HELL AND HEAVENS

HELL AND HEAVEN

Prof Dr Colonel (retired) K Prabhakar Rao

Every human being wants to lead a happy life as long as he is alive. No one really knows what happens after death. Every one on this earth follows some religion or other and every religion preaches some thing about life after death. All most all religions preach that depending on ones deeds the person shall go to heavens and enjoys or suffers in hell. The differences and disagreements are over the periods for which the persons are going to stay in such places. Islam and Christianity believe that the persons shall suffer eternally in hell if they did not live properly while alive. Hinduism however believes that the stay in heaven and hell are only temporary depending on the merit acquired. The soul will attain super soul only after many cycles of births and deaths after leading truthful life. Some say all these are mental aberrations and are out of ignorance and illusion. Every thing lies very much here on this earth during ones life. Infact no mortal has seen heavens or hell and returned to testify. Yet in Islam it is claimed that the Prophet Mohammed rose to heavens from the great Rock in Jerusalem and met other prophets there and returned. We do not contradict the statement. We accept the belief of a large section of people. Similarly we do not question the resurrection of Lord Jesus after crucification and his ascent to heavens. Similarly we do not argue over so many gods, mini gods, and goddesses that abound in Hinduism and the heavens where they live. It is ones belief. Otherwise we shall be hurting sentiments of many people and crossing scimitars every second moment. We therefore accept everything for peaceful co existence and mutual respect. Intolerant are those who criticize religion of others vehemently and claim that only their religion is true.

Early tribal groups lived by the principles of might is right. They attacked one another and weaker were subdued and robbed off their belongings including flocks, beasts of burden, food, possessions and even women. Women were widely considered as tools of pleasure and to be enjoyed. The concept of morality grew as the awareness and civilization grew up. For orderly conduct of society people had to follow certain rules and regulations. With these, codes of morals also evolved. Religions slowly evolved around the civilized groups. In every type of religion, certain moral code of conduct was laid down. Zoroastrian teaching, The Hindu codes, the Ten Commandments, Preaching of Jesus and Islamic Quranic teaching evolved over centuries. We do not have records of the remotest and earliest form of religions. But Egyptian ways of life, the civilization of Mohanjodaro and Harappa Now in Pakistan are very old and nearly 5000 years old. By the time Christianity evolved, Judaism was already in advanced stage along with Roman culture and way of life. By that time Buddhism and Jainism were already old. Buddhism basically evolved out of Hinduism and the cause of suffering was considered to be the greed of wants. Buddha preached eight fold paths for attaining salvation. These included non committing of sins. Sins were already defined as society was organized and by that time, Hinduism was already in advanced stage. Buddha was given the status of 9 th incarnation of lord Vishnu and Lord Krishna preceded him. Mahabharata epic is dated to the period of Lord Krishna and the concept of Hell was described in detail in Mahabharata. It means the concept of Hell already found deep inroads into Hinduism by that time and was entrenched. All Vedas were already in vogue by this time and concept of hell and heaven was entrenched. No doubt the concept of hell was the outcome of enforcing some fear in the people against wrong deed and sins. Religion gave sanctity to these concepts. Various punishments for different type of sins were popularized in the scriptures over a period of time and these have been accepted as the divine ordinance. However one thing is true. No one has seen hell or heavens and returned to give testimony. India was completely isolated from outside world for many years till Aryans invaded Indian subcontinent and conquered the locals in North and mostly drove them south. The latest findings at Mohanjodaro in Pakistan subscribe to this. The people who inhabited these areas were Dravidians and they did not expand and spread. Rather they contracted and dwindled over years. It appears Horse was not known to them. Aryans brought worship of thunder and fire with them. Intermingling of races and concepts definitely had effects. Vedic scriptures evolved and were also in all probabilities modified as years passed. Purana contained various stories and concepts of hell. Garuda Purana which is the basic book deals with the aspects of ceremonies of death, invoking of departed and various concepts of hell and heavens. It is claimed that originally the most ancient Rigveda did not have this concept. This is evident from following as put by Subhomani das at Hinduism about.com:

To the early Hindus heaven was not a preferred destination after death. The early Hindus never believed in heaven, and never prayed to attain a permanent place there. Man is made of Pancha Bhootas (Five elements of nature) that are fire, water, sky, earth and wind. After death the mortal body too disintegrates into the five and merges with five elements as per Hindu belief. However Semitic religions believe that the dead would rise from their graves on the Day of Judgment and would be judged by the God or Allah to be sent to heavens or hell to suffer eternally. The earliest concept of afterlife, say Vedic scholars, was that the dead reunite with Mother Nature and live in some other form on this earth — just as Wordsworth wrote, "with rocks and stones and trees." Going back to the early Vedic hymns, we find an eloquent invocation to the fire god, where the prayer is to assimilate the dead with the natural world:

"Burn him not, scorch him not, O Agni,
Consume him not entirely; afflict him not…
May your eye go to the Sun,
To the wind your soul…
Or go to the waters if it suits thee there,
Or abide with thy members in the plants..."
~ The Rig Veda

The concept of heaven and hell evolved at a later stage when we find such amendments in the Veda as "Go thou to the heaven or to the earth, according to thy merit…" ( 1) Vedic folks were satisfied with living their life to the fullest; they never aspired to attain immortality. It was a common belief that human beings are allocated a span of hundred years for earthly existence, and people just prayed for a healthy life: "…Interpose not, O gods, in the midst of our passing existence, by inflicting infirmity in our bodies." (Rig Veda) However, as time passed by, the idea of eternity for mortals evolved. Thus later in the same Veda we come to read: "…Grant us food, and may I obtain immortality through my posterity." Thus we find that Hinduism developed the concept of heavens and hell at very early periods much before Christianity and Islam evolved. Although as per Judaism the humanity is about 5000 years old, Hindu philosophy put the age into millions of years. Scientifically this can not be accepted as evolution of modern human is not that old. A man had to be completely evolved for capable of conceiving religions and writing scriptures. He can not be a primitive man. Thus Human civilizations are definitely not that old as being made by various scriptures. Travelers reached other parts of world such as Tibet and China through silk route in much later years when Afghanistan was under Buddhist influence probably in the reign of Kanishka great King. It was after death of Buddha. It can not be before 500 years BC. That is just 2500 years old only. As Judaism is much older about 2000 BC, it is also claimed by certain sources that it was probably influenced by Zoroaster (2). Similarly Hindu scriptures were also probably influenced by teaching of Zoroaster. In fact Persia is much closer to Iran and with arrival of Aryans certain Zoroastrian concepts of worship of fire has no doubt entered India. The concept of hell and heavens in Hinduism in all probabilities is the result of mixing up with outsiders like Aryans and their concepts. Thus the concepts of hell and heavens in all world religions evolved due to intermingling at various stages during growth of civilization. It can not be really said that these concepts just came out of blue. There is also no doubt that hell and heavens are the concepts to keep people in right track.

Bibliography,

1. Hinduism, About.com, http://hinduism.about.com/library/weekly/aa051401a.htm
2. Wikepedia. Judaism, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judaism

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