jeevatma’ enters into another gross body. While remaining in this body we use another body in the dream.
Similarly, before dying, whatever Karmas are ready to give fruits, a body is formed in ‘Bhava Rajya’ (imaginary world) of that Jeeva to which ego and affection get attached. When Prarabdha (collection of past karmas) attached to this body gets destroyed, the Jeeva with Sukshma Sharira (subtle body) and Karana Sharira (causal body) travels to various lokas (verticals).
In that time and vertical, there is a body called Bhava Rajya Sharira (visionary body). In the state of dreams, we feel grief and happiness with an imaginary body, similarly after death. The body one gets in Bhava Rajya due to the effect of good and bad Karmas. That body has everything like Gyanendriyas (sense organs), Karmendriyas (action organs), Prana (subtle breath), Chitta (memory), Mana (mind), etc.
As a mirror is able to reflect the image of your face, similarly, these Gyanendriyas, Karmendriyas, Prana, Chitta, Antahkarana, etc. collectively called Sukshma Sharira (subtle body). As a collective medium, these are able to reflect the Jeeva. So, the ability which the subtle body has, the Jeeva is able to reflect at the same level and potential. The feeling of grief and happiness attached to that body.
If it gets into heaven, then it gets a divine body manifestation in Bhava Rajya. Similarly, if it will get hell — it gets a distressed body in Bhava Rajya. Ghosts don’t have a gross body but the body which they get in Bhava Rajya, they suffer in that body only. Similarly, Jeevatma will go to heaven or hell or to different dimensions according to that last vision of Bhava Rajya, just before his death. It is Vedic science and modern scientists are researching its validity from the beginning.
If it has to come again to this planet earth, then it has to cover the ‘Panchagni Vidya’ cycle. It is explained in the Chandogya Upanishad, Brihandakaranya Upanishad. It travels through rain, then into grains, then into male and female bodies. There are also male and female varieties in animals and birds. If it gets into the body of a Sanyasi or impotent or a Brahmchari, then Jeeva will not get a birth. If a householder consumes it through the grain, then he may get birth in human form.
Till then, it remains in the form of grains, then Rasa, then Virya, then blood, etc. It remains there in a very small form. This is called ‘Panchagni Vidya’ in brief. The body of father is also like fire -the furnace where the Jeeva is thrown into, and then it is thrown into the furnace body of mother from where it comes to this outer gross world later. This is a vast science. So, the answer to this question is to understand this fact: Jeevas don’t get destroyed after the destruction of the body.
What is your age? Let’s say 48 years running. Tell me how many dreams have you seen? Let’s say 10 dreams in a year at the bare minimum. So that makes 480 dream bodies, are those bodies destroyed, or are they still there? If the dream state is broken the dream body is destroyed. So, at 48 years with 10 dreams per year, the 480 dream bodies have got destroyed, but the person doesn’t consider himself to have perished. The body count is 480 but he considers himself as one only, then what does this mean?
That ‘Jeevatma’ doesn’t get perished with the destruction of the body and the difference in bodies doesn’t necessarily mean a difference in ‘Jeevatma’.
Narayana !!!
